Ancient Pagan Symbols Elisabeth Goldsmith

Texts>Ancient Pagan Symbols

(6) To kill the Stymphalian birds which infested a lake in Arcadia and fed on human flesh. (7) To bring alive into Peloponnesus the Cretan wild bull. (8) To capture the mares of the Thracian Diomedes that tore and devoured human flesh. (9) To obtain the girdle of the queen of the Amazons. (10) To destroy the monster Geryones and bring his oxen alive to Argos. It was upon this expedition that Herakles erected the two pillars (Calpe and Abyla) on the two sides of the straits of Gibraltar which were thereafter called the Pillars of Herakles. On this journey, too, Herakles, enraged by the heat of the sun shot at Helios who, admiring his boldness, presented him with a golden boat in which he sailed across the ocean to Erytheia. (I I) The eleventh labour was to obtain the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. It was upon this adventure that Herakles killed the vulture that was consuming the liver of Prometheus and thus saved the Titan, who in return advised him not to go to the garden of the Hesperides but to send Atlas and in the meantime to bear the weight of heaven for Atlas on his own shoulders. Atlas having brought the apples refused to take upon himself again the burden of heaven and declared his intention of carrying the apples to Eurystheus. In this case Herakles employed strategy to obtain the apples and accomplish his mission.

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