TODAY'S GAY WISDOM
Apropos
of Cadmus’s mythopoetic painting and since this is the time of year of
major Western European myths (based largely on Middle Eastern myths,
over-layed on Pagan celebrations) we thought it would be fun to continue
this week with some of the classic love affairs among the gods.
Hercules and His Lovers
Hercules was not
only the strongest of the heroes (even as a baby he killed two great
serpents with his bare hands) but he was also the craziest (he murdered
his first three sons in a fit of madness) and the smartest (what he
could not accomplish by brute strength he achieved through guile). What
is less well known these days is that he was as heroic in bed as he was
standing up.
One time he was
invited by king Thespios to help him rid the land of a huge lion that
was terrorizing the countryside. When the king set eyes on Hercules he
had a better idea: "Come and stay the night at my palace, and rest
yourself before the hunt," said the king to Hercules, "and meet my
family." As Hercules was soon to find out, the king's family was made up
mostly of his fifty virgin daughters, for whom he had not found fitting
husbands until then. That night Hercules met them all, and made love to
forty nine of them (the fiftieth was too shy). The next morning, he and
the king went off to hunt the lion, and nine months later all
forty-nine daughters gave birth to sons.
In the
time-honored manner of his culture, much as he loved women, Hercules
loved young men no less. Plutarch said that the number of his lovers was
beyond counting. What we know for sure is that he had more than even
the god Apollo (who was no slouch when it came to male love). Most
stories about the beloved boys of Hercules have been lost or destroyed,
but among his lovers were said to be the young heroes Admetos, Iphitos,
and Euphemos, all of them Argonauts, Elacatas, honored by the yearly
Elacatia games in Sparta, and Abderus, an Opian boy and son of Hermes,
whose love for Hercules cost him his life, and who was honored with his
own festival in the city that bore his name.
He was the young
man to whom Hercules entrusted the man-eating mares of king Diomedes.
Not strong enough to keep them in check, they tore him to shreds and
devoured him. Heartbroken, Hercules built the city of Abdera in his
memory. There was also a myth, now lost, that claimed that Eurystheus,
the king for whom Hercules performs his labors, was one of his lovers,
and that Hercules undertook the labors in order to please him. If so,
then male love becomes the central motive force of the Hercules cycle,
just as the love between Achilles and Patroclos is the fire that drives
the story of the Iliad.
Also among his
lovers, and not so unlucky, were Philoctetes who inherited Hercules's
bow and arrows, and who was called upon to use them in the Trojan war,
and Nestor, the youngest son of king Neleus, whom he grew to love more
than any other lad. Nireus, Adonis, Jason, Corythus, Stychius, and
Phrynx were reputed to have been amongst his lovers as well. But these
stories have been lost.
Of all his
boyfriends however, the ones he loved the best (besides Nestor) were
Iolaos of Thebes, and Hylas of Argos. Iolaos, was also his nephew and,
though only sixteen, his helper in many of his labors. It was said that
their love was such that Hercules found those labors easier when Iolaos
watched him. He was Hercules' charioteer and beloved, just like
Patroclos was for Achilles.
As Plutarch tells
us: "And as to the [male] loves of Hercules, it is difficult to record
them because of their number; but those who think that Iolaos was one of
them do to this day worship and honor him, and make their loved ones
swear fidelity at his tomb." And also, "It is a tradition likewise that
Iolaos, who assisted Hercules in his labors and fought at his side, was
beloved of him; and Aristotle observes that even in his time lovers
pledged their faith at Iolaos' tomb." The Thebans thought so highly of
Iolaos that they worshiped him together with Hercules, named their
gymnasium after him, and in his honor held yearly contests, the
Iolaeia.
As for the love
between Hercules and Hylas, the poet Theocritus, who wrote 300 years
before our era, had this to say: "We are not the first mortals to see
beauty in what is beautiful. No, even Amphitryon's bronze-hearted son,
who defeated the savage Nemean lion, loved a boy-charming Hylas, whose
hair hung down in curls. And like a father with a dear son he taught him
all the things which had made him a mighty man, and famous.
And they were
inseparable, being together both day and night. That way the boy might
grow the way he wanted him to, and being by his side attain the true
measure of a man. When Jason sailed after the golden fleece, and all the
nobles went with him invited from every city, to rich Iolkos he came
too, the man of many labors, son of noble Alcmena.
And brave Hylas
in the flower of youth went with him aboard the Argo, the
strong-thwarted ship, to bear his arrows and to guard his bow."
