#*Hylas

[the-evil-clergyman]

Hylas Carried Off by Nymphs by Henry Howard (19th Century)

[thereinart]

just some chara designs I did for fun :3 on top are Artemis, Athena and Hera, below I wrote the names in French but I think you can tell who's who 😎

Anyway! I hope someday I'll gather the courage to make an argonauts retelling story 🥹 that'd be cool

[hornyforpoetry]

Achilles and Patroclus // Apollo and Hyacinthus

Ganymede // Hylas

Narcissus // Orpheus

Artemis // Tiresias

LGBTQ+ Icons in Greek Mythology

- in the honour of Pride Month 2024

In order: ”Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus” by Gavin Hamilton // ”The Death of Hyacinthus” Nicolas-Rene Jollain // ”The Abduction of Ganymede” by Peter Paul Rubens // ”Hylas and the Nymphs” by John William Waterhouse // ”Narcissus” by Caravaggio // „Orpheus” by Paul Duqueylar // „Artemis” statue replica after Leochares // „Tiresias” by Johann Ulrich Kraus

[helpmeimblorboing]

I’m starting to believe that the ancient Greeks had a thing for really powerful men falling in love with men who are objectively weaker (Patroclus bb I love you but Achilles is a literal demigod)

Like, Apollo and Hyacinthus ? Achilles and Patroclus ? Hylas and Heracles ? Theseus and Pirithous (not too sure about this one) ? Alexander and Hephaestion (again, not sure if Hephaestion was really Weaker than Alexander, but he sure as fuck had less authority than his king) ?

Like they had a theme and by God were they going to stick to it

Side note : Does Macedon count as part of Greece ? Because I’ve heard conflicting accounts of that point

[moplopbool]

Jason and the argonauts as requested!

I know Atalanta isn’t a part of the argonauts in most interpretations, but I needed an excuse to draw her…

[laurasimonsdaughter]

I think that we as a whole could be fixating more on my boy Hylas, who got stolen by a gaggle of nymphs. He deserves it:

He’s a prince, son of the nymph Menodice (daughter of Orion) and a human king (usually Theiodamas).

He gets taken by Heracles, after the latter defeats his father and kills all his men, but Hylas is too beautiful to harm, so he makes him his arms-bearer instead.

Hylas proves to be so beautiful and talented that Heracles can’t help loving him and starts training him as a warrior.

Hylas becomes devoted to Heracles and they both join Jason and the Argonauts on their journey, until Heracles demands to go ashore to make himself a new oar and sends Hylas to find fresh water.

Hylas finds a beautiful pool filled by a spring, but when he leans over the water to taste it, the naiads (water nymphs) in the depths see him.

Depending on which version of the tale you follow, either one or all of the nymphs fall in love with him and lure/drag him into the water, leaving him only enough time for a single cry for help.

Heracles (and Polyphemus) look for him, but to no avail, the nymphs are never letting him go again.

In some accounts Hylas wants to stay with the nymphs, because he fell in love with one or all of them. In others he is being held there against his will (or is at least kept away from Heracles against his will). Either way, he is never seen or heard from again.

Now I know very well that when it comes to Ancient Greek culture there are tragic themes and hands of fate in here that have their own context and importance, that I have next to no insight in. But looking at it through my love for folktales you have a half-nymph raised among humans, who is so beautiful that he is stolen by a demi-god, and then inevitably lured into the immortal world below. Where he will be beloved, but forever separated from his human life.

It's sad and gorgeous and enough to make Hylas an absolute favourite of mine~

[littlesparklight]

This might delight some of you:

I specifically love that interpretation of the Apollo lines in the fragmentary poem, but this has got something for Dionysos (probably Ampelos, as the text suggests) and Herakles and Hylas as well!

(From Appendix three in Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation.)

[padfoot-lupin77]

My villain origin story is that Hylas and Atalanta are the most underrated argonauts so much that I didn’t know about them until very recently despite being into Greek mythology since I was five years old. Every book went “and all known heroes joined like Heracles and Orpheus and the twins winged sons of Boreas” FUCK the flying kids why did no one tell me about pretty boy Hylas who had the no. 1 Greek hero Heracles crazy over him or absolute badass queen Atalanta who hunted alone and took shit from no one?

[number1-hera-defender]

[blueberryspyder]

Hylas

Been talking a lot about my Tav Hylas and uh. I still haven’t. Shared them on here??

So here’s a post dedicated to my darling Hylas (they/them)!

(Under the cut is their lore/backstory and some doodles of them and Gale, so if you just wanna see the screenshots you don’t gotta go any deeper)

Hylas Lore

Hylas was born in Baldur’s Gate to a Human mother and Wood Elf father (side note: I think more Wood Elves should be green. It’s my reality, so Hylas is tinted green bc of their dad’s genes).

Dad bailed pretty early on, and because mom couldn’t afford to be a single mom, she gave custody of Hylas to a nearby Monastery of Lathander.

Hylas didn’t have to become a member of the clergy/monk, but they liked the teachings of Lathander and decided to dedicate their life to him as a monk. They started studying and archiving at 13, and didn’t start martial arts training until 15.

They trained as an Open Hand monk (I like to think their specific style is a mix of Shanghai- and Southern-Tiger Kung Fu style; I tried to draw them in a Tiger stance above) and they perfected their speed and placement of attacks.

At 25, the monastery was attacked, and Hylas was put in charge of getting the younger students to safety with another monk. They were attacked, and Hylas fought tooth and claw to protect the kids and the fellow monk, who was critically injured. The ordeal nearly killed them, and it left them with long-lasting scars, but if given the chance they’d do it all over again. Defending the people they love is the most important thing to them, and the monastery is their family.

A stereotypical “monk” pose from when I first drew Hylas—way before I actually put thought into their martial stylings. See it as a show of their flexibility, I guess!

At 31, they left the monastery to travel Faêrun on their own for the first time—they’d only ever known brief glimpses of Baldur’s Gate and the monastery. They traveled up and down the Sword Coast, meeting with other temples of Lathander (they even met Gideon Lightward from Elturel; they felt he was a little too ‘fire and brimstone’ to be a true priest of the Dawn Father, but they enjoyed his company and tutelage nonetheless).

After years of studying being an archivist, Hylas has a borderline unhealthy fixation on collecting books/missives/texts. It is, in fact, a problem. They read the Tome of Thay because of it. They don’t know they have a problem, and the fact that they’re romancing Gale doesn’t do them any favors.

And 10 years after they left—Baldur’s Gate 3 happened! So Hylas is 41 during the game; 20-25 in Human years! They got set back to Level 1 like the rest of the gang (and they were VERY mad they had to rely on a staff again. They spent a DECADE breaking their fingers to punch things into dust, dammit!/hjk).

Some fun facts about Hylas:

When their dad was still around, he took them to see a ballet performance (this is my reality, and in my reality Elves invented ballet, huff my jorts) and they wanted to be a ballerina SO BAD

Since they DIDN’T get to be a ballerina, they spent some of their 10 years traveling Faêrun learning some dances! It was fun to do, connected them to their past, and helped them keep in shape when they weren’t training.

They’ve had their vitiligo since childhood, though it’s grown over time.

Hylas’s non-binary/transmasc identity is loosely based on my own experiences as a demiboy! They actually made me feel more comfortable with my own they/them pronouns and I’m toying around with using them over he/him.

They’re very much romancing Gale—they find his intelligence and passion for knowledge and teaching very sexy.

Gale was also their first… well, almost everything relationship wise! First significant other, first hand hold, first time.

The only first Gale didn’t get was kissing, and that’s because when Hylas was young, they and another monk-in-training kissed each other to see what all the fuss was about. They both swore to keep it secret (intimacy was a no-no for monks at the monastery), but they both caved due to guilt and separately fessed up to the same monk. They had a LOT of extra chores that month.

(Hylas never sought out a relationship after the monastery simply because they didn’t really… see the point. The monks had drilled celibacy into their head for so long they just kinda. Didn’t seek it out. And then they pulled the wizard from the rock and everything changed…)

Spoilers for Act 3 for this one: in my play through, Hylas drowned in the Iron Throne along with… a lot of the hostages. They made sure Wyll’s dad got out safe, and kept the Sahuagin from getting to the sub while everyone else escaped, but they went down with the prison and have a phobia of water/drowning now (as well as a LOT of guilt over all the dead Gondians—they probably won’t ever forgive themselves for that).

Post-game, I think Hylas would become a priest of Lathander or a scholar/archivist—they’re done fighting for a nice long while. (They still train regularly though—gotta keep the mind and body sharp!)

Karlach is their bff. The SECOND Karlach could touch others, they JUMPED to hug her.

Hylas’s favorite stuffed animal growing up was a sabertooth tiger—and in my play through, Halsin became a sabertooth tiger a LOT :3

They let Volo take their eye. They. They did that. Volo they trusted you. Do you know what an honor it was for them to meet you, Volo? VOLO—

Between Hylas’s open hand attacks and Gale casting Disintegrate, these two are fucking lethal as hell. Lucky for you they just want to study and talk about books with Tara.

Hope y’all love my baby as much as I do—I have so so SO many thoughts about them. Once I’m able to draw digitally again I’m gonna be doing SO much art of them and Gale 💕

ALSO if you want to ask about them, or talk Tavs/BG3 in general, please feel free to drop me a line! I love talking about this stuff, it’s incredibly fun for me and I love seeing other people’s Tavs 🥰

[princess-ibri]

Sorry it’s been a bit since I posted some art on this, been busy. To make up for it here’s some old art/an edit I did of Hercules and Hylas . (Like super old I did these when I first had a tablet but was too nervous to post them back then x)

In the myths Hyllas is a fellow argonaut with Hercules who in some accounts was possibly romantically involved with him before he was kidnapped by water nymphs. Hercules in the tv show is always having romantic troubles and I thought it would be fun to include Hylas in there.

In the hypothetical episode Hylas is a transfer student to the Academy who joins the swim team and Hercules instantly gets a crush on him but is too nervous to ask him out. There would be a big athletic competition with a rival school coming up (possibly Troy again) and the rival school brings in some nymphs to kidnap Hylas so they can win by forfeit. Hercules finds out and has to go rescue him and they finally get to go on a date at the end ❤️

(Agh this art is so ooold 😅)

[sebastian-louis]

Endymion and Hylas

Diana and Endymion - Francesco Solimena, 1705-10 The Kidnap of Hylas - Karl Ferdinand Sohn, 19th century

[artemlegere-art]

Hylas and the Water Nymphs

Artist: Henrietta Rae  (British, 1859–1928)

Genre: Greek Mythology

Date: circa 1909

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Private Collection

Hylas and the Water Nymphs was an oil on canvas painting undertaken by the Victorian painter, Henrietta Rae, in 1809. Hylas and the Water Nymphs shows the famous tale from Greek mythology of the abduction of Hylas.

Hylas was a Greek hero for he was an Argonaut, a hero who sailed with Jason on board the Argo to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis. A close companion of Heracles, Hylas would search for water when the Argo stopped for water in Mysia.

There a Naiad nymph observed the beautiful Hylas, and decided to make him hers. Heracles would seek out his companion, but in doing so he was left behind by Jason, as the Argo sailed on to Colchis.

[odinspattern]

The way Jennifer Saint treated the horror of what happened to Hylas was great. There was no dramatic scene of him being dragged into the water, screaming, as some artwork has.

It was just quiet. Only thing left of him was the empty water jug. The desperate search for him.

And I really appreciated that.

[hellomystraightlacedfriend]

Writers: Greg Pak, Fred van Lente

Artist: Rafa Sandoval

Incredible Hercules #118

[littlesparklight]

(This is rated mature, more for topic/themes than content, but there is a brief, vaguely described scene, so pay attention to the tags.)

Summary: On the Argo's voyage, Hylas disappears.

Not by his own desire, not by his own will, but it doesn't matter how much he fights; he is only a mortal youth. Herakles searches and finds nothing, a hole left behind. Hylas simply endures, the nymphs, the changes, the circumstances.

All things have an end, though.