Heroes: Volume II of Mythos

Stephen Fry

HEROES Volume II of Mythos

CONTENTS Picture Credits Foreword Map The Olympians Introduction Hera’s Dream PERSEUS The Shower of Gold The Wooden Chest The Two Strangers in the Oak Grove The Graeae Gorgon Island Andromeda and Cassiopeia The Return to Seriphos HERACLES The Line of Perseus Snakes Alive Youth and Upbringing of a Hero Crime and Punishment The Labours of Heracles   1. The Nemean Lion   2. The Lernaean Hydra   3. The Ceryneian Hind   4. The Erymanthian Boar   5. The Augean Stables   6. The Stymphalian Birds   7. The Cretan Bull   8. The Mares of Diomedes (incorporating the Story of Alcestis and Admetus)   9. The Girdle of Hippolyta 10. The Cattle of Geryon 11. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides 12. Cerberus After the Labours: Crimes and Grudges The Giants: a Prophecy Fulfilled The Shirt of Nessus Apotheosis BELLEROPHON The Winged One Bearing False Witness In Lycia Chimerical Reaction Flying Too High ORPHEUS The Power to Soothe the Savage Beast Orpheus and Eurydice Orpheus in the Underworld The Death of Orpheus JASON The Ram Return to Iolcos The Argo The Isle of Lemnos The Dolionians Hylas Disappears Harpies The Clashing Rocks Deaths, Razor-Sharp Feathers and the Phrixides The Eagle King Three Goddesses Medea The Khalkotauroi The Grove of Ares Escape from Colchis The Journey Home The Magical Death of Pelias Medea Rises Up ATALANTA Born to Be Wild The Calydonian Boar The Calydonian Hunt The Foot Race OEDIPUS The Oracle Speaks Where Three Roads Meet The Riddle of the Sphinx Long Live the King The Aftermyth THESEUS The Chosen One Under the Rock The Labours of Theseus 1. Periphetes 2. Sinis 3. The Crommyonian Sow 4. Sciron 5. Cercyon and the Birth of Wrestling 6. Procrustes, the Stretcher The Wicked Stepmother The Marathonian Bull The Queen of Poisons The Story of the Tribute The Bull from the Sea To Crete The Dungeons of Knossos The Bull Man Abandonment and Flight Father and Son Theseus, the King Envoi The Offspring of Echidna and Typhon The Rages of Heracles Afterword Illustrations List of Characters Olympian Gods Primordial Beings Monsters Mortals Acknowledgements Follow Penguin

To all the heroes we have never heard of. Perhaps you are one.

Picture Credits

S ECTION O NE 1. Olympus. Iliad Room, Palazzo Pitti (fresco), Luigi Sabatelli. De Agostini Picture Library / Bridgeman. 2. Prometheus Bound, Peter Paul Rubens, c.1611–18. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, USA / Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1950 / Alamy. 3. Danaë, 1907–8, Gustav Klimt. Galerie Wurthle, Vienna, Austria / Bridgeman. 4. Danaë and Baby Perseus being Rescued by Corsali in Serifo Island, Jacques Berger, 1806. De Agostini Picture Library / Bridgeman. 5. Perseus, Jacques-Clément Wagrez, 1879. Peter Horree / Alamy. 6. Medusa, painted on a leather jousting shield, Caravaggio, c.1596–98. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Tuscany, Italy / Bridgeman. 7. Perseus and Andromeda, Carle van Loo, seventeenth century. State Hermitage, St Petersburg / Alamy. 8. Young boy portrayed as Heracles choking the snakes (marble), Roman, (second century AD). Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy / Heritage Image Partnership / Alamy. 9. The Origin of the Milky Way, 1575, Jacopo Tintoretto. National Gallery / Alamy. 10. Heracles and the Nemean Lion, Pieter Paul Rubens. Historic Collection / Alamy. 11. Athenian Attic black-figure amphora with Heracles carrying the Erymanthean Boar, c.510 BC. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA / Alamy. 12. Amazonomachy, first century BC, clay with polychrome remains. Campana collection, Italy / Alamy. 13. Heracles, Attic Kylix in the style of Douris, c.480 BC. Vulci, Papal Government – Vincenzo Campanari excavations, 1835–1837 / Vatican Museums. 14. The Garden of the Hesperides, c.1892. Frederic Leighton. Lady Lever Art Gallery / Alamy. 15. Zeus Striking the Rebelling Giants (the Fall of Giants) in The Hall of Jupiter, 1530-33 (fresco). Perino del Vaga. Villa del Principe, Italy / Ghigo Roli / Bridgeman. 16. Winged horse Pegasus, ridden by Greek mythological hero Bellerophon. Official symbol of the Parachute Regiment / Alamy. 17. Orpheus before Pluto (Hades) and Persephone, Francois Perrier, seventeenth century. Louvre, Paris, France / Bridgeman. 18. Orpheus and Eurydice, Enrico Scuri, nineteenth century. De Agostini Picture Library / A. Dagli Orti / Bridgeman.