Hylas
(myth) Greece
Lover of Hercules
Thiodamas was killed by Herakles (Hercules) during the latter's campaign against the Dryopians. After slaying him, Herakles kidnapped Hylas and nurtured him from his first childhood. Later Hylas became Heracle's lover and squire.
Together they took part, with a band of bold youths, to the Argonauts expedition that, with Jason, sailed to Colchis, in the eastern coast of what is today known as the Black Sea, in order to fetch the Golden Fleece.
At Mysia, Herakles was cooking for the Argonauts, and Hylas, he went to fetch water in the river Ascanius, with a pitcher of bronze in hand, for the evening meal. He came to the spring called Pegae.
 The dances of the Nymphs were then just being held when he arrived, and that a naiad, who some call Dryope, was just rising from the spring. It was night, for they tell that the full moon beams smote Hylas' face. This naiad, it is told, fell immediately in love with Hylas, and when he dipped the pitcher in the stream, she laid one arm around his neck, yearning to kiss him, and with her other hand she drew him down and plunged him into the water.
But nobody saw anything, and no traces of him were ever found. When this happened, the Argonaut Polyphemus heard Hylas cry out. He then took his sword believing that the handsome young man had been attacked by robbers, and went searching for him. Polyphemus did not find Hylas, but instead fell in with Herakles, and told him that something had happened to their comrade.
Herakles and Polyphemus started then a fruitless search, for Hylas was never seen again. As Hylas never returned, Herakles left the Argonauts, and not knowing why his friend had vanished, went around searching and calling his name aloud.
The Nymphs, fearing that Herakles would finally find him, turned Hylas into an echo, so that when Herakles called "Hylas", he would hear "Hylas" back. Herakles, having done the impossible in order to find his friend, returned and joined the rest of the Argonauts, but that he left Polyphemus in charge of looking for the young man.
But Polyphemus died an old man without ever finding Hylas, and it is said that later sacrifices were offered by the locals to celebrate Hylas, in which the priest called him thrice "Hylas, Hylas, Hylas ...", receiving, as before, the same answer from the echo: "Hylas, Hylas, Hylas ..."
|
