Source Verification: Mares of Diomedes
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why were the mares dangerous, and what did they actually eat?
They were fed on human flesh rather than grain. Diomedes, their owner, gave the flesh of any stranger unlucky enough to be taken in as his guest to the mares, and Apollodorus says they were chained with iron at their manger specifically because of how savage that diet had made them.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8
Who was Abderus, and how did he die?
Abderus was a son of Hermes and a companion of Heracles. While Heracles fought off Diomedes's people, the Bistones, he left the mares in Abderus's care, and the animals killed him in that moment of inattention. Heracles founded the city of Abdera beside his grave in his memory.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8
What happened to King Diomedes himself?
Heracles killed him after defeating the Bistones in battle, and most retellings agree that Diomedes's own body was then fed to the mares he had spent his reign feeding on other people's guests, a reversal that also had the effect of finally calming the animals down.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8
What did Eurystheus do with the mares once Heracles delivered them?
He dedicated them to Hera rather than keeping them for himself, then later released them. Freed, they wandered to Mount Olympus, where Apollodorus says wild beasts eventually destroyed them, an ending that quietly closes out an animal that had once been the predator rather than the prey.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8
Does every ancient source tell the labor the same way?
No. Euripides's Heracles compresses the whole episode into a single image of Heracles taming the mares with a bit at their bloody mangers, leaving out Abderus, the founding of Abdera, and Diomedes's death by his own horses entirely - a shorter version built for a chorus rather than a full narrative.
Source: Euripides, Heracles 380-386
Where Accounts Differ
- full narrative versus Euripides's compressed retelling
- Euripides's Heracles gives a compressed version of this labor with no mention of Abderus, the founding of Abdera, or how Diomedes died, unlike Apollodorus's fuller account.
Sources
- Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8
- Euripides, Heracles 380-386
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)