afterwards slain by Hercules with a blow of his fist, (on which account Hercules left Calydon,) was Archias; but in the second book of the Phoronis he calls him Cherias: but Herodorus, in the seventeenth book of his account of the Exploits of Hercules, calls him Eunomus. And Hercules also, without intending it, killed Cyathus, the son of Pyles and brother of Antimachus, who was acting as his cupbearer, as Nicander relates in the second book of his History of Œta; to whom also he says that a temple was dedicated by Hercules in the Proschium, which to this day is called the Temple of the Cupbearer.
But we will stop this conversation at this point, and begin the next book with an account of the voracity of Hercules.
BOOK X.
1. But a wise poet should behave
Like one who gives a splendid feast;
And so if he is wise should he
Seek the spectators to delight,
So that each one, when he departs,
May think that he has drunk and eaten
Exactly what he'd most have wish'd;
Not that there should have been but one
Dish for all sorts of appetites,
Or but one kind of writing for all tastes.
These, my good friend Timocrates, are the words of Astydamas the tragedian, in his satyric drama of Hercules. Come, let us now proceed to mention what is consistent with what we have said before, to show how great an eater Hercules was. And this is a point in his character mentioned by nearly all poets and historians. Epicharmus, in his Busiris, says—
For if you were to see him eat, you would
Be frighten'd e'en to death; his jaws do creak,
His throat with long deep-sounding thunder rolls,
His large teeth rattle, and his dog-teeth crash,
His nostrils hiss, his ears with hunger tremble.
And Ion, in his Omphale, having mentioned his voracity, adds—
And then, excited by th' applause, he rose
And swallow'd all the logs and burning coals.
