For seven days and nights, Alcmena suffered in labor. The goddess of birth, Ilithya, had been bribed by Juno to block the birth. When Alcmena's servant, Galanthis, saw the goddess sitting outside Alcmena's room with her legs crossed and her fingers laced to prevent the birth, the servant girl told her to congratulate Alcmena on her new son. Shocked that the woman had given birth when the goddess had been preventing it, Ilithyia stood up. When her legs were uncrossed and her fingers unlaced, Alcmena delivered Hercules. Ilithyia turned the servant into a weasel for her trickery.
Book 9: Dryope .
f.
Iole told Alcmena the story of her sister, Dryope, who was transformed to a lotus tree for unwittingly picking blossoms from a tree that had once been a nymph. .
Book 9: Iolaus and the Sons of Callirhoe .
As the women were drying their tears, Iolaus, once Hercules' charioteer, approached much younger than he once was. Hebe had transformed his age and taken the years removed from his life and added them to the years of the sons of Callirhoe so that they'd reach adolescence faster.
The other gods wanted to make their mortal favorites younger, too, but Jove insisted that such things were ruled by the Fates, not the gods. The gods gave in to Jove's argument, and none of the other mortals were restored to youth, including Minos whose great strength had declined with his age. His lands had been threatened by Miletus, but then the younger man had gone to Asia to found a new city. Cyanee, a nymph, gave birth to his twins, Byblis and Caunus in Asia.
Book 9: Byblis .
Byblis fell in love with her brother, Caunus, and she tried to fight the feeling because she knew that incest was wrong. But soon her feelings got the better of her and so she wrote him a letter telling him how she felt and hoping that he felt the same. He was revolted by the idea, and when Byblis wouldn't give up her pursuit, he left home. He went to found a new city, and when she tried to follow him, she couldn't find him.
