HERAKLES CULT 1

HERAKLES was an Olympian demigod worshipped as the divine protector of mankind.

He had a large number of shrines throughout the ancient world and his festivals were widely celebrated. His main cult centre was at Thebes, the place of his birth in myth.

In classical art Herakles was depicted as a muscular man with a club and lion-skin cape.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

GENERAL CULT

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 32. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Hermes, Herakles and Theseus, who are honoured in the gymnasium and wrestling-ground according to a practice universal among Greeks, and now common among barbarians."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 8. 2 :
"The ancestral gods (patroioi) of the Dorians, Herakles above all."

Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 15 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :
"In Greece they worship a number of deified human beings . . . Palaemon throughout the whole of Greece, as also Hercules [Herakles], Aesculapius [Asklepios], the sons of Tyndareus [Dioskouroi]."

CULT IN ATTICA (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. ATHENS (ATHENAI) Main City of Attica (Attika)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 19. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"There is also the place called Kynosarges, sacred to Herakles; the story of the white dog [Kynosarges may mean 'white-dog'] may be known by reading the oracle. There are altars of Herakles and Hebe, who they think is the daughter of Zeus and wife to Herakles. An altar has been built to Alkmena and to Iolaos, who shared with Herakles most of his labours."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 30. 2 :
"In the Akadamia [of Athens] . . . there is an altar to the Muses, and another to Hermes, and one within to Athena, and they have built one to Herakles."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 8. 4 :
"[In Athens] is a sanctuary of Ares, where are placed two images of Aphrodite, one of Ares made by Alkamenes . . . About the temple stand images of Herakles, Theseus, Apollon binding his hair with a fillet."

Herodotus, Histories 5. 63. 4 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"Anchimolios' tomb is at Alopekai in Attika, near to the Herakleion (Temple of Herakles) in Kynosarges."

Herodotus, Histories 6. 116. 1 :
"[During the Persian War] the Athenians marched back to defend the city as fast as their feet could carry them and got there ahead of the foreigners. Coming from the sacred precinct of Herakles in Marathon, they pitched camp in the sacred precinct of Herakles in Kynosarges [near Athens]."

Plutarch, Life of Themistocles 1. 2 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) :
"The aliens [in Athens] were wont to frequent Kynosarges--this is a place outside the gates, a gymnasium of Herakles; for he too was not a legitimate god, but had something alien about him, from the fact that his mother was a mortal."

Suidas s.v. Herakles (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"En Diomiois Herakleion (Herakles-shrine in Diomia) : The festival for Herakles celebrated in Diomia [district of Athens]."

Suidas s.v. Herakleia :
"Herakleia (Herakles-festival) : Though there are many Herakles-festivals throughout Attika, Demosthenes in the [speech] Against Aiskhines mentions either the one in Marathon or the one in Kynosarges. For these are the ones Athenians used to hold in highest esteem."

II. MARATHON Town in Attica

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 15. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"At the end of the painting [in the marketplace of Athens] are those who fought at Marathon [historical war]; the Boiotians of Plataia and the Attic contingent are coming to blows with the foreigners. In this place neither side has the better, but the center of the fighting shows the foreigners in flight and pushing one another into the morass, while at the end of the painting are the Phoenician ships, and the Greeks killing the foreigners who are scrambling into them. Here is also a portrait of the hero Marathon, after whom the plain is named, of Theseus represented as coming up from the underworld, of Athena and of Herakles [i.e. Herakles the god, come to assist the Athenians in battle]. The Marathonians, according to their own account, were the first to regard Herakles as a god."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 32. 4 :
"At Marathon every night you can hear horses neighing and men fighting [ghosts of the historic Marathonian war]. No one who has expressly set himself to behold this vision has ever got any good from it, but the spirits are not wroth with such as in ignorance chance to be spectators. The Marathonians worship both those who died in the fighting, calling them heroes, and secondly Marathon, from whom the parish derives its name, and then Herakles, saying that they were the first among the Greeks to acknowledge him as a god."

Herodotus, Histories 6. 108. 1 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"As the Athenians were marshalled in the precinct of Herakles [in Marathon at the start of the Persian War], the Plataians came to help them in full force."

Herodotus, Histories 6. 116. 1 :
"[During the Persian War] the Athenians marched back to defend the city as fast as their feet could carry them and got there ahead of the foreigners. Coming from the sacred precinct of Herakles in Marathon, they pitched camp in the sacred precinct of Herakles in Kynosarges."

Suidas s.v. Herakleia (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Herakleia (Herakles-festival) : Though there are many Herakles-festivals throughout Attika, Demosthenes in the [speech] Against Aiskhines mentions either the one in Marathon or the one in Kynosarges. For these are the ones Athenians used to hold in highest esteem."

III. ACHARNAE (AKHARNAI) Village in Attica

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 31. 6 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"There is a parish called Akharnai, where they worship Apollon Agyieus (God of Streets) and Herakles."

IV. OROPUS (OROPOS) Town in Attica

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 34. 3 :
"About twelve stades from the city [of Oropos] is a sanctuary of Amphiaraos . . . The altar shows parts. One part is to Herakles, Zeus, and Apollo Paionos (Healer), another is given up to heroes and to wives of heroes, the third is to Hestia and Hermes and Amphiaraos and the children of Amphilokhos."

CULT IN CORINTHIA (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. CORINTH (KORINTHOS) Main City of Corinthia (Korinthia)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 3. 2 :
"On leaving the market-place along the road to Lekhaion you come to a gateway . . . A little farther away from the gateway, on the right as you go in, is a bronze Herakles."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 4. 5 :
"Now the sanctuary of Athena Khalinitis is by their [the Korinthians] theater, and near is a naked wooden image of Herakles, said to be a work of Daidalos [the mythical artisan]. All the works of this artist, although rather uncouth to look at, are nevertheless distinguished by a kind of inspiration."

CULT IN SICYONIA (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. SICYON (SIKYON) Main Town of Sicyonia (Sikyonia)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 9. 8 :
"Here [near the sanctuary of Apollon Lykeios in Sikyon] there is a bronze Herakles, made by Lysippos the Sikyonian, and hard by stands Hermes Agoraios (of the Market-place)."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 10. 1 :
"In the gymnasium not far from the market-place [of Sikyon] is dedicated a stone Herakles made by Skopas. There is also in another place a sanctuary of Herakles. The whole of the enclosure here they name Paedize; in the middle of the enclosure is the sanctuary, and in it is an old wooden figure carved by Laphaes the Phliasian. I will now describe the ritual at the festival. The story is that on coming to the Sikyonian land Phaistos found the people giving offerings to Herakles as to a hero. Phaistos then refused to do anything of the kind, but insisted on sacrificing to him as a god. Even at the present day the Sikyonians, after slaying a lamb and burning the thighs upon the altar, eat some of the meat as part of a victim given to a god, while the rest they offer as to a hero. The first day of the festival in honour of Herakles they name [text missing]; the second they call Herakleia."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 26. 6 :
"Anyone who has already seen the Herakles at Sikyon would be led to conjecture that the Apollon in Aigeira was also a work of the same artist, Laphaes the Phliasian."

CULT IN ARGOLIS (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. ARGOS Main City of Argolis

Statius, Silvae 3. 1. 1 (trans. Mozley) (Roman poetry C1st A.D.) :
"Not in Nemea or ancient Argos shall I [Herakles the god] more often dwell, or in my home at Tibur [Rome] or in Gades [in Spain]."
[N.B. These were all locations of well-known cults of the god.]

II. NEMEA & CLEONAE (KLEONAI) Towns in Argolis

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 74 - 76 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"First he [Herakles] was assigned to fetch the skin of the Nemean Lion, an invulnerable animal sired by Typhon. As he went out to find the lion, he came to Kleonai, where he was a guest at the home of a poor man named Molorkhos. Molorkhos wanted to make an animal sacrifice, but Herakles told him to hold off for thirty days, and then, if he returned safe from the hunt, to sacrifice to Zeus Soter (Saviour), but if he were dead, to sacrifice to Herakles himself as a hero . . .
[After slaying the lion :] He then draped it over his shoulders and took it back to Kleonai. There he found Molorkhos on the thirtieth day about ot offer sacrifice to him as a dead man; but he himself sacrificed instead to Zeus Soter, and took the lion on to Mykenai."

Statius, Thebaid 4. 156 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :
"They [the army of the Seven against Thebes] sing the paean of Hercules and the world swept clear of monsters: the god listens from afar on leafy Oeta [the scene of his apotheosis]. Nemea gives them comrades and all the might that the sacred vineyards of Cleonaean Molorchus summon to war. Well known is the glory of that cottage; pictured upon its willow doors are the arms of the god [Herakles] who was its guest, and in the humble field 'tis shown where he laid his club, and under what holm-oak he reposed his limbs at ease, and where yet the ground bears traces of his lying."

Statius, Silvae 3. 1. 1 (trans. Mozley) (Roman poetry C1st A.D.) :
"Not in Nemea or ancient Argos shall I [Herakles the god] more often dwell, or in my home at Tibur [Rome] or in Gades [in Spain]."

III. MT. CORYPHUM (KORYPHON) Mountain in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 28. 2 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"As you go up to Mount Koryphon you see by the road an olive tree called Twisted. It was Herakles who gave it this shape by bending it round with his hand, but I cannot say whether he set it to be a boundary mark against the Asinaeans in Argolis, since in no land, which has been depopulated, is it easy to discover the truth about the boundaries."

IV. TROEZEN (TROIZENOS) Town in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 32. 4 :
"I remember, too, seeing the house of Hippolytos [in Troizenos]; before it is what is called the Fountain of Herakles, for Herakles, say the Troizenians, discovered the water."

V. METHANA Village in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 34. 1 :
"On the coast has been founded a little town called Methana. Here there is a sanctuary of Isis, and on the market-place is an image of Hermes, and also one of Herakles."

CULT IN LACEDAEMONIA (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. SPARTA Main City of Lacedaemonia (Lakedaimonia)

Pindar, Nemean Ode 10. 52 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"The two brothers [the Dioskouroi], at the games of Sparta's wide-built city, joint partons with Hermes and with Herakles the presidency share."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 14. 6 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The Lakedaimonians give the name Running Course to the place where it is the custom for the young men even down to the present day to practise running. As you go to this Course from the grave of the Agiadai, you see on the left the tomb of Eumedes--this Eumedes was one of the children of Hippokoon - and also an old image of Herakles, to whom sacrifice is paid by the Sphaireis. These are those who are just passing from youth to manhood. In the Course are two gymnastic schools."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 15. 3 :
"There are sanctuaries of Helene and of Herakles [in Sparta]; the former is near the grave of Alkman, the latter is quite close to the wall and contains an armed image of Herakles. The attitude of the image is due, they say, to the fight with Hippokoon and his sons. The enmity of Herakles towards the family of Hippokoon is said to have sprung out of their refusing to cleanse him when he came to Sparta for cleansing after the death of Iphitos.
The following incident, too, helped to begin the feud. Oionos, a stripling cousin of Herakles--he was the son of Likymnios the brother of Alkmene--came to Sparta along with Herakles, and went round to view the city. When he came to the house of Hippokoon, a house-dog attacked him. Oionos happened to throw a stone which knocked over the dog. So the sons of Hippokoon ran out, and dispatched Oionos with their clubs.
This made Herakles most bitterly wroth with Hippokoon and his sons, and straightway, angry as he was, he set out to give them battle. On this occasion he was wounded, and made good his retreat by stealth but afterwards he made an expedition against Sparta and succeeded in avenging himself on Hippokoon, and also on the sons of Hippokoon for their murder of Oionos. The tomb of Oionos is built by the side of the sanctuary of Herakles."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 17. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"On the bronze [of the bronze house of Athene on the Akropolis of Sparta] are wrought in relief many of the labours of Herakles and many of the voluntary exploits he successfully carried out."

Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 2 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :
"He [Hephaestion] says that . . . Herakles, after the Nemean lion had bitten off one of his fingers had only nine and that there exists a tomb erected for this detached finger; other authors say that he lost his finger following a blow by a dart of a stingray and one can see at Sparta a stone lion erected on the tomb of the finger and which is the symbol of the power of the hero. It is since then that stone lions have likewise been erected on the tombs of other important people; other authors give different explications of the lion statues."

II. Near SCOTITAS (SKOTITAS) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 10. 6 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"On the way from the Hermai the whole of the region is full of oak-trees . . . and there is a sanctuary of Zeus Skotitas on the left of the road and about ten stades from it. If you go back from the sanctuary to the road, advance a little and then turn again to the left, you come to an image of Herakles and a trophy, which I was told Heracles raised after killing Hippokoon and his sons."

III. GYTHIUM (GYTHION) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 21. 8 :
"The people of Gythion say that their city had no human founder, but that Herakles and Apollo, when they were reconciled after their strife for the possession of the tripod, united to found the city. In the market-place they have images of Apollon and of Herakles, and a Dionysos stands near them."

IV. LAS Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 24. 6 :
"Even now there are ruins of the old town [of Las], with a statue of Herakles outside the walls."

CULT IN MESSENIA (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. MESSENE Main Town of Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 23. 10 :
"Manticlus [historical Messenian hero] founded the temple of Heracles for the Messenians [ca. 668 B.C.]; the temple of the god is outside the walls [of Messene] and he is called Herakles Mantiklos."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 26. 3 :
"A year before the victory of the Thebans at Leuktra [C4th B.C.], heaven foretold their return to Peloponnese to the Messenians. It is said that in Messene on the Straits the priest of Herakles saw a vision in a dream: it seemed that Herakles Mantiklos was bidden by Zeus as a guest to Ithome [the sacred mountain of the god above the town of Messene] . . . the dream really indicated the recovery of Messene."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 31. 10 :
"The most numerous statues [in Messene] and the most worth seeing are to be found in the sanctuary of Asklepios. For besides statues of the god and his sons, and besides statues of Apollon, the Mousai and Herakles [and others] . . . The stone statues are the work of Damophon (I know of no other Messenian sculptor of merit apart from him)."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 32. 1 :
"The place called Hierothesion by the Messenians contains statues of all the gods whom the Greeks worship . . . The statues in the gymnasium are the work of Egyptian artists. They represent Hermes, Herakles and Theseus, who are honored in the gymnasium and wrestling-ground according to a practice universal among Greeks, and now common among barbarians."

II. ABIA Village in Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 30. 1 :
"There is in our time a city Abia in Messenia on the coast . . . they say that this was formerly called Ire . . . When Hyllos and the Dorians were defeated by the Akhaias, it is said that Abia, nurse of Glenos the son of Herakles, withdrew to Ire, and settling there built a temple to Herakles, and that afterwards for this reason Kresphontes [a descendant of Herakles], amongst other honors assigned to her, renamed the city after Abia. There was a notable temple of Herakles here."

CULT IN ELIS (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. ELIS Main Town of Elis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 23. 1 :
"One of the noteworthy things in Elis is an old gymnasium. In this gymnasium the athletes are wont to go through the training through which they must pass before going to Olympia. High plane-trees grow between the tracks inside a wall. The whole of this enclosure is called Xystos, because an exercise of Herakles, the son of Amphitryon, was to scrape up (anaxuein) each day all the thistles that grew there . . . There are also in the gymnasium [of Elis] altars of the gods, of Herakles Idaios, surnamed Parastates (Comrade), of Eros (Love), of the deity called by Eleans and Athenians alike Anteros (Love Returned)."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 23. 5 :
"There is also a third enclosed gymnasium, called Maltho from the softness of its floor, and reserved for the youths for the whole time of the festival. In a corner of the Maltho is a bust of Herakles as far as the shoulders."

II. OLYMPIA Village & Sanctuary in Elis

Herakles was a patron god of the Olympic Games. He was said to have instituted many of the old cult practices of the shrine. The Daktylos Herakles and hero Herakles are virtually indistinguishable at Olympia. References to both are included here.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 8. 1 :
"Later on there came (they say) from Krete Klymenos, the son of Kardys, about fifty years after the flood came upon the Greeks in the time of Deukalion. He was descended from Herakles Idaios; he held the games at Olympia and set up an altar in honor of Heracles, his ancestor, and the other Kouretes, giving to Heracles the surname of Parastates (Assistant)."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 14. 7 :
"After this [several altars near the start of the chariot racecourse] stands an altar of Herakles surnamed Parastates (Assistant); there are also altars of the brothers of Herakles--Epimedes, Idas, Paionaios, and Iasus; I am aware, however, that the altar of Idas is called by others the altar of Akesidas."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 14. 9 :
"Near the treasury of the Sikyonians is an altar of Herakles, either one of the Kouretes or the son of Alkmena, for both accounts are given."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 4. 6 :
"At this time [i.e. during the mythical return of the Herakleides to the Peloponnese] Greece was grievously worn by internal strife and plague, and it occurred to Iphitos [grandson of the Trojan War hero Thoas] to ask the god at Delphoi for deliverance from these evils. The story goes that the Pythian priestess ordained that Iphitos himself and the Eleans must renew the Olympic games. Iphitos also induced the Eleans to sacrifice to Herakles as to a god, whom hitherto they had looked upon as their enemy. The inscription at Olympia calls Iphitos the son of Haemon, but most of the Greeks say that his father was Praxonides and not Haemon, while the ancient records of Elis traced him to a father of the same name."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 7. 7 :
"Herakles, being the eldest [of the Daktyloi], matched his brothers, as a game, in a running-race, and crowned the winner with a branch of wild olive, of which they had such a copious supply that they slept on heaps of its leaves while still green. It is said to have been introduced into Greece by Herakles from the land of the Hyperboreans, men living beyond the home of the North Wind." [N.B. Herakles son of Zeus and Herakles the Daktylos are synonymous here.]

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 8. 2 :
"Augeas too held them [the Olympic Games], and likewise Herakles, the son of Amphitryon, after the conquest of Elis. The victors crowned by Herakles include Iolaos, who won with the mares of Herakles . . . Of Herakles himself it is said that he won victories at wrestling and the pancratium."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 10. 9 :
"Most of the labours of Herakles are represented at Olympia [on one of the pediments of the temple of Zeus Olympios]. Above the doors of the temple is carved the hunting of the Arkadian boar, his exploit against Diomedes the Thrakian, and that against Geryones at Erytheia; he is also about to receive the burden of Atlas, and he cleanses the land from dung for the Eleans. Above the doors of the rear chamber he is taking the girdle from the Amazon; and there are the affairs of the deer, of the bull at Knossos, of the Stymphalian birds, of the Hydra, and of the Argive lion."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 13. 1 :
"The sanctuary [Pelopion at Olympia] is said to have been set apart to Pelops by Herakles the son of Amphitryon. Herakles too was a great-grandson of Pelops, and he is also said to have sacrificed to him into the pit. Right down to the present day the magistrates of the year sacrifice to him, and the victim is a black ram. No portion of this sacrifice goes to the sooth-sayer, only the neck of the ram it is usual to give to the 'woodman,' as he is called."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 13. 8 :
"The altar of Zeus Olympios is about equally distant from the Pelopion (Temple of Pelops) and the sanctuary of Hera, but it is in front of both. Some say that it was built by Herakles Idaios, others by the local heroes two generations later than Herakles. It has been made from the ash of the thighs of the victims sacrificed to Zeus."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 14. 1 - 2 :
"The [great] altar [of Zeus] at Olympia shows another strange peculiarity, which is this. The kite, the bird of prey with the most rapacious nature, never harms those who are sacrificing at Olympia. Should ever a kite seize the entrails or some of the flesh, it is regarded as an unfavorable sign for the sacrificer. There is a story that when Herakles the son of Alkmena was sacrificing at Olympia he was much worried by the flies. So either on his own initiative or at somebody's suggestion he sacrificed to Zeus Averter of Flies, and thus the flies were diverted to the other side of the Alpheios. It is said that in the same way the Eleans too sacrifice to Zeus Averter of Flies, to drive1 the flies out of Olympia.
The Eleans are wont to use for the sacrifices to Zeus the wood of the white poplar and of no other tree, preferring the white poplar, I think, simply and solely because Herakles brought it into Greece from Thesprotia. And it is my opinion that when Herakles sacrificed to Zeus at Olympia he himself burned the thigh bones of the victims upon wood of the white poplar. Herakles found the white poplar growing on the banks of the Akheron, the river in Thesprotia."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 25. 11 :
"Not far from the offering of the Akhaians [at Olympia] there is also a Herakles fighting with the Amazon, a woman on horseback, for her girdle. It was dedicated by Euagoras, a Zanclaean by descent, and made by Aristokles of Kydonia. Aristokles should be included amongst the most ancient sculptors, and though his date is uncertain, he was clearly born before Zankle took its present name of Messene.
The Thasians [of the Greek island of Thasos] . . . dedicated at Olympia a Herakles, the pedestal as well as the image being of bronze. The height of the image is ten cubits, and he holds a club in his right hand and a bow in his left."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 26. 7 :
"By the smaller offerings of Mikythos [at Olympia], that were made by Dionysios, are some of the exploits of Herakles, including what he did to the Nemean lion, the Hydra, the Hound of Hell, and the boar by the river Erymanthos. These were brought to Olympia by the people of Herakleia [in Bithynia] when they had overrun the land of the Mariandynians, their foreign neighbors."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 19. 12 :
"The Megarians who are neighbors of Attika built a treasury [at Olympia] and dedicated in it offerings, small cedar-wood figures inlaid with gold, representing the fight of Herakles with Akheloos. The figures include Zeus, Deianeira, Akheloos, Herakles, and Ares helping Akheloos. There once stood here an image of Athena, as being an ally of Herakles, but it now stands by the Hesperides in the Heraion."

III. MT. SAURUS (SAUROS) Ridge in Elis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 21. 3 :
"On crossing the river Erymanthos at what is called the ridge of Sauros (Lizard) are the tomb of Sauros and a sanctuary of Herakles, now in ruins sanctuary of Heracles, now in ruins. The story is that Sauros used to do mischief to travellers and to dwellers in the neighborhood until he received his punishment at the hands of Herakles."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Pindar, Odes - Greek Lyric C5th B.C.
• Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th B.C.
• Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
• Plutarch, Lives - Greek Historian C1st - 2nd A.D.
• Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History - Greek Mythography C1st - 2nd A.D.

ROMAN

• Cicero, De Natura Deorum - Latin Rhetoric C1st B.C.
• Statius, Thebaid - Latin Epic C1st A.D.
• Statius, Silvae - Latin Poetry C1st A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Photius, Myriobiblon - Byzantine Greek Scholar C9th A.D.
• Suidas, The Suda - Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.