The animalistic and raw condition Heracles was in when he reached the Hesperides in Argonautica was soooo haughty! (Heracles's Grief, an analysis)
I gotta say that I was definitely in for Medea's descend to madness from her unnaturally strong passion for Jason and how that occurred to be the very essence of the story but I think the scenes of Heracles's raw fury, sadness and anger were apparent to the book!
The rawest scene I had perceived though in regards to the hero's deep condition of torment by his labors, something that was not so often described by other mythographers who mostly speak on his human weakness and usually perceive his great strength during those said labors but Apollonius gives us one of the rawest perspectives in regards to his human nature and how even he can be taken over by fatigue, hunger or thirst. In the final book of Argonautica we seem to see a different Heracles; taken over by fatigue and thirst after a long march of survival in the wilderness of the Libiyan desert in a shape more of an animal than of a human; having the lion's skin as his only true protection from the scorching sun, Heracles practically crawled to the Hesperides garden, shooting the dragon that guarded it with his arrows and then in his pursue of water he hit with his foot a rock to the side of the lake Tritonis and found water underneath.
This batted and absolutely taken over image of Heracles seems to me directly linked to his grief as perceived in the very first book of Argonautica where he finds out on Hylas's demise. And let me try and explain why
First and foremost his grief in the first book of Argonautica was arguably one of the most characteristic scenes in the entire book and daresay scarred the first book of Argonautica and kinda was a plot starter for the whole thing:
So he spoke (Polyphemus) and his (Heracles's) salty sweat ran in abundance down his temples while deep in his guts, black blood would be boiling in anger. Furious he threw the fir tree down and he ran down the path, as fast as his feet could carry him. And just like a bull, stung by a horsefly abandons the meadows and the plains and doesn't care for the herder or his herd, tramples over the street, sometimes unstoppable, sometimes standing and raises his wide neck to the air to bellow loudly, taken over by madness: similarly he was in a frenzy while running constantly and when his breath was cut off by fatigue he would release woeful cries as far as he could
(Translation by me)
Honestly guys the comparison of Heracles to a maddened bull (and anyone who has seen videos of charging bulls know how terrifying of a sight that is and how the animals pay no heed about anything or anyone in their way when they are like this), showing how he has lost most of his humanity in his fury and madness and he would stop only to call as far as he could for Hylas to reply, honestly you do not get such a raw representation of pain ever since you saw Achilles mourning Patroclus. There is nothing human in the way Heracles mourns! He is the bull, as Apollonius says, maddened and trampling anything in his path! All he sees is the goal of saving Hylas even if he knows deep down that it is hopeless.
What is also really impactful to me is that Apollonius also reveals to us that Heracles loved Hylas very very much because he had raised him from childhood and he held tender feelings for him because of that bond! So imagine hearing that the child you raised suddenly is lost, gone, potentially drowned. Heracles though cannot accept it! No, he cannot be gone! He cannot be just gone! So he runs around like a mad bull, no longer caring for anything else apart from finding Hylas. Nothing else matters, not even his companions that are left behind waiting.
No, in fact his frenzy is turned towards those companions as well deep down. Why are they looking for Hylas too? Why don't they seem to care at all? Why isn't anyone else even aware that Hylas is gone? There is no more precious companion on that ship to Heracles but Hylas and Hylas is now gone and none of the others seem to care or even noticing his absence!
In Heracles's mind that is arguably the ultimate form of betrayal; that his companions don't seem to care about the most precious person on that ship (because in his mind that is Hylas) and they do not even know he is gone. That fury is described clearly by Apollonius with the way he says that "his black blood was boiling in his guts" (ἐν δὲ κελαινὸν ὑπὸ σπλάγχνοις ζέεν αἷμα) He particularly uses the verb "ζέω" which stands for "to boil" so there is an undoubted fury boiling inside him
His fury doesn't seem to stop existing even years later for we know from traditions that the two sons of Boreas are killed by his own hand when they meet again in Tenos.
According to some traditions Heracles even started a whole tradition around the area where the inhabitants of the area had to keep a lookout for Hylas and let him know if they found him
So Heracles's grief and despair were so great that he needed to keep a useless hope up that Hylas would eventually turn up before he could go about his way
Now apparently Apollonius places the Argonautica somewhere in a break between the 12 labors of Heracles. More specifically he places Argonautica soon after Heracles had finished the labor of capturing the Eurymanthian Boar for it is mentioned that he drops the animal off his shoulders once he heard on the trip and he rushed there with Hylas without expecting Eurystheus to give him the order.
It is unclear whether Apollonius is following some specific order for the labors similar to the one Apollodorous provides or Diodorus Siculus or some other altogether (similar to how the metopes of the temple in Olympia show the order of the labors) but we do seem to know that Argonautica is placed after the belt of Hippolyta but before the cleaning of the Augea's Stables.
It feels like Apollonius doesn't follow the known order of the labors but seems like he follows one closer to the set of metopes from Olympia and possibly the local tradition that Pausanias later gives rather than the usual standard orders
Now one could argue on whether the 12th labor is indeed the clearing of the Augeas's Stables or not but it seems that at least according to the small sample of information Apollonius gives us, he follows an order closer to this set but on different order. Apollonius doesn't even tell us whether Heracles already had an order for his next labor while returning the boar so there is that too.
However regardless of the order, Heracles disappears from the team after they leave without him. His loss has a huge impact to the expedition and it wouldn't be a lie if we said that it is because of that very absence that the whole domino of events starts to unravel and ends up to the bond between Medea and Jason (one can wonder whether the Argonauts would need spells to capture the bulls if they had Heracles with them or if they would take so long to carry their ship across the desert etc)
The absence of Heracles echoes throughout the story but we do see his presence too. More specifically when the heroes find themselves in the 4th book of Argonautica in a tough position where their ship gets stuck, the omen given to Jason seems to be interpreted with the heroes lifting their ship on their shoulders and physically carrying it across the desert to the other side till they find the place Poseidon's horse points them to go! The heroes do so and for 12 days they struggle with the heat and thirst till they get to the land of the Hesperides and there I think we get one of the roughest images of the hero we ever get. The Hesperides seem to tell them how one man came there just one or so day before them and his appearance was the very least dreadful to them:
Ah, verily of great help would have been to your troubles if the most shameless of you had come along, the one that has taken the life of the snake-guardian of the divine golden apples, when he came to take them; leaving us in great distress as he left.
So, yesterday some man reeking of hubris and most terrifying of appearance; his two eyes flashed upon his grim forehead, he was ruthless; upon his shoulders he wore the skin of a huge lion as it was raw and untanned; he also had a sturdy club made of olive wood and a bow with which he shot this monster here, annihilating it with his arrows.
And he too had come like you, traveling on foot through this land and parched in thirst. He dashed wildly about this place, looking for water but there was nowhere to be seen. And then he saw a rock next to the lake Tritonis and either on his own accord or by divine order, he cracked it open by kicking it with his foot; and from the crack water emerged.
He proceeded to fall down to the ground, leaning his ragged torso on his hands on them and started drinking from the rock insatiably, as it came out from the deep crack, stooped down like an animal, until he was finally satisfied
(Translation by me)
Boy! Oh boy! That appearance will definitely be something to remember for the nymphs (and I am surprised that I do not see more people talking about it!). From the fact that he has literally terrible appearance; something that only a man sunken in the world of violence might have plus the eternity in wilderness, being of dreadful appearance and maddened by thirst, bending on the ground, literally crawling on it to take a drink of water!
Heracles doesn't even gather water with his hand to take a drink! He is literally pouched in thirst (δίψῃ καρχαλέος) so he drinks straight from the source, straight from the ground; resembling more of a beast than a human (φορβάδι ἶσος)! He had spent days and days out the desert and finally when he had shot the dragon dead with his arrows he wildly sought water (παίφασσε δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἀνὰ χῶρον) until either he himself spotted a water source or some god or goddess helped him (ὅγ᾽ ἐπιφρασθείς, ἢ καὶ θεοῦ ἐννεσίῃσιν).
The Argonauts proceed upon quenching their thirst to the water that Heracles had released and even recognized how even if he is not with them, Heracles had been saving them! And possibly wonder what would happen if they had him with them. They even rush to seek for him just in case they can catch up with him but they failed.
Now why I think Hylas has something to do with it you may ask?
Well, for starters I do not find it random that Heracles more or less closes the first and the forth book of Argonautica or that he plays a catalytic role to the ending.
The antithesis of Heracles technically be left behind or forgotten in first book vs being sought out desperately in the fourth.
Both incidents of Hylas being lost and Heracles showing signs of life are related to a source of water and a lake.
Hylas was off to the lakes to fetch water and find himself useful to Heracles who was off to make an oar. Now Heracles seems to be actively seeking water by himself.
The one time Hylas had taken equipment with him to fetch the water but at the second Heracles has nothing and he doesn't even think of using one.
Both episodes end with an unsuccessful seek. Heracles at first in mad sorrow seeks for Hylas hopelessly while on the other the Argonauts themselves in some happy hole seek out to find Heracles but fail for probably the hero is already far away.
All of the above makes me think of Heracles having thrown himself to work and to battles or actively seeking around in some mad hope that Hylas would be found. It wouldn't be the first time Heracles was tormented by madness after all.
Apollonius tells us that Polyphemus who was with Heracles for quite some time had tried to find Argo anew (abandoning Heracles) and started following the coastline, hoping to catch up with them, after he had founded a new city. Unfortunately he died along the way. Heracles was nowhere to be found.
The hero continued tirelessly move about the region. That roaming behavior strikes me as someone suffering from grief and sorrow; constantly and aimlessly traveling around trying to fulfill that emptiness inside them, sometimes not even considering their personal needs until they are completely necessary. So probably Heracles continued on foot or even on ships up until some point.
This almost animalistic transformation seems to me a result of the loss of Hylas in such a manner. Similarly to how Heracles had to cleanse himself from the murder of his children with the labors in the first place.
And I think people need to remember how long of a distance that is! If one looks at the map here:
Hylas was lost in Mysia (the red circle) and Heracles was seen again at the area of lake Tritonis (the blue circle). Heracles literally traversed most part of the Mediterranean sea by himself, doing who knows what in-between if we believe the myths already set around him.
No wonder he was in such condition, dried out in thirst, in the middle of the desert, constantly moving! He hadn't even stayed around the area for one day and was already gone.
Somehow the image of the hero in such condition is something that I wish people talked about more because GOSH!
(seriously this soundtrack is playing in my head honestly! Hahaha)
