that the labours (in which, by the way, his soul delighted) were all occasioned by the folly of that charioteer's father, Iphiclus. It was an odd time to twit his comrade and his brother's son with that brother's errors, when a fight with Ares, the god of war, was imminent. Iolaus's answer is more to the point. He bids his chief rely on Zeus and Poseidon for victory in the encounter, and urges him to don his armour in readiness for a fray in which the race of Alcæus, to which Hercules putatively belongs, shall get the victory:—
Elate of thought: for he had spoken words
Most welcome. Then in winged accents thus:
'Jove-fostered hero, it is e'en at hand,
The battle's rough encounter: thou, as erst,
In martial prudence firm, aright, aleft,
With vantage of the fray unerring guide
Areion, huge and sable-maned; and me
Aid in the doubtful conflict, as thou may'st.'"
—E. 157-165.
It would appear that the horse here mentioned owes its prominence to being of divine strain, and the offspring of the sea-god. The other member of the pair is not named, because of the transcendent breed of its yoke-fellow, who is, in the twenty-third book of the Iliad, said to belong to Adrastus.
But now the hero begins his war-toilet, donning his greaves of mountain-brass, the corselet which is Athena's gift, and the sword from the same donor, which he slings athwart his shoulders. Of the arrows in his quiver the poet says—
