Calling for a Hero II Heracles (Hercules) Part 3 Happy Ever After

Having performed all twelve labours Heracles was now free from any more obligations to Eurystheus. He was left to his own device. Eurytus, king of Oechalia, was offering his daughter's hand in marriage, if one of the suitors could defeat him or his sons in the archery contest. While Heracles was receiving education, Eurytus had taught archery to the young Heracles, which the king was soon to regret. He sought advice from thePythia of Delphi, to help cure his disease, but she refused to give advice. Heracles angrily took the tripod and told her he will set up his own oracle. Apollo came to his priestess' aid and would have fought Heracles, had not Zeus separated the two with a thunderbolt. Heracles just wanted advice from the oracle, not a fight with Apollo. While Apollo felt admiration for Heracles' boldness, the god ordered his priestess to response to the hero's request. The oracle told Heracles, he must sell himself as a slave, as punishment for the murder and a cure for his disease.

Hermes made the arrangement to sell Heracles. Heracles was sold to Omphale queen of Lydia. All the gold from the transaction was given to Eurytus as compensation for the murder of the king's son, though Eurytus refused to accept it. She made him dressed in women clothing and doing needlework with the other ladies. Faunus, a woodland god and follower of Pan and Dionysus, tried to rape Omphale. He entered the chamber at night, and felt woman's silken garment. Faunus was astonished to feel hairy bottoms, when he lift what he thought was queen's garment. Before he could penetrate the supposed queen, Heracles immediately woke and pushed Faunus very hard that the god couldn't get up. NEVER tried to rape a straight guy you get hurt. When Heracles and Omphale could see the intruder in the light, they laughed at the embarrassed god. It was for this reason; he wanted all his followers to come to his rites, naked. She freed the hero after three years of slavery, after a number of services.

Heracles had many other adventures and among them was the battle of Giants, in which he helped his father Zeus to defeat the Giants, in the battle for the control of mount Olympus.
Herakles married again later, with the beautiful Deianira, keeping the promise to her brother Meleager, when he met him in Hades. Deianira, afraid that she might lose him, smeared a cloak she had weaved, with the blood of centaur Nessus, who had given her before he was killed by Herakles, with the promise that whoever wears it, he would love her forever and she believe him.
When Herakles wore the cloak Deianira gave him, the balm burnt his flesh and in order to end his suffering, he ordered his friend to prepare a big pile of wood, on top of the mount Oete. He went by himself in his funeral pyre, when a cloud with lightning descended from the sky and Athena with her chariot carried him to Olympus, where he was welcomed as one of the immortals.

Heracles was the only hero to become a full-fledged god upon his demise, but even in his case there was his mortal aspect to be dealt with. Heracles became a god, living in Olympus, because he had performed the twelve labors. He received special consideration because he had aided the Olympians in their epic battle against the Giants. These titanic sons of Earth had stormed the godly citadel in a hail of flaming oaks and rocks. And the deities of Olympus would never have prevailed without Heracles and his bow. By virtue of his spectacular achievements, even by heroic standards but part of him had come not from his father Zeus but from his mortal mother Alcmene, and that part was sent to the Underworld. As a phantasm it eternally roams the Elysian Fields in the company of other heroes. Since he saved Hera from being rape by the giant Porphyrion, Hera reconciled with Heracles. Hera allowed the hero to marry her daughter, Hebe, goddess of youth, and Heracles became father of Alexiares and Anicetus.

As symbol of masculinity and warriorship, Heracles had a number of male lovers. Plutarch, in his Eroticos, maintains that Heracles' male lovers were beyond counting. Of these, the one most closely linked to Heracles is Iolaus. According to a myth thought to be of ancient origins, Iolaus was Heracles' charioteer and squire. Heracles in the end helped Iolaus find a wife. Male couples would go to Iolaus's tomb in Thebes to swear an oath of loyalty to the hero god and to each other.

One of Heracles' male lovers, and one represented in ancient as well as modern art, is Hylas. Hylas was a sexual lover as well a companion and servant.

Another reputed male lover of Heracles is Elacatas, who was honored in Sparta with a sanctuary and yearly games, Elacatea. The myth of their love is an ancient one.

Abdera's hero, Abderus, was another of Heracles' lovers. He was said to have been entrusted with—and slain by—the carnivorous mares of Thracian Diomedes I tell you Heracles was crazy. Heracles founded the city of Abdera in Thrace in his memory, where he was honored with athletic games.

Another story is the one of his love for Nireus, who was "the most beautiful man who came beneath Ilion" (Iliad, 673). Pausanias makes mention of Sostratus, a youth of Dyme, Achaea, as a lover of Heracles. Sostratus was said to have died young and to have been buried by Heracles outside the city. The tomb was still there in historical times, and the inhabitants of Dyme honored Sostratus as a hero. There is also rumors of lovers who were fucked by Heracles. Among these are Admetus, who assisted in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar; Adonis, Corythus, and Nestor, who was said to have been loved for his wisdom. His role as lover was perhaps to explain why he was the only son of Neleus to be spared by the hero. 

Meet the lovers of Heracles: