Chapter 13: Herakles
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♠ Pindar, Pythian 9.79-83
as seven-gated Thebes once knew well, [80] Telesicrates was not dishonored by Iolaus; when he had cut off the head of Eurystheus with the edge of his sword, he was buried below the earth by the tomb of the charioteer Amphitryon, his father’s father, where he lay as the guest of the Sown Men, having come to dwell in the streets of the Cadmeans, who ride on white horses. Greek Text
♠ Antoninus Liberalis 3 – Mythography Graeci 2.1, pp. 114-15, ed. E. Martini. Leipzig 1896.
same as
Pherekydes 3F84 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 83, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
ALKMENE. Pherekydes recounts. After the disappearance of Herakles from among men, Eurystheus drove out his sons [the Herakleidai] from the fatherland and reigned himself. The Herakleidai fleeing to Demophon, the son of Theseus, dwelt in the tetrapolis of Attika. Eurystheus sent a messenger to Athens, threatening war on the Athenians unless they would drive out the sons of Herakles. [2] The Athenians did not decline war, so Eurystheus made an attack on Attica and having drawn up his battle line himself died in the fight, but the bulk of the Argives was turned back. Hyllos and the other sons of Herakles and those with them, after the death of Eurystheus, went back to live in Thebes. [3] In the meanwhile, Alkmene died of old age and the sons of Herakles made a funeral for her. They lived next to the Elektra gate where Herakles had lived in the agora. Zeus sent Hermes with orders to take the body of Alkmene and to carry it away to the isles of the blessed and to give her as wife to Rhadamanthys. Hermes obediently took Alkmene, and in exchange for her body he laid a stone in the coffin. [4] The sons of Herakles, when they were carrying the bier found it heavy and put it down; on investigation, instead of Alkmene they found a stone, and, taking it out, they erected it in a grove where is the hero shrine of Alkmene in Thebes. (Transl. Mary Emerson) Greek Text
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, December 2023.
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