|
|
1804: Hercules and the Hydra, 1918-19. Statue by Rudolph Tegner, 1873-1950. Rudolph Tegners Museum, Denmark.
|
|
Lerna is a city and fountain in a swampy region
south of Argos, known for the quality of its water:
"The dinner being slow in coming, a discussion arose concerning water—which was the sweetest? Some praised the water of Lerna, others, again, the water of Peirene …" (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 4.156e).
… which was, they say, the gift that Poseidon gave to the region when he met Amymone 1, one of the DANAIDS. That is why it
was also said from old:
"The daughters
of Danaus rendered Argos, which was waterless, Argos the well watered …"
And the geographer Strabo adds:
"And Lake Lerna, the scene of the story of the Hydra, lies in Argeia and the Mycenaean territory; and on account of the cleansings that take place in it there arose a proverb, 'A Lerna of ills.' Now writers agree that the county has plenty of water, and that, although the city itself lies in a waterless district, it has an abundance of wells. These wells they ascribe to the daughters of Danaus, believing that they discovered them … but they add that four of the wells not only were designated as sacred but are especially revered, thus introducing the false notion that there is a lack of water where there is an abundance of it." (Strabo, Geography 8.6.8).
And concerning the cleansings and sacred
ceremonies that took place at Lerna, it has also
been said that
"On Mount
Crathis (northern Arcadia, bordering Achaea). is a sanctuary of Artemis Pyronia (Fire-goddess), and in
more ancient days the Argives used to bring from
this goddess fire for their Lernaean
ceremonies." (Pausanias, Description
of Greece 8.15.8).
The mysteries of Lerna were established, they say, by Philammon (Pau.2.37.1), son of Apollo (or perhaps of Hephaestus), and father of Thamyris 1, the minstrel who lost his eyes in a contest with the MUSES. According to some accounts, it was near Lerna
that Hades descended to
the Underworld when
he carried off Persephone. Thus in
Lerna the mysteries in honour of Lernaean Demeter (mother of Persephone) were celebrated (Pau.2.36.6). And also yearly nocturnal rites in honour of Dionysus 2 were
performed at Lerna, the contents of which are not
divulged by the traveller Pausanias, who always
abides, in these matters, by his usual reservation.
For also Dionysus 2 descended to the Underworld in this
place (the Alcyonian Lake) when he went down in
search of his mother Semele. Concerning the
depth of this lake's perilous waters, says
Pausanias:
"There is no
limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake, and I
know of nobody who by any contrivance has been able
to reach the bottom of it since not even Nero, who
had ropes made several stades long and fastened
them together, tying lead to them, and omitting
nothing that might help his experiment, was able to
discover any limit to its depth. This, too, I
heard. The water of the lake is, to all appearance,
calm and quiet but, although it is such to look at,
every swimmer who ventures to cross it is dragged
down, sucked into the depths, and swept away." (Pausanias, Description
of Greece 2.37.4).
Io
Yet, some have regarded Lerna as a fertile
district even before that time. For they have
represented the dreams that guided Io as saying:
"O damsel
greatly blessed of fortune, why linger in your
maidenhood so long when it is within your power to
win a union of the highest? Zeus is inflamed by passion's dart for
you and is eager to unite with you in love. Do not,
my child, spurn the bed of Zeus, but go forth to Lerna's meadow
land of pastures deep and to your father's flocks
and where his cattle feed, so that the eye of Zeus may find respite from its
longing." (Aeschylus, Prometheus
Bound 650).
Having obeyed the dreams, Io was embraced by Zeus, and then turned into
a cow and forced to wander over the whole world:
"… with horns … upon my forehead … stung by a sharp-fanged gadfly I rushed with frantic bounds to Cerchnea's sweet stream and Lerna's spring." (Io to Prometheus 1.
Aeschylus, Prometheus
Bound 675).
This story was later disbelieved, and the
disappearance of Io was
attributed to the perfidy of Phoenician merchants,
who kidnapped her and brought her to Egypt:
"On the fifth
or sixth day after their arrival, when their wares
were almost all sold, many women came to the shore
and among them especially the daughter of the king,
whose name was Io (according to Persians and Greeks
alike), the daughter of Inachus. As these stood
about the stern of the ship bargaining for the
wares they liked, the Phoenicians incited one
another to set upon them. Most of the women
escaped: Io and others were seized and thrown
into the ship, which then sailed away for Egypt." (Herodotus, History 1.1.3).
Apparently, no evidence was ever produced to
prove that charge against the Phoenicians. But
since the tale of Io turning
into a cow and being loved by a god came to be
regarded as unlikely, the Phoenicians were, with or
without evidence, thoroughly cursed:
"My curse,
first, upon the Carnite (Phoenician) sailor hounds! the merchant wolves who carried off from Lerna the ox-eyed girl (Io) …" (Cassandra. Lycophron, Alexandra 1291).
Accordingly, later abductions were regarded as
retaliations for the first. Thus when the Europeans
carried off the Phoenician princess Europa, they believed
that Asia and Europe were then even. However, that
was taken as yet one loop in the chain of affronts
that Asia and Europe inflicted upon each other.
Danaus 1
In Egypt, Io gave birth to Epaphus 1, son of Zeus. Epaphus 1 fathered Libya, who having consorted with Poseidon, gave birth, among others, to Belus 1. Belus 1, who inherited the kingdom of Egypt, married Anchinoe (daughter of Nilus), and had by her many children, among which Danaus 1 and Aegyptus 1. Danaus 1 felt threatened by Aegyptus 1 and his fifty sons, and decided that he and his fifty daughters would leave Egypt and emigrate to Argos, the country of
their ancestor Io. After
having touched Rhodes, Danaus 1 arrived to Argos, then ruled by Gelanor (whom Danaus 1 overthrew), or perhaps by Pelasgus 1. The sons of Aegyptus 1, however, came after them and demanded to be wedded to the daughters of Danaus 1 (the DANAIDS). Danaus 1, being threatened, consented to the marriage, and allotted his daughters among them. But at the same time, he instructed the girls to kill the bridegrooms on their wedding night, giving them daggers for that purpose.
The heads of the bridegrooms
Thus all the DANAIDS except one killed their bridegrooms on their wedding night, burying their heads in Lerna. Now, some may think that the many heads of the Lernaean Hydra—a monster that appeared afterwards—could be the reincarnated heads of the murdered bridegrooms, a curse from the past. However, others have affirmed that the bodies of the sons of Aegyptus 1 were buried by the DANAIDS in Lerna, and
not the heads, which were buried in Larisa, the
citadel of Argos. It is said that the girls were purified of their
crime by Athena and Hermes at the command of Zeus. Yet, it is also told
that the DANAIDS are
still being punished in the Underworld for their
crime.
Poseidon grants
water
Before these bloody events, Poseidon and Hera had a dispute for the
patronage of Argos, and a
tribunal of three RIVER
GODS—Inachus (father of Io), Cephisus, and Asterion 2—decided that the territory would belong to Hera and not to Poseidon. Disappointed with this ruling, the god made their waters disappear, so that their streams being dry during the summer, they would never provide any water except after rain. In addition, Poseidon, disappointed with the decision of the RIVER
GODS, inundated many of the region's districts because. Lerna was, however, excepted; for it was here that Amymone 1 (one of the DANAIDS) yielded to Poseidon on condition that she might have water, and the god, being in love with her, revealed to her the springs at Lerna. This happened when Danaus 1 sent his daughters to draw water. Amymone 1, apparently combining her search for water with hunting, threw a dart at a deer, hitting a sleeping Satyr, who then attempted to rape her. It was then that Poseidon appeared, and having driven the Satyr away, lay with the girl, revealing to her the springs at Lerna. It is told that the god hurled his trident at the Satyr and that it became fixed in a rock. Then he asked Amymone 1 what she was doing in the wilderness, and as she replied that her father had sent her to get water, the god bid her to draw the trident from the rock. And when she did so, three streams of water flowed from the earth (one for each of the trident's prongs). That was the gift that Poseidon bestowed on the girl in exchange for her love—more than the Satyr could ever have offered her (if anything). And from their union, Nauplius 1 (the father of Palamedes) was born, as some say. But others deny this, arguing that Nauplius 1, being still alive after the end of the Trojan War, could by
no means be the son of the Danaid, who lived many
generations before him:
"After
Temenium comes Nauplia, the naval station of the
Argives: and the name is derived from the fact that
the place is accessible to ships. And it is on the
basis of this name, it is said, that the myth of
Nauplius and his sons has been fabricated by the
more recent writers of myth, for Homer would not
have failed to mention these, if Palamedes had displayed such wisdom and
sagacity, and if he was unjustly and treacherously
murdered, and if Nauplius wrought destruction to so
many men at Cape Caphereus. But in addition to its
fabulous character the genealogy of Nauplius is
also wholly incorrect in respect to the times
involved; for, granting that he was the son of Poseidon, how could a man who was still
alive at the time of the Trojan war have been the son of Amymone?" (Strabo, Geography 8.6.2).
The mythographer Apollodorus was well aware of this, since he writes:
"Amymone had a
son Nauplius by Poseidon. This Nauplius lived to a great age …" (Apollodorus, Library "Epitome" 2.1.5).
But Apollodorus does not argue on the issue of the age of Nauplius 1, and few could in fact guess for how long the son of a god might live. Zeus, for example, granted life for three generations to his son Sarpedon 1 … And concerning naval stations, Lerna apparently was one, since we read that Heracles 1's son Tlepolemus 1, the leader of the Rhodians against Troy (who, by the way, was killed in the war by the same Sarpedon 1), sailed to Rhodes from Lerna when he emigrated to the island. Coincidentally (but sailing in the opposite direction), Danaus 1 had landed in a place near Lerna, after having touched Rhodes, on his way from Egypt (Apd.2.1.4; Pau.2.38.4).
The Hydra of Lerna
Swampy Lerna gained even more renown when Heracles 1 performed
there his second Labour, which consisted in
destroying the Hydra, a beast with nine heads,
eight of which were mortal, the middle one being
immortal; or else with one hundred heads of
serpent, or even countless heads (the scepticism of
later authors proclaimed that the Hydra had only
one head). Some say that the monster was so
poisonous that she could kill a man with her
breath. The Hydra of Lerna, offspring of Typhon and
Echidna, was nourished by Hera, who was then angry at Heracles 1. Having discovered the Hydra on a hill beside the
Amymonian springs, Heracles 1 attacked the monster with fiery shafts to force it to come forth. Then he commanded his helper Iolaus 1 to prevent new heads from sprouting by searing with a burning brand the part that had been severed. In that way the flow of the Hydra's blood was checked in its necks, and after cutting off all the mortal heads, Heracles 1 chopped off the immortal one as well. This one he buried beside the road that leads from Lerna to Elaeus, putting a heavy rock on it. Heracles 1 then
slit up the body of the Hydra and dipped his arrows
in its gall; for this reason the wounds produced by
his arrows became incurable, as that of Chiron, that of the Centaur Pholus 1, that of Geryon, and that of Paris (who was killed by Philoctetes, the man
who inherited Heracles 1's bow and arrows). And indeed the slayer of the Hydra himself was, years later, destroyed by its venom, through the love-charm that the Centaur Nessus 2 gave to Heracles 1's wife Deianira 1. (See also HERACLES 1'S LABOURS.)
|
