classical mythology Classical mythology, also known as Greco-Roman mythology or Greek and Roman mythology, is the collective body and study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. Mythology, along with philosophy and political thought, is one of the m ...

, Hylas () was a youth who served

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

(Roman

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

) as companion and servant. His abduction by water nymphs was a theme of ancient art, and has been an enduring subject for Western art in the classical tradition.

Genealogy

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians and the

nymph A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

Menodice, daughter of Orion. In some accounts, his father was Euphemus or King Ceyx of Trachis. Antoninus Liberalis
26
/ref>

Mythology

Heracles

After

killed Theiodamas in battle, he took on Hylas as his arms-bearer and taught him to be a warrior. The poet

Theocritus Theocritus (; , ''Theokritos''; ; born 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily, Magna Graecia, and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Life Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings ...

(about 300 BC) wrote about the love between Heracles and Hylas:

Argonauts

Heracles took Hylas with him on the Argo, thus making him one of the Argonauts. Hylas was kidnapped by Naiads of the spring of Pegae in

Mysia Mysia (UK , US or ; ; ; ) was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia, Asian part of modern Turkey). It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lyd ...

when they fell in love with him, and he vanished into the water with a cry. His disappearance greatly upset Heracles, who, along with Polyphemus, searched for him for a great length of time. The ship soon set sail without them. According to the Latin ''

Argonautica The ''Argonautica'' () is a Greek literature, Greek epic poem written by Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic epic (though Aetia (Callimachus), Callim ...

'' of Valerius Flaccus, they never found Hylas because the latter had fallen in love with the

nymphs A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

and remained ''"to share their power and their love"''. In the version told by Apollonios Rhodios, the sea-god Glaucus informs the Argonauts that ''"a nymph has lost her heart to him and made him her husband"''. Theocritus, on the other hand, has the nymphs shutting his mouth underwater to stifle his screams for Heracles. Antoninus Liberalis says that the nymphs changed him into an echo which again and again echoed back the cries of Heracles.

Literature

The story of Hylas and the

is alluded to in Book 3 of

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; – 13 January 1599 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the House of Tudor, Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is re ...

's ''

The Faerie Queene ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...

'', Canto XII, Stanza 7:

Or that same daintie lad, which was so deare To great Alcides, that when as he dyde He wailed womanlike with many a teare, And every wood, and every valley wyde He fild with Hylas name; the Nymphes eke "Hylas" cryde.

Hylas is also mentioned in

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe ( ; Baptism, baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the English Renaissance theatre, Eli ...

's play '' Edward II'': "Not Hylas was more mourned for of Hercules / Than thou hast been of me since thy exile" (Act I, Scene I, line 142-3).

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

mentions Hylas at least six times in his published works. In ''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...

'', Chapter 11: "...and gilded a boy that he might serve at the feast as Ganymede or Hylas." In his sonnet, ''Santa Decca'', lamenting the death of gods: "Young Hylas seeks the water-springs no more;" In ''The Garden of Eros'': "There are the flowers which mourning Herakles / Strewed on the tomb of Hylas". In ''Charmides'':

Some woodmen saw him lying by the stream And marvelled much that any lad so beautiful could seem, Nor deemed him born of mortals, and one said, ‘It is young Hylas, that false runaway Who with a Naiad now would make his bed Forgetting Herakles,’

In ''Canzonet'':

Hylas is dead, Nor will he e’er divine Those little red Rose-petalled lips of thine.

In ''Ravenna'':

Long time I watched, and surely hoped to see Some goat-foot Pan ... Or Hylas mirrored in the perfect stream.

And in "''De Profundis''" Wilde wrote (to

Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford University he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carr ...

), "I compare you to Hylas, or Hyacinth, Jonquil or Narcisse, or someone whom the great god of Poetry favoured, and honoured with his love." Hylas is referred to in Chapter 18 of Charles Kingsley's novel ''

Hypatia Hypatia (born 350–370 – March 415 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt (Roman province), Egypt: at that time a major city of the Eastern Roman Empire. In Alexandria, Hypatia was ...

'', when the Prefect Orontes, rescued by the Goths, is taken for safety into a house largely populated by women, and fancies himself as "A second Hylas". "Hylas" is a poem by Madison Cawein, including the lines "Hylas, the Argonaut, the lad Beloved of Herakles, was I" Hylas is the name of one of the two characters in

George Berkeley George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...

's '' Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous''. He represents the materialist position against which Berkeley (through Philonous) argues. In this context, the name is derived from ὕλη, the classical Greek word for "matter." Stanisław Lem adopted these characters in his 1957 non-fiction, philosophical book ''Dialogi'' ( ''Dialogues''). Hylas is also mentioned in Thomas Hardy's '' Far from the Madding Crowd'': "He called again: the valleys and farthest hills resounded as when the sailors invoked the lost Hylas on the Mysian shore; but no sheep."

Cinema

Hylas is a character in ''Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963), played by John Cairney. ''Hylas und die Nymphen'' (Switzerland, 2013) is an 11-minute short, based on the myth: "The body of a young man ( Kai Albrecht) floats in a lily pond. Three young female suspects (Annina Euling, Lina Hoppe, Magdalena Neuhaus) are found and interrogated - the nymphs of our generation." ''Hylas'' (USA, 2021) is a four-minute horror short with Benito Borjas-Fitzpatrick as Hylas and Dan O'Reilly as a

Naiad In Greek mythology, the naiads (; ), sometimes also hydriads, are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied ...

References

External links

* Berkeley's ''Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous'' *

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

o

''Hylas in the Classical Style'' by Stefanie E. Dittert, Professor Buttigieg

o

* Poem by Florence Earle Coates {{Authority control Argonauts Male lovers of Heracles Characters in the Argonautica Mythological Thessalians Demigods in classical mythology Metamorphoses in Greek mythology