Antaios: he roofed Poseidon’s temple with travellers’ skulls, Pind. Isth. 4. 54. His peculiar relationship with the Earth is first recorded in Roman sources (Ov. Met. 9. 183 f., Lucan 4. 593 ff.), but the motif is surely of earlier origin.

a drover: in other versions, a ploughman (e.g. Conon 11). For a similar incident see p. 89 and note.

he killed Emathion: for his birth, see p. 124 and Theog. 984 f. The only indication of the reason for the killing is the remark in DS 4. 27. 3 that after Heracles had sailed up the Nile Emathion attacked him without provocation in Ethiopia. Perhaps the significance of the episode lay in the fact that it marked the southernmost stage of his journey.

through Libya: this may be an error; but it is unlikely that Ap. had a clear conception of the geographical connections here.

He then . . . in Prometheus’ place: for the cause of Prometheus’ punishment, see p. 36. There was an ancient tradition that crowns and garlands are symbolic of the shackles worn by Prometheus as a result of his services to the human race (Athenaeus 672e ff.); so presumably Heracles dons an olive crown as a symbolic substitute for Prometheus’ fetters. (The wild olive was especially associated with Heracles, and he is said to have brought it to Greece from the land of the Hyperboreans, P. 5. 7. 7.) The meaning of Cheiron’s exchange has been much disputed, and only a tentative suggestion can be offered here. We know that Cheiron wants to die because he is suffering from a painful and incurable wound, p. 75. Since Prometheus is immortal by nature, there can be no question of Cheiron simply exchanging his immortality for the mortality of Prometheus and thus becoming able to die (as might be inferred from the phrase on p. 75). It would seem, on the contrary, that this is another symbolic exchange; by passing below, Cheiron assumes the sufferings of Prometheus. The fact that Heracles presents him to Zeus suggests that by giving himself up to die, Cheiron is fulfilling a prior condition set by Zeus. A passage in [Aesch.] PV1026 ff. may be relevant here, in which Hermes tells Prometheus that there will be no end to his sufferings unless a god shows himself ready to succeed to them and offers to descend to Hades. This would be a dire fate for an immortal being; but because of Cheiron’s special circumstances, the seemingly impossible condition mentioned in PVcould be fulfilled.

he said that. . . the sky back until: a passage from sc. AR 4. 1396 is inserted to fill a gap in the text; it is based on Pherecydes, Ap.’s main source here.

It is said. . . guardian snake: cf. Soph. Trachiniae1099 f., and Eur. Hercules Furens, 394 ff.

unholy: these apples and the trees that bore them belonged to Hera or Zeus (see p. 81 and note), and it is thus unholy for them to be removed permanently from their appointed home.

to fetch Cerberos: Homer knew of this feat, Il. 8. 367 f., Od. 11. 623 ff.; see also Bacch. 5. 56 ff.

with a view to being initiated: into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which ensured a better fate for initiates in the Underworld after their death, and could thus prepare Heracles for his premature journey to Hades.

purified by Eumolpos: the legendary founder of the Mysteries, see also p. 135 and note. There was another tradition that Demeter founded the Lesser Mysteries (the preparatory rites at Agrai, near Athens) to purify Heracles (DS 4. 14. 3). In historical times, all who spoke Greek could be initiated, with the exception of murderers.

the souls. . . Meleager. . . Medusa: the souls are the shades of the dead. For the encounter with Meleager, see Bacch. 5. 71 ff. Medusa, the only mortal Gorgon, was killed by Perseus, p. 66; the present encounter was doubtless suggested by Od. 11. 633 ff, where Odysseus hurries from the world of the dead in a panic, afraid that Persephone may send some monstrous apparition like the Gorgon’s head.

Theseus there, and Peirithoos: see p. 143.

stone of Ascalaphos: see p. 33.

to procure blood for the souls: the souls are flimsy and witless; a drink of blood increases their materiality and raises their level of consciousness, making it possible for them to communicate with outsiders, see Od. 11. 23 ff.

gates of Acheron: Acheron was strictly a river in the Underworld, but its name was also used by later authors for Hades itself; these are the gates of Hades mentioned above, symbolizing the boundary between the lands of the living and the dead. This frontier was guarded by Cerberos, who fawned on those who entered the realm of Hades, but attacked anyone who tried to escape through its gates, Theog. 770 ff.

into an owl: as a screech-owl (which is moreover a bird of ill omen) he will still be confined to the dark; Demeter will not permit him to escape punishment for his betrayal of her daughter. For another version of this transformation, see Ov. Met. 5. 538 ff.

gave Megara to lolaos: after his madness and murder of their children, p. 72, there is no future in Heracles’ marriage with Megara; for the gods are clearly against it. So he gives her to his nephew lolaos as a reward for his help in the labours (here in overcoming the hydra, p. 74, but in other sources he is said to have assisted in the labours of the lion, boar, and cattle of Geryoneus also).

at archery: Eurytos was Heracles’ own teacher in the art, p. 71. Eurytos died when he challenged Apollo himself to an archery contest, Od. 8. 226 ff.; the bow that Odysseus used to kill the suitors originally belonged to him, Od. 21. 13 ff.

cattle were stolen: in all other sources, mares, cf. Od. 21. 22 ff.

in a fresh fit of madness: other accounts are less favourable to Heracles. In the Odyssey, ibid., he treacherously killed Iphitos after entertaining him as his guest, and then took the mares; in Pherecydes (sc. Od. 21. 22) he killed Iphitos in anger at having been denied Iole; in DS 4. 31. 2 f., Heracles himself stole the mares for revenge, and when Iphitos came to Tiryns to seek for them, Heracles took him to the battlements and asked him if he could see them—and when he could not, Heracles claimed to have been falsely accused, and hurled him down.

Neleus rejected him: this is the reason for his later attack on Pylos, p. 87.