[19]
There they left Hercules and Polyphemus. For Hylas, son of Thiodamas, a minion of
Hercules, had been sent to draw water and was ravished away by nymphs on account of his
beauty.1 But Polyphemus heard him
cry out, and drawing his sword gave chase in the belief that he was being carried off by
robbers. Falling in with Hercules, he told him; and while the two were seeking for Hylas,
the ship put to sea. So Polyphemus founded a city Cius in Mysia and reigned as king;2 but Hercules returned to Argos. However Herodorus says that Hercules did not sail
at all at that time, but served as a slave at the court of Omphale. But Pherecydes says
that he was left behind at Aphetae in
Thessaly, the
Argo having declared with human voice that she could not bear his
weight. Nevertheless Demaratus has recorded that Hercules sailed to Colchis; for Dionysius even affirms that he was the leader
of the Argonauts.3
1 As to Hylas and Herakles, compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1207ff.; Theocritus xiii.; Ant. Lib. 26; Orphica, Argonautica 646ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon. iii.521ff.; Prop. i.20.17ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 14; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 18, 140 (First Vatican Mythographer 49; Second Vatican Mythographer 199). It is said that down to comparatively late times the natives continued to sacrifice to Hylas at the spring where he had disappeared, that the priest used to call on him thrice by name, and that the echo answered thrice (Ant. Lib. 26).
2 Compare Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1321ff., 1345ff.
3 The opinions of the ancients were much divided as to the share Herakles took in the voyage of the Argo. See Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1290. In saying that Herakles was left behind in Mysia and returned to Argos, our author follows, as usual, the version of Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1273ff. According to another version, after Herakles was left behind by the Argo in Mysia, he made his way on foot to Colchis （Theocritus xiii.73ff.）. Herodotus says （Hdt. 1.193） that at Aphetae in Thessaly the hero landed from the Argo to fetch water and was left behind by Jason and his fellows. From the present passage of Apollodorus it would seem that in this account Herodotus was following Pherecydes. Compare Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἀφεταί.
Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.
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