Myth Library · Heroic Quest And Divine Encounter
Heracles Seizes and Binds Nereus
1 source witness · 1 source-scoped variant · reviewed 2026-08-30
Nymphs beside the Eridanus reveal sleeping Nereus to Heracles, who seizes and binds the changing god until he learns where the apples and Hesperides are.
Canonical narrative
Heracles cannot finish the labor of the Hesperides by strength alone because he does not know where the apples and their guardians are. Pseudo-Apollodorus brings him to the river Eridanus and its nymphs, daughters of Zeus and Themis. They reveal Nereus to him. Their disclosure causes the encounter; the hero does not discover the sea elder unaided.
Nereus is asleep when Heracles seizes him. The god turns himself into all kinds of shapes, but the text does not name or number them. Heracles binds him and refuses to release him. The struggle is not a voluntary consultation. The hero makes freedom conditional on an answer.
Nereus finally tells Heracles where the apples and the Hesperides are. That knowledge carries the labor into its next stages and ends Nereus’s direct part in the episode. Hesiod’s older praise of the truthful and just elder stands beside this later scene without dissolving into it. One witness honors speech that can be trusted; the other shows that speech compelled from a captive.
The exact boundary matters. The passage names river nymphs, sleep, seizure, transformation, binding, and the withheld release. It does not catalogue animal forms, narrate an exchange of gifts, or make Nereus a willing oracle.
Episodes in this myth
Episode 1
The river nymphs reveal Nereus
At the Eridanus, daughters of Zeus and Themis show Heracles where the sleeping Nereus can be found.
Episode 2
Heracles seizes and binds the changing god
Heracles seizes Nereus asleep, binds him through all kinds of shapes, and refuses to release him.
Episode 3
Nereus gives the compelled answer
Bound and denied release, Nereus tells Heracles where the apples and Hesperides are.
Participants and roles
Nereus
turns himself into all kinds of shapes after Heracles seizes him asleep, remains bound, and reveals the location of the apples and Hesperides
Heracles
learns of Nereus from the river nymphs, seizes the god asleep, binds him, and refuses release until he speaks
Nymphs beside the Eridanus
daughters of Zeus and Themis who reveal Nereus to Heracles
Hesperides
remain the distant guardians whose location Heracles is trying to learn
Source-scoped variants
The river nymphs reveal the sleeping elder
Nymphs beside the Eridanus reveal Nereus; Heracles seizes him asleep, binds him through all kinds of shapes, and withholds release until learning the Hesperides’ location.
What differs: The passage names no particular transformed forms and does not describe a voluntary oracle, friendly bargain, or gift exchange.
Greek Roman Imperial · River Eridanus MythicSource witnesses
EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed
Library
Pseudo-Apollodorus; edited and translated by James G. Frazer · 1921
Entry Library · Book 2 · Chapter 5 · Section 11
The exact Frazer eng2 passage names the Eridanus nymphs, sleeping seizure, transformations, binding, withheld release, and compelled location of the apples and Hesperides.
Open reviewed source