r boasted among the gods in Olympus that a son would
that day be born, in the line of Perseus, who would rule over all the
Argives. Juno was angry and jealous at this, and, as she was the goddess
who presided over the births of children, she contrived to hinder the
birth of the child he intended till that day was over, and to hasten
that of another grandson of the great Perseus. This child was named
Eurystheus, and, as he had been born on the right day, Jupiter was
forced to let him be King of Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae, and all the
Dorian race; while the boy whom he had meant to be the chief was kept in
subjection, in spite of having wonderful gifts of courage and strength,
and a kind, generous nature, that always was ready to help the weak and
sorrowful.

His name was Alcides, or Hercules, and he was so strong at ten months
old that, with his own hands, he strangled two serpents whom Juno sent
to devour him in his cradle. He was bred up by Chiron, the chief of the
Centaurs, a wondrous race of beings, who had horses' bodies as far as
the forelegs, but where the neck of the horse would begin had human
breasts and shoulders, with arms and heads. Most of them were fierce and
savage; but Chiron was very wise and good, and, as Jupiter made him
immortal, he was the teacher of many of the great Greek heroes. When
Hercules was about eighteen, two maidens appeared to him--one in a
simple white dress, grave, modest, and seemly; the other scarcely
clothed but tricked out in ornaments, with a flushed face, and bold,
roving eyes. The first told him that she was Virtue, and that, if he
would follow her, she would lead him through many hard trials, but that
he would be glorious at last, and be blest among the gods. The other was
Vice, and she tried to wile him by a smooth life among wine-cups and
dances and flowers and sports, all to be enjoyed at once. But the choice
of Hercules was Virtue, and it was well for him, for Jupiter, to make up
for Juno's cheat, had sworn that, if he fulfilled twelve tasks which
Eurystheus should put upon him, he should be declared worthy of being
raised to the gods at his death.

Eurystheus did not know that in giving these tasks he was making his
cousin fulfil his course; but he was afraid of such a mighty man, and
hoped that one of these would be the means of getting rid of him. So
when he saw Hercules at Argos, with a club made of a forest-tree in his
hand, and clad in the skin of a lion which he had