Heracles and the Girdle of Hippolyte
THE ruler of Troy at this time was Laomedon, father of Priam and a man infamous for not paying his bills.*
Poseidon went undercover as a master stonemason, undertaking to build impregnable walls for the city while Apollo watched the king’s herds. Sure enough, when the work was done Laomedon withheld their wages. So Apollo sent a pestilence, and Poseidon sent a sea-monster.
An oracle assured Laomedon that if he chained his daughter Hesione to rocks on the seashore to satisfy Poseidon’s monster,* Apollo’s plague would be averted too, and Laomedon complied. True to form, however, he first engaged Heracles to rescue Hesione in exchange for a string of fine mares (a gift to his grandfather from Zeus), and then as soon as Hesione was safely home, cancelled delivery.
Grudgingly, Heracles postponed vengeance until Hippolyte’s girdle was in Admete’s hands, breaking his homeward voyage only at Thasos, which he conquered for a friend,* and Toroni,* where he killed two men in a wrestling match.
See Google Maps; Priam was the King at the time of the Siege of Troy: see our posts tagged The Siege of Troy.
Compare the story of Perseus and Andromeda.
Thasos lies in the north Aegean. See Google Maps. The friend was Androgeus, a son of Minos and Pasiphaë, who was later assassinated in Athens. When Minos heard the news, he was leading sacrifice to the Graces on Paros. Grief-stricken, he completed the solemnities without music, and without music the rites were performed ever after on Paros.
Toroni lies on the western side of the Sithonia peninsula in Chalkidiki. See Google Maps.