Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

With the twelve labors finished, Heracles went to Oechalia to seek Iole, daughter of Eurytus. Eurytus had offered her as bride-prize to whoever surpassed him and his sons at archery; Heracles won, but Eurytus refused the girl, fearing for his children after the fate of Megara’s offspring. Iphitus, eldest son, argued that Iole should be given; the father and the other brothers would not. Soon afterward cattle were stolen from Euboea; Eurytus guessed Heracles guilty. Iphitus, unconvinced, came to Heracles at Tiryns and invited him to seek the cattle. Heracles received him as a guest, then—in a renewed madness—hurled him from the walls of Tiryns and killed him. Disease followed the murder. When Heracles went to Delphi for a cure, the Pythia would not answer; he threatened to plunder the temple and began to carry off the tripod, until Apollo fought him and Zeus parted the pair with a thunderbolt. Heracles was then told that the remedy for the disease was three years’ servitude, with compensation paid to Eurytus for the murder. Hermes sold Heracles to Omphale, queen of Lydia, daughter of Iardanus (or, in some notices, widow of Tmolus). Bound to her service, he performed further deeds in Asia—the catalogue’s next Heracles files will take up those Lydian exploits, the later voyage against Troy, and the path toward Deianeira, the pyre, and Hebe. This entry marks only the hinge: the labors’ end is not rest but a new pollution, a new Delphic bargain, and transfer into a foreign queen’s household.