Hylas is a character in Greek mythology. He was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians in Thessaly. When Heracles killed the King in battle, he took Hylas under his wing. The young man became Heracles' gay lover. About 300 BC, the poet Theocritus wrote that Heracles loved "the curly-haired Hylas, [and], like a father would with a well loved son, he taught the youth everything that had made him a powerful and famous man." 