e the God of the sea, they must sacrifice a virgin of the
royal blood. The lot fell upon Hesione, and she was exposed to the
fury of a sea-monster. Hercules offered to deliver her for a reward
of six horses, and having succeeded, was refused his recompense by
Laomedon; whom he slew, and then plundered his city. He then gave
the kingdom to Podarces, the son of Laomedon, and Hesione to his
companion Telamon, who had assisted him. This monster was probably
an allegorical representation of the inundations of the sea; and
Hesione having been made the price of him that could succeed in
devising a remedy, she was said to have been exposed to the fury of
a monster. The six horses promised by Laomedon were perhaps so many
ships, which Hercules demanded for his recompense; and this is the
more likely, as the ancients said that these horses were so light
and swift, that they ran upon the waves, which story seems to point
at the qualities of a galley or ship under sail.

Lycophron gives a more wonderful version of the story. He says that
the monster, to which Hesione was exposed, devoured Hercules, and
that he was three days in its belly, and came out, having lost all
his hair. This is, probably, a way of telling us that Hercules and
his assistants were obliged to work in the water, which incommoded
them very much. Palaephatus gives another explanation: he says that
Hesione was about to be delivered up to a pirate, and that Hercules,
on boarding his ship, was wounded, although afterwards victorious.

FABLES V. AND VI. [XI.221-409]

Proteus foretells that Thetis shall have a son, who shall be more
powerful than his father, and shall exceed him in valour. Jupiter,
who is in love with Thetis, is alarmed at this prediction, and
yields her to Peleus. The Goddess flies from his advances by
assuming various shapes, till, by the advice of Proteus, he holds
her fast, and then having married her, she bears Achilles. Peleus
goes afterwards to Ceyx, king of Trachyn, to expiate the death of
his brother Phocus, whom he has killed. Ceyx is in a profound
melancholy, and tells him how his brother Daedalion, in the
transports of his grief for his daughter Chione, who had been slain
for vying with Diana, has been transformed into a hawk. During this
relation, Peleus is informed that a wolf which Psamathe has sent to
revenge the death of Phocus, is destroying his herds. He endea