as, after all, in reality, but a mortal; my mother's fault
is sufficiently effaced by my valour, and I have merit sufficient to
have had Jupiter for my father.' The more readily, perhaps, to
account for the transcendent strength and prowess of Hercules, the
story was invented, that Jupiter made the night on which he was
received by Alcmena under the form of Amphitryon, as long as three,
or, according to Plautus, Hyginus, and Seneca, nine nights. Some
writers say that Alcmena brought forth twins, one of which,
Iphiclus, was the son of Amphitryon, while Hercules had Jupiter for
his father.

With respect to the metamorphosis of Galanthis, it is but a little
episode here introduced by Ovid, to give greater plausibility to the
other part of the story. It most probably originated in the
resemblance of the names of that slave to that of the weazel, which
the Greeks called +gale+. AElian, indeed, tells us that the Thebans
paid honour to that animal, because it had helped Alcmena in her
labour. The more ancient poets also added, that Juno retarded the
birth of Hercules till the mother of Eurystheus was delivered, which
was the cause of his being the subject of that king; though others
state that this came to pass by the command of the oracle of Delphi.
This king of Mycenae having ordered him to rid Greece of the numerous
robbers and wild beasts that infested it, it is most probable that,
as we learn from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, he performed this
service at the head of the troops of Eurystheus. If this is the
case, the persecutions which the poets have ascribed to the jealousy
of Juno, really originated either in the policy or the jealousy of
the court of Mycenae.

As Ovid has here cursorily taken notice of the labours of Hercules,
we may observe, that it is very probable that his history is
embellished with the pretended adventures of many persons who bore
his name, and, perhaps, with those of others besides. Cicero, in his
'Treatise on the Nature of the Gods,' mentions six persons who bore
the name of Hercules; and possibly, after a minute examination,
a much greater number might be reckoned, many nations of antiquity
having given the name to such great men of their own as had rendered
themselves famous by their actions. Thus, we find one in Egypt in
the time of Osiris, in Phoenicia, among the Gauls, in Spain, and in
other countries. Confining ourse