Ephyra: in Epirus, on the mainland in the north-west, not the Ephyra identified with Corinth.

Tlepolemos: see p. 93. For this episode, cf. DS 4. 36. 1,

of his sons: by the fifty daughters of Thespios, see p. 71; he made Iolaos the leader of the forty who colonized Sardinia (see further DS 4. 29. 3 ff. with P. 7. 2. 2 and 9. 23. 1).

killed Eunomos: he hit him harder than he had intended, cf. DS 4. 36. 2; according to P. 2. 13. 8, he was angry because the boy, there named Cyathos, had used water from the foot-bath.

Nessos had settled there: for how he came to be there, see p. 75.

if she wanted a love-potion: in reality it would be a dangerous poison because the blood from his wound was tainted by the hydra’s poison from Heracles’ arrows, see p. 90.

Theiodamas: compare the story on p. 82. In the present case, Theiodamas is not a simple herdsman (as might be inferred), but the king of the Dryopes (cf. AR 1. 1213 ff. with the sc. on 1212, reporting Pherecydes). AR remarks that Heracles took the ox to provoke a war with the Dryopes; and according to Pherecydes, he returned to his city after Heracles took his ox, and mounted an expedition against him, but he was eventually killed by Heracles, who captured his son Hylas (see p. 51) and transferred the Dryopes from the north to the frontiers of Phocis. See also DS 4. 37. 1 f., where the king is named Phylas.

Ceux: a son of one of Amphitryon’s brothers, and thus a relative of Heracles (sc. Soph. Track. 40; not the son of Heosphoros on p. 38, etc.); he later sheltered the sons of Heracles, p. 92. Heracles appeared in the Marriage of Ceux, a lost epic that the ancients attributed to Hesiod.

as an ally of Aigimios, king of the Dorians: during Heracles’ lifetime, the Dorians were still in their early home north of the Corinthian Gulf (see p. 37 and note), but the Heraclids (his sons and descendants) would maintain this alliance with the Dorians, and lead them in an invasion of the Peloponnese, to displace the last Pelopid and become rulers in the main centres (pp. 92 ff.). As Perseids they had a legitimate claim to Argos (and possibly to Laconia and Messenia also, as Heracles had settled the succession there during his campaigns). It was in fact the case that the Dorian inhabitants of the Peloponnese had entered it from the north at a relatively late period; and it was believed that their supposed involvement with the Heraclids gave legitimacy to their occupation of the land. For the present war with the Lapiths, another Thessalian people, see also DS 4. 37. 3.

Cycnos: see the battle with Cycnos, son of Ares, on p. 82, and note. Although different names are given for Cycnos’ mother, it can be assumed that both accounts refer to the same event.

killed Amyntor: in DS 4. 37. 4 Heracles attacks and kills the king (there called Ormenios) because he refuses to surrender his daughter, Astydameia (and afterwards fathers Ctesippos by her, who is mentioned as his son by the daughter of Amyntor on p. 92).

vengeance on Eurytos: for refusing to give him Iole after he had won the contest for her hand, p. 84. This episode was treated in an early epic, the Sack of Oichalia. There was disagreement on the location of Oichalia (cf. P. 4. 2. 3), but Euboea was the most favoured locality, which is consistent with the indications here (notably the remark on p. 85 that Eurytos’ cattle were stolen from Euboea).

how matters stood with regard to Iole: DS 4. 38. 1 states explicitly that she learned from Lichas that Heracles loved Iole; we are probably meant to assume that here. For the tunic, see p. 89.

into the Euhoean Sea: following Ov. Met. 9. 218 (cf. Ibis492, and VM 1. 58 and 2. 165), to replace ‘from Boeotia’ in the manuscripts, which is evidently corrupt because he was at Cenaion, the northwestern promontory of Euboea.

Poias: the Argonaut, p. 50, and father of Philoctetes, p. 121. Although it was more commonly said that Philoctetes lit the pyre and was given Heracles’ bow in return (e.g. Soph. Philoctetes801 ff., DS 4. 38. 4), this may well be the earlier tradition.

raised him up to heaven: the apotheosis of Heracles is a relatively late element in the tradition. He is clearly regarded as mortal in Il. 18. 117 ff; in the Odyssey, Odysseus meets Heracles in Hades, 11. 601–27 (although there is an awkward interpolation after the first line, stating that the Heracles in Hades was only a phantom, eidolon, and the real Heracles was in heaven with Hebe, 602–4; a similar passage in Theog., 950 ff, that refers to his marriage in Olympos is also regarded as a later interpolation). The evidence from the visual arts suggests that the story of his apotheosis originated at the end of the seventh century. Before this promotion he was worshipped solely as a hero.

married. . . Hebe: there is no myth associated with Heracles as a god beyond this marriage to Hebe, the personification of youth (cf. Pind. Nem. 1. 69 ff. and 10. 17 f., Isth. 4. 55 ff.). The names for their children, otherwise unattested, are derived from Heracles’ cultic titles as Alexikakos(Averter of Evil) and Kallinikos(the Noble Victor, see p. 86).

the daughters of Thespios: see p. 91.

the altar of Pity: or Mercy, in the marketplace, see P. 1. 17. 1; an unusual cult in Greece.

the Athenians. . . in a war with Eurystheus: under Theseus (P. 1. 32. 5) or Demophon, son of Theseus (AL 33, following Pherecydes, cf. Eur. Heraclidae111 ff.).

Hyllos. . . killed him: or Iolaos did, Pind. Pyth. 9. 79 ff, P. 1. 44. 14.

their return: a return, kathodos, because the Heraclids were Perseids from Argos, and were claiming their legitimate rights. After the death of Eurystheus, it was the will of the gods that the Pelopids should rule the main Peloponnesian centres, in Mycenae (see p. 145 and note) and Sparta (see pp. 122 and 146 and note), and that they should not be displaced until after the Trojan War (fifty years after, it was usually said, when Tisamenos was killed, see p. 94 with p. 164 and note; this was regarded as the last episode in mythological history).

Tlepolemos. . . killed Licymnios: cf. Il. 2. 653 ff, Pind. ol. 7. 27 ff., where the killing is not accidental as here; and see Strabo 14. 8. 6 ff. for the place of Tlepolemos in Rhodian mythology. On Licymnios, Alcmene’s brother, see p. 69; the incident took place at Argos, where his grave was shown (P. 2. 22. 8).