Iolaus

Iolaus is the nephew, charioteer and lifelong companion of Heracles (Hercules), the son of his half-brother Iphicles. He sears the stumps of the Hydra's necks so its heads cannot grow back, and in old age he defends Heracles' children against Eurystheus.

Apollodorus makes him the son of Iphicles and Automedusa, and so a grandson of Alcmene and Amphitryon. Iolaus drives his uncle's chariot through many exploits: in the Shield of Heracles, attributed to Hesiod, he holds the reins in the fight against Cycnus, son of Ares, and Pausanias says that at the Olympic Games held by Heracles himself, Iolaus won the chariot race with Heracles' mares. In the second labor, as the Hydra of Lerna grows two heads for every one cut off, Iolaus sets fire to a nearby wood and burns each stump with blazing brands so it cannot grow again. Eurystheus then refuses to count the labor, because Heracles had help.

After the labors, Heracles gives his first wife Megara to Iolaus. Later Iolaus leads the sons Heracles had by the daughters of Thespius to found a colony in Sardinia, which Diodorus and Pausanias describe; Pausanias adds that even the Thebans agreed he died there, although their city showed his hero shrine beside a gymnasium named after him, where games, the Iolaia, were held in his honor.

His last feat is told in different ways. In Euripides' Children of Heracles, the aged Iolaus protects the hero's persecuted children in Attica; on the day of battle he prays to Hebe and Zeus to be young again, is rejuvenated for a single day and captures Eurystheus. For Pindar, Iolaus cuts off Eurystheus' head and is then buried in Thebes, in the tomb of his grandfather Amphitryon, while Apollodorus gives the killing to Hyllus, Heracles' son. Plutarch records that Theban lovers swore their oaths at Iolaus' tomb, because he was held to have been Heracles' beloved.