1
The Celts call Heracles Ogmios in their native tongue, and they portray the god in a very peculiar way. To their notion, he is extremely old, baldheaded, except for a few lingering hairs which are quite gray, his skin is wrinkled, and he is burned as black as can be, like an old sea-dog. You would think him a Charon. or a sub-Tartarean IapetusChief of the Titans, who warred on Zeus and after their defeat were buried for ever in the bowels of the earth, below Tartarus.— anything but Heracles! Yet, in spite of his looks, he has the equipment of Heracles: he is dressed in the lion’s skin, has the club in his right hand, carries - the quiver at his side, displays the bent bow in his left, and is Heracles from head to heel as far as that goes.
2
I thought, therefore, that the Celts had committed this offence against the good-looks of Heracles to spite the Greek gods, and that they were punishing him by means of the picture for having once visited their country on a cattle-lifting foray, at the time when he raided most of the western nations in his quest-of the herds of Geryon.
