Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

THE BANISHMENT OF THE HERAKLEIDS. 57
lesque. He might be the devoted youth, going forth like CHAP.
Sintram to fight against all mean pleasures, or the kindly „ .
giant who almost plays the part of a buffoon in the house of
the sorrowing Admetos. Between the Herakles of Prodikos
and that of Euripides there was room for a vast variety of
colouring, and thus it was easy to number the heroes bearing
this name by tens or by hundreds. The obvious resemblances
between these deities would lead the Greeks to identify their
own god with the Egyptian deity, and suggest to the Egyp-
tians the thought of upholding their own mythology as the
sole source or fountain of that of Hellas.
But the mythical history of Herakles is bound up with Repe-
1*
that of his progenitors and his descendants, and furnishes
tf
many a link in the twisted chain presented to us in the pre- m J th of
historic annals of Greece. The myth might have stopped
short with the death of the hero ; but a new cycle is, as we
have seen, begun when Hebe becomes the mother of his chil-
dren in Olympos, and Herakles, it is said, had in his last
moments charged his son Hyllus on earth to marry the
beautiful Iole. The ever-moving wheels, in short, may not
tarry. The children of the sun may return as conquerors in
the morning, bringing with them the radiant woman who
with her treasures had been stolen away in the evening.
After long toils and weary conflicts they may succeed in bearing
her back to her ancient home, as Perseus bears Danae
to Argos ; but not less certainly must the triumph of the
powers of darkness come round again, and the sun-children
be driven from their rightful heritage. Thus was framed
that woful tale of expulsion and dreary banishment, of efforts
to return many times defeated but at last successful, which
make up the mythical history of the descendants of Herakles.
But the phenomena which rendered their expulsion necessary
determined also the direction in which they must move, and
the land in which they should find a refuge. The children
of the sun can rest only in the land of the morning, and ac-
cordingly it is at Athens alone and from the children of the
dawn- goddess that the Herakleids can be sheltered from
their enemies, who press them on every side. Thus we find
ourselves in a cycle of myths which might be repeated at will,