before the papyri began to accrue, the longest extant passage of the "catalogue" was known from the "shield of heracles", the first 56 lines of which were borrowed from book 4 according to an ancient hypothesis to the "shield". this passage, the ehoie of alcmene, recounts how she went to thebes with her husband amphitryon, who could not consummate the marriage until he had avenged the deaths of her brothers at the hands of the taphians and teleboans. as amphitryon returned having accomplished this feat, zeus lay with alcmene; upon his return that very night, so too did amphitryon. to the god alcmene bore heracles and to the hero she bore iphicles.