When Eurystheus beheld Cerberus he stood aghast, and despairing of ever
getting rid of his hated rival, he returned the hell-hound to the hero, who
restored him to Aides, and with this last task the subjection of Heracles
to Eurystheus terminated.

MURDER OF IPHITUS.--Free at last Heracles now returned to Thebes; and it
being impossible for him to live happily with Megara in consequence of his
having murdered her children he, with her own consent, gave her in marriage
to his nephew Iolaus. Heracles himself sought the hand of Iole, daughter of
Eurytus, king of Oechalia, who had instructed him when a boy in the use of
the bow. Hearing that this king had promised to give his daughter to him
who could surpass himself and his three sons in shooting with the bow,
Heracles lost no time in presenting himself as a competitor. He soon proved
that he was no unworthy pupil of Eurytus, for he signally defeated all his
opponents. But although the king treated him with marked respect and honour
he refused, nevertheless, to give him the hand of his daughter, fearing for
her a similar fate to that which had befallen Megara. Iphitus, the eldest
son of Eurytus, alone espoused the cause of Heracles, and essayed to induce
his father to give his consent to the marriage; but all to no purpose, and
at length, stung to the quick at his rejection, the hero angrily took his
departure.

Soon afterwards the oxen of the king were stolen by the notorious thief
Autolycus, and Heracles was suspected by Eurytus of having committed the
theft. But Iphitus loyally defended his absent friend, and proposed to seek
out Heracles, and with his assistance to go in search of the missing
cattle. {252}

The hero warmly welcomed his staunch young friend, and entered cordially
into his plan. They at once set out on their expedition; but their search
proved altogether unsuccessful. When they approached the city of Tiryns
they mounted a tower in hopes of discovering the missing herd in the
surrounding country; but as they stood on the topmost summit of the
building, Heracles became suddenly seized with one of his former attacks of
madness, and mistaking his friend Iphitus for an enemy, hurled him down
into the plain below, and he was killed on the spot.

Heracles now set forth on a weary pilgrimage, begging in vain that some one
would purify him from the murder of Iphitus. It was during these wanderings
that he arrived at the palace of his friend Admetus, whose beau