What is a myth or mythology? A simple definition will be: stories and ideas believed by many but which are not true.
Midas touch, Pandora’s Box, Achilles’ heel, Narcissistic streak and brand names like Apollo, Nike, Odyssey, Hercules and Amazon — what is common to both sets of words? Greek mythology.
The heroes and themes of Greek myths have had a big impact on art and literature for centuries. Another influence is on movies and next month Hollywood will be releasing one. Guess what it is? Hercules!
The English word ‘hero’ comes from the Greek word heroas (iroas). One of the meanings refers to the great men who fought hard and ended up famous or as deities. The heroes in Greek mythology are known for different reasons: some of them fought with giants, others with monsters, yet others went to Hades to wage battles.
Many deities were said to live on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. At times they would also mingle with humans. Zeus was the king of gods. Seeing the amazing feats of men, the gods would make men immortal. One such hero is Heracles, known as Hercules in Roman mythology.
Tough tasks
King Eurystheus set out 12 tough tasks, or labours as they are called, for Hercules to atone for a crime. The tasks were to kill the Nemean lion, slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra , catch the golden hind of Artemis, capture the Erymanthian boar, clean the Augean stables in a single day, capture the Cretan bull, steal the mares of Diomedes, obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, get the cattle of the monster Geryon, kill the Stymphalian birds, steal the apples of the Hesperides and capture and bring back Cerberus.
Hydra was a snake-like water monster that lived in Lake Lerna. It had several heads. As soon as one head was struck down, two came up. Iolaus, Hercules’nephew, helped by applying a burning brand to the wound as each head fell. This was the second labour.
To clean the Augean stables was intended to be both humiliating and impossible. Augeas was king of Elis and his name meant “bright”. He was known for his stables which housed over a 1000 cattle and had not seen a broom in — hold your breath — 30 years! Since the livestock were immortal they produced an enormous quantity of dung! But Hercules came up aces by changing the course of the river Alpheus to flow through the stables and thus clean it up at one go.
Hercules completed all his labours and at the end of it he was Greece’s greatest hero
More interesting is to learn that Hercules then went on to found the Olympic Games. Though we have only the poet Pindar's word for it!
Phrases to remember
Hydra-headed simply means many-headed. Today we use the term hydra-headed for a problem that poses many more problems. There is a small island called Hydra in the Aegean Sea, Greece. A southern constellation also enjoys the name Hydra.
As in the story, Augean stables is a phrase that is used to refer to any place filled with filth or corruption and is extremely difficult to clean up.
