the Minyans: here the inhabitants of Orchomenos in north-western Boeotia (cf. Il. 2. 511).

charioteer of Menoiceus: his master, a grandson of Pentheus, was a member of the Theban royal family; the killing was also attributed to a group of Thebans (P. 9. 37. 1 f.).

by Eurytos: in the manuscripts, autou, ‘by him’, referring to Rhadamanthys. Because this seems unlikely in itself, and Ap. said above that Heracles was taught archery by Eurytos, most editors favour the present emendation; but it is possible that there is a more extensive corruption. In DS 4. 14. 3 he is taught archery by Apollo.

the Pythia: the priestess who delivered the oracles at Delphi.

ten labours: corrected from twelve in the manuscripts (Hercher). According to the following account, Heracles was due to perform ten labours, but he has to perform two extra labours (making up the canonic twelve) because Eurystheus refuses to accept the second and fifth.

be immortal: referring to his apotheosis, which takes place some time after the completion of the labours, and is a relatively late element in the tradition, see p. 91 and note.

invulnerable beast fathered by Typhon: in Theog. 326 f., the son of Orthos, son of Typhon and Echidna; it was reared by Hera. There is another tradition, also of early origin, that it grew up on the Moon, who shook it down to earth (Epimenides, fr. 2 DK, cf. Hyg. 30). In these mythical contexts, invulnerability means quite literally insusceptibility to wounds; if such a being can be killed by a means that does not entail the piercing of its body, it is not immune to death (hence the strangling). Pindar is the earliest author to refer to its invulnerability (Isth. 6. 47 f.; Bacch. 13. 50 ff. is more explicit).

sacrifice. . . as a hero: exceptional men, legendary but also historical, who were thought to exercise power after their death, were worshipped in a special cult; sacrifices to the gods above and those to the heroized dead were performed according to a different ritual (which is reflected in the use of different words here, thueinand enagizeinrespectively).

Copreus: cf. Il. 15. 639 f. His name is suggestive of kopros, dung.

the Lernaean hydra: see Theog. 313 ff., a child of Echidna and Typhon, raised by Hera to be an adversary for Heracles; hydra, meaning a water-serpent, is not a proper name (although the Lernaean hydra came to be thought of as ‘the’ hydra).

nine heads: Hesiod, ibid., does not say that the hydra has more than one head. Although Pausanias, 2. 37. 4, claims that Peisandros, the seventh-sixth-century author of an epic poem on Heracles, was the first to give the hydra many heads, the artistic evidence shows that he was not the inventor of the theme, for such representations can be traced to about 700. The number of heads varies according to the fancy of the poet or artist; already in early lyric, Alcaeus gives it nine heads, and Simonides fifty (sc. Hes. Theog. 313). The immortality of the middle head is unattested elsewhere.

of Amymone: see p. 61.

Iolaos: the son of Heracles’ half-brother Iphicles, p. 72; he accompanied Heracles on several of his adventures, acting as his charioteer.

sacred to Artemis: when Zeus wanted to rape Taygete, daughter of Atlas, Artemis rescued her by turning her into a deer; on returning to human form she dedicated the present deer to Artemis, and attached an inscription to it stating this (Pind. ol. 3. 29 f., with sc. to 53).

struck it with an arrow: to bring it down without harming it. According to other accounts he used nets to trap it, or overpowered it when it was asleep or exhausted (DS 4. 13. 1).

the common property of the Centaurs: according to another tradition, Dionysos left the jar with Pholos to be opened when Heracles arrived four generations later, and the local Centaurs were driven into a frenzy by the scent of the wine (DS 4. 12. 3 f.).

Cheiron . . . by the Lapiths: he was driven out of Thessaly with the other Centaurs by this Thessalian people under the command of their king, Peirithoos (see also p. 142). Malea was a promontory at the south-east corner of the Peloponnese, far to the south of Pholoe in Arcadia.

Only when Prometheus. . . able to die: see p. 83 with note.

killing him instantly: it will be remembered that Heracles dipped his arrows in the hydra’s gall; the virulence of the poison explains both their effect on the Centaurs and why Cheiron’s wound is incurable.

he refused to pay the reward: thus far he had some justification, as he could reasonably claim that he had been deceived when he was asked to pay for a task that Heracles had to perform anyhow as an unpaid service to Eurystheus.

Phyleus. . . testified against his father: cf. P. 5. 1. 10, where Phyleus is exiled for admonishing his father (and there is no mention of the arbitration). Homer remarks that Phyleus went into exile in anger at his father, but gives no details ( Il. 2. 628 ff.).

shoot them down: Heracles was not ordered to kill them, and in some accounts he merely scares them off (P. 8. 22. 4, referring to Peisandros, DS 4. 13. 2). It would seem that the birds were a problem only because of their numbers (DS is more explicit on this); Pausanias’ suggestion (P. 8. 22. 4 ff.) that they may have been man-eaters is based on a later tradition in which they were identified with a fabulous race of Arabian birds.

Acousilaos. . . bull that had carried Europa: the earliest author known to have referred to this labour, but the identification he offered for the bull cannot be reconciled with the usual tradition that Europa’s bull was Zeus himself in animal form (p. 96, cf. Hes. fr. 140).

sent up from the sea by Poseidon: see also p. 97; the identification favoured by DS (4. 13. 4) and Pausanias (1. 27. 9).

arrived at Marathon: where it is conveniently available for Theseus to kill, p. 139; Theseus’ exploits as a killer of beasts and malefactors were modelled on those of Heracles.

man-eating mares: cf. Eur. Alcestis481 ff.; in DS 4. 15. 3 f. he captures the mares after he has satisfied their hunger by feeding them on Diomedes himself.