Shield Of Heracles Audiobook

Shield Of Heracles audiobook with text and illustrations, and dramatized 🎵 with sound effects and music, by Audiobooks Dimension.

Title : Shield Of Heracles (Ἀσπὶς Ἡρακλέους)
Author : Hesiod (Ἡσίοδος)
Written : 700 BCE
Place of Origin : Ancient Greece
Original Media type : Papyrus
Original Language : Ancient Greek
Translator : Hugh G. Evelyn White
Genre(s) : Ancient Greece, Epic, Greek Mythology
Narrator : Arthur Krolman
Musician : Aakash Gandhi
Editor : AudioBooks Dimension

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Dramatized 🎵

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Shield Of Heracles (Shield Of Herakles | Aspis Herakleous | Ἀσπὶς Ἡρακλέους) is a poem of 480 hexameter lines written by an unknown Greek poet in the style of Hesiod (lived 8th century BCE). It deals with the Greek hero Heracles (also known as Hercules) and his nephew Iolaus and their battle with Cycnus, son of the war-god Ares. It is unclear when the action of the poem takes place in the story of Heracles' life in myth and legend, but in the story Heracles and Iolaus are on their way to the city of Trachis (where Heracles and his second wife Deinara lived toward the end of their lives, but no mention is made of her or of any other events in the hero's life besides his birth) when they meet Cycnus and Ares.

Cyncus was a cruel despot of Thessaly who invited guests to dinner and then murder them. He also would rob those pilgrims who were enroute to the sanctuary of the god Apollo to make sacrifices and leave gifts and offerings. One day, as Heracles and Iolaus were traveling in their chariot through the country, they met Cycnus and Ares in their own chariot coming from the other direction. They both stopped near the sanctuary of Apollo, where Cycnus challenged Heracles to single combat. Apollo, abiding close by in his sanctuary, stirred Heracles' blood to accept the challenge (even though, considering Heracles' temper and general character in the myths, he would have needed no encouragement).

The poem was thought to be an original work by Hesiod but was already suspect as the work of another by around the 3rd century BCE. Some modern-day sources continue to attribute the work to Hesiod even though by now it has long been established as the work of another writing in Hesiod's style. The poem borrows heavily from Homer's Iliad, chapter 18, in which he describes the shield of Achilles. The author of The Shield of Heracles took some lines directly from Iliad and only modified others, but the majority of the poem is an original work. It was very popular in Greece, particularly Athens, in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, and the story inspired representations in art on vases and drinking vessels.

Critics who consider The Shield of Heracles at best a mediocre piece of rhapsodic extrapolation feel that our one and only debt to its composer is due him for having preserved in the first 56—or most likely just the first 54—lines of the introduction to his poem our best fragment from the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (the Eoiai). The poem may not rival the best in Homer or Hesiod, but once the piece was declare un-Hesiodic, the wrath of the critics fell upon it with vehemence greater than it deserves.

With the exception of the famous grammarian Aristophanes of Byzantium (257 - 180 BCE), the ancients treated The Shield of Heracles as unquestionably Hesiodic. No less an authority than Apollonios of Rhodes considered the poem genuinely Hesiodic, and the poet Stesichorus, probably born no later than 629 BCE, did not question its attribution to Hesiod. Modern scholars pit themselves against the weight of ancient opinion on the grounds that, except for the portion that clearly belongs to The Catalogue of Women, the poem is rife with repetitious and overexpanded similes and, in general, its structure is unbalanced and uneven.

Some scholars have suggested that the composer might be a Thessalian. The city of Pagasai, where famous sanctuary of Apollo was built, was most likely founded by Pherai, and it developed into Thessaly's most important port. The powerful local Thessalian kings who came into power after the end of the Sacred War (590 BCE), which was waged over the control of Delphi, fought on the victorious side and looked upon their lands as closely allied with Delphi. The prominence given to Pagasai in The Shield of Heracles and the mention of several Thessalian cities may possible speak for a Thessalian author, or at least for a traveling rhapsode who produced a piece on commission given to him by Thessalian potentates. But the author might also be a Theban, or at least a Boeotian.

It should be remembered that, although the Boeotians were members of the alliance that was bound by oath to protect the Delphic santuary and they fought together with the Thessalians in the Sacred War, there must have been tensions and rivalries within this sacred alliance over claims of primacy and prestige. In the Hesiodic fragment the constitutes the proem to the whole composition it is the Boeotians who, together with the Locrians and Phocians, battle the Taphians and the Teleboans under the leadership of Amphitryon, father of Heracles and originally a Theban hero (although he was the son of the king of Tiryns). The city of peace and feasting is doubtless Thebes. Also the hero and demigod Heracles, whose fabulous shield is the subject of the poem, kill Cycnus, a Thessalian robber and son-in-law of the prominent Thessalian king. Such a poem could be easily used as a piece of Theban and thinly masked anti-Thessalian propaganda, especially at a time when other Theban cities, such as Plataea, accepted Theban hegemony with little enthusiasm.

If indeed The Shield of Heracles is not Hesiodic, the prevailing opinion of scholars may come reasonably close to its actual date of composition. The proposed date of 590 - 560 BCE would place The Shield of Heracles roughly one hundred years after the end of Hesiod's floruit. Unfortunately, nothing in the poem helps us fix its date with any amount of certainty.

In most editions and scholarly works The Shield of Heracles is listed as pseudo-Hesiodic. No matter how scholars understand this term, its pejorative denotation has not made it easy for critics to approach it with an open mind.

The Shield of Heracles is not a mediocre piece but a powerful poem in which the personification of the gruesome and the macabre interlace in a horrific phantasmagoria of apocalyptic power. It is a work of a poetic mind that was in tune with such developments in the seventh and sixth centuries as give us masterpieces in vase painting and sculpture. To judge it by Homeric standards is to place it outside its proper context. 

Film Adaptations :
Hercules (1958)
Hercules (1983)
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995 - 1999)
Hercules (1997)
Young Hercules (1998)
Hercules and Xena (1998)
Hercules (2005)
Hercules (2014)
The Legend of Hercules (2014)

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Persons mentioned in Shield Of Heracles :

1. Aegeus (Αἰγεύς) : one of the kings of Athens, who gave his name to the Aegean Sea, was the father of Theseus, and founded Athenian institutions.
2. Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος) : a Mycenaean prince. He was a son of Perseus and Andromeda and thus the brother of Perses, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, Electryon, Cynurus, Gorgophone and Autochthe. Alcaeus was married either to Astydameia, the daughter of Pelops and Hippodamia, or Laonome, daughter of Guneus, or else Hipponome, daughter of Menoeceus, by whom he became the father of Amphitryon, Anaxo and Perimede.
3. Alcides : an alternative name for Heracles.
4. Alcmena (Ἀλκμήνη) : the wife of Amphitryon, by whom she bore two children, Iphicles and Laonome. She is best known as the mother of Heracles, whose father was the god Zeus. Alcmene was also referred to as Electryone (Ἠλεκτρυώνη), a patronymic name as a daughter of Electryon. Alcmene was born to Electryon, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Tiryns and Mycenae. Hesiod describes Alcmene as the tallest, most beautiful woman with wisdom surpassed by no person born of mortal parents. It is said that her face and dark eyes were as charming as Aphrodite's, and that she honoured her husband like no woman before her.
5. Amphitryon (Ἀμφιτρύων) : a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in Argolis. Amphitryon was the brother of Anaxo (wife of Electryon), and Perimede, wife of Licymnius. He was a husband of Alcmene, Electryon's daughter, and stepfather of the Greek hero Heracles. Amphitryon was born in Tiryns, in Argolis in the eastern part of the Peloponnese, he became King of Troezen and regent of Mycenae. He was a friend of Panopeus. Having accidentally killed his prospective father-in-law, Electryon, king of Mycenae, Amphitryon was driven out of Mycenae by Electryon's brother, Sthenelus. He fled with Alcmene to Thebes, where he was cleansed from the guilt of blood by Creon, king of Thebes. Alcmene, who was pregnant and had been betrothed to Amphitryon by her father, refused to marry him until he had avenged the deaths of her brothers, all but one of whom had fallen in battle against the Taphians. (It was on his return from this expedition that Electryon had been killed.) Amphitryon accordingly took the field against the Taphians, accompanied by Creon, who had agreed to assist him on condition that he slew the Teumessian fox which had been sent by Dionysus to ravage the Theban countryside.
6. Ampyce (Ἄμπυκος) : a Titaresian seer. He fathered Mopsus with the nymph Chloris. His son Mopsus joined the Argonauts after he was slain.
7. Cadmus (Κάδμος) : the legendary Greek hero and founder of Boeotian Thebes. He was, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, the greatest hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. Commonly stated to be a prince of Phoenicia, the son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre, the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa.
8. Caeneus (Καινεύς) : a Lapith hero of Thessaly. Caeneus was originally a woman named Caenis, Poseidon wished to sleep with her, but Caenis made him promise her a favour in exchange for hers; he did, and she asked to be transformed into a man, whereupon he granted her wish, but due to her change he failed to fulfill his own.
9. Ceyx (Κήϋξ) : a king of Trachis in Thessaly. Ceyx befriended Heracles and offered him protection against King Eurystheus. Ceyx's son Hippasus accompanied Heracles on his campaign against King Eurytus of Oechalia, during which Hippasus was slain in battle. Ceyx was also called the father of Hylas and Themistonoe, who married King Cycnus.
10. Creon (Κρέων) : the ruler of Thebes. Creon and his sister, Jocasta, were descendants of Cadmus and of the Spartoi. He is sometimes considered to be the same person who purified Amphitryon of the murder of his uncle Electryon and father of Megara, first wife of Heracles.
11. Cycnus (Κύκνος) : a bloodthirsty and cruel man who dwelt either in Pagasae, Thessaly or by the river Echedorus in Macedonia. Cycnus was the son of Ares by Pelopia or Pyrene. He married Themistonoe, daughter of King Ceyx of Trachis.
12. Danae (Δανάη) : an Argive princess and mother of the hero Perseus by Zeus. Danae was the daughter and only child of King Acrisius of Argos by his wife Queen Eurydice or Aganippe. Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, King Acrisius asked the oracle of Delphi if this would change. The oracle announced to him that he would never have a son, but his daughter would, and that he would be killed by his daughter's son. At the time, Danaë was childless and, meaning to keep her so, King Acrisius shut her up in a bronze chamber to be constructed under the court of his palace (other versions say she was imprisoned in a tall brass tower with a single richly adorned chamber, but with no doors or windows, just a small air vent as the source of light and air). She was buried in this tomb, with the intent that she be closed off from all others for the rest of her life. However, Zeus, the king of the gods, desired her, and came to her in the form of golden rain which streamed in through the roof of the subterranean chamber and down into her womb. Soon after, their child Perseus was born. Unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods or the Furies by killing his offspring and grandchild, King Acrisius cast Danaë and Perseus into the sea in a wooden chest. The sea was calmed by Poseidon and, at the request of Zeus, the pair survived. They were washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by the fisherman Dictys—the brother of King Polydectes—who raised Perseus to manhood in the temple of Athena. The King was charmed by Danaë, but she had no interest in him. Consequently, he agreed not to marry her only if her son would bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa.
13. Dryas (Δρύας) : a leader of the Lapiths against the Centaurs, and a participant of the battle that began at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodamia, where he killed the Centaur Rhoetus, who had killed his fellow Lapiths Corythus and Euagrus just before that.
14. Electyron (Ἠλεκτρύων) : a king of Tiryns and Mycenae. He was the son of Perseus and Andromeda and thus brother of Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, Cynurus, Gorgophone and Autochthe.
15. Eniocha (Ἡνιόχη) : wife of King Creon of Thebes.
16. Eurystheus (Εὐρυσθεύς) : the king of Tiryns, one of three Mycenaean strongholds in the Argolid, although other authors including Homer and Euripides cast him as ruler of Argos. In the contest of wills between Hera and Zeus over whose candidate would be hero, fated to defeat the remaining creatures representing an old order and bring about the reign of the Twelve Olympians, Eurystheus was Hera's candidate and Heracles—though his name implies that at one archaic stage of myth-making he had carried "Hera's fame"—was the candidate of Zeus. The arena for the actions that would bring about this deep change are the Twelve Labors imposed on Heracles by Eurystheus. The immediate necessity for the Labours of Heracles is as penance for Heracles' murder of his own family, in a fit of madness, which had been sent by Hera.
17. Exadius : one of the Lapiths fought against the Centaurs.
18. Heracles (Ἡρακλῆς) : a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon. He was a descendant and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae (Ἡρακλεῖδαι), and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters.
19. Hopleus (Ὁπλεύς) : one of the Lapiths fought against the Centaurs.
20. Iolaus (Ἰόλαος) : a Theban divine hero. He was famed for being Heracles' charioteer and squire, and for helping with some of his Labors, as well as for being one of the Argonauts. Iolaus was the son of Iphicles and Automedusa, daughter of King Alcathous of Megara. He married Megara, and through her became the father of Leipephilene. Through this daughter, Iolaus was considered to have fathered the mythic and historic line of the kings of Corinth, ending with Telestes.
21. Iphiclus (Ἴφικλος) : son of Alcmene and Amphitryon.
22. Lynceus (Λυγκεύς) : a king of Argos, succeeding Danaus on the throne. Lynceus was named as a descendant of Belus through his father Aegyptus, who was the twin brother of Danaus, father of fifty daughters called Danaïdes. He had forty-nine siblings and out of them had five full brothers namely Proteus, Busiris, Enceladus Lycus and Daiphron through their mother Argyphia, a woman of royal blood. By Hypermnestra, Lynceus became the father of Abas, who succeeded him as king and became grandfather of Danae, mother of Perseus.
23. Mopsus (Μόψος) : the Lapith son of Ampyce and a nymph, born at Titaressa in Thessaly, was also a seer and augur. This Mopsus was one of two seers among the Argonauts, and was said to understand the language of birds, having learned augury from Apollo. He had competed at the funeral-games for Jason's father and was among the Lapiths who fought the Centaurs. While travelling across the Libyan desert, Mopsus died from the bite of a viper that had grown from a drop of Medusa's blood. Medea was unable to save him, even by magical means. The Argonauts buried him with a monument by the sea, and a temple was later erected on the site.
24. Peirithous (Πειρίθοος) : the King of the Lapiths of Larissa in Thessaly. He was a son of "heavenly" Dia, fathered either by Ixion or by Zeus. He married Hippodamia, daughter of Atrax or Butes, at whose wedding the famous Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs occurred. By his wife, he became the father of Polypoetes, one of the Greek leaders during the Trojan War. Pirithous was also the close friend of the hero Theseus.
25. Perseus (Περσεύς) : the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal Danaë, as well as the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles (as they were both children of Zeus, and Heracles' mother was descended from Perseus).
26. Phalereus : one of the Lapiths fought against the Centaurs.
27. Prolochus : one of the Lapiths fought against the Centaurs.
28. Themistinoe : a daughter of Ceyx of Trachis, and a wife of Cycnus.
29. Theseus (Θησεύς) : a divine hero and the founder of Athens. The most famous legend about Theseus is his slaying of the Minotaur, half man and half bull.

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Deities mentioned in Shield Of Heracles :

1. Aphrodite (Αφροδιτη) : the Olympian goddess goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretized Roman goddess counterpart Venus, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. Aphrodite's major symbols include seashells, myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans.
2. Apollo (Απολλων) : the Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease, and the protection of the young. He was depicted as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and attributes such as a wreath and branch of laurel, bow and quiver of arrows, raven, and lyre.
3. Ares (Αρης) : the Olympian god of war, battlelust, courage and civil order.
4. Athene (Αθηνη) : the Olympian goddess of wisdom and good counsel, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour, weaving, pottery and various other crafts. She was depicted as a stately woman armed with a shield and spear, and wearing a long robe, crested helm, and the famed aigis--a snake-trimmed cape adorned with the monstrous visage of the Gorgon Medousa (Medusa).
5. Atropos (Ἄτροπος) : one of the three Moirai, goddesses of fate and destiny. Atropos was the eldest of the Three Fates, and was known as "the Inflexible One." It was Atropos who chose the manner of death and ended the life of mortals by cutting their threads.
6. Clotho (Κλωθώ) : the youngest goddess of the Three Fates or Moirai. She spins the thread of human life. She also made major decisions, such as when a person was born, thus in effect controlling people's lives. This power enabled her not only to choose who was born, but also to decide when deities or mortals were to be saved or put to death.
7. Darkness of Death or Keres (Κηρες) : female spirits (daimones) of violent or cruel death, including death in battle, by accident, murder or ravaging disease.
8. Demeter (Δημητηρ) : the Olympian goddess of agriculture, grain and bread who sustained mankind with the earth's rich bounty. She presided over the foremost of the Mystery Cults which promised its intiates the path to a blessed afterlife in the realm of Elysium. Demeter was depicted as a mature woman, often wearing a crown and bearing sheafs of wheat or a cornucopia (horn of plenty), and a torch.
9. Dionysus (Διονυσος) : the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness and wild frenzy. He was depicted as either an older, bearded god or an effeminate, long-haired youth. His attributes included the thyrsos (a pine-cone tipped staff), a drinking cup and a crown of ivy. He was usually accompanied by a troop of Satyrs and Mainades (wild female devotees).
10. Dread : same deity as Fear (Deimos).
11. Fates or Moirai (Μοιραι) : the three goddesses of fate who personified the inescapable destiny of man. They assigned to every person his or her fate or share in the scheme of things.
12. Fear or Deimos (Δεῖμος) : the personification of fear. He is the son of Ares and Aphrodite, and the brother of Phobos. Deimos served to represent the feelings of dread and terror that befell those before a battle.
13. Flight or Ioke (Ιωκη) : the female personification (daimona) of onslaught, battle-tumult, pursuit and rout. She was one of the spirits of the aigis (aegis)—the tasselled arm-guard of Zeus—alongside Alke (Battle-Strength), Eris (Strife) and Phobos (Terror). Alke was perhaps the same as Proioxis and was likely numbered amongst the Makhai (Machae) (Battle-Spirits).
14. Hades (Ἁιδης) : the king of the underworld and god of the dead. He presided over funeral rites and defended the right of the dead to due burial. Haides was also the god of the hidden wealth of the earth, from the fertile soil with nourished the seed-grain, to the mined wealth of gold, silver and other metals.
15. Hephaestus (Ἡφαιστος) : the Olympian god of fire, smiths, craftsmen, metalworking, stonemasonry and sculpture. He was depicted as a bearded man holding a hammer and tongs--the tools of a smith--and sometimes riding a donkey.
16. Lachesis (Λάχεσις) : the middle of the Three Fates, or Moirai. Lachesis is the measurer of the thread spun on Clotho's spindle, and determines Destiny, or thread of life. Lachesis was the apportioner, deciding how much time for life was to be allowed for each person or being She measured the thread of life with her rod. She is also said to choose a person's destiny after a thread was measured. In mythology, it is said that she appears with her sisters within three days of a baby's birth to decide the baby's fate.
17. Leto (Λητω) : one of the Titanides (female Titans), a bride of Zeus, and the mother of the twin gods Apollon and Artemis. She was the goddess of motherhood and, with her children, a protectress of the young. Her name and iconography suggest she was also a goddess of modesty and womanly demure. Like her sister Asteria she may also have been a goddess of the night, or alternatively of the light of day.
18. Muses (Μουσαι) : the goddesses of music, song and dance, and the source of inspiration to poets. They were also goddesses of knowledge, who remembered all things that had come to pass.
19. Panic or Phobos (Φόβος) : the god and personification of panic, flight and rout. Phobos was the son of Ares and Aphrodite, and the brother of Deimos.
20. Pursuit or Proiôxis (Προιωξις) : the personified spirit (daimona) of onrush and pursuit in battle. She and her sister Palioxis (Backrush) presided over the surge of battle. She was probably numbered amongst the Makhai (Machae), daimones of the battlefield.
21. Sirius (Σειριος) : the god or goddess of the Dog-Star, the brightest star of the constellation Canis Major. The pre-dawn rising of the star in the path of the sun was believed to be the source of the scorching heat and droughts of midsummer. Seirios appears in many guises in myth. He or she was variously described as Maira (Maera) daughter of the Titan Atlas, Maira the dog of the hero Ikarios (Icarius), Lailaps (Laelaps) the hound of Orion, and Kyon Khryseos the golden-hound of Zeus. It may also have been associated with Orthros ("Morning Twilight") the hound of Geryon, giant of the west. The star was no doubt also connected with the dog-loving goddess Hekate who was the daughter of Perses "the Destroyer" and Asteria "the Starry One."
22. Slaughter or Phonoi (Φονοι) : the personified spirits (daimones) of murder, killing and slaughter. Their sisters, the Androktasiai, presided over battlefield slaughter while the Phonoi were spirits of murder and killing outside of war.
23. Strife or Eris (Ερις) : the goddess or personified spirit (daimona) of strife, discord, contention and rivalry. She was often portrayed, more specifically, as the daimona of the strife of war, haunting the battlefield and delighting in human bloodshed.
24. Tumult or Homados (Ὁμαδος) : the personified spirit (daimon) of the din of battle--the shouts and cries of men and the clashing of weapons. He was probably numbered amongst the Makhai (Machae), the daimones of the battlefield.
25. Uproar or Kydoimos (Κυδοιμος) : the personified spirit (daimon) of battlefield confusion, din and uproar. He was probably numbered amongst the Makhai (Machae), daimones of the battlefield. Kydoimos was similar to Homados (Battle-Noise).
26. Zeus (Ζευς) : the King of the Gods and the god of the sky, weather, law and order, destiny and fate, and kingship. He was depicted as a regal, mature man with a sturdy figure and dark beard. His usual attributes were a lightning bolt, a royal sceptre and an eagle.

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Other Beings mentioned in Shield Of Heracles :

1. Arctus (Ἄρκτον) : a centaur who fought against the Lapith spearmen.
2. Arion (Ἀρίων) : a divinely-bred, fabulously fast, black-maned horse, born to the goddess Demeter after Poseidon raped her in the guise of a horse. It was first owned by the Arkadian Onkios (Oncius), then Herakles (Heracles) and finally Adrastos (Adrastus).
3. Asbolus (Ἄσβολον) : a centaur. He was a seer and Hesiod calls him an augur (oionistes οἰωνιστής) who read omens in the flight of birds. Asbolus foresaw the Centaurs' battle against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding, and unsuccessfully attempted to prevent them from attending.
4. Centaurs (κένταυρος) : a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly.
5. Dryalus (Δρύαλόν) : the Centaur son of Peuceus and brother of Perimedes. He attended Pirithous’ and Hippodameia’s wedding, and together with his kind, they fought against the Lapiths during the celebrated Centauromachy.
6. Gorgons (Γοργώνες) : three monstrous sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, said to be the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. They lived near their sisters the Graeae, and were able to turn anyone who looked at them to stone. Euryale and Stheno were immortal, but Medusa was not.
7. Mimas (Μιμας) : a centaur who fought against the Lapith spearmen.
8. Perimedes (Περιμήδης) : the Centaur son of Peuceus and brother of Dryalus. He attended Pirithous’ and Hippodameia’s wedding, and together with his kind, they fought against the Lapiths during the celebrated Centauromachy.
9. Petraeus (Πετραίῳ) : a centuar, son of Carystus (son of Chiron) and father of Zarex, adopted father of Anius.
10. Peuceus (Πευκεΐδας) : the centaur father of Perimedes and Dryalus, these two attended Pirithous’ and Hippodameia’s wedding and fought against the Lapiths during the celebrated Centauromachy.
11. Ureus (Οὔρειόν) : a centaur who attended Pirithous’ and Hippodameia’s wedding. Together with his kin, they fought against the Lapiths during the celebrated Centauromachy.

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Places mentioned in Shield Of Heracles :

1. Anaurus (Ἄναυρος) : a torrent near the ancient city of Iolcus flowing from Mount Pelion into the Pagasetic Gulf. The hero Jason was said to have lost a sandal in its waters, as he ferried the disguised goddess Hera across its stream.
2. Anthe : alternate name of Anthela (Ἀνθήλη), a town and polis (city-state) of Malis in Ancient Thessaly.
3. Anthea (Ἄνθεια) : a town in ancient Achaea.
4. Arne (Ἄρνη) : the chief city of the Aeolian Boeotians in ancient Thessaly, which was said to have derived its name from the mythological Arne, a daughter of Aeolus. The town was said to have been founded three generations before the Trojan War.
5. Hades (Ἁιδης) : the land of the dead--the final resting place for departed souls. It was a dark and dismal realm where bodiless ghosts flitted across the grey fields of asphodel. The Homeric poets knew of no Elysian Fields or Tartarean Hell, rather all shades—heroes and villians alike—came to rest in the gloom of Haides. In the Iliad the realm is a damp and mouldy place hidden inside the hollows of the earth. The dead crossed a river, passed through gates guarded by the Hound, and presented themselves before the king and queen of the underworld, Hades and Persephone. The ghosts of the unburied were allowed to return to the realm above to visit the living in the form of dreams and demand a proper burial. The land of Hades was quite distinct from Tartarus—prison-house of the Titanes—which is described as lying as far beneath Hades as the earth beneath the heavens.
6. Helice (Ἑλίκη) : an ancient Greek polis (city-state) located in the regional unit of Achaea, northern Peloponnesos.
7. Iolcus (Ἰωλκός) : a polis (city-state) in Magnesia, ancient Thessaly.
8. Ocean : the great river which encircled the entire world.
9. Olympus (Όλυμπος) : the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa and Pieria. Olympus is the home of the Greek gods, on Mytikas peak.
10. Pagasaean : a rounded gulf in the Magnesia regional unit (east central Greece) that is formed by the Mount Pelion peninsula. It is connected with the Euboic Sea.
11. Phicium (Φάκιον) : a settlement and possible polis (city-state) of ancient Thessaly.
12. Pieria (Πιερία) : one of the regional units of Greece located in the southern part of the Region of Central Macedonia, within the historical province of Macedonia. Pieria contains Mount Pierus, from which Hermes takes flight in order to visit Calypso, and is the home of Orpheus, the Muses, and contains the Pierian Spring. Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and throne of the ancient Greek gods, is located in the southern part of Pieria.
13. Pylos (Πύλος) : a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Pylos has been inhabited since Neolithic times. It was a significant kingdom in Mycenaean Greece.
14. Pytho (Πυθώ) : also known as Delphi (Δελφοί), an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi (navel).
15. Tartarus (Τάρταρος) : the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans.
16. Thebes (Θῆβαι) : a city in Boeotia, Central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others.
17. Tiryns (Τίρυνς) : a hill fort with occupation ranging back seven thousand years, from before the beginning of the Bronze Age. It reached its height of importance between 1400 and 1200 BCE, when it became one of the most important centers of the Mycenaean world, and in particular in Argolis. It is the location from which the mythical hero Heracles was said to have performed his Twelve Labours.
18. Titaresia (Τιταρήσιος) : a river in Thessaly, Greece.  It is a major tributary of the Pineios. The river begins at the western slopes of Mount Olympus and flows southwest, then south. It leaves the mountains near the village Sykia, and turns east near the village Vlachogianni. It passes along the town Tyrnavos and flows into the Pineios near the village Rodia.
19. Trachis (Τραχίς) : a region in ancient Greece. Situated south of the river Spercheios, it was populated by the Malians. It was also a polis (city-state).
20. Typhaonium : a mountain near Thebes, which had Typhon buried under.

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Terms mentioned in Shield Of Heracles :

1. Altar of Pagasaean Apollo : the shrine of Apollo near Troezen, a small town that came into being as a result of two ancient cities, Hyperea and Antheia, being unified by Pittheus, who named the new city in honor of his deceased brother, Troezen.
2. Boeotians : the inhabitants of Boeotia (Βοιωτία), a region of ancient Greece north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth.
3. Earth-Shaker : the title of the god Poseidon.
4. Lapith (Λαπίθαι) : a group of legendary people in Greek mythology, who lived in Thessaly in the valley of the Peneus and on the mountain Pelion. They were believed to have descended from the mythical Lapithes, brother of Centaurus, with the two heroes giving their names to the races of the Lapiths and the Centaurs respectively.
5. Locrians (Λοκροί) : an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the region of Locris in Central Greece, around Parnassus. They spoke the Locrian dialect, a Doric-Northwest dialect, and were closely related to their neighbouring tribes, the Phocians and the Dorians.
6. Lord of War : an epithet of the god Ares.
7. Myrmidons (Μυρμῐδόνες) : an ancient Thessalian Greek tribe.
8. Pallas : an epithet of the goddess Athene.
9. Phocians : the inhabitants of Phocis (Φωκίς), an ancient region in the central part of Ancient Greece, which included Delphi.
10. Phoebus (Φοῖβος) : chief epithet of the god Apollo, means the shining, pure or bright.
11. Taphians (Τάφιοι) : the seagoing and piratical inhabitants of the islands of Taphos (Τάφος) in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Acarnania in northwestern Greece.
12. Teleboans (Τηλεβόαι) : an Acarnanian tribe. They were said to descend from one Teleboas, a son of Pterelaus and brother of Taphius, the eponym of the Taphians. After dwelling for a time on the mainland, the Teleboans settled on the island of Taphos which was populated by their kinsmen. From the island the two tribes led piratical raids across Greece, and the names "Teleboan" and "Taphian" were later taken to refer to any inhabitant of Taphos. The Taphians and Teleboans murdered the brothers of Alcmene (to whom both tribes were related), a crime punished by her husband Amphitryon's sacking of their villages with the help of the Boeotians, Locrians and Phocians.
13. The famous Lame One : refer to the god Hephaestus.
14. The father of men and gods : the title of the god Zeus.
15. The son of Cronos : refer to the god Zeus.
16. Tritogeneia (Τριτυγένεια) : an epithet of the goddess Athene.

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