Section 11

“Can you tell me, pretty maidens,” asked the stran: ger, “whether this is the right way to the garden of the Hesperides ?”
The young women had been having a fine time to- gether, weaving the flowers into wreaths, and crowning one another’s heads. And there seemed to be a kind of magic in the touch of their fingers, that made the - flowers more fresh and dewy, and of brighter hues, and sweeter fragrance, while they played with them, thay
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. 111
even when they had been growing on their native stems, But, on hearing the stranger’s question, they dropped all their flowers on the grass, and gazed at him with astonishment.
“The garden of the Hesperides!’’ cried one. “ We thought mortals had been weary of seeking it, after so many disappointments. And pray, adventurous trav- eller, what do you want there ?”
“ A certain king, who is my cousin,” replied he, “has ordered me to get him three of the golden ap- ples.”
** Most of the young men who go in quest of these apples,” observed another of the damsels, “desire to obtain them for themselves, or to present them to some fair maiden whom they love. Do you, then, love this king, your cousin, so very much ?”
“ Perhaps not,” replied the stranger, sighing. ‘“ He has often been severe and cruel tome. But it is my destiny te obey him.”
* And do you know,” asked the damsel who had first spoken, “that a terrible dragon, with a hundred heads, keeps watch under the golden apple-tree ?”’
“T know it well,” answered the stranger, calmly. “But, from my cradle upwards, it has been my busi- ness, and almost my pastime, to deal with serpents and dragons.”
The young women looked at his massive club, and at the shaggy lion’s skin which he wore, and likewise at his heroic limbs and figure ; and they whispered to each other that the stranger appeared to be one who might reasonably expect to perform deeds far beyond the might of other men. But, then, the dragon with a hundred heads! What mortal, even if he possessed a hundred lives, could hope to escape the fangs of such
112 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.
a monster? So kind-hearted were the maidens, that they could not bear to see this brave and handsome traveller attempt what was so very dangerous, and de- vote himself, most probably, to become a meal for the dragon’s hundred ravenous mouths. .
‘“¢ Go back,” eried they all, — “ go back to your own home! Your mother, beholding you safe and sound, will shed tears of joy; and what can she do more, should you win ever so great a victory? No matter for the golden apples! No matter for the king, your cruel cousin! We do not wish the dragon with the hundred heads to eat you up!”
The stranger seemed to grow impatient at these remonstrances. He carelessly lifted his mighty club, and let it fall upon a rock that lay half buried in the earth, near by. With the force of that idle blow, the great rock was shattered all to pieces. It cost the stranger no more effort to achieve this feat of a giant’s streneth than for one of the young maidens to touch her sister’s rosy cheek with a flower.
“Do you not believe,” said he, looking at the dam- sels with a smile, “ that such a blow would have crashed one of the dragon’s hundred heads ?”’
Then he sat down on the grass, and told them the story of his life, or as much of it as he could remem- ber, from the day when he was first cradled in a war- rior’s brazen shield. While he lay there, two immense serpents came gliding over the floor, and opened their hideous jaws to devour him; and he, a baby of a few months old, had griped one of the fierce snakes in each of his little fists, and strangled them to death. When he was but a stripling, he had killed a huge lion, al- most as big as the one whose vast and shaggy hide he now wore upon his shoulders. The next thing that he
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. 118
had done was to fight a battle with an ugly sort of monster, called a hydra, which had no less. than nine heads, and exceedingly sharp teeth in every one.
“ But the dragon of the Hesperides, you know,” observed one of the damsels, ‘has a hundred heads ! ”
“‘ Nevertheless,” replied the stranger, “I would rather fight two such dragons than a single hydra. For, as fast as I cut off a head, two others grew in its place ; and, besides, there was one of the heads that could not possibly be killed, but kept biting as fiercely as ever, long after it was cut off. So I was forced to bury it under a stone, where it is doubtless alive to this very day. But the hydra’s body, and its eight other heads, will never do any further mischief.”
The damsels, judging that the story was likely to last a good while, had been preparing a repast of bread and grapes, that the stranger might refresh himself in the intervals of his talk. They took pleasure in help- ing him to this simple food ; and, now and then, one of them would put a sweet grape between her rosy lips, lest it should make him bashful to eat alone.
The traveller proceeded to tell how he had chased a very swift stag, for a twelvemonth together, without ever stopping to take breath, and had at last caught it by the antlers, and carried it home alive. And he had fought with a very odd race of people, half horses and half men, and had put them all to death, from a sense of duty, in order that their ugly figures might never be seen any more. Besides all this, he took to him- self great credit for having cleaned out a stable.
“ Do you call that a wonderful exploit?” asked one of the young maidens, with a smile. “Any clown in the country has done as much! ”
“Had it been an ordinary stable,” replied the stran-
114 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.
ger, “I should not have mentioned it. But this was so gigantic a task that it would have taken me all my life to perform it, if I had not luckily thought of turn- ing the channel of a river through the stable-door. That did the business in a very short time!”
Seeing how earnestly his fair auditors listened, he next told them how he had shot some monstrous birds, and had caught a wild bull alive and let him go again, and had tamed a number of very wild horses, and had conquered Hippolyta, the warlike queen of the Ama- zons. He mentioned, likewise, that he had taken off Hippolyta’s enchanted girdle, and had given it to the daughter of his cousin, the king.
“ Was it the girdle of Venus,” inquired the prettiest of the damsels, ** which makes women beautiful ?”
“No,” answered the stranger. “It had formerly been the sword-belt of Mars; and it can only make the wearer valiant and courageous.”
« An old sword-belt !”’ cried the damsel, tossing her head. “Then I should not care about having it!”
“ You are right,” said the stranger.
Going on with his wonderful narrative, he informed the maidens that as strange an adventure as ever hap- pened was when he fought with Geryon, the six-legged man. This was a very odd and frightful sort of figure, as you may well believe. Any person, looking at his tracks in the sand or snow, would suppose that three sociable companions had been walking along together. On hearing his footsteps at a little distance, it was no more than reasonable to judge that several people must be coming. But it was only the strange man Ge. ryon clattering onward, with his six legs!
Six legs, and one gigantic body! Certainly, he must have been a very queer monster to look at ; and, my stars, what a waste of shoe-leather !
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. 115
When the stranger had finished the story of his ad- ventures, he looked around at the attentive faces of the maidens.
“‘ Perhaps you may have heard of me before,” said he, modestly. ‘ My name is Hercules! ”
“ We had already guessed it,” replied the maidens 3 “for your wonderful deeds are known all over the world. We do not think it strange, any longer, that you should set out in quest of the golden apples of the Hesperides. Come, sisters, let us crown the hero with flowers!”
Then they flung beautiful wreaths over his stately head and mighty shoulders, so that the lion’s skin was almost entirely covered with roses. They took posses- sion of his ponderous club, and so entwined it about with the brightest, softest, and most fragrant blos- soms, that not a finger’s breadth of its oaken sub- stance could be seen. It looked all like a huge bunch of flowers. Lastly, they joined hands, and danced around him, chanting words which became poetry of their own accord, and grew into a choral song, in honor of the illustrious Hercules.
And Hercules was rejoiced, as any other hero would have been, to know that these fair young girls had heard of the valiant deeds which it had cost him so ‘much toil and danger to achieve. But, still, he was not satisfied. He could not think that what he had already done was worthy of so much honor, while
there remained any bold or difficult adventure to be undertaken.
“ Dear maidens,” said he, when they paused to
take breath, ‘now that you know my name, will you not tell me how I am to reach the garden of the Hes
perides ?”
116 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.
“ Ah! must you go so soon?” they exclaimed. “ You — that have performed so many wonders, and spent such a toilsome life — cannot you content your- self to repose a little while on the margin of this peaceful river ?”
Hercules shook his head.
“‘T must depart now,” said he.
“« We will then give you the best directions we can,” replied the damsels. ‘“ You must go to the sea-shore, and find out the Old One, and compel him to inform you where the golden apples are to be found.”
“The Old One!” repeated Hercules, laughing at this odd name. “ And, pray, who may the Old One be?”
“Why, the Old Man of the Sea, to be sure!” an- swered one of the damsels. ‘“ He has fifty daughters, whom some people call very beautiful; but we do not think it proper to be acquainted with them, because they have sea-green hair, and taper away like fishes. You must talk with this Old Man of the Sea. He is a sea-faring person, and knows all about the garden of the Hesperides; for it is situated in an island which he is often in the habit of visiting.”
Hercules then asked whereabouts the Old One was most likely to be met with. When the damsels had informed him, he thanked them for all their kindness, —for the bread and grapes with which they had fed him, the lovely flowers with which they had crowned him, and the songs and dances wherewith they had done him honor, — and he thanked them, most of all, for telling him the right way, — and immediately set forth upon his journey.
But, before he was out of honbings one of the maidens called after him.
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. 117
“Keep fast hold of the Old One, when you catch him!” cried she, smiling, and lifting her finger to make the caution more impressive. “Do not be as- tonished at anything that may happen. Only hold him fast, and he will tell you what you wish to know.”
Hercules again thanked her, and pursued his way, while the maidens resumed their pleasant labor of making flower-wreaths. They talked about the hero, long after he was gone.
* We will crown him with the loveliest of our gar- lands,” said they, “‘ when he returns hither with the three golden apples, after slaying the dragon with a hundred heads.”
Meanwhile, Hercules travelled constantly onward, over hill and dale, and through the solitary woods. Sometimes ‘he swung his club aloft, and splintered a mighty oak with a downright blow. His mind was so full of the giants and monsters with whom it was the business of his life to fight, that perhaps he mistook the great tree for a giant or a monster. And so eager was Hercules to achieve what he had undertaken, that he almost regretted to have spent so much time with the damsels, wasting idle breath upon the story of his adventures. But thus it always is with persons who are destined to perform great things. What they have already done seems less than nothing. What they have taken in hand to do seems worth toil, dan- ger, and life itself.
Persons who happened to = passing through the forest must have been affrighted to see him smite the trees with his great club. With but a single blow, the trunk was riven as by the stroke of lightning, and the broad boughs came rustling and crashing down.
Hastening forward, without ever pausing or looking
118 THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.
behind, he by and by heard the sea roaring at a dis tance. At this sound, he increased his speed, and soon came to a beach, where the great surf-waves tum- bled themselves upon the hard sand, in a long line of snowy foam. At one end of the beach, however, there was a pleasant spot, where some green shrubbery clambered up a cliff, making its rocky face look soft and beautiful. A carpet of verdant grass, largely in- termixed with sweet-smelling clover, covered the nar- row space between the bottom of the cliff and the sea. And what should Hercules espy there, but an old man, fast asleep !
But was it really and truly an old man? Certainly, at first sight, it looked very like one; but, on closer inspection, it rather seemed to be some kind of a crea- ture that lived in the sea. For, on his legs and arms there were scales, such as fishes have; he was web- footed and web-fingered, after the fashion of a duck; and his long beard, being of a greenish tinge, had more the appearance of a tuft of sea-weed than of an ordi- nary beard. Have you never seen a stick or timber, that has been long tossed about by the waves, and has got all overgrown with barnacles, and, at last drifting ashore, seems to have been thrown up from the very deepest bottom of the sea. Well, the old man would have put you in mind of just such a wave-tost spar |! But Hercules, the instant he set eyes on this strange figure, was convinced that it could be no other than the Old One, who was to direct him on his way.
Yes, it was the selfsame Old Man of the Sea whom - the hospitable maidens had talked to him about. Thanking his stars for the lucky accident of finding the old fellow asleep, Hercules stole on tiptoe towards him, and caught him by the arm and leg.
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. 119
“Tell me,” cried he, before the Old One was well awake, “‘ which is the way to the garden of the Hes- perides ?”
As you may easily imagine, the Old Man of the Sea awoke in a fright. But his astonishment could hardly have been greater than was that of Hercules, the next moment. For, all of a sudden, the Old One seemed to disappear out of his grasp, and he found himself holding a stag by the fore and hind leg! But still he kept fast hold. Then the stag disappeared, and in its stead there was a sea-bird, fluttering and screaming, while Hercules clutched it by the wing and claw! But the bird could not get away. Immedi- ately afterwards, there was an ugly three-headed dog, which growled and barked at Hercules, and snapped fiercely at the hands by which he held him! But Hereules would not let him go. In another minute, gnstead of the three-headed dog, what should appear but Geryon, the six-legged man-monster, kicking at Hercules with five of his legs, in order to get the re- maining one at liberty! But Hercules held on. By and by, no Geryon was there, but a huge snake, like one of those which Hercules had strangled in his baby- hood, only a hundred times as big; and it twisted and twined about the hero’s neck and body, and threw its tail high into the air, and opened its deadly jaws as if to devour him outright; so that it was really a very terrible spectacle! But Hercules was no whit dis- heartened, and squeezed the great snake so tightly that he soon began to hiss with pain.
You must understand that the Old Man of the Sea, though he generally looked so much like the wave- beaten figure-head of a vessel, had the power of as- suming any shape he pleased. When he found himself
120 1HE THREE GOLDEN APPLES.
so roughly seized by Hercules, he had been in hopes of putting him into such surprise and terror, by these magical transformations, that the hero would be glad to let him go. If Hercules had relaxed his grasp, the Old One would certainly have plunged down to the very bottom of the sea, whence he would not soon have given himself the trouble of coming up, in order to answer any impertinent questions. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred, I suppose, would have been frightened out of their wits by the very first of his ugly shapes, and would have taken to their heels at once. For, one of the hardest things in this world is, to see the difference between real dangers and imagi- nary ones.