Macaria

Macaria was a daughter of Heracles who, in the Athenian version of the story, gave her life to win a battle for the children of Heracles against Eurystheus. She is the heroine of a scene in Euripides’ Heracleidae, and the spring called Macaria at Marathon was said to be named after her.

Macaria, Daughter of Heracles

Pausanias calls her the daughter of Deianira and Heracles (Pausanias 1.32.6). In Euripides’ Heracleidae the girl is not named; she is one of the daughters of Heracles who came to Athens as suppliants with Iolaus and Alcmene, and the name Macaria is given to her by Pausanias (Euripides, Heracleidae 474–596; Pausanias 1.32.6). The Greek name Makaria means “blessed”.

The Heracleidae at Athens

After the death of Heracles, Eurystheus kept up his hatred and pursued the children of the hero. According to Pausanias, Heracles had lived with his friend Ceyx, king of Trachis, but Ceyx said he was too weak to protect the children and sent them to Athens, where Theseus had the power to help them (Pausanias 1.32.6). In Euripides the children, with Iolaus, take refuge at the altar of Zeus at Marathon, and the Athenian king is Demophon, son of Theseus; when Eurystheus sent a herald to demand their surrender, Demophon refused and prepared for war (Euripides, Heracleidae 1–409). In Pausanias it is Theseus who refuses to give them up, and this was the first war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians (Pausanias 1.32.6). Apollodorus also says that the Athenians refused to surrender the children and bore the brunt of the war with Eurystheus (Apollodorus, Library 2.8.1).

The Oracle and the Sacrifice

Demophon gathered all the oracle-singers and found that the prophecies agreed on one point: he must sacrifice a maiden of noble father to Kore, the daughter of Demeter, that is, Persephone (Euripides, Heracleidae 403–409). Demophon refused to kill his own child or to force any citizen to give a daughter. Macaria then came out of the shrine and said that she was ready to die before being ordered to; it would be shameful, she said, for the suppliants to sit and groan while the city ran a great risk on their account, and for the children of such a father to be seen as cowards (Heracleidae 500–510). Iolaus proposed that all the daughters of Heracles be called and that the one chosen by lot should die, but she refused to die by lot and offered her life freely (Heracleidae 543–551). She asked that she should breathe her last in the hands of women and not of men, and she took leave of her brothers and of Iolaus, asking them to honour Alcmene and, if they should ever return home, to remember to bury their saviour (Heracleidae 565–566, 574–596). The play, as it survives, does not show her death. Pausanias gives the same outline in a different form: an oracle told the Athenians that one of the children of Heracles had to die voluntarily or victory would not be theirs, and Macaria killed herself, giving the Athenians victory in the war and the spring her name (Pausanias 1.32.6).

The Battle and Its Aftermath

In the play, the Athenians and the Heracleidae, led by Hyllus, defeated the army of Eurystheus. The old Iolaus asked to be made young for one day and was granted it by Hebe and Zeus; with a young man’s arms he caught Eurystheus in his chariot near the Scironian rocks and took him prisoner (Euripides, Heracleidae 843–860, 928–936). Alcmene demanded his death. Eurystheus said that, in accordance with an oracle of Apollo, he would be buried in front of the temple of Pallenian Athena, and that his grave would protect Athens and be a danger to the descendants of the Heracleidae when they invaded Attica (Heracleidae 1026–1044). In Apollodorus the Athenians killed the sons of Eurystheus and Hyllus slew Eurystheus as he drove past the Scironian cliffs (Library 2.8.1).

The Spring Macaria

Pausanias says that in Marathon there was a spring called Macaria, named after the girl who killed herself for the Athenians (Pausanias 1.32.6).

The Goddess of Blessed Death

A Macaria who was a daughter of Hades, and whose name stood for a blessed death, appears only in late Greek explanations of the old curse “Go to Macaria!”. No myth about her survives, and the stories told by Euripides and Pausanias concern only the daughter of Heracles.

Macaria Sources

Ancient sources: Euripides, Heracleidae 403–409, 474–596, 843–860, 928–936, 1026–1044; Pausanias 1.32.6; Apollodorus, Library 2.8.1.

See Also: Heracles, Shirt of Nessus, Eurystheus, Demophon, Persephone, Hades, Alcmene