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 Iapetus Chief 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.

 

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.