nd his blood was
poisoned beyond relief. He sailed home, and when Deianira saw the state
he was in she hung herself for grief, while he charged Hylas, his eldest
son, to take care of Iole, and marry her as soon as he grew up. Then,
unable to bear the pain any longer, and knowing that by his twelve tasks
he had earned the prize of endless life, he went to Mount OEta, crying
aloud with the pain, so that the rocks rang again with the sound. He
gave his quiver of arrows to his friend Philoctetes, charging him to
collect his ashes and bury them, but never to make known the spot; and
then he tore up, with his mighty strength, trees by the roots enough to
form a funeral pile, lay down on it, and called on his friend to set fire
to it; but no one could bear to do so, till a shepherd consented to
thrust in a torch. Then thunder was heard, a cloud came down, and he was
borne away to Olympus, while Philoctetes collected and buried the ashes.

His young sons were banished by Eurystheus, and were taken by his old
friend Iolaus to seek shelter in various cities, but only the Athenians
were brave enough to let them remain. Theseus had been driven away and
banished from Athens; but the citizens sheltered the sons of the hero,
and, when Eurystheus pursued them, a battle was fought on the isthmus of
Corinth, in which the old enemy of Hercules was killed by Iolaus, with
all his sons. Then the Heraclieds (sons of Hercules) were going to fight
their way back to Argos, but an army met them at the isthmus, and was
going to give them battle, when Hylas proposed that he should fight with
a single champion chosen on the other side. If he gained, he was to be
restored to the kingdom of Perseus; if not, there was to be a truce for a
hundred years. Hylas had not the strength of his father; he was slain,
and his brothers had to retreat and bide their time.

Argos came into the power of Agamemnon, who had married Clytemnestra, the
sister of Castor and Pollux, while his brother Menelaus married the
beautiful Helen. All the Greek heroes had been suitors for Helen, the
fairest woman living, and they all swore to one another that, choose she
whom she might, they would all stand by him, and punish anyone who might
try to steal her from him. Her choice fell on Menelaus, and soon after
her wedding her brother Castor was slain, and though Pollux was immortal,
he could not bear to live without his brother, and prayed to share his
death; upon which J