Myth Monday - Hercules and the Argonauts
Head of Hercules. Roman, Imperial period, 1st century A.D. Copy of a Greek statue of the second half of the 4th century B.C. attributed to Lysippos.
CC Flickr User giopuo.
Does the headline surprise you? If you aren't familiar with Hercules' role in the quest for the Golden Fleece, it's understandable.
When Jason outfitted the Argo so he could go off on his quest for the Golden Fleece, his companions were the best and the brightest of his age, mostly sons of gods, although that depends on the list. [Here is one list, from Apollodorus.] This was the generation before the Trojan War. Jason's companions-catalogue includes the tamer of rocks and beasts Orpheus, the psychopomp and giant-killer Hermes' sons Echion and Eurytos, Zeus' twin sons, the horse and boxing-expert pair known as the Dioscuri, the best seer, Mopsos* (before whose amazing skill Agamemnon's seer, Calchas, will later admit defeat and die or be killed after laughing at Hercules), and Hercules. These were the men hand-picked to help Jason travel by sea on a fabulous boat to the eastern edges of the known world, to the land of Colchis, where the witch Medea lived and where her father kept the key to Jason's kingship, the fleece of a golden sheep.
Hercules does not stay the course. He may have been asked to leave, probably because he was too heavy, physically. Symbolically works, too, since Hercules could resolve all the obstacles the Argonauts encounter without breaking a sweat, and if he did so, what glory would remain for any of the other heroes? Pherekydes says the ship, the Argo, asks Hercules to get off at Aphetai, in Thessaly, because his massive bulk overburdens the ship. The ship can talk, thanks to the gift of a speaking timber, from Athena.
The first stop of the Argo is at Lemnos, the home of the husband-slayers. The Argonauts engage in athletic contests/funeral games followed by sex. Hercules encourages the Argonauts to get going, perhaps when he learns of what they did to their husbands.
The second stop is in Samothrace, where the Argonauts may have been initiated into mysteries.
The next stage of the journey takes the Argonauts through the Hellespont and on to Asia Minor. There is sometimes a stop at Troy for Hercules to rescue Hesione. However, it is in this area, in the land of the Mysoi, that Hercules loses his male love interest Hylas (assuming a version where he wasn't asked to leave earlier). Hercules goes off in search of the youth and never returns to the Argo, although sometimes he shows up in Colchis:
Hercules leaves his companions, initially to find wood for a new oar to replace the one he has snapped, while the lovely Hylas goes to fetch water. At the pool or spring, a water nymph falls in love and draws Hylas in. Polyphemus, a great warrior and Lapith, son of Elatos ruler of Larissa, alerts Hercules that Hylas is missing and so they go to look for him. Theocritus tells about the story of the abductions (rapes) of Hylas in Idyll 13. The next morning the crew of the Argo, noting a fine sailing wind, depart, unaware that Hercules and Polyphemus are missing.
Read:
- Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica
- The Golden Fleece, by Padraic Colum
- The Golden Fleece, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Ancient Epic
*Timothy Gantz treats the Argonaut Mopsus as the one whose prowess leads to Calchas' death, but it may be a different Mopsus, the grandson of Tiresias. Calchas knew he would die when he met a superior in the art of prophecy. Mopsus was this seer. The questions posed (as in Apollodorus VI) were either the number of figs on a fig tree or the numbers of piglets that would be in a sow's litter. Herculean involvement comes when Hercules tried to stuff all the figs in an urn since Mopsus had said they would almost all fit in, but the one on the top of the tree would be left over. It is said that Calchas laughed at the hero's attempts and was killed.
