By the promise of Zeus, should heracles successfully
fulfill the 12 tasks, he would be granted
immortality at his death.
But surely, it was not possible for any mortal
or half god to pull off this feat, so Hera
thought.
She visited the king of Tiryns, and directed
him to humiliate heracles with originally
10 impossible labours.
The first labour of heracles was to slay the
Nemean lion.
Eurystheus instructed him to kill the beast
and bring back its hide.
The nemean lion was a fierce beast with an
impenetrable skin.
Born from the monstrous typhon and echidna,
its skin could not be broken by the weapons
of man.
It resided in the town of Nemea, luring people
into its den to eat them alive.
Heracles found the roaming beast when he got
to nemea.
Shooting arrows at the beast, he quickly realized
they were of no use, as none of his arrows
broke the beast's skin.
Following it to its cave, Heracles blocked
the passages the lion could escape from.
When it charged at him, Hercules wrapped arms
around the lion's neck, and squeezed tight,
strangling the beast.
Now the lion was dead, but how could he skin
it? what tool or weapon could he use?
Athena in her wisdom, directed heracles to
use the lion's claws to cut out its own hide,
which he did, using the hide as an armor afterward.
Heracles returned to the city of Tiryns, to
the palace of Eurystheus, exactly 13 days
after he set out on that task.
Wearing the lion's skin, he presented himself
to the horrified Eurystheus, ready to begin
his second task.
The second labour assigned to Heracles by
Eurystheus, was to slay the Lernean Hydra.
The Lernean Hydra was the 9 headed serpentine
offspring of echidna and typhon that lived
in the swamp of Lerna.
It grew two more heads if one was cut off,
and had one immortal head that could not be
killed.
Its blood was so poisonous that it destroyed
anything it tainted.
Even the mere scent of it was strong enough
to kill.
On getting to hydra's swampy home, the place
was covered in its posoinous breath, that
heracles was forced to put a cloth over his
nose and mouth.
To lure the hydra out, he shot flaming arrows
into its dark lair.
When the monster emerged, Heracles cut off
one of its heads, only to realize in horror
that it grew two more.
Knowing it would take more than brawn to defeat
this serpent, he temporarily retreated to
get the help of his nephew, Iolaus, son of
his brother Iphicles.
There, Athena gifted him with a golden sword
that would cut off the monster's immortal
head.
Going back to the lair fully prepared, Heracles
cut off the hydra's heads, while Iolaus burnt
the stumps, so no more heads would grow back.
In order to distract him, hera sent a huge
crab, which bit heracles relentlessly, till
he squashed it under his foot.
When it came to the hydra's immortal head,
he severed it with Athena's sword, then Iolaus
scorched the last stump.
Heracles made his arrows poisonous thereafter,
by dipping the tips in the hydra's blood.
And that was it, the hydra had been slain.
Hera transformed the dead monster into a constellation
also called hydra, and transformed the squashed
crab into the constellation called Cancer.
Meanwhile, Heracles returned to Tiryns, once
again victorious.
However, Eurystheus refused to acknowledge
his success at the task, solely because the
hero had been helped by his nephew Iolaus.
Thus, the slaying of the Lerneaen hydra would
not be counted among the supposed 10 labours,
and heracles would have to fufill an extra
task to make up for the dismissed one.
Irritated by heracles' success at his first
2 labors, Eurystheus thought of a way to punish
him.
Assigning him his 3rd task, Eurystheus, sent
heracles to capture the ceryneian hind, the
sacred hind of Artemis.
His thoughts were that heracles would kill
the hind, thereby drawing the ire of the goddess.
The Ceryneian hind was a deer with golden
horns and bronze hooves, and was the favorite
pet of Artemis.
well aware of this, Heracles knew better than
to hurt the animal.
He tracked and chased after it, but the swift
hind continously eluded him for about a year.
At last when it lay sleeping one day, Heracles
snuck up on it and captured it.
However, as he turned to head back to Tiryns,
Artemis and apollo appeared before him.
He begged the goddess for forgiveness, that
his actions were part of his penance for murdering
his wife and children.
He promised that the animal would suffer no
harm, that as soon as he showed it to Eurystheus,
he would let it go.
With this, Artemis allowed the young hero
to continue on his journey.
And so, heracles returned to the royal court,
where Eurystheus wanted to have the deer as
his.
Knowing he could not break his promise to
artemis, heracles simply asked Eurystheus
to come get it himself, and set the animal
on the ground.
The second the deer was set on the ground,
it spirited away, back to the goddess, to
the dismay of Eurystheus.
Humiliated by the Ceryneian hind incident,
Eurystheus sent Heracles to capture the Erymanthian
Boar, a large and aggressive creature that
resided on the mountain of Erymanthus.
The creature was immensely heavy, and Eurystheus,
once again underestimating heracles' strength,
assumed that even if he did manage to kill
the creature, he would have a hard time dragging
it all the way back to Tiryns.
Heracles visited his old time friend and teacher,
chiron, to seek advice.
There chiron told him that if he lured the
boar into thick snow, he'd be able to capture
it.
On his way to the mountain, Heracles visited
another centaur friend, pholus, who welcomed
him with food and wine.
Now the scent of the wine attracted other
centaurs to pholus' cave, and unaware that
the wine was supposed to be diluted before
being drunk, the centaurs became intoxicated
and attacked Heracles.
Heracles killed many of them, while the rest
fled to chiron's cave for safety.
Pholus, wondering why the arrows were so deadly,
picked one up out of curiosity.
But the accidentaly fell, piercing his hoof
in the process, and killed by the poison.
The aggrieved Heracles buried his friend,
and not wastiing time any further, he set
out to find Erymanthian boar.
Following chiron's advice, he lured the animal
into thick snow where it struggled and struggled
till it got tired.
Easily flipping the heavy creature over his
shoulders, Heracles carried it to Eurystheus.
Now as Eurystheus saw the boar, the terrified
king ran into a large jar, screaming for Heracles
to take the creature away.
After taking the boar back to its home, Heracles
presented himself once again before the king,
ready to be assigned his 5th task.
The fifth labor of Heracles was to clean the
filthy stables of Augeas in 1 day.
The stables belonged to king Augeas of Elis,
had 1,000 healthy cattle in it, which created
an enormous litter of dung, and had never
been cleaned in more than 30 years.
And, Heracles was to clean them all in just
1 day.
Even Augeas himself believed this could not
be done, so he promised to give heracles one-tenth
of his cattle if he did manage to clean the
stables in 1 day.
Eurystheus had grown increasingly irritated
by the hero's successes time after time, so
he sought to humiliate him this time.
And what better humiliation than to clean
the disgusting, dung-covered stables of Augeas?
Worse still in one day?
It was clear to him that Heracles possesed
godly strength, which was the more reason
he saw this task fitting, as his strength
would do little or nothing in helping him
clear millions of heaps of dung and dirt within
a day.
But again, Heracles was out to surprise him.
Proving he had wits just as he had strength,
heracles changed the direction of the Peneus
and Alpheus rivers, by digging trenches that
made the waters flow directly into the stables,
cleaning all the waste, and getting the job
done.
you could imagine Eurystheus' horror when
he saw the stables had been cleaned that same
day, even before twilight, but he quickly
came up with an excuse.
Just like the hydra task, he again refused
to acknowledge heracles' success at this task,
saying that the rivers did the work for him.
Moreso, When Augeas delivered his own end
of the bargain, by giving one tenth of his
cattle to heracles, Eurystheus used that as
an additional excuse not to count the fulfilled
task.
Thus, the cleaning of the Augean stables would
not be counted among the supposed 10 labors,
and again, heracles would have to fufill an
extra task to make up for it.
So he had 7 more labors to perform.
The 6th labor of heracles was to defeat the
stymphalian birds.
The stymphalian birds were a flight of huge
flesh-eating birds that had the beaks of bronze
and feathers of metal.
Their dung was also poisonous.
Sacred to the god of war Ares, they lived
in the lake of a swampy area in Stymphalos,
from where they flew to nearby towns and preyed
on the towns people and livestock.
Now when heracles got to the lake, he did
not know how to go about the task.
He could not go too deep into the lake, else
he would drown, so how could he lure the birds
out of the swamp?
Athena once again came to his aid, by giving
him some annoyingly noisy rattles, crafted
by Hephaestus god of the forge.
Heracles used the rattles to startle the giant
birds, then shot many of them dead with his
poisonous arrows when they came out.
The few remaining birds flew to a far away
land, where they would be later encountered
by the Argonauts.
That was it for the 6th labor of heracles.
The seventh task of Heracles was to capture
the Cretan Bull.
The Cretan bull was the father of the legendary
minotaur.
King minos of crete had failed to keep his
promise to poseidon, and so the earth-shaker
made minos' wife fall in love and mate with
the bull, giving birth to the monstrous minotaur.
The cretan bull had so much ravaged the land
of crete, destroying crops and plantations,
that Minos was eager to help heracles on his
task when he arrived at crete.
However the hero declined his aid, knowing
well that Eurystheus would discount the task
if he had any help.
With the permission and blessings of minos,
heracles went in search of the bull.
He snuck up on the unaware animal, tightly
wrapping his hands round it till surrendered,
unable to fight any longer.
He then took the animal to Eurystheus who
ran into his large jar at the sight of the
bull.
When he offered to sacrifice it to hera, the
goddess rejected, because that would only
exalt heracles and fuel the praises about
him.
Seeing no further use of the animal, Eurystheus
had heracles release it, where it wandered
into Marathon, becoming known thenceforth
as the Marathonian bull.
It would later be sacrificed to the gods by
another hero, Theseus.
The 8th labor of Heracles was to steal and
bring back the 4 mares of Diomedes, king of
the Thracian tribe of Bistones.
The mares of diomedes were aggresive fire-breathing,
flesh-eating animals, trained from birth to
eat human flesh.
Called Podargos (the swift), Lampon (the shining),
Xanthos (the yellow) and Deinos (the terrible),
they were usually chained to a bronze manger.
Upon arriving at the island, heracles waited
till nightfall when everyone was at sleep,
to cut the chains and steal the mares.
But no sooner had he done this, Diomedes found
out , and sent a troop of guards after him.
Now heracles needed a place to keep the horses
while he fought off the men, and unaware that
the mares ate human flesh, he left them in
the care of his young friend, Abderus.
By the time he had killed the gurds and overpowered
diomedes himself, heracles returned only to
find out in horror that Abderus had been dragged
to death and devoured by the mares.
Furious, he fed diomedes to his own horses
which made them permanently calm, and founded
the city of Abdera in commemoration of his
friend.
He then took the now sane horses to eurystheus
who left them to roam freely as they could
do no more harm, or in some versions, sacrificed
them to hera.
The 9th labor of heracles was to retrieve
the magic girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the
Amazons.
Eurystheus' spoilt daughter Admete, desired
the girdle, a gift to the Amazonian queen
by her father, Ares, so Erystheus asked heracles
to obtain it as his next task.
In the company of some friends, heracles sailed
off for the legendary land of Themiscyra,
home of the Amazons.
On their way, they stopped at the island of
paros, inhabited by the sons of minos.
the princes killed 2 of heracles friends,
and heracles in turn, killed 2 of the princes,
demanding that 2 inhabitants of paros replace
his dead friends.
Minos' grandsons agreed to join the band,
and they continued their journey.
After a brief visit to his friend at Lycus,
heracles finally reached Themiscyra, where
he was well received by Hippolyta.
The queen was undoubtedly impressed by heracles'
famed deeds that she was willing to hand him
the girdle, then hera interfered.
The vengeful goddess disguised herself as
one of the amazons, spreading rumors heracles
had come to capture their queen, so the amazons
set off to arrest this foe.
Now when heracles saw them, he believed that
it was a plot by hippolyta, that she never
wanted to give him the girdle as she promised
she would.
So he engaged her in battle and ultimately
killed her.
Taking the girdle, he managed to escape Themyscira
and returned to Tiryns, presenting the magic
girdle to Eurystheus, his task, a success.
The 10th labour of heracles was to capture
the cattle of the Erythian monster Geryon.
Geryon was a fearsome giant with three heads,
six legs and three bodies, who resided in
the land of Erythia.
He was the son of Calirrhoe and Chrysaor,
and had a two-headed pet dog called Orthrus,
brother to cerberus, the three-headed guardian
of the underworld.
Heracles had to cross the desert of libya
to get to giant's island.
There in the desert, he was dehydrated and
tormented by the scorching heat, that he shot
an arrow at the sun in frustration.
Seeing his plight, Helios the sun god, after
having sailed accross the sky from east to
west, sent his golden chariot by night, which
carried heracles to Erythia in no time.
On getting to the island, the hero was attacked
by the dog Orthrus, which he killed with a
strike from his mighty club.
He was then attacked by Geryon's herdsman,
Eurytion, whom he also killed in the same
way.
On hearing that his pet and his herdsman had
been killed by this stranger, Geryon donned
three helmets, armed himself with three spears
and three shields and charged at heracles.
But heracles merely shot his poisonous arrow
at the his forehead, ending the powerful giant
in seconds.
Now it seemed heracles could freely take the
cattle to tiryns without any further obstacles,
but it wasn't so.
As the hero slept, a giant named Cacus, stole
some of the cattle, by them walk backwards
to his cave, so that they left no trail.
Heracles searched for them till he reached
the giant's cave, where the rest of the cattle
called out to the missing.
Heracles then killed Cacus, and built an altar
on that area, that would later be known as
Rome's cattle market.
Next, Hera sent a gadfly to sting and scatter
the animals, and after almost a year of searching,
the hero managed to retrieve them.
Then hera caused the river to Tiryns to be
so deep that he could not go on.
Being someone who could not be defeated, Heracles
piled huge stones into the river till he formed
a bridge.
With that he got across, reached Tiryns, and
delivered the cattle to Eurystheus, who sacrificed
them to hera.
Recall that by the original agreement on the
number of labors to perform, heracles had
completed his 10 labors, but because the slaying
of the hydra and the cleaning of the Augean
stables, had been discounted by Eurystheus,
he was to perform 2 more tasks.
So Eurystheus assigned heracles to fetch 3
of the golden apples of Hesperides, as his
next and 11th task.
The hesperides were the nymph daughters of
the Titan Atlas, who resided in a beautiful
garden, and tended to the golden apples of
the garden.
In that garden, was a fearsome many-headed
dragon called Ladon, offspring of Echidna
and typhon, which protected the nymphs and
ensured the apples were never stolen.
Learning that only the old man of the sea
Nereus, knew the location of the garden, the
hero traveled to Illyria where he trapped
the sea deity, and made him show him how to
get there.
Shortly into his journey, he was attacked
a by a half giant named Antaeus, who as long
as he touched the earth gaia, could not be
killed.
Heracles killed this giant by holding him
above the ground and crushing him with his
hands.
Then he met Busiris, son of poseidon, who
wanted to use him as a human sacrifice to
the earthshaker, his father.
Heracles easily killed Busiris and continued
on his way.
He got the rock where the titan prometheus
was bound for eternity by zeus, and tormented
by the caucasian eagle which fed daily on
his ever-regenerating liver, as punishment
for stealing fire from the gods to give to
humans.
Prometheus had already endured this suffering
for 30 years, and just as the eagle came to
feed, heracles shot it dead, and freed the
titan.
In gratitude, prometheus advised heracles
on how to proceed on his task, that he must
persuade Atlas, the titan who held up the
heavens, to get them for him, for only he,
could peacefully retrieve the goden apples
from his daughters and their guardian dragon.
Atlas agreed to fetch the apples, while heracles
temporarily took his place, carrying the heavens
till he returned.
However, when the titan returned, he refused
to take back the heavens, offering to deliver
the apples himself, while heracles forever
remained in his place.
Here and again, heracles had to employ his
wits.
He pretended to agree to Atlas' demands and
cleverly asked him to hold the heavy load
for a few seconds, so he could adjust his
clothing and put a padding on his shoulders,
since he would be forever carrying something
so heavy.
Atlas foolishly took back the heavens thinking
it would be for a while, but heracles snatched
the apples instead, and ran off.
In another version of the story, heracles
did not ask for Atlas' help.
he went straight to the garden of the hesperides,
where he killed Ladon the dragon, and took
the apples.
Whichever story version it is, he successfully
delivered the golden apples to Eurystheus,
ready for his final task.
Eurystheus had grown weary of heracles and
his victories.
He was out of ideas on how to get rid of him,
except one, to send him to the depths of hades.
No one who entered hades, ever returned, therefore,
he was certain that even the son Zeus would
not return.
So the 12th and most dangerous labor of heracles,
was to travel to the underworld and bring
back Cerberus.
Cerberus was the famed three-headed.
fire-breathing, serpent tailed offspring of
echidna and typhon, that guarded the realm
of hades, preventing the souls of the dead
and visitors who dared enter, from ever leaving.
Prior to his journey, Athena and hermes guided
Heracles on how to travel to the underworld
while still alive, by preparing and versing
him in the Eleusinian Mysteries, while hestia
implored the undead ferryman Charon, to ferry
him across the acheron river.
When heracles got the underworld, he met Theseus
and his friend Pirithous, both of whom had
been enslaved by hades for attempting to abduct
Persephone.
He freed Theseus from the chair of forgetfulness
he was bound.
But when he tried to free Pirithous, the earth
trembled so violently that heracles was force
to leave him behind.
Pirithous desired persephone, so he was doomed
to remain in the underworld for eternity.
Thereafter, heracles reached the throne of
hades, where he humbly asked the grim god
to allow him temporaily take cerberus to the
surface world.
Hades calmly responded that he could do as
he wished, only if he could overpower the
giant hound with his raw strength, doing no
harm to it in the process.
When heracles found cerberus, the two engaged
in a terrible fight.
And after quite a while of struggling and
grunting and growling, the hero managed to
subdue the hound.
Lifting the massive cerberus on his shoulders,
heracles headed out of the underworld, into
the land of the living, straight to palace
of Eurystheus.
Now when Eurystheus saw the hound of hades,
he fled into his large jar, terrified to death,
begging heracles to take it away and promising
to release him from any other labors.
Thus, Cerberus returned to hades, and heracles
was released by eurystheus.
He had served his penance, free to start a
new life.
It is claimed that he joined the Argonauts
for a short while, in their quest for the
golden fleece thereafter.
Heracles would go on to have many other great
adventures, and by the time of his death,
he would be rewarded with immortality as promised,
and reside on olympus, where hera would forgive
him, granting him the hand of Hebe in marriage.
