Eurystheus
Eurystheus ( Greek Εὐρυσθεύς ) is a king of Mycenae and Tiryns in Greek mythology . He was the son of Sthenelos and Nikippe and a grandson of the hero Perseus . He married Antimache , the daughter of Amphidamas and fathered a daughter Admete and six sons Alexandros, Iphimedon, Eurybios , Mentor, Perimedes and Eurypylos . Eurystheus was best known for the twelve tasks that he assigned to Heracles . He and Heracles both claimed the throne of Mycenae.
Rule over Mycenae
Herakles 'mother Alkmene , like Eurystheus' father Sthenelus , descended from Perseus. Before Heracles was born, Zeus declared that the firstborn descendant of the family of Perseus should receive his kingdom. Hera then caused the goddess Eileithyia to postpone the birth of Heracles and made sure that Eurystheus was born after seven months. Eurystheus therefore received the throne from Mycenae. But Heracles always considered himself the rightful king.
The twelve labors
After Heracles madly killing his own children, he asked the Oracle of Delphi how he could atone. The Pythia instructed him to go to Mycenae and serve Eurystheus there for 12 years and to do ten jobs. After that he would attain immortality. But the ten tasks became twelve, because Eurystheus did not recognize two.
The first task was to fight the Nemean lion . From then on Heracles wore the animal's hide as armor. Eurystheus was so afraid of Heracles that he hid himself in an iron pot and from now on only passed the tasks on to Heracles through the herald Kopreus . His second job was to kill the hydra . Heracles took his nephew Iolaos with him on this task , who drove the car for him. When Eurystheus found out that Heracles was not alone, he declared the solution to the problem to be invalid, so it was not one of the ten problems.
Since Heracles could evidently conquer the most terrible monsters, Eurystheus devised for the third task that Heracles should catch the Kerynite doe for him . This hind was consecrated to the moon goddess Artemis . Heracles could only get the goddess's permission to take the doe with him if he would bring her back to the goddess. Eurystheus, however, planned to keep the kerynitis for himself in his menagerie. In order to keep both the task and the promise to the goddess, Heracles demanded that Eurystheus must personally receive the doe. However, when the king was about to take kerynitis, Heracles released her so that she could flee back to the goddess. Heracles could excuse himself from the fact that the king was not quick enough.
As a fourth task , Heracles had to catch the Erymantic boar . When Heracles returned with the beast, Eurystheus was so afraid that he hid in the pot again. Heracles fifth task it was, the Augean stables clean up. Eurystheus hoped that Heracles would make himself so dirty that he would lose his reputation with the people. Heracles, however, quickly diverted a river and cleaned the stable quickly and undisturbed. Eurystheus did not accept the solution to this problem either, since Heracles had taken wages for cleaning the stable. The sixth task was to drive away the stymphalic birds , the seventh task to catch the bull from Crete . Eurystheus later released the bull, so that it continued to wreak havoc in Greece.
The eighth task was to steal Diomedes' horses . However, Eurystheus did not warn Heracles that animals would eat people. After Heracles had brought the beasts, Eurystheus consecrated them to Hera and set them free in Argos . Their descendants are said to have later served Alexander the Great . At the request of his daughter Admete, Eurystheus asked Heracles to defend the Amazon queen Hippolyte as the ninth task . The tenth task was to steal the cattle of Geryon . Since Eurystheus did not recognize two of the tasks, he imposed two more on Heracles, the eleventh : the stealing of the apples from the Hesperides and the twelfth task of bringing Hades ' watchdog , Kerberus . After Heracles had finished all the tasks, Eurystheus dismissed him from his service and he returned to Thebes.
Death of Eurystheus
After Heracles' death Eurystheus went to Trachis and demanded that Keyx surrender the children of Heracles. The Heracleans fled to Athens to Demophon and Eurystheus attacked the city. The Athenians received an oracle that if they sacrificed a child of Heracles they would win the battle. So the daughter Makaria was killed and Eurystheus was defeated and his sons killed. Eurystheus, who fled with a chariot, was overtaken by Iolaos near the Skironic rocks , killed and beheaded. The head was brought to Alkmene , the mother of Heracles, who poked out her eyes with a knife. According to another reading, it was Alcmene himself who killed Eurystheus. In Gargettos the body was buried, and at the spring, which was named after the daughter of Heracles Makaria, the head. This place, which was in the Attic Demos Tricorythos , was from now on called Eurystheus' head ( Εὐρυσθέως κεφαλαί ).
swell
- Library of Apollodor , 2, 53-99; 2, 105; 2, 112-113; 2, 121; 2, 126; 2, 167-169; 3, 105.
- Herodotus , Historien , 9, 26-27.
- Hesiod , The Shield of Heracles , 91.
- Pausanias , travels in Greece , 1, 32, 6; 1, 44, 10; 3, 7, 7; 3, 25, 5; 4, 34, 10; 4, 36, 3; 8, 14, 2; 8, 18, 3.
- Strabo , Geographica , 8, 6, 19.
- Thucydides , The History of the Peloponnesian War , 1, 9.
- Virgil , Aeneid , 3, 4; 8, 292.
literature
- Karl Kerényi : The Mythology of the Greeks. Volume 1: The stories of gods and mankind (= dtv 30030). 16th edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-423-30030-2 .
- Michael Grant , John Hazel: Lexicon of ancient myths and figures (= dtv 32508). Licensed edition, in the text part unabridged edition, 18th edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-32508-9 .
- Robert von Ranke-Graves : Greek Mythology. Source and interpretation (= Rowohlt's Encyclopedia 404). New edition in 1 volume, 14th edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-499-55404-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Libraries of Apollodor 2,8,1
- ↑ Athenaios Deipnosophistai 4,157f
- ^ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 8, 1.
- ↑ Euripides, Heraclid End.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Sthenelos |
King of Tiryns 13th century BC Chr. (Fictional chronology) |
none |
| Sthenelos |
King of Mycenae 13th century BC Chr. (Fictional chronology) |
Atreus |