Bedtime Story For Adults - Greek Mythology: Hercules |Part 3

Stories about the legendary hero demi-god known as Heracles/Hercules. The tales capture the essence of the life and legends of Heracles over the calming sound of nature, meant for relaxation and/or sleep. This recording is part of a multiple-part series. Considering that these tales are from Greek mythology, the themes featured in the recording might not be suitable for children.

Transcript

Welcome to this guided meditation for sleep and storytelling.

Focus on the sound of my voice and feel free to fall asleep at any time.

Tales of Greek Mythology Herakles 5.

Cleansing the Stables of Ogeis After slaying the Aramantian boar,

Eurystheus commanded Herakles to cleanse in one day the stables of Ogeis.

Ogeis was a king of Elis who was very rich in herds.

Three thousand of his cattle he kept near the royal palace,

In an enclosure where the refuse had accumulated for many years.

When Herakles presented himself before the king and offered to cleanse his stables in one day,

Provided he should receive in return a tenth of the herds,

Ogeis,

Thinking the feat impossible,

Accepted his offer in the presence of his son Phileas.

Near the palace were the two rivers Peneus and Alpheus,

The streams of which Herakles conducted into the stables by means of a trench which he dug for this purpose,

And as the waters rushed through the shed,

They swept away with them the whole mass of accumulated filth.

But when Ogeis heard that this was one of the labors imposed by Eurystheus,

He refused the promised girden.

Herakles brought the matter before a court and called Phileas as a witness to the justice of his claim.

Whereupon Ogeis,

Without waiting for the delivery of the verdict,

Angrily banished Herakles and his son from his dominions.

VI.

THE STYMPHILIDES The sixth task was to chase away the Stymphilides,

Which were immense birds of prey who,

As we have seen in the legend of the Argonauts,

Shot from their wings feathers sharp as arrows.

The home of these birds was on the shore of the lake Stymphalis in Arcadia,

After which they were called,

Where they caused great destruction among men and cattle.

On approaching the lake,

Herakles observed great numbers of them,

And while hesitating how to commence the attack,

He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

Looking round,

He beheld the majestic form of Athena,

Who held in her hand a gigantic pair of brazen clappers made by Hephaestus,

With which she presented him.

Whereupon he ascended to the summit of a neighbouring hill and commenced to rattle them violently.

The shrill noise of these instruments was so intolerable to the birds that they arose into the air in terror,

Upon which he aimed at them with his arrows,

Destroying them in great numbers,

While such as escaped his darts flew away never to return.

VII.

THE CRETAN BORE The seventh labour of Herakles was to capture the Cretan bore.

Minos,

The king of Crete,

Having vowed to sacrifice to Poseidon any animal which should first appear out of the sea,

The god caused a magnificent bore to emerge from the waves in order to test the sincerity of the Cretan king,

Who,

In making this vow,

Had alleged that he possessed no animal among his own herds worthy the acceptance of the mighty sea-god.

Charmed with the splendid animal sent by Poseidon and eager to possess it,

Minos placed it among his herds and substituted as a sacrifice one of his own bulls.

Hereupon Poseidon,

In order to punish the cupidity of Minos,

Caused the animal to become mad and commit such great havoc in the island as to endanger the safety of the inhabitants.

When Herakles,

Therefore,

Arrived in Crete for the purpose of capturing the bore,

Minos,

Far from opposing his design,

Gladly gave him permission to do so.

The hero not only succeeded in securing the animal,

But tamed him so effectively that he rode on his back right across the sea,

As far as the Peloponnesus.

He now delivered him up to Eurystheus,

Who at once set him at liberty,

After which he became as ferocious and wild as before,

Roamed all of Greece into Arcadia and was eventually killed by Theseus on the plains of Marathon.

The eighth labor of Herakles was to bring to Eurystheus the mares of Diomedes,

A son of Ares and king of the Bystonians,

A warlike Thracian tribe.

This king possessed a breed of wild horses of tremendous size and strength,

Whose food was consisted of human flesh,

And all strangers who had the misfortune to enter the country were made prisoners and flung before the horses who devoured them.

When Herakles arrived,

He first captured the cruel Diomedes himself,

And then threw him before his very own mares,

Who,

After devouring their master,

Became perfectly tame and tractable.

They were then led by Herakles to the seashore,

When the Bystonians,

Enraged at the loss of their king,

Rushed after the hero and attacked him.

He now gave the animals in charge of his friend Apderus,

And made such a furious onslaught on his assailants that they turned and fled.

But on his return from this encounter,

He found,

To his great grief,

That the mares had torn his friend in pieces and devoured him.

After celebrating due funereal rites to the unfortunate Apderus,

Herakles built a city in his honor,

Which he named after him.

He then returned to Tyrens,

Where he delivered up the mares to Erestias,

Who set them loose on Mount Olympus,

Where they became the prey of wild beasts.

It was after the performance of this task that Herakles joined the Argonauts in their expedition to gain possession of the Golden Fleece,

And was left behind at Chios,

As already narrated.

During his wanderings,

He undertook his ninth labor,

Which was to bring to Erestias The Girdle of Hippolyte,

Queen of the Amazons.

9.

The Girdle of Hippolyte The Amazons,

Who dwelt on the shores of the Black Sea,

Near the river Thermodon,

Were a nation of warlike women,

Renowned for their strength,

Courage,

And great skill in horsemanship.

Their queen Hippolyte had received from her father Ares a beautiful girdle,

Which she always wore as a sign of her royal power and authority.

And it was this girdle,

Which Herakles was required to place in the hands of Erestias,

Who designed it as a gift for his daughter Admeti.

Foreseeing that this would be a task of no ordinary difficulty,

The hero called to his aid a select band of brave companions,

With whom he embarked for the Amazonian town Themyscira.

Here they were met by Queen Hippolyte,

Who was so impressed by the extraordinary stature and noble bearings of Herakles,

That,

On learning his errand,

She at once consented to present him with the coveted girdle.

But Hera,

His implacable enemy,

Assuming the form of an Amazon,

Spread the report in the town that a stranger was about to carry off their queen.

The Amazons at once flew to arms and mounted their horses,

Whereupon a battle ensued,

In which many of their bravest were killed or wounded.

Among the latter was their most skillful leader Melanipi,

Whom Herakles afterwards restored to Hippolyte,

Receiving the girdle in exchange.

On his voyage the hero stopped at Troy,

Where a new adventure awaited him.

During the time that Apollo and Poseidon were condemned by Zeus to a temporary servitude on earth,

They built for the king,

Now Midon,

The famous walls of Troy.

Afterwards so renowned in history,

But when their work was completed,

The king treacherously refused to give them the reward.

The incensed deities now combined to punish the offender.

Apollo sent a pestilence which decimated the people,

And Poseidon a flood,

Which bore with it a marine monster,

Who swallowed in his huge jaws all that came within his reach.

In his distress,

Now Midon consulted an oracle and was informed that only by the sacrifice of his own daughter,

Hesione,

Could the anger of the gods be appeased.

Yielding at length to the urgent appeals of his people,

He consented to make the sacrifice,

And on the arrival of Herakles,

The maiden was already chained to a rock,

In readiness to be devoured by the monster.

When low Midon beheld the renowned hero,

Whose marvelous feats of strength and courage had become the wonder and admiration of all mankind,

He earnestly implored him to save his daughter from her impending fate and to rid the country of the monster.

Holding out to him as a reward the horses which Zeus had presented to his grandfather Tros,

In compensation for robbing him of his son Ganymede.

Herakles unhesitatingly accepted the offer,

And when the monster appeared,

Opening his terrible jaws to receive his prey,

The hero,

Sword in hand,

Attacked and slew him.

But the perfidious monarch once more broke faith and Herakles,

Vowing future vengeance,

Departed from Iceni,

Where he presented the girdle to Eurystheus.

Thank you for listening,

And enjoy the rest of your sleep.

Good night.