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Repoussé and engraved relief of Hercules (right),
Eros (center) and Iolaus (left) on the Ficoroni cista.
4th century BC Etruscan ritual vessel
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Magically a young lad, Iolaus, appears. He's a gift of Juno's daughter, Hebe. Thought to be Hercules lover but also his nephew.
Themis is mentioned. Civil war is upon Thebes.
She meant to swear not to bestow such gifts
On any man thereafter, but was stopped
By Themis.
From wikipedia:
"As a son of Iphicles, Iolaus was a nephew of Heracles. He often acted as Heracles' charioteer and companion. He was sometimes regarded as Heracles' lover, and the shrine to him in Thebes was a place where male couples worshiped and made vows.
The Theban gymnasium was also named after him, and the Iolaia or Iolaea (Greek: Ιολάεια), an athletic festival consisting of gymnastic and equestrian events, was held yearly in Thebes in his honor. The victors at the Iolaea were crowned with garlands of myrtle.
Iolaus provided essential help to Heracles in his battle against the Hydra, his second labor. Seeing that Heracles was being overwhelmed by the multi-headed monster (the Lernaean Hydra), who grew two heads in place of each one cut off, Iolaus helped by cauterizing each neck as Heracles beheaded it.".
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Jove may not be all that happy about Hebe giving away Iolaus...some negotiation is needed...
And then at last Callirhoe, the child
Of Achelous, for her infant sons
Shall beg those years from Jove on bended knee,
To speed their vengeance for the victors death
And, at her suit, Jove shall foreclaim that gift
Of his stepdaughter, and her sons shall be
Transformed to manhood from their infancy.
Rumblings in heaven
Old men growing older:
He's worth my love--but kinship ruins me.
But I, whose ill luck made your parents mine,
In you but have a brother. That alone Is ours to share, that thing that severs us.
Byblis resolves to write her love on tablets to Caunus, her brother.
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| Byblis - by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1884) |
Then, shamefaced, called a slave and nervously,
With honeyed words, "Take these, good faithful friend",
She said, "and give them to" ---a long and anxious pause---
"My brother".
The slave delivers tablets to Caunus who grows angry with the slave. Caunus throws the tablets to the ground as Caunus is swamped
"Be off, you rogue! Off, while you may!" he cried,
"You pimp of lawless lust! But that your fate
Involved my shame, your death has paid for this!"
Byblis hears the news... her love repulsed, she turns pale with remorse, but immediately her wild desire returns. She works on a new strategy asking:
Why, oh why
Did I reveal my wound so rashly? Why
So quickly put in writing---in such haste--
What should have been concealed? I should have first
Tested his feelings, using words that might
Mean nothing. To make sure the wind blew fair,
I should have set a small sail and kept good watch
Her brother flees after many unwonted advances.. Byblis beats herself in grief. She threatens to hunt him down.
Like Thracian women maddened each three years
By Bacchus' wand in holy ecstasy,
Byblis ran howling through the countryside,
Watched by the wives of Bubasis, then on
Through Caria and Lycia....
So by wasting all her weeping away Byblis became a spring.
The tale of this strange miracle might well
Have been the talk of all the hundred towns
Of Crete, had not the island known
In Iphis' change a marvel nearer home.
The tale of this strange miracle might well
Have been the talk of all the hundred towns
Of Crete, had not the island known
In Iphis' change a marvel nearer home.






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