The exploits of _Heracles_ (Hercules) have a prominent place in the legends. This hero of Argos submitted to serve a cruel tyrant, but, by prodigious labors (twelve in number), delivered men from dangerous beasts,--the Lernaean hydra, the Nemean lion, etc.,--and performed other miraculous services. _Theseus_, the national hero of Attica, cleared the roads of savage robbers, and delivered his country from bondage. _Minos_, the mythical legislator of Crete, cleared the sea of pirates, and founded a maritime state. Of the legendary stories, three of the most famous are _The Seven against Thebes The Argonautic Expedition_, and _The Trojan War_. I. _Laius_, king of Thebes, was told by an oracle that he should be killed by his son. He exposed him, therefore, as soon as he was born, on Mount Cithaeron. Saved by a herdsman, Oedipus was brought up by Polybus, king of Corinth, as his own son. Warned by the oracle that he should kill his father, and marry his mother, the son forsook Corinth, and made his abode at Thebes. Meeting Laius in a narrow pass, and provoked by his attendants, he slew them and him. At Thebes there was a female monster, the Sphinx, who propounded a riddle, and each day devoured a man until it should be solved. Oedipus won the prize which the Queen _Jocaste_ had offered; namely, the crown and her own hand to whomsoever should free the city. When his two sons and daughters had grown up, a pestilence broke out; and the oracle demanded that the murderer of Laius should be banished. Oedipus, in spite of the warnings of the blind priest, _Tiresias_, finds out the truth. He puts out his eyes, and is driven into exile by his sons, whom he curses. Under the guidance of his daughter _Antigone_, he finds a resting-place at _Colonus_, a suburb of Athens, in a grove of the _Eumenides_, whose function it was to avenge such crimes as his. He received expiation at the hands of _Theseus_, and died in a calm and peaceful way. This legend was the basis of some of the finest of the Greek dramas, "Oedipus Tyrannus," and the "Oedipus at Colonus" of _Sophocles_, and "The Seven against Thebes" of _Aeschylus_. The curse of Oedipus still rested on his sons. The story of _Antigone_, defying the tyrant _Creon_, and burying her slain brother, _Polynices_, is the foundation of the drama of _Sophocles_, bearing her name. Finally, the _Epigoni_, descendants of the Seven who had fought Thebes, captured and destroyed that city.