Ancient Greece by Charles Kovacs

Author:Charles Kovacs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Floris Books
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

29. Heracles the Immortal

The Greek people admired Heracles for his twelve labours and when he came home he was greeted like a god. To show his gratitude to the gods who had helped him, Heracles built a city called Olympia in honour of the gods who live on Mount Olympus.

Every four years at Olympia there were contests to find the strongest and fastest men in Greece. Singers, poets and musicians also took part in competitions to find the best among them. The winners of the athletic events were given crowns of olive leaves and palm branches while the artists received crowns of laurel leaves as prizes. This was the highest honour a Greek could win and no victor would have exchanged his wreath of green leaves for either gold or gems.

While Heracles had been in the service of King Eurystheus performing his twelve labours, his first wife had died. Now he married Deianira, the daughter of a king. But Heracles was so used to a life of travel that he and his wife continued to wander about in search of adventure.

One day they came to the banks of a wide river, where a Centaur called Nessus lived. The Centaur carried travellers on his broad back across the river, but Heracles told him: “I don’t need help to cross the river. I can wade through myself. But you can carry my wife across so that she does not get wet.” And so Deianira sat on Nessus’ back and the Centaur entered the water. Deianira was very beautiful and the Centaur began to wish he could have her for his own wife, so when they were in mid-stream he turned and began to gallop away. Deianira cried out and Heracles, who had already reached the other bank, saw what was happening. Quickly he fired an arrow from his bow. It hit the Centaur and he fell to the ground.

But as Nessus lay dying he planned his revenge. He said to Deianira: “As you are the last person I have carried on my back, I want to make you a gift. Collect the blood which flows from my wound and use it to dye a tunic for Heracles. If ever your husband becomes weak, let him wear the tunic and it will restore his strength.” Then the Centaur died. Deianira believed this treacherous advice and collected the blood from the wound in a cup. Secretly she dyed one of Heracles’ tunics and hid it away. But Deianira did not know that the Centaur’s blood was poisoned by the blood of the Hydra that Heracles used on the tips of his arrows.

Later Heracles fought in a war against a cruel, evil king. He and his friends gained a great victory, but when the hero returned from the battle Deianira thought he looked haggard and tired. He was not exhausted but looked ill because he had a strange feeling that he was going to die very soon. Deianira thought he was losing his strength and went off to find the tunic.

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