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Home , Hyrieus, Proetus (son of Abas)

Colleagues: below is a chapter from my forthcoming book, Gods and Mortals. Greek Myths Retold. Please read this chapter before my presentation. It represents what I would narrate and discuss in the class session before the session I will present to you, i.e., what the students already know before they walk into class.

I append at the end a list of the chapters in Gods and Mortals, which may also be useful.

Sarah

28. Hyrieus Welcomes Some Visitors

In the countryside near Thebes there lived an old man named Hyrieus who, with the help of an equally elderly ox, scratched a living out of the rocky soil. Hyrieus had been widowed while still young, and had never been able to find another woman who suited him as well as his wife had. He was accustomed, therefore, to a solitary life. Nonetheless, he was hospitable to the bone: no traveler passed his gate without being invited to share in one of the stews that Hyrieus made from the beans that he planted, harvested and dried every year, along with a salad of whatever wild greens he could find. One evening, as Hyrieus and the ox were returning from their day’s work, Hyrieus spotted three men walking along the road. Bidding the travelers to rest inside the house where it was cool, he followed them in, tied the ox up in its accustomed corner and filled its manger with hay. Then, fetching a skin of wine from the cupboard, he poured some out for the man sitting nearest to him. ‘Ah, thank you,’ said the visitor, ‘but you should serve my brother first, you know.’ The speaker regretted his words as soon as they had escaped the fence of his teeth, but even a god cannot erase what he has said. The visitors’ disguises were now useless, and they discarded them with astonishing swiftness. They grew upwards until their heads grazed the underside of the roof. Their coarsely woven cloaks vanished, revealing flesh that filled the house with brilliance that was painful to Hyrieus’ eyes. The air became pungently heavy, as in the moments before a storm breaks; Hyrieus struggled to breathe. His ears rang as if a brazen gong had been struck. He felt small, confused, and vulnerable. After what seemed like a very long time, the youngest visitor spoke in a voice that compelled Hyrieus to meet his gaze. ‘I am ,’ he said, ‘This is , and this is my father, Zeus. We are traveling the earth to learn whether mortals still honor us.’ Hyrieus thought about the tiny room that was his home, and how little its single cupboard contained. How could he possibly honor these gods? Panic-stricken, he seized his kitchen knife in one hand and the nose-ring of his ox in the other. The beast obediently turned aside from the manger. Trembling, Hyrieus pulled back its head and slit its throat. His companion of so many years dropped to the floor and gurgled out its life. When the ox lay still, Hyrieus dragged its body outside, flayed it and butchered it. He lit a fire and laid the thigh pieces upon its flames. As the smoke began to rise, the gods rushed from the house and crowded around the burning meat like flies, sucking its aroma in through their open mouths. At last the gods were sated, and remembered the man who cowered nearby. ‘You have honored us well,’ said Hermes, ‘and to mark this, so that other mortals may emulate your piety, we will give you whatever you desire. A river to take to your bed? A kingdom? Shall we topple Polydorus from the throne and give you Thebes? Shall we lend you Hades’ cap of invisibility so that you can steal from Midas’ treasury undetected?’ Hyrieus wanted none of these things, yet he knew that refusing the gods’ offer altogether was sure to offend and anger them. He longed for his wife, but recalled from stories he had heard how ill-advised it was to ask for the dead to return. Glimpsing the sad remains of his ox, he realized that he was now both lonely and without help, and remembered something that he had always wanted but had assumed—until now—was beyond all hope. ‘I would like a son,’ he said, ‘a son with the strength of an ox.’ The gods stared down at him. ‘We have offered you a nymph for your bed,’ said Hermes, ‘and minglings with are never without issue.’ Hyrieus cleared his throat and summoned his courage. ‘Thank you, but I would prefer, please, a son who is like me—a son who is wholly mortal, who shares my lot.’ The gods conferred among themselves for a moment. Then they laughed—it was not a pleasant laugh—and said to Hyrieus. ‘Bring us the hide of that gelded beast you sacrificed.’ Hyrieus dragged it over, stooping with the effort. When he straightened up again, he saw that the gods had hitched up the skirts of their chitons, exposing themselves. Embarrassed—and indeed, terrified—by his glimpse of the gods’ genitals, Hyrieus quickly turned away, wondering what was going to happen. He heard more laughter, and then the sound of piss hitting leather. ‘Turn around, Hyrieus,’ said Hermes, ‘and receive the gift of your gods. Bury this hide that we three have anointed within the Earth, who is the mother of all, and wait ten moons. You will have your son, as strong as an ox—and mortal.’ And then the gods were gone. Hyrieus did as he had been ordered. He dug a hole, lay the sodden hide within it, and covered it with dirt. One morning, he was awoken by the sound of squalling, and found a newborn boy lying on the ground. Lifting him up, Hyrieus named his son ‘.’ r Gods and Mortals: Greek Myths Retold

The Gods 1. The Beginning 2. The Titans. 3. The War Between the Titans and the Younger Gods: 4. Zeus Becomes King 5. Persephone’s Story 6. Demeter’s Wanderings 7. Demeter and Persephone 8. The Births of , Artemis and 9. Apollo Establishes His Oracle 10. Hermes the Cattle Thief 11. Aphrodite Experiences Desire 12. Hephaestus’ Story 13. is Born—and Dies 14. Dionysus Sets Out to Conquer the World 15. The War between the Gods and the Gigantes

Gods and Mortals

16. Prometheus’ Tricks 17. Pandora’s Mistake 18. Lycaon’s Arrogance 19. The Great Flood 20. Callisto’s Misfortune 21. ’s Dilemma 22. and the Bull 23. Leda and her Children 24. Artemis and Actaeon 25. Apollo and Daphne 26. Niobe and Leto 27. Athena and Arachne 28. Hyrieus Welcomes Some Visitors 29. Orion 30. Salmacis and Hermaphroditus 31. Tiresias 32. Baucis and Philemon 33. Icarius and Erigone 34. The Daughters of and the Daughters of Minyas 35. Pan and Syrinx 36. Echo and Narcissus 37. Midas’ Greed

Men, Women and Their Transgressions 38. Ixion, the Cloud and the Centaurs 39. Scylla Betrays her Father 40. and the Bull 41. Glaucus and Polyeidos 42. Daedalus’ Craftiness and Icarus’ Doom 43. Phaethon and the Chariot of the Sun 44. Tantalus Tests the Gods and Pelops Makes a Bad Decision 45. Tityus’ Lust for Leto 46. Challenges Hades 47. The Deaths of Sisyphus 48. The Daughters of Murder Their Husbands 49. Tereus, Procne and Philomela 50. Atalanta and Hippomenes 51. Myrrha seduces her father

Heroes 52. The Golden Cloud and Perseus’ Childhood 53. Polydectes and the Gorgon’s Head 54. Some Weird Nymphs 55. Beheading 56. Rescuing Andromeda 57. Bellerophon Murders his Brother 58. Bellerophon and Proetus’ Wife 59. Capturing Pegasus 60. Killing the Chimaera 61. The Founding of Thebes 62. 63. /Pentheus Heracles 64. Heracles’ Birth and Childhood 65. Heracles Murders his Family 66. The Nemean Lion and the Lernaean Hydra 67. The Erymanthian Boar and the Cerynthian Hind 68. The Rescue of Alcestis 69. The Stables of Augeas and the Stymphalian Birds 70. The Mares of Diomedes and the Cretan Bull 71. The Belt of Hippolyta and the Cattle of Geryon 72. The Rescue of Prometheus 73. The Apples of the Hesperides and a Journey to Hades 74. Omphale 75. A New Wife and New Problems Atalanta 76. A Girl among Men Jason 77. Chiron the Centaur 78. Losing a Sandal and Reclaiming the Kingdom 79. Assembling the Argonauts (mention Heracles and Hylas’ adventure) 80. The Lemnian Women 81. The Harpies 82. Medea’s Help 83. Medea Murders Her Brother 84. Circe and the Phaeacians 85. Home Again 86. Medea murders her children Orpheus 87. A Remarkable Singer 88. Orpheus the Argonaut 89. Eurydice 90. Orpheus’ death Theseus 91. The Birth of Theseus 92. A Journey to Athens 93. A Wicked Stepmother 94. A Voyage to Crete 95. Facing the Minotaur 96. Ariadne, Hippolyta and Phaedra 97. Angry Goddesses and a Father’s Curse 98. New Brides and a Trip to Hades 99. The Death of Theseus Oedipus 100. Oedipus’ Birth and Childhood (how he is tied into Cadmus) 101. A Troubling Oracle 102. The Sphinx 103. The Truth Revealed 104. Oedipus’ Children 105. The first Theban War 106. The second Theban War Meleager 107. The Calydonian Boar

The Trojan War 108. The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis 109. The Judgment of Paris 110. A Promise Comes Due 111. Agamemnon and Iphigeneia 112. The War Begins 113. Agamemnon and Achilles 114. Achilles and Patroclus 115. Achilles and Hector 116. Hecuba and Priam 117. The Death of Achilles 118. Neoptolemus and Philoctetes 119. The Trojan Horse 120. Savage Deeds of the Greeks

The Return of Agamemnon 121. The House of Atreus 122. The Murder of Agamemnon 123. The Murder of Clytemnestra 124. Orestes’ Pursuit by the Erinyes 125. The Rescue of Iphigeneia and the Marriage of Electra 126. Orestes and Neoptolemus

The Return of Odysseus 127. The Land of the Lotus-Eaters 128. The Island of the 129. The King of the Winds and More Cannibals 130. Circe 131. The Land of the Dead 132. The Sirens and Scylla and Charybdis 133. The Cattle of the Sun 134. The Phaeacians 135. Home at Last—But in Disguise 136. The Scar 137. The Story of Penelope 138. The Story of Telemachus 139. Defeating the Suitors 140. Wandering Again