9. The Theban traditions of Hercules are not all equally significant; but some, such as those just mentioned, had a religious, some a political(1791) import, and others only express the bodily strength of that hero. The education of Hercules is confided to certain fabulous personages, most of whom were supposed to reside in Bœotia.(1792) His most remarkable instructor is the minstrel Linus, whom (probably in execution of the will of Apollo) he put to death,(1793) justifying himself by the law of Rhadamanthus. The destruction of the lion of Cithæron is an imitation of the legend of Nemea, of which we shall speak hereafter.(1794) After this adventure he went to Thespiæ, to the house of Thestius, where he deflowers in one or in fifty-seven nights the fifty daughters of his host, a fable which has perhaps an astronomical reference.(1795)
With respect to the singular legend of Hercules murdering his children by Megara by throwing them into the fire,(1796) it cannot be denied that this had some symbolical meaning, derived from an ancient elementary religion. In general, however, this temporary fury is merely an exaggerated picture of that heroic mind whose courage and endurance had carried Hercules through so many dangers and difficulties for the good of mankind.(1797) According to the Bœotian version, it was a melancholy madness, in which Hercules, regardless even of all that was most dear to him, murdered his children, and was even on the point of slaying his father.(1798) Upon this the hero, oppressed with a deep melancholy, turned for relief to the atoning Apollo; and either to the god of the Ismenium(1799) or of Pytho.(1800) The oracle commands him to serve as a slave, in the same manner as Apollo himself had served after the destruction of the Python. In the broken narrative of Apollodorus a remarkable trace has been preserved as to the time during which, according to the Bœotian tradition, the slavery of Hercules lasted, viz., eight years and one month.(1801) This cannot be considered as an accidental number; but it is probable that the Ennaëteris is signified, which was a period of eight years and three intercalary months; of which only the last month is here mentioned, because the two inserted in the middle were less conspicuous. Hercules, therefore, like Apollo at Pheræ, was supposed to have served for an ἀΐδιος ἐνιαυτὸς, for the octennial period of mythology and ancient astronomy.(1802)