|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here it is Cycnus, the violent son of Ares, who falls victim to his opponent, and the opponent is Heracles, who makes him fall like the Nymphs make Hylas fall. But Hylas is no brutish warrior like Cycnus, nor a noble hero like Sarpedon, and the Nymphs need no strength. They simply grasp his hand and he is immediately drawn down into the water, without even token resistance. Hylas is not dead he is in fact immortal (72) but he is cut off for good from human existence, and from the heroic life which Heracles had dreamt of for him.19 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
While Hylas weeps in the lap of the nymphs, Heracles goes off in search of him, armed with the traditional instruments of his heroism, the bow and the club. The first thing he does is to call to him (589a): |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
('Thrice he shouted 'Hylas', as loud as his deep throat could roar, and thrice the boy answered, . . .')
This is an obvious variation on Il. 11.4623: |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
('Thrice shouted he then loud as a man's head can shout, and thrice did Menelaus, dear to Ares, hear his call') |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here it is Odysseus who, when cornered on the battlefield, calls on his comrades in arms to come to his aid; Menelaus hears him and together with Aiax runs to free him. Heracles, however, is not calling to a comrade-in-arms, but to a beloved. In the world of heroes he can take on any adversary, but here he has lost his way in a world in which neither weapons nor the overpowering volume of his shouts are of any effect. Hylas replies, but his voice is muffled by the water, and Heracles cannot tell where the voice is coming from. He has been bested by three tenderhearted nymphs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The epic mode is continued in the lion comparison which follows, where an  ('a carnivorous lion'; cf. for the adjective Il. 5.782; 7,256; 15.592) hears the sound of a hind, and runs to the meal awaiting him. This points up the incongruity of the preceding passage. Hylas is not Heracles' prey, but as Mastronarde (1968: 277) remarks, the "natural connotations of weakness and tenderness" associated with the hind are likewise characteristic of Hylas. Not only are the means which Heracles uses to regain his beloved |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 Gutzwiller (1981: 2627) compares the description of Hylas' 'abduction' with the opening passage of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Both Hylas and Persephone encounter danger in a lovely meadow while reaching to take a desired object. If indeed the Hymn is alluded to, Hylas is simultaneously contrasted with a warrior and compared with a girl. |
|
|
|
|
|
