e of her sorrow,
entreated Somnus to send Morpheus, who, assuming the form and voice of
Ceyx, appeared in a dream, and informed her of his fate. Frantic with
grief, she ran to the beach, and, according to her dream, found the
body of Ceyx floating lifeless to the shore. The queen of Trachinia
was changed into a bird, in her attempt to reach by a bound the body
of her husband, which she no sooner touched than it underwent the same
transformation. Their mutual attachments remaining, they continue to
live together as birds, distinguished by the same tenderness and
affection which had marked their conjugal state when in the human
form.

Hercules was possessed of the greatest physical strength. He had a
great enemy in Hera, who, knowing that the child who should be born
that day was fated to rule over all the descendants of Perseus,
contrived to delay the birth of Hercules and hasten that of
Eurystheus. Eurystheus thus, by decree of fate, became chief of the
Perseidae. While yet in the cradle, Hercules showed his divine origin
by strangling two serpents sent by Hera to destroy him. In course of
time Eurystheus summoned Hercules to appear before him, and ordered
him to perform the labours which, by priority of birth, he was
empowered to impose on him. Hercules, unwilling to obey, went to
Delphi to consult the Oracle, and was informed that he must perform
ten labours imposed on him by Eurystheus, after which he should attain
to immortality. The first labour imposed on him was to destroy the
lion that haunted the forests of Nemea and Cleonae, and could not be
wounded by the arrows of a mortal. Hercules boldly attacked the lion
and strangled him. The second was to destroy the Learnaean hydra, which
he accomplished with the aid of Iolaus; but because he obtained
assistance in his work, Eurystheus refused to reckon it. Hercules's
third labour was to catch the hind of Diana, famous for its swiftness,
its golden horns, and brazen feet. The fourth was to bring alive to
Eurystheus a wild boar, which ravaged the neighbourhood of Erymanthus.
The fifth was to cleanse the stables of Augeas, king of Elis, where
three thousand oxen had been confined for many years; which task he
accomplished in one day, by turning the rivers Alpheus and Peneus
through the stables. For certain reasons this exploit was not counted.
His sixth was to destroy the carnivorous birds, with brazen wings,
beaks, and claws, which ravaged the country near the lake Sty