auts and journeyed with them to the edge
of the Caucasus, where, slaying the vulture that preyed upon
Prometheus's liver, he, at the will of Zeus, liberated the Titan.
Thereafter Zeus and Prometheus were reconciled, and Zeus, that neither
might forget how much the enmity between them had cost gods and men,
had a ring made for Prometheus to wear; that ring was made out of the
fetter that had been upon him, and in it was set a fragment of the rock
that the Titan had been bound to.

The Argonauts had now won back to Greece. But before he saw any of them
he had been in Oichalia, and had seen the maiden Iole.

The king of Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage to the
hero who could excel himself and his sons in shooting with arrows.
Heracles saw Iole, the blue-eyed and childlike maiden, and he longed to
take her with him to some place near the Garden of the Hesperides. And
Iole looked on him, and he knew that she wondered to see him so tall
and so strongly knit even as he wondered to see her so childlike and
delicate.

Then the contest began. The king and his sons shot wonderfully well,
and none of the heroes who stood before Heracles had a chance of
winning. Then Heracles shot his arrows. No matter how far away they
moved the mark, Heracles struck it and struck the very center of it.
The people wondered who this great archer might be. And then a name was
guessed at and went around--Heracles!

When the king heard the name of Heracles he would not let him strive in
the contest any more. For the maiden Iole would not be given as a prize
to one who had been mad and whose madness might afflict him again. So
the king said, speaking in judgment in the market place.

Rage came on Heracles when he heard this judgment given. He would not
let his rage master him lest the madness that was spoken of should come
with his rage. So he left the city of Oichalia declaring to the king
and the people that he would return.

It was then that, wandering down to Crete, he heard of the Argonauts
being near. And afterward he heard of them being in Calydon, hunting
the boar that ravaged Oeneus's country. To Calydon Heracles went. The
heroes had departed when he came into the country, and all the city was
in grief for the deaths of Prince Meleagrus and his two uncles.

On the steps of the temple where Meleagrus and his uncles had been
brought Heracles saw Deianira, Meleagrus's sister. She was pale with
her grief, this tall woman of