Carolyn Silver
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posted 12-09-2006 04:03 AM
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Atlantean Research Journal, and Atlantis from 1950 cont.
The Labours of Hercules, By Edgerton Sykes
Sykes mentions the "Head of Medusa" he observed a series of classical myths about the "Labours of Hercules" which referred to the military activities of the first Hellenic sttlers on the mainland of Southern Greece. Sykes then establishes that these stories cover the conquest of a large portion of the Greek Mainland, and invasions of Crete, Spain, North Africa, and the Canaries. Hercules is the roman form from the Greek Heracles who was the Prince of Tiryns, a fortified merchant city and port, situated in the land of Argolis. His overlord was a certain
Eurystheus of Argos, the capital city of Argolis, and it was under his flag his long campaign was fought. Heracles means a "gift of Hera' one of the old pre-Hellenic mother goddesses, and is an ironic reflection on it that he spent the whole of the Labours, in order to wipe out all trace of the influence of Hera in the Middle Seas. In listing the order of the campaigns, I have altered the usual sequence of several of the Labours, in order to fit them into the picture. They are as follows:
1. The Lion of Nemea, in Argolis
2. The Hydra, in Argolis
3. The Birds of Stymphalos, in Arcadia
4. The Hind of Ceryneia, in Argolis
5. The Boar of Erymanthus, in Elis
6. The Stables of Augeas, in Elis
7. The Minotaur, in Crete
8. The Mares of Diomedes, in Thrace
9. The Oxen of Geryon, in Erythia
10. The Girdle of the Amazons, in West Lybia
11. The Apples of the Hesperides, in the Canaries
12. The Hell Hound, Cerberus
There were also certain subsidiary campaigns, as below:-
a. King Orchemenos, in Argolis (Before Labour 1)
b. King Neleus, in Pylos (Between Labour 6 and 7)
c. King Achelous, in Echinades (Between Labours 6 and 7)
d. King Laodemon, in Troy (Between Labours 8 and 9)
It is of interest to note that of the various clans who were mythologiaclly related to Chrysaor and Callirhoe, no fewer than eight were liquidated by Hercules: Cerberus, Charybdis, the Eagle of Prometheus, Hydra, Laidon, the Lion of Nemea, Orthus, and Scylla. The Chimeria was killed by Bellerphon (Bootes), the Dragon of Colchis by Cadmus or Jason (Argo), the Gorgons and the Graiae by Perseus, and the Sphinx of Oedipus. The events to which we are referring seem to have taken place between the third and second millennium before Christ. At this time, the Hellenic settlers, who had been living in comparative amity with the previous sea borne civilization with its goddesses and gods, decided that the time had come to abolish all trace of them. One day it might be possible to sort out the various threads in the Greek myth, the possibility that Zeus was originally a mother goddess being a typical example. However, for the moment, we are concerned with the desperate battle for existance being put up by the adherants of Poseidon, Neerus (Chief of the Neerids), Atlas and Hera. That the various mythological monsters: cuttle fish, dragons, serpents, lions, boars, birds, etc., were clan totems of the Poseidon worshippers seems farily evident. There also exists a possibilty thatt their spiritual center was the Echirades Islands, off the East Coast of Ithaca, where lived Achelous the King of the Sirens, who was defeated by Hercules in one of his earlier campaigns. This Achelous comes into the picture in one or more of the stories. Tiryns, the fortified city with cyclopean walls from which all expeditions started, was founded between 2,000 and 3,000 B.C., shortly before these happenings, and was rediscovered by Henry Schliemann towards the end of this last century. Because of these military campaigns old chieftains were forced out onto remote Islands in exile as well as their old religions this was similar to what the Spaniards did later in Mexico to the Aztec. Before returning to Tiryns, Hercules had been a commander of the ruler of Thebes, during which time he broke up a minor tribe living at mount Cithaeron, captured a sisterhood of fifty priestesses, who were, presumably, raped and or murdered, and finally killed by King Orchemenos, ruler of a town some thirty miles from Tiryns, with whom the Thebans were involved in a dispute. It was this last episode that brought his military capacities to the attention of the Argive King, Eurystheus, by whom he appointed commander and chief of the forces of Argolis and made the Prince of Tiryns. This may have been more attractive than the lordship of the then tiny City of Megera-some twenty miles west of Athens-which had been offered him by Creon the King of Thebes in reward for his services.
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