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"I hasten to inform you
that today there has been born a noble child who is
to be King of the Argives. They have called him
Eurystheus, and his father is Sthenelus, son of
Perseus. So he comes of your stock, and it
is quite a proper thing that he should have
dominion over the Argives."
[Hera to
Zeus. Homer,
Iliad
19.122]
"And Euryshteus, such as
he was, was not king over either Argos or Mycenae, for he was not king even over
himself." [Epictetus 3.26.32]
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Eurystheus sat on the throne of
Mycenae and
Tiryns, a position that
Zeus had reserved for
Heracles 1 but that
fell to his share thanks to
Hera's deft manoeuvres.
Following Heaven's arrangements, Eurystheus became
the tormentor of Heracles
1, ordering him to perform his
LABOURS. After
Heracles 1's death,
Eurystheus, fearing his rival's descendants,
pursued them, and attempted their annihilation
until he was defeated in battle.
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Procreation of Heracles
1 and announcement of
Zeus
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Some believe that Zeus'
love for Perseus 1's
granddaughter Alcmena
was rather an experiment in procreation; for he, by
prolonging the time of procreation three times,
fathered a son, Heracles
1, of most unusual strength and courage.
Knowing beforehand which would be the result of his
threefold night of love, the god announced in
Heaven that the Perseid that was about to be born
should be king of
Mycenae. He said:
"Listen to me,
all you gods, and goddesses ... I wish you to know
that this day Ilithyia, the goddess of travail,
will bring into the world a human child, born of a
stock with my blood in their veins, who shall have
dominion over all his neighbours."
[Zeus to the gods.
Homer,
Iliad
19.100]
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Hera's move
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This announcement, it is told, was inspired by
Ate (Delusion), who is said to blind everybody,
gods and men alike.
When Hera heard what
Zeus had ordained, she
decided to outwit her husband by letting his
announcement come true, although not in the way
foreseen by him. Through
Hera's agency, the goddess
Ilithyia retarded
Alcmena's delivery, and
Eurystheus, who also was a Perseid, was born a
seven-month child before
Heracles 1.
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Agreement of Zeus and
Hera
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Now, the words of gods differ from those of
mortals in that neither intention nor deed are
divorced from them, a circumstance or quality that
some call integrity: thought, word and deed
constituting what is integrated in harmonious
oneness. That is why Zeus
did not go against his own word, although he did
seize Ate by her hair, and having whirled her round
his head, cast her out from Heaven and down to
earth, where she may still be found among men.
Instead Zeus, wishing to
take care of both word and son, persuaded
Hera to agree that while
Eurystheus should be king (for being the first born
Perseid, as he had proclaimed),
Heracles 1 would be
allowed to serve him and perform twelve
LABOURS, to be
prescribed by Eurystheus himself. But that after he
had performed
them,
Heracles 1 should be
given immortality.
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Previous differences on earth
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This was the nature of the relationship that
Heaven established between Eurystheus and
Heracles 1. Before
them, however, differences had aroused between
Heracles 1's
stepfather
Amphitryon, and
Eurystheus' father Sthenelus 3. The background of
it all may be said to be the infiltration of the
Pelopides, who
succeeded, through Sthenelus 3 and Eurystheus, in
replacing the dynasty of the Perseids on the throne
of Mycenae. For although
Eurystheus was a Perseid on his father's side, he
opened the way for the dominance of the
Pelopides, his mother
being daughter of Pelops
1.
The conflict expressed by Eurystheus and
Heracles 1 continued
after their departure from this world, and only
ended when the Perseids, renamed
HERACLIDES, returned
to the Peloponnesus, and took possession of what
they regarded as their legitimate inheritance.
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Heracles 1's fate
revealed by the Pythia
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Heracles 1 learned
what he was supposed to do when he recovered his
wit after having been maddened by
Hera; for it is this
goddess, some say, who caused him to flung his
children by Megara, and two children of his
half-brother Iphicles into the fire. But
afterwards, having returned to sanity,
Heracles 1 came to
consult the Oracle at
Delphi, where the Pythian
priestess told him to dwell in
Tiryns, and serving
Eurystheus for twelve years, perform the
LABOURS that the
king would impose on him; and when the
LABOURS were
accomplished—the Pythia added—, he would
gain immortality.
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Eurystheus plays his part
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So when Heracles 1,
obeying the Pythia, appeared in
Tiryns, Eurystheus
started to give him tasks, ordering him first to
bring the Nemean Lion, an invulnerable beast
offspring of Typhon.
Heracles 1 captured
the lion and choked it putting his arm round his
neck. He then brought it to
Mycenae where
Eurystheus, amazed at the sight, ordered him to
leave thenceforth the fruits of his
LABOURS before
the gates without entering the city.
Some have said that these regulations were
dictated by Eurystheus' cowardice, and as evidence
they add that he owned a bronze jar inside which he
could hide under the earth; yet not few would
confess the difficulty of looking brave beside
Heracles 1. It is also
suggested that, for the same reason, Eurystheus
sent to Heracles 1 his
commands through the herald Copreus, son of
Pelops 1 and father of
the same Periphetes 1, who years later was killed
by Hector 1 at
Troy.
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Eurystheus accurate reckoning
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When, as a second labour,
Heracles 1 destroyed
the Hydra of Lerna,
Eurystheus argued that this labour could not be
reckoned, since Heracles
1 had been assisted by his charioteer Iolaus 1,
son of Iphicles, half-brother of
Heracles 1.
A similar dispute took place when
Heracles 1, following
Eurystheus' commands, carried out the dung of the
cattle of King Augeas of
Elis in a single day. Here
Eurystheus said that this labour could not be
counted, alleging that it had been performed for
hire, since Augeas had promised to give
Heracles 1 the tenth
part of the cattle.
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Eurystheus receives no benefits from the
LABOURS...
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Normally, Eurystheus obtained no material gain
out of the
LABOURS
performed by Heracles
1, and he often just limited himself to verify
that they had been properly accomplished. For
example, when Heracles
1 brought to Eurystheus the Cretan Bull (said
to be the same that had ferried
Europa for
Zeus), the king, after
having seen the animal, set it free. Similarly,
when Heracles 1
brought to Mycenae the
carnivorous MARES OF DIOMEDES 1 from Thrace,
Eurystheus let them go, and they were later
destroyed by wild beasts at Mount Olympus.
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...except perhaps in a couple of cases
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A different case is presented by the Belt of
Ares that the Amazon
Hippolyte 2 had in her power, since Eurystheus
ordered this labour in order to please his daughter
Admete 2, who wished to possess it. Another
instance is the labour that consisted in bringing
the Cattle of Geryon; for when
Heracles 1, after a
long trip, presented them at
Mycenae, King Eurystheus
sacrificed them to Hera,
the goddess to whom he owned his throne.
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The last two
LABOURS
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The LABOURS
were ten from the beginning, but as Eurystheus did
not reckon two of them, they became twelve, the
eleventh consisting in bringing the Apples of the
HESPERIDES. Here
again, when Heracles 1
brought the golden apples, Eurystheus bestowed them
on his rival, who in turn gave them back to
Athena, to be returned to
the HESPERIDES; for
as they say: it was not lawful for these fruits to
be anywhere. And when
Heracles 1 performed
the twelfth labour by capturing the three-headed
hound of the
Underworld,
Eurystheus, perfectly satisfied, just ordered
Cerberus 1 to be returned to its place, as if it
were a regular beast from a regular place.
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Eurystheus did not invent the
LABOURS
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Eurystheus' display of authority and
simultaneous indifference may disconcert, or even
cause hilarity, firstly because the benefits that
he obtained from the
LABOURS are not
apparent, and secondly because Too Much for Nothing
often calls for irrepressible laughter. But
Eurystheus is not the inventor of the
LABOURS, which
were conceived in Heaven and then transmitted to
Heracles 1 by the
Pythian priestess. In similar manner, Eurystheus
found himself to be a seven-month child and king of
Mycenae, not on account
of his wishes—for he was not yet born when
that was ordained—but because a goddess had
arranged it so.
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What Amphitryon
believed
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But Amphitryon,
they say, thought that
Heracles 1 had
submitted to Eurystheus' authority for his sake,
believing that his stepson, by offering Eurystheus
the service of freeing the world of savage
monsters, would cause the king to soften and recall
him from Thebes, where
Amphitryon was
exiled, letting him find a home in his own land,
from which he had been banished for the slaying of
his father-in-law Electryon 1.
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The HERACLIDES
persecuted
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In any case, when
Heracles 1 had
performed his
LABOURS,
Eurystheus expelled him from Argolis, and when
Heracles 1 died,
Eurystheus showed his determination to annihilate
his descent. Accordingly, the
HERACLIDES were
banished from one city to another, learning about
the misery of the humiliated, the homeless, and the
persecuted.
They took refuge in Trachis, where King
Ceyx had received their
father and ancestor; but when Eurystheus demanded
their surrender threatening war, they were kindly
invited to leave that kingdom and seek refuge in
Athens, where
Ceyx sent them arguing that
he was not strong enough to oppose Eurystheus.
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Eurystheus killed by Hyllus 1
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In their new exile, the
HERACLIDES sat down
on the altar of Mercy and claimed protection, which
Theseus or his son
Demophon 1 granted. But when Eurystheus realised
that Athens would not
surrender his enemies, he declared war and invaded
Attica. However, in the battle that ensued,
Eurystheus's army was defeated, and he and his sons
lost their lives. Eurystheus' head, they say, was
brought to Alcmena by
her grandson Hyllus 1, and she, in such a moment of
victory and vengeance, showed her delight or her
disgust by gouging out the eyes from her enemy's
head with weaving-pins.
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Eurystheus killed by Iolaus 1
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Yet, it has also been told that Eurystheus' army
met the HERACLIDES
under Iolaus 1's command at Marathon, where, aided
by the Athenians, the
HERACLIDES obtained
victory. Eurystheus, they say, fell in battle along
with his sons, being buried at Gargettus, a place
in Attica. But his head, they add, was cut off by
Iolaus 1, and buried separately at Tricorynthus,
also in Attica.
Others have said that the tomb of Eurystheus
could be found close to the Scironian road near
Megara, where he was
killed by Iolaus 1, the man who had defeated his
army in Attica. Iolaus 1, nephew and former
charioteer of Heracles
1, was an old man at the time of these events.
But Hebe, they say, granted
him to be young again for one day, so that he could
exact retribution from his enemy. Iolaus 1 himself
was later buried by the tomb of his grandfather
Amphitryon at
Thebes.
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Eurystheus before
Alcmena
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Still others tell that Iolaus 1, having received
his vigour back, captured the four-horse chariot of
Eurystheus near the Scironian cliffs (on the
Saronic coast of the Isthmus of
Corinth), bringing the
Mycenaean king captive to
Athens, where
Alcmena, before passing
a death sentence against him, called him hateful
creature and villain, and reproached him each and
every one of his deeds against her son and the
children of her son. Eurystheus, who had rather
chosen to die in battle than confront
Alcmena's hate did not
ask for mercy:
"I shall not
... say any word on behalf of my life by which a
man might win the name of coward. I did not choose
this quarrel of my own will...But whether I wished
to or not—for a divinity was at work —
Hera caused me to suffer this
disease." [Eurystheus to
Alcmena. Euripides,
Heraclides
985]
Not surprisingly, he also believed that anyone
else in his place would have acted towards his own
enemies with the same ruthlessness:
"... Should
not I, who am hated by these children and aware of
their inherited hatred of me, have left no stone
unturned in machinations to kill or exile them? If
I did so, my interests were likely to be safe. You,
no doubt, claim that if you had taken up my
fortunes you would not have hounded the hostile
offspring of the lion your enemy but would have
modestly allowed them to live in Argos. You will
convince no one of this." [Eurystheus to
Alcmena. Euripides,
Heraclides
1004]
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Eurystheus' last words
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Although Athens
considered it an unholy act to kill an enemy that
had been taken alive in battle,
Alcmena managed to order
his execution. But before the old woman sent him to
his death, Eurystheus declared that his body
beneath the earth would be most hostile to the
descendants of Heracles
1, and most protective towards the city that
shrank from killing him, adding that
Alcmena's benefit from
his death should be matched by the harm done to the
HERACLIDES by the
same dead body beneath the earth.
But since those who cherish vengeance are not
inclined to let themselves be affected by
mysterious warnings or tales of guardian spirits,
Alcmena, fearing the
living more than the dead, sent him to his death.
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"Eurystheus' Labour"
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Such was the end of Eurystheus who, before
seeing the light of this world, had his birth,
position, quarrels and death ordained by the gods
to serve their purposes. No glory ever touched him,
except for that of the great man whom, by heaven's
decision, he must lead to immortality through
torment. Eurystheus succeeded in his task, and
therefore he must carry, up to the end of time, the
burden of being the detestable master of a superior
man. That is perhaps "Eurystheus' Labour", and the
gods know whether it weighs heavier than his
rival's twelve.
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