friend Theseus. His tenth exploit was to seize the oxen belonging to the monster Geryon, king of Gades; they were guarded by the king himself, a dragon with seven heads, and a dog with two: Hercules killed them all, and carried the oxen to Argos. His eleventh achievement was to obtain some of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides; they were watched by a dragon which never slept; Hercules, however, slew him, and brought away the spoils. His last, and most arduous task, was to bring Cerberus, the triple-headed dog of Pluto, up to earth; he effected this, and after having shewn him to Eurystheus, restored him to the infernal regions. Hercules married Omphale and Dejanira: his death was caused by his wearing a poisoned robe, given by the centaur, Nessus, to the latter, who sent it to Hercules from motives of jealousy. After his death he was taken by Jupiter to Olympus, and placed among the gods; his worship soon became universal, and his temples were much frequented. Hercules is usually represented as a robust man, clad in the skin of the Nemean lion, and leaning upon his club. Hercules thus pathetically deprecates the vengeance of Juno, when the poisoned vesture begins to take effect :— Then, lifting both his hands aloft, he cries, "Glut thy revenge, dread empress of the skies; Sate with my death the rancour of thy heart, Take hence this hateful life, with tortures torn, Was it for this Busiris was subdued, Whose barb'rous temples reeked with strangers' blood? Nor gained recruited vigour from the ground. Or, did I fear the triple dog of hell? Did not these hands the bull's armed forehead hold? Do not Stymphalian lakes proclaim my fame? Could the fierce centaur's strength my force withstand? Did not these arms the Hydra's rage subdue, I saw, and, with their barb'rous lord, o'erthrew ? ; Did not this neck the heavenly globe sustain? Meanwhile, whate'er was in the power of flame OVID'S Metamorphoses, book 9. PERSEUS. PERSEUS was the son of Jupiter and Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius, who, to avoid the fulfilment of a prophecy by the oracle that he should perish by the hand of his grandson, imprisoned Danaë in a brazen tower. Upon the birth of her infant she was thrown into the sea with it, by her inhuman parent, but was preserved by a fisherman, named Dictys, and conducted to Polydectes, the king of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades, who placed Perseus under the guardianship of the priests belonging to the temple of Minerva. Perseus was one of the guests invited by Polydectes, to a sumptuous entertainment, at which it was customary for each visitor to present the monarch with a beautiful horse; Perseus could not comply with this requisition, but told the king that he would bring him instead the head of Medusa, the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality; Polydectes, in the hope of ridding himself of his protégé, readily accepted the proposal. The gods aided Perseus in his undertaking; Pluto lent him a helmet, which had the property of rendering its wearer invisible; Vulcan gave him a dagger made of diamonds; Mercury, wings and the talaria; and Minerva, her resplendent buckler; she conducted him to the place of conflict, where he soon achieved his perilous task; and before returning to his patroness the shield to which he was principally indebted for success, he affixed to it the hideous head of the Gorgon, which had the power of transforming into stone all who gazed upon it. The precise time of his death is unknown; but statues were erected to his honour in Mycena and Seriphos. The Athenians raised a temple to his memory, and consecrated in it an altar to Dictys, who cherished Danaë, and her infant charge. Perseus was also worshipped as a god by the Egyptians. He was united to Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, whom he had rescued from a terrible sea-monster, to whose fury she was exposed. Perseus formed one of the figures on the celebrated shield of Hercules, forged by Vulcan. There was the horseman, fair-haired Danaë's son, Touched, nor yet distant hovered: strange to think; Illustrious framed him with his hands in gold. Hung round him from the shoulders by a thong: HESIOD'S Shield of Hercules. |