The first sack of Troy

⁴After the completion of his servitude, when he was rid of his disease, he sailed against Ilion* with eighteen fifty-oared ships, and an army that he had assembled beforehand from heroes who had volunteered for the expedition. On his arrival at Ilion, he left Oicles behind to guard the ships while he and the other heroes set off to attack the city. Laomedon for his part marched against the ships with the greater part of his force and killed Oicles in the fighting, but he was driven back by the troops of Heracles and put under siege. After the siege was engaged, Telamon was the first to break through the wall and make his way into the city, with Heracles behind him. When Heracles saw that Telamon had entered first, he drew his sword and rushed to attack him, anxious that nobody should be thought a better man than himself. Seeing the situation, Telamon began to heap together some stones that lay at hand; and when Heracles asked him what he was doing, he said that he was building an altar to Heracles the Noble Victor.* Heracles praised him for this, and when he had taken the city and shot down Laomedon and all his sons except for Podarces, he gave Laomedon’s daughter Hesione to Telamon as a prize, allowing her to take with her any person she wished from the captives. When she chose her brother Podarces, Heracles said that he must first become a slave, and that she should then offer something in payment for him so as to acquire him. So when he was sold, she removed the veil from her head and gave it in payment for him; and that was how Podarces came to be called Priam*

¹As Heracles was sailing back from Troy, Hera sent violent

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storms* against him, which so angered Zeus that he suspended her from Olympos.* Heracles wanted to sail in to Cos, but the Coans, taking him for the leader of a band of pirates, tried to prevent his approach by hurling stones. He turned to force and seized the island by night, killing its king, Eurypylos, son of Astypalaia and Poseidon. In the course of the fighting, Heracles was wounded by Chalcodon, but Zeus snatched him away and he suffered no further harm. After ravaging Cos, he went to Phlegra at Athene’s behest, and helped the gods to victory in their war against the Giants.*

Campaigns in the Peloponnese

²Not long afterwards, he mounted an expedition against Augeias,* gathering together an Arcadian army and raising volunteers from the foremost men of Greece. When Augeias heard that Heracles was preparing to make war on him, he appointed as generals of the Eleans Eurytos and Cteatos,* who were two men joined into one, and were superior in strength to all others of their time. They were sons of Molione and Actor (who was a brother of Augeias), although their real father was said to be Poseidon. Now it happened that in the course of the expedition Heracles fell ill, and for that reason he arranged a truce with the Molionides; but later, when they came to learn of his illness, they attacked his army and killed many of his men. So at the time Heracles retreated; but afterwards, when the Isthmian Games were being celebrated for the third time and the Eleans sent the Molionides to take part in the sacrifices, Heracles set an ambush* for them at Cleonai and killed them. Then he marched against Elis and captured the city. After he had killed Augeias and his sons, he recalled Phyleus* and granted him the throne. He also established the Olympic Games, founded an altar of Pelops,* and raised six altars to the twelve gods.

³After the capture of Elis, he marched against Pylos.* He took the city and killed Periclymenos, the bravest of Neleus’ sons, who used to change shape as he fought. He killed Neleus too, and all his sons, except for Nestor, who was still a boy and was being brought up amongst the Gerenians. During the battle, he also wounded Hades, who came to the aid of the Pylians.*

After he had captured Pylos, he mounted an expedition against Lacedaimon, wanting to punish the sons of Hippocoon. He was angry with them because they had fought as allies of Neleus, and was even angrier when they killed the son of Licymnios:* for while he was looking at the palace of Hippocoon, a Molossian hound ran out and dashed towards him, and when he threw a stone and struck the dog, the sons of Hippocoon rushed out and beat him to death with their cudgels. It was to avenge his death that Heracles assembled an army to attack the Lacedaimonians. Arriving in Arcadia, he asked Cepheus to join him as his ally, along with his sons, of whom he had twenty. Cepheus, fearing that the Argives would attack Tegea if he left it, refused to take part in the expedition; but Heracles, who had acquired from Athene a lock of the Gorgon’s hair in a bronze jar, gave it to Cepheus’ daughter, Sterope, saying that if an army attacked, she should hold up the lock three times from the ramparts without looking at it herself and the enemy would turn and flee. As a result, Cepheus joined the expedition with his sons, and in the course of the fighting, he and his sons were killed, together with Iphicles, the brother of Heracles. After he had killed Hippocoon and his sons and taken control of the city, Heracles recalled Tyndareus and entrusted the kingdom to him.

⁴As he was passing by Tegea, Heracles raped Auge, without realizing that she was the daughter of Aleos.* She gave birth in secret and hid her baby in the sanctuary of Athene; but when the country was ravaged by a plague,* Aleos entered the sanctuary, conducted a search, and discovered his daughter’s child. So he had the baby exposed on Mount Parthenion, but it was saved by an act of divine providence: for a doethat had just given birth offered her teatto it, and some shepherds took up the child and named it Telephos*As for Auge, her father handed her over to Nauplios, son of Poseidon, to sell in foreign parts, and Nauplios gave her to Teuthras, king of Teuthrania, who made her his wife.

Marriage to Deianeira; Heracles in northern Greece

⁵Arriving in Calydon, Heracles sought to win Deianeira, the daughter of Oineus,* as his wife. To gain her hand, he wrestled with Acheloos,* and when Acheloos assumed the form of a bull, Heracles broke off one of its horns. So Heracles married Deianeira, and Acheloos recovered his horn by offering that of Amaltheia* in exchange. (Amaltheia was the daughter of Haimonios and she owned a bull’s horn, which, according to Pherecydes, had the power to furnish as much meat or drink as one could wish for, in limitless supply.)

⁶Heracles marched with the Calydonians against the Thesprotians, and after capturing the city of Ephyra,* which was ruled by Phylas, he had intercourse with the king’s daughter, Astyoche, and became the father of Tlepolemos.* During his stay with them, he sent a message to Thespios telling him to retain seven of his sons,* but dispatch three of them to Thebes and send the remaining forty to the island of Sardinia to found a colony. Subsequently, as he was feasting with Oineus, he killed Eunomos,* son of Architeles, with a blow of his fist while the boy (who was a relative of Oineus) was pouring water over his hands. Because this had come about unintentionally, the father of the boy forgave Heracles, but he wanted to suffer exile in accordance with the law, and decided to depart to Ceux at Trachis.

Taking Deianeira with him, he arrived at the River Evenos. The Centaur Nessos had settled there,* and used to ferry travellers across the river for a fee, claiming that he had been granted the post of ferryman by the gods because of his honesty. Heracles for his own part crossed the river without assistance, but he entrusted Deianeira to Nessos and paid him the demanded fee to carry her across. But while Nessos was carrying her over, he tried to rape her; and Heracles heard her cries, and shot Nessos in the heart as he emerged from the water. On the point of death, Nessos called Deianeira to his side and said that if she wanted a love-potion* to use on Heracles, she should mix the semen that he had shed on the ground with the blood that had flowed from the wound made by the arrowhead. She did so, and kept the potion at hand.