Editing Hylas (section)

== Mythology ==
=== Heracles ===
After [[Heracles]] killed [[Theiodamas]] in battle, he took on Hylas as his arms-bearer and taught him to be a warrior. The poet [[Theocritus]] (about 300 BC) wrote about the love between Heracles and Hylas:

{{Quote| ''"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."''}}

=== Argonauts ===
Heracles took Hylas with him on the [[Argo]], thus making him one of the [[Argonauts]]. Hylas was kidnapped by [[Naiads]] of the spring of [[Pegae]] in [[Mysia]] when they fell in love with him, and he vanished into the water with a cry. His disappearance greatly upset Heracles, who, along with [[Polyphemus (Argonaut)|Polyphemus]], searched for him for a great length of time. The ship soon set sail without them. According to the Latin ''[[Argonautica]]'' of [[Gaius Valerius Flaccus| Valerius Flaccus]], they never found Hylas because the latter had fallen in love with the [[naiads |nymphs]] and remained ''"to share their power and their love"''. In the version told by [[Apollonios Rhodios]], the sea-god [[Glaucus]] informs the Argonauts that ''"a nymph has lost her heart to him and made him her husband"''. Theocritus, on the other hand, has the nymphs shutting his mouth underwater to stifle his screams for Heracles. [[Antoninus Liberalis]] says that the nymphs changed him into an [[echo]] which again and again echoed back the cries of Heracles.<ref name="Liberalis" />