A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

886 HERACLEIDAE. ItERACLEIDAE.
lasgis, worshipped at Iolcos. But the principal place the name is also applied in a narrower sense to
of her worship was Argos, hence called the 6&ua those descendants of the hero who, in. conjunction'Hpas; (Pind.'Nem. x. init.; comp. Aeschyl. with the Dorians, invaded and took possession of
Suppl. 297.) According to tradition, Hera had Peloponnesus.
disputed the possession of Argos with Poseidon, The many sons of Heracles are enumerated by
but the river-gods of the country adjudicated it to Apollodorus (ii. 7. ~ 8), though his list is very far
her. (Paus. ii. 15. ~ 5.) Her most celebrated from being complete; and a large number of tribes
sanctuary was situated between Argos and My- or noble families of Greece traced their origin to
cenae, at the foot of Mount Euboea. The vestibule Heracles. In some of them the belief in their
of the temple contained ancient statues of the descent from Heracles seems to have arisen onlyfrom
Charites, the' bed of Hera, and a shield which the fact, that the hero was worshipped by a parMenelaus had taken at Troy from Euphorbus. ticular tribe. The principal sons and descendants
The sitting colossal statue of Hera in this temple, of Heracles are treated of in separate articles, and
nmade'of.gold and ivory, was the work of Poly- we shall here confine ourselves to those Heracleidae
cletus. She wore a crown on her head, adorned whose conquest of Peloponnesus forms the transiwith the Charites and Horae; in the one hand she tion from mythology to history. It was the will
held a pomegranate, and in the other a sceptre of Zeus that Heracles should rule over the country
headed with a cuckoo. (Paus. ii. 17, 22; Strab. of the Perseids, at Mycenae and Tiryns. Through
p. 373; Stat. Thleb. i. 383.) Respecting the great Hera's cunning, however, Eurystheus had been
quinquennial festival celebrated to her at Argos, put into the place of Heracles, and the latter had
bee Diet. of Ant. s. v. VHpala. Her worship was become the servant of the former..After the death
very ancient also at Corinth (Paus. ii. 24, ], &c.; of the two, the claims of Heracles devolved upon
Apollod. i. 9. ~ 28), Sparta (iii. 13. ~ 6, 15. ~ 7), the sons and descendants of Heracles. The
in Samos (Herod. iii. 60; Paus. vii. 4. ~ 4; Strab. leader of these Heracleidae was Hyllus, the
p. 637), at Sicyon (Paus. ii. 11. ~ 2), Olympia eldest of the four sons of Heracles by Deianeira.
(v. 15. ~ 7, &c.), Epidaurus (Thucyd. v. 75; Palns. The descendants of Heracles, who, according to the
ii. 29. ~ 1), Heraea in Arcadia (Patns.- viii. 26. tradition of the Dorians (Herod. v. 72), were in
~ 2), and many other places. reality Achaeans, ruled over Dorians, as Heracles
Respecting the real significance of Hera, the had received for himself and his descendants one
ancients themselves offer several interpretations: third of the dominions of the Doric king, Aegimius,
Some regarded her as the personification of the at- for the assistance he had given him against the
tmosphere (Serv. ad Aen. i. 51), others as the Lapithae. The countries to which the Heracleidae
queen of heaven or the goddess of the stars (Eurip. had especial claims were Argos, Lacedaemon, and
Helen. 1097), or as the goddess of the moon (Plunt. the Messenian Pylos, which Heracles himself had
Quaest. Rom. 74), and she is even confounded with subdued: Elis, the kingdom of Augeas, might likeCeres, Diania, and Proserpina. (Serv. ad Virg, wise be said to have belonged to him. (Apollod.'Georg. i. 5). -According to modern views, Hera is ii. 7. ~ 2, &c.; Paus. ii. 18. ~ 6, &e., v. 3. ~ 1,
the great goddess of nature, who was every where &c.) The Heracleidae, in conjunction with the
worshipped from the earliest times. The Romans Dorians, invaded Peloponnesus, to take possession
identified their goddess Juno with the Greek Hera of those countries and rights which their ancestor
tJJtNo]. We still possess several representations had duly acquired. This expedition is called the
of Hera. The noblest image, and which was after- return of the Heracleidae) Kvo0os r8S v'HpahEA38Wcv.
Wards looked upon as the ideal of the goddess, was (Comp. Thuc. i. 12; Isocrat. Archid. 6.) They
the statue by Polycletus. She was usually repre- did not, however, succeed in their first attempt;
sented as a majestic woman at a mature age, with but the legend mentions five different expeditions,
a beautiful forehead, large and widely opened:eyes, of which we have the following accounts. Accordand with a grave expression commanding reve- ing to some, it happened that, after the demise of
rence. Her hair was adorned with a crown or a dia- Heracles, his son, Hyllus, with his brothers and a
dem. A veil frequently hangs down the back of band of Arcadians, was staying with Ceyx at
her head, to characterise her as the bride of Zeus, Trachis. As Eurystheus demanded their surrender,
and, in fact, the diadem, veil, sceptre, and peacock and Ceyx was unable to protect them, they fled to
are her ordinary attributes. A number'of statues various parts of'Greece, until they were received
and heads of Hera still exist. (Hirt, Mythol. Bil- as suppliants at Athens, at the altar of Eleos,
derb. i. p. 22 comp. Miiller, Doria ns, ii. 10. Ml[ercy, (Apollod. ii. 8. ~ 1; Diod. iv. 57; Paus.
~ 1.) [L. S.] i. 32. ~ 5; Longin. 27). According to the HeraHERACLEA, datughter of Hieron II., king of cleidae of Euripides, the sons of IIeracles were at
Syracuse, was married to a Syracusan named first staying at Argos, and thence went to Trachis5
Zoippns. Though her husband was a man of a quiet Thessaly, and at length to Athens. (Comp. Anton.
and unambitious character, and had' taken no part Lib. 33;) Demophon, the son of Theseus, received
in the schemes of Andranodorus'and Thenmistus, them, and they settled in the Attic tetrapolis.
hfter the death of' Hieronymus, the unhappy He- EUrystheus, to whom the Athenians refused to
raclea was nevertheless involved in the'sentence of surrender the fugitives, now made war on the
proscription'passed on the whole house of Hieron Athenians with a large army, but was defeated by
at the itistigation of Sopater, and was put to death the Athenians under Iolaus, Theseus, and Hyllus,
together with her two daughters. It is said that and was slain with his sons. Hyllus took his
the people' relented, and revoked the sentence head to his grandmother, Alemene; and the Atheagainst her, but not until it was too late. (Liv. nians of later times showed the tomb of Eurystheus:xxiv. 26.)' [E. H. B.] in front of the temple of the Pallenian Athena.
HERACLEIDAE ('HpccuasGaL), a patronymic The battle itself was very celebrated in the Attic
from Heracles, and consequently given to all the stories as the battle of the Scironian rock, on the
sonis and descendatits of the Greek Heracles; but coast of the Saronic'gulf h(comp. Dem. de Coron.