BOOK II.
Character
of Hera-
kles.
HeraklSs
and Eu-
rystheus.
after sunset, if the sun himself is to live on and gladden the world with his light, — must die, if she herself is to live again and stand before her husband in all her ancient beauty. At this point the myth of Admetos stops short, just as the Odyssey leaves the chief, after his toil is ended, with the faithful Penelope, although it hints at a coming separation which is to end in death. The legend of Admetos carries on the tale a step further, and the vanishing of Eurydike just as she reaches the earth is the vanishing of Daphne from ApoUon, of Arethousa from Alpheios, or it is the death of Prokris slain by the unwitting Kephalos.
But this idea of servitude which is thus kept in the background in the myths of ApoUon serves as the links which connect together all the phases and scenes of the life of Herakles. He is throughout the toiUng, suffering hero, who is never to reap any fruit of his labour, and who can be cheered even by the presence and the love of lole, only when the fiery garment is eating deep into his flesh. When this idea once becomes prominent, a series of tasks and of successful achievements of these tasks was the inevitable sequel What is there which the sun-god in his majest}' and power cannot accomplish ? What part of the wide universe is there which his light cannot penetrate? It mattered not whither or against what foes Eurystheus might send him ; he must assuredly return triumphant over every adversary. On this fruitful stem would grow up a wealth of stories which mythographers might arrange according to any system suggested by their fancy, or which might be modified to suit any passing whim or local tradition and association ; and so long as we remember that such systematic arrangements are results of recent ages, we may adopt any such plan as the most convenient way of dealing with the endless series of legends, all of them more or less transparent, and all pointing out with unmistakeable clearness the character of the hero who is the greatest representation of Indra on Hellenic soil. From first to last, his action is as beneficent to the children of men as it is fatal to the enemies of light, and the child who strangles in his cradle the deadly snakes of darkness grows up into the irresistible hero whom no danger can daunt and no difticulties can baffle.
The immense number of exploits attributed to him, the arrange- ment of which seems to have afforded a special delight to more recent mythographers, would lead us to expect a large variety of traditions modified by local associations. To go through tliem all would be an endless and an unprofitable task; and we may safely accept the notices of the Homeric and lyric poets as the more genuine forms of
