[90] Why is it that, when the sacrifice to Hercules takes place, they mention by name no other god, and why is a dog never seen within his enclosure,[209] as Varro has recorded?
Do they make mention of no other god because they regard Hercules as a demigod? But, as some[210] relate, even while he was still on earth, Evander erected an altar to him and brought him sacrifice. And of all animals he contended most with a dog, for it is a fact that this beast always gave him much trouble, Cerberus, for instance. And, to crown all, when Oeonus, Licymnius’s son, had been murdered by the sons of Hippocoön[211] because of a dog, Hercules was compelled to engage in battle with them, and lost many of his friends and his brother Iphicles.