and in heaven he was given the boon of immortality and wedded Hebe, the daughter of Hera. With Hera herself he was at last reconciled, while Deianeira, when she contemplated the result of her awful deed, hanged herself.
The Descendants of Herakles.—The sons of Herakles, the issue of his many amours at home and abroad, were in number as the sands of the sea. Of them all Herakles' favourite was Hyllos, a son of Deianeira, and to him the hero gave the kingship of the Dorians, thus establishing the traditional bond between his line and the Dorian stock. On his father's death Hyllos married Iole. The children of Herakles, now fearing Eurystheus, fled to Trachis, and thence, still menaced, to various parts of Hellas. In the course of their wanderings they came to Athens, begging for protection, and the Athenians, by giving them an army, did better for them than the fugitives had dared to hope, for the united forces routed the foe, and Hyllos, pursuing Eurystheus as far as the Skironian rocks, slew him. The Heraklids then overran the Peloponnesos, but on the advent of a plague they obeyed the injunction of an oracle and withdrew to Marathon, where they established a colony. Some time later Hyllos again sought the advice of an oracle and received the response that he and his brothers would come into their own "at the end of the third harvest." Interpreting this literally, as was natural, they made several unsuccessful attempts against the Peloponnesos, in an early one of which Hyllos lost his life in a duel with Echemos of Tegea. Finally the god made known to the remaining brothers that the "three harvests" referred to three human generations, and thus, patiently awaiting the end of this period, they achieved their desire' and divided the Peloponnesos into three parts, Argos, Lakedaimon, and Messene, each part being assigned to a branch of the family.
