agle or vulture.
Upon the Thermodon he engaged with the Amazons, whom he utterly defeated;
and then passed over into Thrace. Upon his return into Greece he was
ordered to make an expedition into Iberia, a region in the farthest part of
Spain; where Chrusaor, a prince of great wealth, resided. Hercules accepts
of the commission; but, I know not for what reason, goes first to Crete,
and from thence to [824]Libya; and what is extraordinary, proceeds to
Egypt. This makes the plan of his supposed rout somewhat irregular and
unaccountable. After some time spent in these parts, he builds the city
Hecatompulos, said before to have been built by Osiris: and then traverses
the whole of Africa westward, till he arrives at the Fretum Gaditanum. Here
he erects two pillars; which being finished, he at last enters Iberia. He
defeats the sons of Chrusaor, who were in arms to oppose him; and bestows
their kingdom upon others. He likewise seizes upon the oxen of Geryon. He
then marches into the country of the Celtae, and [825]founds the city
Corunna, and likewise [826]Alesia in Gaul. He afterwards fights with the
giants Albion and Bergion near Arelate, in the plain styled Campus
Lapideus; where are the salt waters of Salona. He then passes the
[827]Alpes; and upon the banks of the Eridanus encounters a person of
shepherd race; whom he kills, and seizes his [828]golden flocks. In his way
homeward he visits Hetruria, and arrives at the mountain Palatinus upon the
Tiber. From thence he goes to the maritime part of Campania, about Cuma,
Heraclea, and the lake Aornon. Not far from hence was an adust and fiery
region; supposed to have been the celebrated Phlegra, where the giants
warred against heaven: in which war Hercules is said to have [829]assisted.
Here was an antient oracular temple; and hard by the mountain Vesuvius,
which in those days flamed violently, though it did not for many ages
afterwards. During his residence here he visited the hot fountains near
Misenus and Dicaearchea; and made a large causeway, called in aftertimes Via
Herculanea, and Agger Puteolanus. After having visited the Locrians, and
the people of Rhegium, he crossed the sea to Sicily; which sea he swam
over, holding by the horn of an ox. At his arrival some warm springs burst
forth miraculously, to give him an opportunity of bathing. Here he boxed
with Eryx; defeated the Sicani; and performed many other exploits. What is
remarkable, having in Spain seized upon the cat