Orationes 5
Orationes 5 Imperial Aelius Aristides Greek- But, dearest Heracles, to praise you, of all labours, is the most pleasant; for in every way you are much-hymned. For many are they who sing your deeds in prose, and the poets have hymned you much in every manner; but greatest of all is the praise that every day, on every occasion that falls out, is forever offered you by all men. And it is no wonder that he should so far surpass the human nature whose father is the first of beings, and whose mother is the one whom that father preferred above all. And so great was his zeal for his begetting that for three days and nights together, as they say, he was with her, wishing to lay down into the seed as much as possible of his own nature and in its most perfect form. For the counsel concerned the whole of things—how the affairs of men might be set in order, and earth and sea made fit for use. And so Heracles is born a fellow-worker with his father and his lieutenant over the things beneath the sphere of the moon, and the signs at once followed. For the serpents that came upon him at his swaddling-clothes he made an end of, in place of any other motion of his hand; and while he was still a child, in place of any other childish sport, he freed the Thebans of the tribute which they had now for a long time been paying
- to the Orchomenians. And beginning from his own hearth, he cleansed Greece, and then the common race of mankind as well, visiting all in turn, both those in the islands and those on the mainland, omitting nothing that conduced to benefaction, but mastering the wild beasts, by whose multitude and size the greater part of the land was uninhabitable; destroying the tyrants each in the manner that befitted him; chastening the cities, some by laws, some by arms; and the brigands by land and by sea, and all who, emboldened by bodily strength, did violence to their inferiors, he destroyed with utter ruin, alike in Greece and in the barbarian world. For he reckoned all things that are by nature hostile to be enemies of his own, and alone of those who came to earth he legislated for all in common—not only for men, but, one may say, for the beasts as well; for he even found a way to drive out the birds about Stymphalus, which were destroying the greater part of Arcadia, as though it belonged to him to set free not only earth and sea but the air as well. And whatever lands were oppressed by the streams of rivers or by marshes, he made into dry land; and whatever again needed cleansing by water, by letting in the rivers he made not only fit to look upon but productive. And so he mastered earth and sea and rivers and marshes and air and rocks and men and cities, blending the laws with arms, so that of his dominion there was nothing either more brilliant or more profitable to make use of. For by unbreakable force nothing of what was put into his hands escaped him, while by an excess of justice everything came to pass for the benefit of the common race. From these things the poets composed their tales of Prometheus being released by him—that even what Zeus had bound, this it was in the power of Heracles to loose—and how he relieved Atlas, taking over and holding up the heaven himself, and how he brought up Cerberus from Hades, and with him Theseus of the line of Erechtheus, and how he wounded Pluto and Hera, and how he mastered the Giants, becoming an ally to the gods. But what they mean, I think,
- to say by way of hyperbole is that Heracles searched out all earth and all sea, and came to all boundaries and all the farthest parts, and neglected neither the things beneath the earth nor those reaching to heaven, but came so very opportunely to all men that even the gods had need of Heracles for the settling of their own affairs. And it seems to me that he was the first to mark off the outer sea from the inner, designing for the Greeks to settle all this region as their own, and that this is the meaning of the pillars which even now we call the pillars of Heracles. And not only by following what is said by the Greeks would one recognize that nature of his and that he became greater than after the measure of men, but we know how great a god the Egyptians account Heracles, and that the Tyrians worship him as first of the gods. And yet, if all, believing him to be the same, honour him thus, what greater token could one name of his power? And if some account him as one of the most ancient gods, while we have thought this one, as like to that one, worthy of the same honour, even thus he is shown to have become greater than after the measure of man. This is plain too from the oracles of the god. For when Heracles departed from among men, purified in the manner that is told, straightway the god directed that temples of Heracles be founded and that sacrifice be made to him as to a god; and this, moreover, he declared to the city of the Athenians, which was both the most ancient of the Greek cities and was, as it were, a leader to all in piety toward the gods and in the other most serious matters. And there were besides for her very many tokens of friendship toward Heracles, both others and that she first initiated him as a stranger, while he was among men. And so manifest did the zeal become, and so strongly was his case judged to belong to the higher portion, that even all the Theseia in the demes they remodelled and established as Heracleia instead of Theseia, holding that Theseus was the best of the citizens, but Heracles above the nature of man.
- But why should one tell the many things? For even now the working of the god is manifest. For one thing, as we hear, about Gadeira he works wondrous deeds and is accounted second to none of all the gods; and for another, in Messene of Sicily he releases men from all diseases, and those who have escaped the dangers of the sea reckon the benefaction equally to Poseidon and to Heracles. And one could recount many other places too and sanctuaries of the god, and manifest powers. But why need one speak of things far off? For our own praetorium seems to be a Heracleum. And in it he has often already been seen at play with certain balls of Heracles. These are round stones, weighing no little; the sound of them is heard, and, carrying them from one place to another, he sets them down elsewhere. And wondrous too are the marks of his other manifestation; so that, common as the praetorium is, by the precisions concerning the god it has become as it were an inner sanctuary. And what could one say? That far-famed invocation, in comedies and tragedies and all discourses—even now, when nearly everyone cries O Heracles at every difficulty that arises—that saying of Sophocles, is it not the greatest memorial and token of his justice and his power, and of how he stood as champion of the human nature, leading all toward the best? For which reason those who lived in his own time then called upon him in all things, and now too the saying has remained from the ancient custom. The titles, then, of Fair-victor and Averter-of-evil—the one is given to him alone of the gods, the other among the first. And the Coans, as I remember, account Heracles Alexis too. And among them there stands a Heracles, set up by an oracle, with the club raised upon his back, as being lord and bringing even the heaven into due proportion. Not, then, only so many things could one say about the god, of which some he is seen to do still now of himself, after he was among men; but the begetting of his children too would be among the first—children whom he made common saviours of Greece and heirs of his own
- polity. Of these, some adorned the Peloponnese, remaining there; others advanced Italy and Sicily to so great a condition; and others, crossing over into Asia, founded and administered the Dorian cities there. And the city of the Lacedaemonians too seems to have become a kind of image of Heracles—if one may liken the small to the great—and very fittingly. For the Leonidae and the Leotychidae and the Archidami and the Agesilai and the Agides, and before these Lycurgus who set their laws, all these are of the outflow of Heracles, who accustomed those men, few as they were, to count for many, to stand champion of all in need without pay, and to make a Spartan general count for more than the army of others. Thus both by himself and through his descendants he contrived for the Greeks, as it were, springs of virtue, and provided for some the practice of the fairest things, for others to have those by whom they would be saved. Not, then, only for deeds and contests could one make mention of Heracles, but in the good cheer of life too he is of much worth. This is shown by those of his statues that are drinking. And he obtained a wondrous portion from all the gods: Zeus brought him to the light; Athena took him up and was his guardian and directed his labours; Aphrodite and Dionysus welcomed him and worthily granted him the rests from his toils. The kinship of Hera and the marriage of Hebe are old things to speak of. For so great, it seems, was the strength given back to him that, while all the gods are untiring through the ages, Heracles is thought to possess youth in an especial degree. And indeed there are now common statues of Hermes and Heracles: to so great a comradeship have they come. And you might see Heracles in the midst of mountains beside the mother of the gods, and in cities, and again in turn with the Dioscuri. And the most pleasant of baths bear the name of Heracles; and apart from these, springs of river-waters are themselves named after the god. So great a precedence has he obtained among the
- Nymphs. And if the opinion is right of the Thasian stranger—or rather the Macedonian—who once said that a paean seemed to be sung composed by me, and that this was sung over him, Hail, Paean, Heracles, Asclepius!—if these things are true and valid, then this too would prove a fair thing of conjunction: the Fair-victor together with the Saviour. Thus both in toils and in good cheer and in the tending of the body and everywhere the god is opportune. To all men, then, Heracles is in memory and in honours; but for me there is also something proper of friendship toward him, arising from a certain divine voice that came to me. It seemed to come from the temple of the Mother. And it bade me bear what befalls, since Heracles too, being the son of Zeus, bore it. This, dear Heracles, is the speech from me, sung in place of another song, according to the purport of the dream in which I seemed to be speaking the praise of Heracles in the forecourt of Apollo.