Girdle, Giant and Garden

Having conquered some of the mightiest beasts to walk the earth, and weary from years of toil, it was with bewilderment that Heracles pondered what could possibly come next, on his long journey to immortality. Slaying the Lion of Nemea, the Hydra of Lernaea, the Birds of Stymphalos, capturing the Hind of Cerynaia, the Boar of Erymanthos, the Bull of Crete and the carnivorous Mares of Diomedes, and cleaning the vile stables of King Augeias, the list of Heracles' achievements was already impressive (for the previous episode in this sage, please click here). Eight down, just four more tasks stood between the son of Zeus and his place on Mount Olympus itself.

The Amazons

Painting by Theodor Baierl.

Free of the diabolical horses that had slain his friend, Heracles came before King Eurystheus once again in his strong walled citadel of Tiryns. Growing desperate, Eurystheus agonised to discover some feat that would beyond even the son of Zeus. Deciding to begin sending the hero far beyond the borderlands of Greece, the King began to grow ever more ambitious in his schemes. For his next Labour, Eurystheus charged Heracles to seek out the Girdle of Hippolyta, and bring it to him. But neither Girdle nor lady was ordinary. For Hippolyta was the Queen of the Amazons, a feared race from the distant steppes of Sarmatia. The Amazons, a tribe of entirely women, could not have been more different from the women of Greece. Largely hidden from public view, and guardians of the household, the women of Greece contrasted violently with the fierce warrior women that were the Amazons. Training constantly in the arts of war, women of the Amazon tribe were forbidden to marry until they had slain a man in war. It was even rumoured that Amazon women ritually severed their right breast so as not to hinder their use of the javelin and the bow. Hippolyta had been presented with her magic Girdle by Ares, the war god himself. It was with a large company of armed men that Heracles set forth from mighty Tiryns this time. After a long voyage across the Oceans, sailing beyond the Aegean to the farthest reaches of the Black Sea, the son of Zeus made landfall upon the beaches of Themiscyra. The Amazons were already there, along with their Queen. The legend of Heracles defeat of so many beasts however, appeared to have spread. Respectful of the hero's prowess, Hippolyta received Heracles kindly, approaching him directly on the beach. Charmed by his might, Hippolyta even agreed to hand over her Girdle, much to Heracles delight. The rest of the Amazons, however, further up the beach, watched intently, unsure of what was transpiring. Far away, on the heights of Mount Olympus, Hera, Queen of the Gods, looked on in fury that Heracles had succeeded so easily. Soaring down to the Earth, the goddess took the form of an Amazon maiden. Walking amongst the fierce women, she suddenly cried out that Heracles had come to abduct their Queen, and brought only death. Confusion rippled through both sides. The Amazons remembered all too well how another Greek hero had once abducted their Queen, and seized their arms and hurled themselves upon Heracles and his kin. Heracles, utterly confused, believed Hippolyta's approach to have been a ruse all along, violently turned upon the Queen. Delighted at the chaos she had caused, Hera returned to the Heavens to watch events unfold. Taken aback by the ferocity of the Amazons, Greeks began to fall one by one. In his rage, Heracles turned his arms upon the Amazon Queen, brutally slaying her, and tearing the Girdle from her lifeless form. Raising his war cry, the son of Zeus slammed into the Amazon ranks. Cowed by such a formidable opponent, the Amazons fled before his rampage. Seizing their chance, the battered and bloodied surviving Greeks desperately pushed away from the shore.

Heracles and Geryon
Image from a 6th century BC Etruscan vase.

Limping back to Tiryns, the Greek party returned to Eurystheus, and Heracles handed over the Girdle. Relieved to see that the hero was not completely invincible yet, the King at once issued forth a new challenge. Eurystheus commanded Heracles to bring to him the cattle of Geryon from the island of Erytheia. Far away at the mouth of edges of the Ocean, Erytheia lay off the coast of the Southern tip of Iberia. Travelling across Europe, and crossing to Africa, Heracles began the long journey through the deserts of Libya. Beaten down by the burning heat of the Sun, in frustration, the son of Zeus fired an arrow at the Sun itself. So impressed at his audacity, the Sun god himself came before Heracles and offered to speed him on his way, granting him a special vessel. Eventually reaching the boundaries of the known world, Heracles marked this achievement by raising two monumental pillars, one on the most southerly plateau in Iberia, and the other on the most northerly plateau in Africa. The 'Pillars of Hercules' still stand today, guarding the pass from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Coming to Geryon's domain, the hero's presence was at once detected by Orthus, the guardian of Geryon's cattle. Being a monstrous, two headed dog, and one of the dread offspring of Typhon and Echidna (for more on these, the most fearsome monsters on Greek Mythology, please click here), Orthus was no ordinary shepherding dog. A demonic hound, Orthus charged Heracles down on sight. Drawing his mighty club, Heracles managed to bring Orthus down with a mighty strike to the beast's two skulls. More herdsmen came, attracted by the din of fighting. Slaying them all, Heracles found the cattle and seized them, herding them towards his ship. Distracted by the cattle, Heracles was unaware that he had been spotted by Geryon himself. Hearing a shout of rage from behind him that would break the spirit of lesser men, the hero turned at the last moment to a terrifying sight. Geryon was no normal, mortal man. A monster, triple bodied and triple headed, and fully armed and armoured, Geryon was a formidable opponent. With three spears and three shields flurrying, Geryon engaged Heracles in a fierce struggle. Unable to land a blow upon the monster, Heracles struggled to defend himself. Casting aside his club in desperation, Heracles took out his bow. As Geryon charged forward, Heracles ripped back his bowstring with all the strength his divine sinews could muster, and loosed an arrow. Flying with overpowering momentum, Heracles fired the arrow with such force that the tip bore straight through the metal, skin, bone and brain of one of Geryon's three heads. Even this alone would not have brought mighty Geryon down, but the lethal venom of the Hydra which impregnated the iron tip of Heracles' arrow coursed through Geryon's body, strangling the life out of him. Shaken by his ever closer brush with death, Heracles embarked upon the long voyage back to Tiryns.

The Garden of the Hesperides

Painting by Frederic Leighton.

Handing the cattle over to Eurystheus, the son of Zeus stood eagerly to hear his penultimate task. Having served Eurystheus for eight long years now, the end was in sight. Ten incredible tasks had been completed, but Eurystheus had rendered the slaying of the Hydra and the cleaning of the Augeian stables void, and as punishment, had conceived two special tasks as the final tests of the hero. It was time for the son of Zeus to rise above the tasks of mortals now, and prove himself in the immortal plain. For the first of these two Labours, King Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring him the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. The tree on which the Apples grew lay far away in the Garden of the Hesperides, a tranquil land ruled over by the Hesperides, nymphs who were the daughters of the Atlas, one of the Titans who had fought against Zeus in the War of the Titans (for this climactic struggle, please click here).The Golden Apples had been presented by Gaia, Mother Earth herself, at the marriage of Zeus and Hera untold milennia ago. To pick the Apples would truly demonstrate immortal favour. Venturing forth from Tiryns, Heracles travelled far and wide, yearning for the knowledge of the Garden's whereabouts. Guided by the nymphs, Heracles came across Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, a shapeshifting Titan, and a son of Gaia. Seizing Nereus, Heracles held on tight whilst the Titan changed forms repeatedly, becoming all manner of nightmarish creatures. Binding him tightly, Heracles refused to release him until he revealed the Garden's location. Impressed at Heracles endurance, Nereus revealed that the daughters of Atlas tended the Garden of the Hesperides in the far West (Hence the name of the mountain range in North West Africa). Eventually coming to the garden, Heracles saw the magnificent tree in the distance of the serene paradise. However, tightly coiled around the trunk was a large and monstrous dragon, Ladon, immortal, invulnerable, never sleeping and always watchful from each of its one hundred heads. Ladon, another of the vile brood of Typhon and Echidna, had been placed in the Garden by Hera to ensure that none could ever steal the Apples. Realising for the first time that he had encountered a creature he could not stand against, Heracles began a long search for some other way.

In his frustrated wanderings, Heracles came to a great mountain, upon which was bound one of the Titans, one tortured by an eagle which gnawed at his liver - Prometheus (for his story, please click here). Pitying towering Prometheus, Heracles slew the eagle with one of his poisoned arrows, and released the Titan from his shackles. The greatful Titan, ever striving to assist mankind, advised Heracles to seek out his brother Atlas to obtain the Apples for him. Journeying into the very boundaries of existence, Heracles came before Atlas. The Titan, who had sided against Zeus in the war for the mastery of the Heavens, was punished to bear the weight of Heaven upon his shoulders for all eternity. Heracles asked Atlas permission to take the Apples from his daughters' Garden. The Titan agreed, and offered to pick them himself, in return for Heracles taking the weight of the Heavens for a short time. This he did, and towering Atlas set forth, whilst Heracles struggled under the mighty weight of Heaven upon his shoulders. Atlas soon returned with the Apples. Having no intention of enduring his punishment any longer, Atlas declared he would take the Apples to Eurystheus himself. Panicking, Heracles quickly conceived a desperate plan. Pretending to agree, Heracles asked if Atlas would take the weight briefly so as to allow him to prepare a pad to ease his shoulder when he took it back again. This seemed reasonable to the Titan, and he agreed. As the mighty Titan took up his colossal burden once more, Heracles quickly seized the Apples and made his escape, to the fury of Atlas.

Returning all the way to the powerful citadel of Tiryns, Heracles presented the shining Apples to Eurystheus. The King was overwhelmed by the sight of the gift, returning them to Heracles, worthy of the prize was he. No sooner had he done so, however, than Athena came down from Olympus, and retrieved the Apples, for they were too pure to reside anywhere than in the tranquil Garden. His resentment turning to reverence, Eurystheus turned to his final request, the last and most dangerous Labour of Hercules. If the hero completed this, then he would fulfil his ultimate desire, and earn his place among the gods...

United Kingdom

The Library of Greek Mythology:

The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

(A vast collection of stories from old Greece, written and compiled in ancient times)

United States

The Library of Greek Mythology:

The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

(A vast collection of stories from old Greece, written and compiled in ancient times)

The Curse of Lycaon

Though thought of primarily as born of modern horror and medieval superstitions, the werewolf is in fact a far older creation. Indeed, in the lore of ancient Greece, it is a part of the creation. Not so long ago I wrote of the story of the Titan Prometheus, and his ceaseless struggle for the betterment of the lot of humanity (to find it quickly, please click here). The Titan, at great personal cost, gave to man ingenuity, craft and fire. But the struggle for the balance between men and gods was far from over. Indeed, it had barely begun. Enraged by the Titan's audacity, Zeus the Thunderer, King of the gods, determined to exact terrible retribution upon mankind for their complicity in accepting the forbidden secrets of the gods.

The Golden Race
Painting by Lucas Cranach.

The race of men crafted by the Titan Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus were not the first people to inhabit the Earth, but the third, known as the Bronze Race. In the earliest times of the cosmos, the first race of men were the Golden Race. Living under the rule of the Titans, with Kronos as their supreme deity and King, men "lived like gods, with carefree heart, remote from toil and misery". This was an age without suffering or sin, an age of bliss, an age of unending bounty upon the Earth. Men did not have to work the land to sustain themselves, as the land itself burst forth with the fruit and crop of the Earth. Mankind harvested the land at his leisure, and their bodies did not grow old. A time before the creation of women, the Golden Race eventually passed into sleep, with only their spirits left walking the Earth. After the younger gods cast the Titans from the Heavens into the depths of Tartarus (for this story, please click here), Zeus created a new line, the Silver Race. These people however, were nothing of their forebears in spirit. Cruel and selfish beyond imagining, there were no limits to their crimes. When their trespasses distracted these men from the honour they owed to the gods, in a fit of rage Zeus hurled them all into the depths of Tartarus, the land of fire and ash within which all evil souls are bound.

Hermes bears Pandora to Epimetheus
Painting by Jean Alaux.

Disheartened by the failure of the Silver Race, Zeus turned to Prometheus and Epimetheus to furnish the Bronze Race (this they did, and their story is told here). With the chaining of Prometheus to endless torture for his spurning of the gods in favour of man, Zeus turned his vengeance upon man. Summoning all the gods of Olympus, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to forge a human shape, and all the goddesses to furnish it with charm and scheming thought. Their creation was the first woman, named Pandora (meaning "All gift", symbolising the hand each divinity had played in her creation), conceived as the truest curse of man. The gods brought Pandora before Epimetheus, offering her as a wife to him. Promtheus warned his brother not accept any gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus had ever lacked his brother's wits. Welcoming her in and accepting her, Epimetheus and Pandora wed. Epimetheus however, possessed a jar, a spoil taken from the House of the gods by Prometheus, which contained "harsh toil and the grievous sicknesses that are deadly to men". Epimetheus forbade Pandora to open it.The gods knew very well, however, that the very curiosity that Prometheus had fused into the minds of humans would conquer her sense of obedience. One day, her curiosity afire, she unstoppered the jar, and to her horror, all evils rushed forth from the darkness within, unleashed upon the world. Grief, war, malice, hate, plague, death: all these things stormed forth as a pestilence upon the world of men. Panicking, Pandora closed the jar, trapping only a single thing within it which had not yet escaped - Hope.

Lycaon becomes the wolf
Engraving by Hendrick Goltzius.

The Bronze Race ever after was corrupted by the curses of Pandora, and were the first to work bronze, crafting great weapons and engines of war. Reduced to new levels of savagery by their wretched state, Zeus once again grew displeased with man. Assuming the shape of a man, Zeus came down to the Earth and walked among men. Seeing their cruelty all around, he one night came to the palace of Lycaon, the King of Arcadia. Giving a sign that a god had come, some people bowed in reverence, but not all. That night, as the King of the gods slept in his palace, no thoughts of piety were in the mind of Lycaon. Deigning to test the god's immortality, Lycaon considered murdering the god as he slept. His blade however, did not pierce the sleeping god. Lycaon therefore struck down one of the men who showed reverence to Zeus and ordered the servants to prepare him as though a roast boar. The next day when Zeus came to the banquet, the servants placed the meat before the god and Lycaon. Lycaon eagerly devoured his meal, but at once the omniscience of Zeus saw through the deception. The slaying of a guest was one of the gravest of crimes, second only to tasting the flesh of man. In his divine fury, the Thunderer hurled lightning to and fro. The palace crumbled under his rage, and Zeus turned his wrath upon Lycaon's fifty sons, slaying them all with thunderbolts. Lycaon fled in terror to the countryside, but Zeus placed a curse upon him:

             " He tried to speak, but his voice broke into an echoing howl.

               His ravening soul infected his jaws;

               His murderous longings were turned on the cattle;

               Still possessed of bloodlust was he.

               His garments now were as a shaggy coat, and his arms as legs "

                                    - ZEUS PLACES THE CURSE OF LYCANTHROPY UPON LYCAON

His fury mounting, Zeus sent a great deluge upon the Earth. Torrential rains battered the gound and churned the seas, as the oceans rose to swallow the land. All but the mightiest pinnacles were claimed by the stormy seas, and all but two humans perished under the violent ocean. Prometheus, distraught at the fate of his progeny, spurned Zeus one last time. Calling to his son Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, he warned them of the coming flood, and ordered them to built a craft to keep them afloat. The waters eventually subsided and the craft was set down atop Mount Parnassus, and the two humans emerged. Giving a sacrifice to Zeus, begging his mercy, they got it. Remembering that not all humans had refused him reverence, Zeus was filled with guilt at what he had done. Sending the Titaness Themis to the humans, he bade her restore the human race. Themis instructed Deucalion and Pyrrha to walk along the beach, casting stones over their shoulders without looking back. Wherever a stone cast by Deucalion hit the sand, the stone became a man; wherever Pyrrha hurled a stone, the stone became a woman. This was the Heroic Race, the heirs to the Bronze Race. From this progeny would be born all the greatest heroes of legend, from Perseus to Achilles, and all who would be joined in war before the Gates of Troy...

A powerful episode in the saga of Creation, the story of Pandora and Lycaon marks the birth of the transition from the Age of the gods to the Age of man. From here on in, the line between god and man would be increasingly blurred, until the climactic Trojan War, which saw the human sons of gods march to war with each other, as their parents do in the skies above. What of Lycaon? Perhaps the first werewolf to appear in Western legend, his great legacy was to give his own name to his affliction. For his name became the word in Greek for wolf (lycos), and the term used to describe the condition by which a man becomes a wolf is known today as lycanthropy, from the Greek lycos and anthropos - 'Wolf' and 'Man'. The story is present in various guises in ancient lore, all readily available at a nominal price from Amazon:

United Kingdom

The Story of Lycaon:
Metamorphoses: A New Verse Translation (Penguin Classics)
(A powerful telling crafted through poetry)

The Story of the Ages of Man:
Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics)
(Found in Works and Days, a lyrical and easy to read account)

The Story of Pandora and Lycaon:
The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
(A Roman epic poem, which recounts the story of Lycaon and his affliction)

United States

The Story of Lycaon:
Metamorphoses (Penguin Classics)
(A powerful telling crafted through poetry)

The Story of the Ages of Man:
Hesiod and Theognis (Penguin Classics): Theogony, Works and Days, and Elegies
(Found in Works and Days, a lyrical and easy to read account)

The Story of Pandora and Lycaon:
The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
(A Roman epic poem, which recounts the story of Lycaon and his affliction)

Prometheus

Though ultimately the protectors of mankind, the gods are also its masters. Though capable of care and affection towards humanity, they are quick to punish men and women who attempt to rise above their servitude – and those who aid them in such action. Just one such being who fell foul of divine authority was Prometheus, one of the Titans of Greek lore. Powerful, wily and cunning, Prometheus laboured tirelessly to improve the lot in life of his greatest creation – mankind – in defiance of Zeus himself, and paid the price in the form of ageless torture.

Atlas
Sculpture in New York City, by Lee Lawrie.

Born a grandson of Earth and Sky and a cousin of Kronos, unlike many of his brethren, Prometheus sided with the younger gods in the War of the Titans (to read the story of this, please click here), and lent his strength to Zeus. One of four sons of the Titan Iapetus, Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus were to be the champions of mankind, though Epimetheus lacked his brother’s sound reasoning. Of the two remaining brothers, the most powerful was the Titan Atlas, famous for his punishment for siding with the Titans, when Zeus ordered him to bear the unbounding weight of the Heavens on his shoulders for eternity. The last brother, Menoetius, joined Atlas in the Titanomachy, but was struck by one of the thunderbolts of Zeus and cast into Tartarus.

At the creation of the beings which would populate the world, the gods fashioned their forms from clay, and ordered Prometheus and Epimetheus to furnish all the animals with unique qualities. Over eager, Epimetheus convinced Prometheus to allow him to do the deed, and won over the Titan to his plan. Epimetheus then turned to the animals and contrived to make all beings equal, so that the powers of one beast would be laid low by another. To some he distributed thick hides to protect from winter’s chill, to others terrible claws to cause other beasts to fear them, to other hooves to swiften their movements across the world. But not possessed of his brother’s wisdom, Epimetheus soon realised that he had used up all of the defining traits on his animals, and possessed nothing to give to men, “for while the other animals were all very carefully provided for, humankind was naked, shoeless, without bedding and defenceless”. Realising his brother’s mistakes, Prometheus considered the problem for a while. Deciding to make man the blessed race, Prometheus crept into the House of the gods, and stole the ingenuity of Athena and the crafts of Hephaestus, and imparted them into man, so that they would employ their mastery over the elements to overcome the weakness of their form.



Prometheus Bound
Sculpture by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam.

Angered by the Titan’s daring, the gods wished man to acknowledge divine superiority, and held council to discuss how man would honour them. Carving up a great bull, they decided which portions should be burned and gifted to the gods, and which would be retained and eaten by man. Determined that the gods would receive the better half, that is the delicious meats and finest innards, and that man should be humiliated by accepting the bones, gristle and fat, Zeus ordered Prometheus to give him the rightful portion. But the Titan was cunning. He divided the carcass into two piles, one was fat and bones, yet covered with the thinnest layer of fine meat, whilst the other pile contained all the finest parts of the animal, yet covered by the animal’s unsightly stomach. Prometheus came before the King of the gods and asked him to choose which he would like. Confused, the Thunderer replied:



                  “ 'Son of Iapetus, outstanding among all the lords,

                     My good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions'.

                    So chided Zeus, whose designs do not fail. But crooked schemer Prometheus,
                    smiling quietly and intent on deceit, said to him,

                    'Zeus greatest and most glorious of the eternal fathers, choose then

                    whichever of them the spirit in your breast bids you'. ”

                                      - PROMETHEUS DECEIVES ZEUS

Selecting the more enticing portion crowned with rich meat, in his fury Zeus saw the Titan’s trick. Ever since, whenever men sacrificed, the bones and fat were burned on the altar, and the finest meats were eaten. In his rage, Zeus hid from man the secrets of fire, and cursed them to endure the cold forever.

But Prometheus cared for men. He defied the King of the gods once more, sneaking into the House of the gods, he took a spark from their fire and, concealing it within the pith of a fennel, came down to Earth and granted the secrets of fire to men. Spying the far-beaconing flares of fire among mankind, Zeus was enraged. Ordering Prometheus to be taken to the far flung edge of the world, he ordered the gods to:

                 “ Nail him to the rock; secure him on this towering summit

                   Fast in the unyielding grip of adamantine chains.

                   It was your treasure he stole, the flowery splendour

                   Of all-fashioning fire, and gave to men – an offence

                   Intolerable to the gods, for which he must now suffer,

                   Till he be taught to accept the sovereignty of Zeus.”

                                         - PROMETHEUS IS CONDEMNED

The Torture of Prometheus
Painting by Jean-Louis-Cesar Lair.

Not only this, but Zeus commanded a great eagle to torment Prometheus, to every day peck out his liver. Every night, the Titan’s liver would regrow, and every day the bird would devour it anew, for eternity. As for man, Zeus devised a punishment for their acceptance of forbidden gifts. He ordered Hephaestus to mix earth and water and to imbue it with human voice and strength, and model its form upon those of the immortal goddesses. Athena he ordered to teach this new creation the crafts of weaving and faculty of scheming, and Aphrodite the secrets of charm. The creation he named Pandora, meaning ‘All gift’, as all the denizens of Olympus had had a hand in its creation. For Pandora was the first woman, and from Pandora was descended the female gender, conceived on Olympus as the ultimate curse of man, dooming them at once to lives of servitude and misguided obsession. Prometheus looked on in despair from his mountainous prison, bemoaning his fate, until the day when he will be released from his shackles...

The story of Prometheus is an important, yet oft forgotten, chapter of the creation of man in Greek legend. His role as patron of mankind, and punishment for it, moved the minds of great thinkers and artists of the Renaissance and beyond, just as the stoicism of his brother Atlas did too. Perhaps Prometheus was one of the first tragic heroes? The story of Prometheus is mentioned throughout the Classical corpus, the most enduring excerpts however, are to be found in readily available texts on Amazon:

United Kingdom

His Role in the Creation of Man:
Protagoras and Meno (Penguin Classics)
(A philosophical text, though containing the story of Prometheus and Epimetheus in Protagoras 320d)

His Trickery and the Creation of Pandora:
Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics)
(Nice and readable, mentioned in both the Theogony and Works and Days)

His Punishment:
Prometheus Bound and Other Plays: The Suppliants; Seven Against Thebes; The Persians (Classics)
(A sympathetic treatment of the Titan, short and readable)

United States

His Role in the Creation of Man:
Protagoras and Meno (Penguin Classics)
(A philosophical text, though containing the story of Prometheus and Epimetheus in Protagoras 320d)

His Trickery and the Creation of Pandora:
Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics)
(Nice and readable, mentioned in both the Theogony and Works and Days)

His Punishment:
Prometheus Bound and Other Plays: Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes, The Persian (Penguin Classics)
(A sympathetic treatment of the Titan, short and readable)