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the island safely. He slew the two-headed dog, then got the whole herd of oxen into the golden bowl and sailed back.

      For the tenth time Eurystheus was amazed. He now commanded Hercules, “Get me some of the apples of the Hesperides.”

      At the wedding of Jupiter and Juno, the grandest that ever took place on Olympus, Ceres, the great earth-mother, had given to Juno some branches loaded with golden apples. These branches were afterwards planted and grew into trees upon islands in the Western Ocean, far away from Greece. The trees and their fruit were in charge of the nymphs called Hesperides, who had a terrible dragon to aid them. When Hercules was told to get some of the apples of the Hesperides he was puzzled. At last he went to Atlas, who was the father of the Hesperides, and begged his help. Atlas lived in Africa, opposite Spain. His duty was to hold up the sky, with all it contains, the sun, moon and stars.

      “I will get you some of the apples,” said Atlas in answer to Hercules, “if you will hold up the sky for me while I am getting them.”

      The bargain was made. Hercules held up the sky while Atlas went and secured three of the golden apples. Then the giant took the sky again on his shoulders, and Hercules carried the apples to Eurystheus.

      The Fates allowed Eurystheus to send Hercules upon only one more of his dangerous errands.

      “Go to the gates of the underworld,” said Eurystheus, “and bring Cerberus here.”

      Hercules now, if ever, had need of aid from the gods. They did not fail him. Mercury, the god who guided the souls of the dead to the unseen world, and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, both went with him to the kingdom of Pluto.

      Pluto said that if Hercules could overpower Cerberus without using any weapon he might take the great watchdog to the world of light. Hercules wrestled with the monster, overcame him, and dragged him to the palace of Eurystheus.

      This ended the power of Eurystheus over the hero.

      IV

      Hercules had a friend named Admetus, a king in Thessaly, who was about to die. The Fates had promised that his life should be spared if his father, mother or wife would die for him. When both father and mother refused, Alcestis, his wife, gave her life for him. Admetus was crazed with grief at losing her, and so Hercules went to Pluto’s kingdom, seized Alcestis, and brought her to her husband.

      Once Hercules became insane and killed a friend whom he greatly loved. The gods punished him for this with a serious sickness. He asked Apollo to cure him, but the god refused, and Hercules tried to carry away the tripod on which the priestess of Delphi sat when the god spoke to her. For this he was deprived of his great strength and given as a slave to Omphale, Queen of Lydia. She took the Nemean lion’s skin from him and dressed him as a woman. Then she made him kneel at her feet and spin thread and do a woman’s work for three years. After he was again free he did many brave deeds.

      Once when journeying with his wife Deianira he reached a river. There was neither bridge nor ferry. Nessus, the centaur, half-man, half-horse, who owned that part of the river, undertook to carry Deianira across while Hercules waded. When Nessus reached the middle of the river he tried to run away with Deianira, but Hercules shot him with one of his poisoned arrows. Nessus, while dying, told Deianira to save some of his blood and use it as a charm to make Hercules love her more.

      V

      Some years after this, Deianira became very jealous, and the foolish woman sprinkled some drops of the centaur’s poisoned blood upon a robe that Hercules had to wear at a sacrifice. When Hercules put on the robe the poison burned like fire. He tried to pull off the garment, but it clung to him, and as he pulled it his flesh was torn.

      Seeing now that his end was near, he went to the top of a mountain. There he pulled up some trees by the roots and heaped them together to make his funeral pyre. With his club for a pillow and his lion’s skin for a cover, he lay upon the pyre and soon he ceased to breathe. A friend kindled the pyre, and the hero’s body was burned to ashes. Then a cloud, gleaming as though on fire, descended through the air, and amid the pealing of thunder the mighty spirit was born to the skies.

      There Jupiter made him one of the gods and gave him the beautiful goddess Hebe for a wife.

      Jason and the Golden Fleece

      I

      In a city of Greece named Iolcus a good man called Æson was king. His younger brother, Pelias, seized the throne. But Pelias did not enjoy much happiness in his stolen kingdom. He had no fear of Æson, who was a weak man. But he was very much afraid that Æson’s son Jason, then only a boy, might some day take the kingdom from him.

      So he tried to kill Jason, but the child was taken away by night and Pelias never found him. It was said that he was dead. Twenty years passed, and though Jason was never seen in Iolcus Pelias was still afraid that he was alive. Finally, to settle the matter, he consulted the oracle of Apollo.

      He received the answer, “Beware of the man who wears but one sandal.”

      After that Pelias ordered the watchman at the city gate to take notice of the feet of every stranger who entered the city.

      Jason had been all these years in charge of Chiron, the centaur, who was the most famous teacher in Greece. Jason had heard of the wickedness of his uncle, and now that he was a man he determined to regain his father’s kingdom.

      So one day he set out for Iolcus. On the way he came to a wide stream over which there was no bridge. At the same time a feeble old woman came up and wished to cross. The stream was swollen, and it looked as if she would be swept away by the current and drowned if she tried to wade across. So Jason took her in his arms and carried her over.

      That old woman was really Juno, the queen of the gods. She had come down from Olympus to take a journey on earth without telling any one who she was, because she wished to find out if there was any real kindness among men. She never forgot Jason’s courtesy; and to her help he owed his success in his career.

      In crossing the stream he lost one of his sandals, and so he reached Iolcus with one foot bare. He cared very little about this; but when word was brought to Pelias that a man wearing one sandal had entered the city, the king was greatly alarmed.

      “Either I must kill that man,” Pelias said to himself, “or he will kill me.” He therefore sent a messenger to invite the stranger to the palace, and Jason soon stood before him.

      “What would you do,” asked Pelias, “if you had in your power the man who was fated to kill you?”

      “I should tell him,” answered Jason, “to go to Colchis and bring me ‘the golden fleece.’”

      ”Then you shall go,” cried Pelias, “You have come to take my kingdom from me; but not till you bring me that fleece will I yield you my crown.”

      The story of the golden fleece is very interesting.

      Many years before one of the Grecian kings, who had a son named Phrixus, was told by an oracle that Jupiter wished him to offer up his son as a sacrifice. The poor father prepared to make the offering. As the young man was standing before the altar and his father was just about to slay him, a ram with shining fleece of gold came down from the sky and stood beside them. Phrixus jumped to the back of the ram. His sister, Helle, who was standing with him at the altar, jumped on behind her brother, and the ram immediately ran off with the two. He went so fast that people who saw him thought he had wings. When he came to the strait which separates Europe from Asia he plunged into the waves. Poor Helle soon fell off and was drowned; and ever after that the strait was called by the Greeks the Hellespont, a word that means the Sea of Helle. It is the strait that is named the Dardanelles’ on our maps.

      The ram carried Phrixus safely across the strait, and went on until he reached the palace of Æetes the king of a country called Colchis, which lay on the shores of the Euxine, or Black Sea.

      Phrixus felt very thankful for having made such a wonderful journey in safety, so he offered the ram as a sacrifice to Jupiter and nailed the fleece to a tree that was sacred to Mars.

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