the mountains; she looked like a
priestess, but also like a woman who could cheer camps of men with her
counsel, her bravery, and her good companionship; her hair was very
dark and she had dark eyes.

Straightway she became friends with Heracles; and when they saw each
other for a while they loved each other. And Heracles forgot Iole, the
childlike maiden whom he had seen in Oichalia.

He made himself a suitor for Deianira, and those who protected her were
glad of Heracles's suit, and they told him they would give him the
maiden to marry as soon as the mourning for Prince Meleagrus and his
uncles was over. Heracles stayed in Calydon, happy with Deianira, who
had so much beauty, wisdom, and bravery.

But then a dreadful thing happened in Calydon; by an accident, while
using his strength unthinkingly, Heracles killed a lad who was related
to Deianira. He might not marry her now until he had taken punishment
for slaying one who was close to her in blood.

As a punishment for the slaying it was judged that Heracles should be
sold into slavery for three years. At the end of his three years'
slavery he could come back to Calydon and wed Deianira.

And so Heracles and Deianira were parted. He was sold as a slave in
Lydia; the one who bought him was a woman, a widow named Omphale. To
her house Heracles went, carrying his armor and wearing his lion's
skin. And Omphale laughed to see this tall man dressed in a lion's skin
coming to her house to do a servant's tasks for her.

She and all in her house kept up fun with Heracles. They would set him
to do housework, to carry water, and set vessels on the tables, and
clear the vessels away. Omphale set him to spin with a spindle as the
women did. And often she would put on Heracles's lion skin and go about
dragging his club, while he, dressed in woman's garb, washed dishes and
emptied pots.

But he would lose patience with these servant's tasks, and then Omphale
would let him go away and perform some great exploit. Often he went on
long journeys and stayed away for long times. It was while he was in
slavery to Omphale that he liberated Theseus from the dungeon in which
he was held with Peirithous, and it was while he still was in slavery
that he made his journey to Troy.

At Troy he helped to repair for King Laomedon the great walls that
years before Apollo and Poseidon had built around the city. As a reward
for this labor he was offered the Princess Hesione in marriage; she