Hebe

Flames rose around Heracles on Mount Oeta as he lay dying in torment. Deianeira had sent him a new shirt, believing it had been treated with a love potion from Nessus. It instead carried the Hydra’s poison, which had entered Nessus’s blood after Heracles shot him. Heracles seized Lichas by one foot and threw him from the mountain. He then ordered his followers to build a funeral pyre and asked them to set it alight.

No one at first dared to obey. In one account, Philoctetes, his friend and companion, yielded to his request and lit the pyre. Heracles gave him his bow and arrows in return. Another account names Poeas, who was passing by while searching for his flocks. Heracles gave him the weapons after Poeas set the pyre alight. Deianeira, overcome with grief and remorse after seeing the suffering she had caused, had already hanged herself. Before his death, Heracles called his son Hyllus to him and ordered him to marry Iole.

As the pyre burned, lightning flashed and thunder sounded. A cloud passed beneath Heracles and carried him up to heaven. Another account says that Pallas Athene came down in a cloud and bore him to Olympus in a chariot. Zeus conveyed the immortal part of his son to Olympus, where Heracles was admitted among the gods and received immortality.

Heracles was then reconciled with Hera. She gave him her daughter Hebe, the personification of youth, as his divine bride. Their sons were named Alexiares and Anicetos. The names are otherwise unattested and are connected with Heracles’s cultic titles, Alexikakos, Averter of Evil, and Kallinikos, the Noble Victor. Some traditions place Heracles in Hades while his real, immortal self lived in heaven with Hebe. His apotheosis is regarded as a later development, since earlier traditions treated him as mortal or as a hero rather than a god.

Hebe stumbles while serving the gods and falls in their presence. She is the daughter of Hera and the goddess of youth, and until then she has held the office of cupbearer. One account says that she resigned when she became the wife of Heracles. Another says that Zeus dismissed her after the fall and left the office vacant.

Zeus chose Ganymede to replace her. Ganymede was the son of King Tros, who gave his name to Troy, and was said to be the most beautiful youth alive. Zeus disguised himself in eagle form, seized Ganymede from among his playfellows on Mount Ida, carried him to heaven, and installed him as cupbearer to the gods. Another account places the abduction on the Trojan plain.

Ganymede served bright nectar to Zeus in a golden bowl. Hermes, acting for Zeus, gave Tros a golden vine made by Hephaestus and two fine horses as compensation for his loss. Hermes also assured him that Ganymede had become immortal and would no longer suffer old age.

Hera mourned the loss of her daughter's office and regarded Ganymede's appointment as an insult. She could only anger Zeus. He placed Ganymede's image among the stars as Aquarius, the water-carrier. Some accounts say that Eos had first abducted Ganymede as her lover, and that Zeus took him from her.