the worship of hercules in tyre.—the tyrians refuse to admit alexander.

the reason of this demand was, that in tyre there existed a temple of heracles,298 the most ancient of all those which are mentioned in history. it was not dedicated to the argive heracles, the son of alcmena; for this heracles was honoured in tyre many generations before cadmus set out from phoenicia and occupied thebes, and before semele, the daughter of cadmus, was born, from whom dionysus, the son of zeus, was born. this dionysus 118would be third from cadmus, being a contemporary of labdacus, son of polydorus, the son of cadmus; and the argive heracles lived about the time of oedipus, son of laius.299 the egyptians also worshipped another heracles, not the one which either the tyrians or greeks worship. but herodotus says that the egyptians considered heracles to be one of the twelve gods,300 just as the athenians worshipped a different dionysus, who was the son of zeus and core; and the mystic chant called iacchus was sung to this dionysus, not to th ligaturee theban. so also i think that the heracles honoured in tartessus301 by the iberians, where are certain pillars named after heracles, is the tyrian heracles; for tartessus was a colony of the ph?nicians, and the temple to heracles there was built and the sacrifices offered after the usage of the ph?nicians. hecataeus the historian302 says geryones, against whom the argive heracles was despatched by eurystheus to drive his oxen away and bring them to mycenae, had nothing to do with the land of the iberians;303 nor was heracles despatched to any island 119called erythia304 outside the great sea; but that geryones was king of the mainland (epirus) around ambracia305 and the amphilochians, that heracles drove the oxen from this epirus, and that this was deemed no mean task. i know that to the present time this part of the mainland is rich in pasture land and rears a very fine breed of oxen; and i do not think it beyond the bounds of probability that the fame of the oxen from epirus, and the name of the king of epirus, geryones, had reached eurystheus. but i do not think that eurystheus would know the name of the king of the iberians, who were the remotest nation in europe, or whether a fine breed of oxen grazed in their land, unless some one, by introducing hera into the account, as herself giving these commands to heracles through eurystheus, wished, by means of the fable, to disguise the incredibility of the tale.

to this tyrian heracles, alexander said he wished to offer sacrifice. but when this message was brought to tyre by the ambassadors, the people passed a decree to obey any other command of alexander, but not to admit into the city any persian or macedonian; thinking that under the existing circumstances, this was the most specious answer, and that it would be the safest course for them to pursue in reference to the issue of the war, which was still uncertain.306 when the answer from tyre 120was brought to alexander, he sent the ambassadors back in a rage. he then summoned a council of his companions and the leaders of his army, together with the captains of infantry and cavalry, and spoke as follows:—