Hercules, the First Superhero: An Unauthorized Biography by Philip Matyszak

Author:Philip Matyszak [Matyszak, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9780988106666
Amazon: B0197NB072
Goodreads: 28685210
Publisher: Monashee Mountain Publishing
Published: 2015-12-10T06:00:00+00:00

The son of Zeus told his comrades to enjoy their meal while he headed for the woods to make an oar suitable for his hands. After some exploration, he found a thick, strong pine, tall and straight as a poplar and without too many leaves or branches. He swiftly set his arrow-laden quiver and bow on the ground, and stripped off his lion-skin cloak.

After loosening the roots of the pine with his bronze-tipped club, he wrapped his hands around the bottom of the trunk. With his legs braced, he pressed it to his broad shoulder and by strength alone pulled the deep-rooted tree from the ground with clumps of earth still clinging to it. When at the stormy setting of ill-omened Orion a swift blast of wind comes unexpectedly from the sky and the ship's mast - wedges and all - is pulled from its tether; so did Heracles uproot the pine. Then he picked up his bow and arrows, his lion-skin and club, and made his way back.

Meanwhile Hylas also had left the group to go with a bronze pitcher in hand to seek the sacred waters of a fountain. He wanted to swiftly draw water and get everything ready for his master's return. … He quickly came to the spring which the locals called Pegae.

Now it happened that all the nymphs who dwelt in that lovely headland were in the habit of praising Artemis every night in song and their dance for that night was beginning. The nymphs of the peaks and the glades were already ranging far into the woods, but the water-nymph was just rising from the sweet-flowing spring. She saw the lad nearby, and the full moon in the sky showed him in the bloom of his beauty and sweet charm. Cypris [Aphrodite] made her heart so weak that in her confusion she almost lost her wits. But he leaned sideways and dipped his pitcher into the water which rang loud as it fell into the echoing bronze. At once she put her left arm over his neck, and with her right she pulled down his elbow, and yearning to kiss his tender mouth, she plunged him into the rippling water.

The hero Polyphemus, son of Eilatus was the only one to hear the boy cry out, for he had gone up the path to meet Heracles on his return. He dashed toward Pegae in the direction of the cry, like a forest predator who has heard sheep bleating has from afar ... fearing that the lad had been taken by wild beasts he quickly drew his great sword, fearing also that someone had ambushed him travelling alone and carried him off as easy prey. Thus, brandishing a naked sword in his hand, he ran into Heracles himself on the path … and straight away he told of the wretched calamity with labouring heart and panting breath.

When Heracles heard his words, sweat poured in torrents from his temples and the black blood boiled beneath his heart.

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