_Herculés Mad_ is the subject of a Greek tragedy by Eurip´idês, and of a Latin one by Sen´eca.
As when Alcīdês ... felt the envenomed robe, and tore, Thro’ pain, up by the roots Thessalian pines, And Lichas from the top of Œta [_a mount_] threw Into the Euboic Sea [_The Archipelago_]. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 542, etc. [1665].
⁂ Diodōrus says there were three Herculêses; Cicero recognizes six (three of which were Greeks, one Egyptian, one Cretan, and one Indian); Varro says there were forty-three.
_Herculés’s Choice_. When Herculês was a young man, he was accosted by two women, Pleasure and Virtue, and asked to choose which he would follow. Pleasure promised him all carnal delights, but Virtue promised him immortality. Herculês gave his hand to the latter, and hence led a life of great toil, but was ultimately received amongst the immortals.—Xenophon.
⁂ Mrs. Barbauld has borrowed this allegory, but instead of Herculês has substituted Melissa, “a young girl,” who is accosted by Dissipation and Housewifery. While she is somewhat in doubt which to follow, Dissipation’s mask falls off, and immediately Melissa beholds such a “wan and ghastly countenance,” that she turns away in horror, and gives her hand to the more sober of the two ladies.—_Evenings at Home_, xix. (1795).
_Herculês’s Horse_, Arion, given him by Adrastos. It had the gift of human speech, and its feet on the right side were those of a man.
_Herculês’s Pillars_, Calpê and Ab´yla, one at Gibraltar and the other at Ceuta (_3 syl._). They were torn asunder by Alcīdês on his route to Gadês (_Cadiz_).
_Herculês’s Ports_: (1) “Herculis Corsani Portus” (now called _Porto-Ercolo_, in Etruria); (2) “Herculis Liburni Portus” (now called _Livorno_, _i.e._ Leghorn); (3) “Herculis Monœci-Portus” (now called _Monaco_, near Nice).
_Herculês (The Attic)_, Theseus (_2 syl._), who went about, like Herculês, destroying robbers, and performing most wonderful exploits.
_Herculês (The Cretan)._ All the three Idæan Dactyls were so called: viz., Kelmis (“the smelter”), Damnamĕneus (“the hammer”), and Acmon (“the anvil”).
_Herculês (The Egyptian)_, Sesostris (fl. B.C. 1500). Another was Som or Chon, called by Pausanias, Macĕris, son of Amon.