The interpretation of this myth is by no means void of difficulty. It is commonly supposed that they were ancient Peloponnesian divinities of light, who, after the Dorian invasion, were degraded to the rank of heroes. They are often interpreted as personifications of the morning and evening star, or of the twilight (dawn and dusk). This view died out after the second deification that they underwent. They were venerated, not only in their native Sparta, but throughout the whole of Greece, as kindly, beneficent deities, whose aid might be invoked either in battle or in the dangers of shipwreck. In this latter character they are lauded by an Homeric hymn, in which they are represented as darting through the air on their golden wings, in order to calm the storm at the prayer of the terror-stricken mariner. It has often been remarked, and with a great appearance of truth, that these Dioscuri flitting about on their golden wings are probably nothing more than what is commonly called St. Elmo’s fire—an electric flame which, is often seen playing round the tops of the masts during a storm, and which is regarded by the sailors as a sign of its speedy abatement; indeed the name Elmo has been supposed a corruption of Helene. In Sparta, the Dioscuri were regarded as the tutelary deities of the state, as well as an example of warlike valour for the youth of the country. Their shrines here were very numerous. Their ancient symbol, which the Spartans always took with them on a campaign, consisted of two parallel beams joined by cross-bars. They had other festivals and temples besides those of Sparta; in Mantinea, for instance, where an eternal fire was kept burning in their honour; also in Athens, where they were venerated under the appellation of Anaces. Their festival was here celebrated with horse-racing. The Olympic games also stood under their special protection, and their images were set up in all the palæstra. They were, in fact, everywhere regarded as extremely benevolent and sociable deities, who foster all that is noble and beautiful among men.
The Dioscuri were believed to have assisted the Romans against the Latins at the Lake Regillus; and the dictator, A. Postumius, vowed a temple to them, which was erected in the Forum, opposite the temple of Vesta. In commemoration of this aid, the Equites made a solemn procession from the temple of Honos, past the temple of the Dioscuri, to the Capitol every year on the Ides of July.
In art the Dioscuri are represented as heroic youths of noble mien and slim but powerful forms. Their characteristic marks are conical caps, the points of which are adorned with a star. They generally appear nude, or clothed only with a light chlamys, and nearly always in connection with their horses, either riding, standing by and holding them, or leading them by the bridle. The most celebrated representation of the Dioscuri that has come down to us from antiquity consists of the marble statues called the Colossi of Monte Cavallo, in Rome. These are eighteen feet in height, and the proportions of the figures, together with those of the horses, are exquisite. They are set up on the Quirinal, which has received from them the name of Monte Cavallo. They are not, indeed, original works, but are probably imitations of bronzes of the most flourishing period of Greek art, executed in the time of Augustus.
6. Heracles (Hercules).—Of all the myths of the countries originally inhabited by the Æolians the myth of Heracles is the most glorious. This hero, though his fame was chiefly disseminated by means of the Dorians, was yet by birth the common property of the Æolian race—their national hero, in fact, just as he afterwards became the national hero of the whole of Greece. No other Greek myth has received so many subsequent additions—not only from native, but also from foreign sources—as this; which is, in consequence, the most extensive and complicated of all Greek myths. We shall, therefore, have to confine ourselves to the consideration of its most characteristic features, and those which are the most important in the history of art.
In Homer, who is here again our most ancient authority, the leading features of the myth are traced—the enmity of Hera towards the hero; his period of subjection to Eurystheus, and the labours by which he emancipated himself (though special mention is made only of his seizure of Cerberus); his expeditions against Pylus, Ephyra, Œchalia, and Troy. The verses in the Odyssey (xi. 602–4), which refer to his deification and subsequent marriage with Hebe, are probably a later insertion. In the Iliad, Heracles is spoken of as a great hero of olden time, “whom the Fates and the grievous wrath of Hera subdued.” In Homer, too, he appears as a purely Grecian hero, his warlike undertakings having never yet led him beyond Troy, and his armour differing in no respect from that of other heroes. The description of him in Hesiod’s Theogony and in the Shield of Heracles is somewhat more minute, but is otherwise essentially the same. From what source the deification of Heracles sprang—whether it was due to Phœnician influences or not—has hitherto remained an undetermined question; we only know that it appears as an accomplished fact about 700 B.C.
I. The Birth and Youth of Heracles.—This portion of the legend found its chief development in Bœotia. Amphitryon, a son of Alcæus and grandson of Perseus, was compelled to flee from Tiryns with his betrothed Alcmene—likewise a descendant of Perseus by her father Electryon—on account of a murder, and found an asylum at the court of Creon, king of Thebes. From this place he undertook an expedition against the robber tribes of the Teleboæ (Taphians), in consequence of a promise made to Alcmene, whose brother they had slain. After the successful termination of this expedition, the marriage was to have been celebrated at Thebes. But, in the meanwhile, the great ruler of Olympus himself had been smitten with the charms of Alcmene, and, taking the form of the absent Amphitryon, had left her pregnant with Heracles, to whom she afterwards gave birth at the same time with Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon. The sovereignty over all the descendants of Perseus, which Zeus had destined for Heracles, was snatched from him by the crafty jealousy of Hera, who prolonged the pains of Alcmene and hastened the delivery of the wife of Sthenelus, the uncle of Amphitryon, by two months. Not content with having subjected the hero to the will of the weak and cowardly Eurystheus, Hera, according to a subsequent account of the poets, sent two serpents to kill the child when he was about eight months old. Heracles, however, gave the first proof of his divine origin by strangling the serpents with his hands. An account of this scene has descended to us in a beautiful poem of Pindar. In Thebes, the boy grew up and was put under the care of the best preceptors. But, though he excelled in every feat of strength and valour, he made no progress in musical arts, and even slew his master Linus on account of a somewhat harsh reproof which his inaptitude entailed on him. As a punishment, Amphitryon sent him to Mount Cithæron to mind the flocks, a mode of life which Heracles continued until he had completed his eighteenth year. It was to this period that the sophist Prodicus, a contemporary of Socrates, referred his beautiful allegory of the Choice of Heracles. After attaining his full growth (according to Apollodorus he was four cubits in height) and strength, the young hero performed his first great feat by killing the lion of Cithæron. Whether it was this skin or that of the Nemean lion which he afterwards used as a garment is not certain. His next act was to free the Thebans from the ignominious tribute which they were compelled to pay to Erginus, king of Orchomenus, by a successful expedition, in which Amphitryon, however, lost his life. Creon, the king of Thebes, in gratitude gave the hero his daughter Megara in marriage, while Iphicles married her sister.
II. Heracles in the Service of Eurystheus—The Twelve Labours.—We now come to the second epoch in the life of the hero, in which he performed various labours at the bidding of Eurystheus, king of Mycenæ or Tiryns. The number of these was first fixed at twelve in the Alexandrian age, when Heracles was identified with the Phœnician sun-god, Baal; probably from the analogy afforded in the course of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The subjection of Heracles to his unmanly cousin Eurystheus is generally represented as a consequence of the stratagem by which Hera obtained for the latter the sovereignty over all the descendants of Perseus. At a later period Heracles was said to have become insane, in consequence of the summons of Eurystheus to do his bidding. The following is an account of the labours of Heracles:—
1. The Fight with the Nemean Lion.—The district of Nemea and Cleonæ was inhabited by a monstrous lion, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, whose skin bade defiance to every weapon. Heracles, after using his arrows and club against the animal in vain, at last drove it into a cave, and there strangled it with his hands. He afterwards used the head of the lion as a helmet, and the impenetrable skin as a defence.
2. The Lernæan Hydra.—This was a great water-serpent, likewise the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. The number of its heads varies in the accounts of poets, though ancient gems usually represent it with seven. It ravaged the country of Lerna in Argolis, destroying both men and beasts. In this adventure Heracles was accompanied by Iolaüs, the son of his brother Iphicles, who, on this as on other occasions, appears as his faithful companion. After driving the monster from its lair by means of his arrows, he advanced fearlessly, and, seizing it in his hands, began to strike off its heads with his sword. To his amazement, in the place of each head he struck off two sprang up. He then ordered Iolaüs to set on fire a neighbouring wood, and with the firebrands seared the throats of the serpent, until he at length succeeded in slaying it. He then dipped his arrows in its gall, thus rendering the wounds inflicted by them incurable.
3. The Erymanthian Boar.—This animal inhabited the mountain district of Erymanthus in Arcadia, from which place it wasted the corn-fields of Psophis. Heracles drove the boar up to the snow-covered summit of the mountain, and then caught it alive, as Eurystheus had commanded him. When he arrived at Mycenæ with the terrible beast on his back, Eurystheus was so terrified that he hid himself in a vessel. This comic scene is frequently depicted on vases. It was on this occasion that Heracles destroyed the Centaurs. On the road the hero, hungry and thirsty, was hospitably received by the friendly Centaur Pholus, who holds the same place among the Arcadian Centaurs as Chiron does among those of Thessaly. Pholus broached, in honour of his guest, a cask of wine lying in his cave, which was the common property of all the Centaurs. The fragrance of the wine attracted the other Centaurs living on Mount Pholoë, and they immediately attacked the tippling hero with pieces of rock and trunks of trees. Heracles, however, drove them back with arrows and firebrands, and completely vanquished them after a terrible fight. On returning to the cave of Pholus, he found his friend dead. He had drawn an arrow out of a dead body to examine it, but accidentally let it fall on his foot, from the wound of which he died.