This is the final episode of a four-part (I, II, III) series on the early life of Heracles. In this episode, we will take a look at Heracles’ ninth Labor and follow him to the land of the Amazons.
This post has been several weeks in the making as I tied up several loose ends. This unexpectedly took me down a rabbit-hole of Turkish research papers, and the result is a truly staggering amount of material on the Amazons. It became apparent that the Amazons required their own separate series. Notably because the weight of evidence suggests that the Amazons were, in fact, real. And this has profound implications on our understanding of Greek Mythology as a whole.
This episode will cover the mythological events surrounding Heracles’ encounter with the Amazons. You can consider it a prequel to the forthcoming Amazon series.
At a later date, once we have more information under our belt, we will come back to Heracles and attempt to answer the question of whether Heracles was a real person.
I hope you’re as excited as I am.
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The Whims of a Princess
Heracles’ ninth Labor starts on the whims of King Eurystheus’ daughter, Admete. More than anything in the world Admete desired an Amazonian war-belt. Specifically that of the Amazonian queen, Hippolyta.
This type of belt (called a zoster) was made of leather and covered in richly ornamented bronze and gold plates. In most English translations, zoster is translated as “girdle”, but this is grossly misleading. These belts seem to have functioned as a large utility belt of sorts, allowing its wearer to carry several tools, knives, and weapons. But perhaps more than anything it was a status symbol.
In the Bronze Age, the meanings ascribed to objects held intrinsic value which was almost always valued more than its material worth. An object could not be separated from its history nor its former owners.[1] As such, an article of clothing or equipment was believed to transfer its previous owner’s personal qualities to the wearer. This might be why Eurystheus’ daughter, Admete, wanted the war-belt. She wanted to possess the power of an Amazonian queen.[A]
But the land of the Amazons was far away, at the very limits of the known world.
Luckily enough, Eurystheus knew just the man to get it for her.
Wayward Voyage
Setting out from Mycenae, Heracles made his way to the sea and sailed with his band of warriors to the island of Paros. Upon landing, some of Heracles’ men were killed by the sons of King Minos. In retaliation, Heracles killed some of Minos’ children, besieged the island, and abducted two of Minos’ sons.
(If we remember from the sixth Labor, Heracles nominally traveled to Crete to “capture the Cretan Bull”. Stories of that Labor give no indication of violence or hostility between Heracles and Minos. This should, perhaps, be re-evaluated in light of the details concerning the siege of Paros. It seems that by the time of the ninth Labor, the family of Minos was openly hostile to Heracles.)
The abducted sons were loaded onto his ship, and he set sail for Mysia. He disembarked near the town of Cius, and from there waged war against the arrogant Bebryces. Heracles defeated the Bebryces and killed their king, Mygdon. He then gave their land to their neighbors, the Mariandyni.[B]
The Argonautica claims that Heracles subdued Mysia, then continued on foot through Anatolia toward the land of the Amazons. On the way, he subjugated the Bebryces, Phrygia, the Mariandyni, and Paphlagonia.[2]
At this point it is worth pausing to reflect on what is really going on here. Greek Mythology tends to portray Heracles as some sort of adventurer, slaying enemies and performing quests by royal decree. As you’ll remember, Heracles’ story begins by vanquishing monsters around his hometown of Thebes. Then he moved to Tiryns and continued this truculent lifestyle in the Peloponnese. His campaigns took him further and further from home, and by his seventh and eighth Labors he was traveling as far as Crete and Thrace.
And now, almost as a side-project of his ninth Labor, we are told that he subdued several kingdoms in northwest Anatolia! If there is any basis of truth to these myths, Heracles, by this point, was no longer a mere adventurer. Adventurers don’t vassalize far-away lands. I think at this point in the story it is fair to characterize Heracles as a warlord.
Now the Argonautica claims that Heracles traveled on foot to the land of the Amazons. However, in most versions of the story Heracles sailed to the Amazonian harbor-town of Themiscyra. This seems to go neatly with the tradition that it was Heracles who renamed the Black Sea from Axine “inhospitable to strangers” to Euxine “hospitable to strangers”.[3][C]
Now obviously Heracles could not have reached the landlocked kingdom of Phrygia by sea, so he must have trekked overland at some point. But considering the geography of northern Anatolia it seems likely that he would have sailed to Paphlagonia (whose most important towns were on the coast), and then subsequently sailed to the land of the Amazons.
Amazonia
The Amazons were said to have lived about the Thermodon River in northern Anatolia. Here is a broad verdant plain nestled between the Pontic Mountains and the Black Sea. The Amazons were said to have had three cities: Themiscyra, Lycastia, and Chadesia.[4] Themiscyra is usually located at the modern town of Terme, but the locations of Lycastia and Chadesia are unknown.
(We do have various fragments of ancient texts that give us an idea of where each of these cities are, but this is a topic that we will get into in our next series. As it turns out, the geography of the Amazonian homeland is crucially important to understand.)
At this time, Themiscyra was said to have been a harbor-town located on a bay at the outlet of the Thermodon River. It was here that Heracles came to retrieve Queen Hippolyta’s war-belt, given to her by the god Ares himself.
Most myths describing the encounter between Heracles and Hippolyta state that it began amicably, but quickly turned violent through a misunderstanding. Perhaps the most famous telling has Hera, disguised as an Amazon, spread a rumor that Heracles and his men were kidnapping the queen. Subsequently, the Amazons rushed the ship. Fearing for his life, Heracles killed Hippolyta, took her war-belt, and quickly fled Themiscyra.[D]
Some versions of the myth record that the Amazons charged the ship on horseback. This seems unlikely, though not impossible. Riding on horseback was not unknown during the Late Bronze Age, but it was certainly uncommon (as we discussed regarding the Centaurs in Part II). And there are several works of art, such as Greek vase paintings, which depict Amazons driving chariots.
Troy
With the Amazonian war-belt safely in tow, Heracles and his men sailed to Troy. Here, they found the princess of Troy, Hesione, chained to a rock by the sea. And as they came ashore, they learned that the city was also suffering from a grievous plague.
Laomedon, the King of Troy, had requested the help of Poseidon and Apollo to build the walls of Troy. But when the city walls were complete, Laomedon refused to pay the gods for their labor. In response, Poseidon sent a sea monster which flooded the area and snatched people from the plain around the city, and Apollo scourged the city with a grievous plague.
The oracles foretold deliverance from these calamities if Laomedon sacrificed his daughter, Hesione, to the sea monster. And this is why she was chained to a rock by the sea.[E]
But Heracles, always eager to help, told Laomedon that he could save his daughter – for a price. Heracles requested Laomedon’s finest mares, to which Laomedon agreed.[F]
Thrace and Thasos
From Troy, Heracles came to the town of Aenus, where he was hospitably entertained by King Aenus (another eponym). But as Heracles was leaving, he shot Sarpedon, a son of Poseidon, from his ship and killed him.
As with many myths, there was likely more to this story, but this is the only information (that I know of) that has survived. Suffice it to say Heracles did not like this Sarpedon fellow for one reason or another.
He sailed to Thasos and subjugated the Thracians who dwelt on the island. He handed over the rule of the island to the two sons of Minos that he had captured on the island of Paros.
From Thasos, Heracles sailed to Torone where he challenged Polygonus and Telegonus to a wrestling match. In the contest, Heracles killed both of them. We must keep in mind the fact that Heracles was, by all accounts, a warlord, and that a “wrestling match” where both rulers of a kingdom perished surely implies that the town of Torone was sacked by Heracles.
After an arduous voyage, Heracles finally returned to Mycenae and gave the Amazonian war-belt to Eurystheus. We can only imagine that his daughter, Admete, was over the moon.
Conclusion
At the end of Heracles’ first nine Labors he has:
- Slain several enemies throughout Greece
- Captured monsters in Crete and Thrace
- Subjugated the Mysians, Phrygians, Bebryces, Mariandyni, and Paphlagonians
- Sacked Paros and Themiscyra (and probably Torone)
The scope and scale of these conquests is truly incredible for the Bronze Age. And remember, Heracles still has three more Labors and half of his life left!
Mention of Heracles’ suzerainty over five Anatolian kingdoms calls into question the nature of these Labors. We should wonder if tales of vanquished “monsters” developed as euphemisms for conflicts which gave Heracles effective control over a substantial portion of Greece and the Aegean.
But surely these conquests should be detectable in the archaeological record. When we come back to Heracles, we will look at this in great detail and assess the historicity of Heracles.
Looking Ahead
This concludes our series on the early life of Heracles. Hopefully it has provided a basic understanding of the structure, formation, and peculiarities of Greek myths. More importantly, I hope it opens the doors to further questions, and lays a foundation for evaluating Greek Mythology objectively.
I am writing these episodes to be read sequentially as there is a massive amount of material to cover, and each topic builds upon the previous. I should stress that these building blocks are absolutely essential to understand as we work up towards tackling the Iliad and the Trojan War and more advanced topics.
I will post the roadmap of topics within the coming weeks.
But for now we will bid Heracles adieu, and move on to the next series, which I’m extremely excited to cover: The Amazons.
Notes
[A] In Greek, Admete means “untamed”, a name which seems to evoke the same image as that of the Amazons.
[B] Bibliotheca 2.5.9 and Argonautica 2.774 both state that King Lycus was at war with the Bebryces. However, the Bibliotheca claims that Lycus was king of Mysia, while the Argonautica claims that he was king of the Mariandyni. But because we are told that Lycus renamed his land “Heraclea” in Heracles’ honor, it seems that we should believe the Argonautica since Heraclea was the capital of the Mariandyni (and not Mysia).
[C] Axine “inhospitable to strangers” was the name originally given to the Black Sea because its shores were inhabited by tribes which the Greeks considered to be barbaric and hostile.
[D] In alternate versions of the myth, Heracles kidnapped and ransomed Hippolyta’s sister, Antiope, in order to obtain the war-belt. Another version claims that Antiope betrayed her fellow Amazons, and because of her Themiscyra fell in a siege laid by Heracles.
[E] This is the same mytheme as the Andromeda story. Perseus, after decapitating Medusa, came to the land of the Aethiopians where he found a maiden chained to a rock. Cepheus, the King of the Aethiopians, was told that in order to save his land from a sea monster he needed to sacrifice his daughter. Perseus saved Andromeda and sailed away with her. Mythemes are found throughout Greek Mythology.
[F] Zeus gave the world’s finest mares to Tros, Laomedon’s grandfather (and eponymous founder of Troy), in compensation for carrying off Tros’ son Ganymede. Laomedon inherited these horses.
[G] We are told that the Argo carried 50 Argonauts, and in the Iliad there were 50 to 120 oarsmen per ship. This means that Heracles sacked Troy with anywhere from 300 – 720 men. This should give an idea as to the size of these Late Bronze Age raiding parties.
Sources
[1] The Myth of the Chief: Prestige Goods, Power, and Personhood in the European Bronze Age, The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age (2013), Joanna Brück and David Fontijn.
[2] Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 1.1344, 2.774
[3] Diodorus Siculus 4.40.4, 4.16.1; Strabo 7.3.6; Pliny Natural History 6.1
[4] Herodotus 4.110.1