Hylas - St John's Lodge Garden, Regent's Park, London, UK - Epic Beings and Creatures on Waymarking.com

Central to the garden, in a small round pond, is a Hylas, a bronze of a nude man with a sensual mermaid seizing his legs to pull him to his doom. It is by Henry Pegram, and an inscription on the base notes it was presented through the Leighton Fund, in 1933. Pegram exhibited a very similar work in marble, 8ft high, called the Bather, at the Royal Academy in 1895 – the pose of the man is almost identical, but in the 1895 work the mermaid is curled forward round one of Hylas's legs, thus showing her back, rather than lying back between his calves as here.

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In Greek mythology, Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. Roman sources such as Ovid state that Hylas' father was Hercules and his mother was the nymph Melite, or that his mother was the wife of Theiodamas, whose adulterous affair with Heracles caused the war between him and her husband. He gained his beauty from his divine mother and his military prowess from his demigod father.

After Heracles killed Theiodamas in battle for his son, Hylas, he took the boy on as arms bearer and taught him to be a warrior.

Hercules took Hylas with him on the Argo, making him one of the Argonauts. Hylas was kidnapped by nymphs of the spring of Pegae, (Dryope), that fell in love with him in Mysia and vanished without a trace (Apollonios Rhodios). This upset Hercules greatly, so he along with Polyphemus searched for a great length of time. The ship set sail without them. They never found Hylas because he had fallen in love with the nymphs and remained "to share their power and their love." (Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica)

The poet Theocritus (about 300 BC) wrote about the love between Hercules and Hylas: "We are not the first mortals to see beauty in what is beautiful. No, even Amphitryon's bronze-hearted son, who defeated the savage Nemean lion, loved a boy—charming Hylas, whose hair hung down in curls. And like a father with a dear son he taught him all the things which had made him a mighty man, and famous."

Text source: (visit link)

Time Period: Ancient Epic Type: Mythical Exhibit Type: Figure, Statue, 3D Art Approximate Date of Epic Period: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   10/14/2023 Seebär visited it