The Labors of Hercules

The goddess Hera, determined to make trouble for Hercules, made him lose his mind. In a
confused and angry state, he killed his own wife and children.

When he awakened from his "temporary insanity," Hercules was shocked and upset by what he'd
done. He prayed to the god Apollo for guidance, and the god's oracle told him he would have to
serve Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae, for twelve years, in punishment for the
murders.

As part of his sentence, Hercules had to perform twelve Labors, feats so difficult that they
seemed impossible. Fortunately, Hercules had the help of Hermes and Athena, sympathetic
deities who showed up when he really needed help. By the end of these Labors, Hercules was,
without a doubt, Greece's greatest hero.

His struggles made Hercules the perfect embodiment of an idea the Greeks called pathos, the
experience of virtuous struggle and suffering which would lead to fame and, in Hercules' case,
immortality.
First: Nemean lion[edit]
Main article: Nemean lion

Heracles with the head of the Nemean lion

Heracles wandered in the area until he came to the town of Cleonae. There he met a boy who said
that if Heracles slew the Nemean lion and returned alive within 30 days, the town would sacrifice a
lion to Zeus, but if he did not return within 30 days or if he died, the boy would sacrifice himself to
Zeus. Another version claims that he met Molorchos, a shepherd who had lost his son to the lion,
saying that if he came back within 30 days, a ram would be sacrificed to Zeus. If he did not return
within 30 days, it would be sacrificed to the dead Heracles as a mourning offering.
While searching for the lion, Heracles fletched some arrows to use against it, not knowing that its
golden fur was impenetrable. When he found and shot the lion, firing at it with his bow, Heracles
discovered the fur's protective property as the arrow bounced harmlessly off the creature's thigh.
After some time, Heracles made the lion return to his cave. The cave had two entrances, one of
which Heracles blocked; he then entered the other. In those dark and close quarters, Heracles
stunned the beast with his club and, using his immense strength, strangled it to death. During the
fight the lion bit off one of his fingers.[9] Others say that he shot arrows at it, eventually shooting it in
the unarmored mouth. After slaying the lion, he tried to skin it with a knife from his belt, but failed. He
then tried sharpening the knife with a stone and even tried with the stone itself. Finally, Athena,
noticing the hero's plight, told Heracles to use one of the lion's own claws to skin the pelt. Others say
that Heracles' armor was, in fact, the hide of the Lion of Cithaeron.
When he returned on the 30th day carrying the carcass of the lion on his shoulders, King Eurystheus
was amazed and terrified. Eurystheus forbade him ever again to enter the city; from then on he was
to display the fruits of his labours outside the city gates. Eurystheus would then tell Heracles his
tasks through a herald, not personally. Eurystheus even had a large bronze jar made for him in
which to hide from Heracles if need be. Eurystheus then warned him that the tasks would become
increasingly difficult.
Second: Lernaean Hydra[edit]
Main article: Lernaean Hydra

Heracles and the Lernaean Hydra

Heracles' second labour was to slay the Lernaean Hydra, which Hera had raised with the sole
purpose of slaying Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt,
Heracles used a cloth to cover his mouth and nose to protect himself from the poisonous fumes. He
fired flaming arrows into the Hydra's lair, the spring of Amymone, a deep cave that the beast only
came out of to terrorize neighboring villages.[10] Angered by the flaming arrows, the Hydra emerged
from its lair. Wielding a harvesting sickle (according to some early vase-paintings), a sword or his
famed club, Heracles engaged the Hydra in combat. Ruck and Staples (1994: 170) note that
the chthonic creature's reaction was botanical in nature: upon cutting off each of its heads, Heracles
observed that the beast promptly re-grew each decapitated head, rendering every slash and
cleaving blow futile. Additionally, one of the Hydra's heads - the middle one - was immortal.
The details of the struggle are explicit in the Bibliotheca (2.5.2): realizing that he could not defeat the
Hydra in this way, Heracles called on his nephew Iolaus for help. Iolaus then came upon the idea
(possibly inspired by Athena) of using a firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after each decapitation.
Working in tandem, Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus cauterized the open stumps. Seeing that
Heracles was winning the struggle, Hera sent a giant crab to distract him; however, this turned out to
be in vain, as he promptly crushed it under his mighty foot. Lastly, having weakened the beast
considerably, Heracles cut off the Hydra's one immortal head with a golden sword given to him by
Athena. It is said that Heracles placed the immortal head under a great rock on the sacred way
between Lerna and Elaius to keep the beast from enacting further harm (Kerenyi 1959:144), and
once this was done, he dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood. An alternative version of
this myth relates that after cutting off one of the Hydra's heads, Heracles dipped his sword in the
gaping wound and used its venom to cauterize each subsequent stump so that it could not grow
back. Hera, upset that Heracles had slain the beast she raised to kill him, is said to have placed it in
the dark blue vault of the sky as the constellation Hydra. She then turned the crab into
the constellation Cancer.
Later, Heracles used an arrow dipped in the Hydra's poisonous blood to kill the centaur Nessus; and
Nessus's tainted blood was applied to the Tunic of Nessus, by which the centaur had his
posthumous revenge. Both Strabo and Pausanias report that the stench of the river Anigrus in Elis,
making all the fish of the river inedible, was reputed to be due to the Hydra's venom, washed from
the arrows Heracles used on the centaur. [11]
Third: Ceryneian Hind[edit]
Main article: Ceryneian Hind

Heracles capturing the Ceryneian Hind

Angered by Heracles' success against the Nemean Lion and the Lernaean Hydra, Eurystheus

(advised by Hera) devised an altogether different task for the hero, commanding Heracles to capture
the Ceryneian Hind, a beast so fast it could outpace an arrow.
After a long search, Heracles awoke one night and laid eyes on the elusive hind, which was only
visible due to the glint of moonlight on its antlers. He then chased the hind on foot for a full year
through Greece, Thrace, Istria, and the land of the Hyperboreans. How Heracles caught the hind
differs depending on the telling; in most versions, he captured the hind while it slept, rendering it
lame with a trap net.
Eurystheus commanded Heracles to catch the hind in the hope that it would enrage Artemis and
lead her to punish the hero for his desecration of the sacred animal. As he was returning with the
hind to present it to Eurystheus, Heracles encountered Artemis and her brother Apollo. He begged
the goddess for forgiveness, explaining that he had snared the hind as part of his penance, but
promised to return it to the wild soon thereafter. Convinced by Heracles' earnestness, Artemis
forgave him, foiling Eurystheus' plan.
After bringing the hind to Eurystheus, Heracles was informed that it was to become part of the
King's menagerie. Knowing that he must return the hind to the wild as he had promised Artemis,
Heracles agreed to hand it over only on the condition that Eurystheus himself come out and take it
from him. The King came forth, but the moment that Heracles let the hind go, it sprinted back to its
mistress with unparalleled swiftness. Before taking his leave, Heracles snidely commented that
Eurystheus had not been quick enough, leaving the King fuming.

Fourth: Erymanthian Boar[edit]

Main article: Erymanthian Boar

Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar

Eurystheus was disappointed that Heracles had overcome yet another creature and was humiliated
by the hind's escape, so he assigned Heracles another dangerous task. By some accounts, the
fourth labour was to bring the fearsome Erymanthian Boar back to Eurystheus alive (there is no
single definitive telling of the labours). On the way to Mount Erymanthos where the boar lived,
Heracles visited Pholus ("caveman"), a kind and hospitable centaur and old friend. Heracles ate with
Pholus in his cavern (though the centaur devoured his meat raw) and asked for wine. Pholus had
only one jar of wine, a gift from Dionysus to all the centaurs on Mount Erymanthos. Heracles
convinced him to open it, and the smell attracted the other centaurs. They did not understand that
wine needs to be tempered with water, became drunk, and attacked Heracles. Heracles shot at them
with his poisonous arrows, killing many, and the centaurs retreated all the way to Chiron's cave.
Pholus was curious why the arrows caused so much death. He picked one up but dropped it, and
the arrow stabbed his hoof, poisoning him. One version states that a stray arrow hit Chiron as well.
He was immortal, but he still felt the pain. Chiron's pain was so great that he volunteered to give up
his immortality and take the place of Prometheus, who had been chained to the top of a mountain to
have his liver eaten daily by an eagle. Prometheus' torturer, the eagle, continued its torture on
Chiron, so Heracles shot it dead with an arrow. It is generally accepted that the tale was meant to
show Heracles as being the recipient of Chiron's surrendered immortality. However, this tale
contradicts the fact that Chiron later taught Achilles. The tale of the centaurs sometimes appears in
other parts of the twelve labours, as does the freeing of Prometheus.
Heracles had visited Chiron to gain advice on how to catch the boar, and Chiron had told him to
drive it into thick snow, which sets this labour in mid-winter. Heracles caught the boar, bound it, and
carried it back to Eurystheus, who was frightened of it and ducked down in his half-buried
storage pithos, begging Heracles to get rid of the beast.

Fifth: Augean stables[edit]

Main article: Augeas

Heracles cleans the Augean stables by redirecting the river

The fifth labour was to clean the stables of King Augeas. This assignment was intended to be both
humiliating and impossible, since these divine livestock were immortal, and had produced an
enormous quantity of dung. The Augean (/ɔːˈdʒiːən/) stables had not been cleaned in over 30 years,
and over 1,000 cattle lived there. However, Heracles succeeded by rerouting the
rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out the filth.
Before starting on the task, Heracles had asked Augeas for one-tenth of the cattle if he finished the
task in one day, and Augeas agreed, but afterwards Augeas refused to honour the agreement on the
grounds that Heracles had been ordered to carry out the task by Eurystheus anyway. Heracles
claimed his reward in court, and was supported by Augeas' son Phyleus. Augeas banished them
both before the court had ruled. Heracles returned, slew Augeas, and gave his kingdom to Phyleus.
The success of this labour was ultimately discounted as the rushing waters had done the work of
cleaning the stables, and because Heracles was paid for doing the labour; Eurystheus determined
that Heracles still had seven labours to perform.[12]
Sixth: Stymphalian birds[edit]
Main article: Stymphalian birds

Heracles and the Stymphalian birds

The sixth labour was to defeat the Stymphalian birds, man-eating birds with beaks made
of bronze and sharp metallic feathers they could launch at their victims. They were sacred to Ares,
the god of war. Furthermore, their dung was highly toxic. They had migrated to Lake
Stymphalia in Arcadia, where they bred quickly and took over the countryside, destroying local
crops, fruit trees, and townspeople. Heracles could not go too far into the swamp, for it would not
support his weight. Athena, noticing the hero's plight, gave Heracles a rattle which Hephaestus had
made especially for the occasion. Heracles shook the rattle and frightened the birds into the air.
Heracles then shot many of them with his arrows. The rest flew far away, never to return. In some
versions of this story instead of the Augean stables being discounted it was the Stymphalian
Birds labour for getting the help of Athena. The Argonauts would later encounter them.

Seventh: Cretan Bull[edit]

Main article: Cretan Bull

Heracles forces the Cretan Bull to the ground (engraving by B. Picart, 1731)

The seventh labour, also categorised as the first of the Non-Peloponneisan labours,[13] was to capture
the Cretan Bull, father of the Minotaur. Heracles sailed to Crete, where King Minos gave Heracles
permission to take the bull away and even offered him assistance (which Heracles declined,
plausibly because he did not want the labour to be discounted as before). [14] The bull had been
wreaking havoc on Crete by uprooting crops and leveling orchard walls. Heracles snuck up behind
the bull and then used his hands to throttle it (stopping before it was killed), and then shipped it back
to Tiryns. Eurystheus, who hid in his pithos at first sight of the creature, wanted to sacrifice the bull to
Hera, who hated Heracles. She refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on Heracles. The bull
was released and wandered into Marathon, becoming known as the Marathonian Bull.
[14]
 Theseus would later sacrifice the bull to Athena and/or Apollo.

Eighth: Mares of Diomedes[edit]

Main article: Mares of Diomedes

Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre – Diomedes King of Thrace Killed by Heracles and Devoured by his own Horses,
1752

As the eighth of his Twelve Labours Heracles was sent by King Eurystheus to steal the Mares
from Diomedes. The mares’ madness was attributed to their unnatural diet which consisted of the
flesh[15] of unsuspecting guests or strangers to the island. [16] Some versions of the myth say that the
mares also expelled fire when they breathed.[17] The Mares, which were the terror of Thrace, were
kept tethered by iron chains to a bronze manger in the now vanished city of Tirida [18] and were named
Podargos (the swift), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the yellow) and Deinos (or Deinus, the
terrible).[19] Although very similar, there are slight variances in the exact details regarding the mares’
capture.
In one version, Heracles brought a number of volunteers to help him capture the giant horses.
[18]
 After overpowering Diomedes’ men, Heracles broke the chains that tethered the horses and drove
the mares down to sea. Unaware that the mares were man-eating and uncontrollable, Heracles left
them in the charge of his favored companion, Abderus, while he left to fight Diomedes. Upon his
return, Heracles found that the boy was eaten. As revenge, Heracles fed Diomedes to his own
horses and then founded Abdera next to the boy's tomb.[16]
In another version, Heracles, who was visiting the island, stayed awake so that he didn't have his
throat cut by Diomedes in the night, and cut the chains binding the horses once everyone was
asleep. Having scared the horses onto the high ground of a knoll, Heracles quickly dug a trench
through the peninsula, filling it with water and thus flooding the low-lying plain. When Diomedes and
his men turned to flee, Heracles killed them with an axe (or a club [18]), and fed Diomedes’ body to the
horses to calm them.
In yet another version, Heracles first captured Diomedes and fed him to the mares before releasing
them. Only after realizing that their King was dead did his men, the Bistonians,[16][18] attack Heracles.
Upon seeing the mares charging at them, led in a chariot by Abderus, the Bistonians turned and fled.
In all versions the horses are calmed by eating human flesh, giving Heracles the opportunity to bind
their mouths shut and easily take them back to King Eurystheus, who dedicated the horses to Hera.
[20]
 In some versions, they were allowed to roam freely around Argos, having become permanently
calm, but in others, Eurystheus ordered the horses taken to Olympus to be sacrificed to Zeus, but
Zeus refused them, and sent wolves, lions, and bears to kill them. [21] Roger Lancelyn Green states in
his Tales of the Greek Heroes that the mares’ descendants were used in the Trojan War, and
survived even to the time of Alexander the Great.[18][22] After the incident, Eurystheus sent Heracles to
bring back Hippolyta's Girdle.

Ninth: Belt of Hippolyta[edit]

Main article: Hippolyta

The magic girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons

Eurystheus' daughter Admete wanted the Belt of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, a gift from her
father Ares. To please his daughter, Eurystheus ordered Heracles to retrieve the belt as his ninth
labour.
Taking a band of friends with him, Heracles set sail, stopping at the island of Paros, which was
inhabited by some sons of Minos. The sons killed two of Heracles' companions, an act which set
Heracles on a rampage. He killed two of the sons of Minos and threatened the other inhabitants until
he was offered two men to replace his fallen companions. Heracles agreed and took two of Minos'
grandsons, Alcaeus and Sthenelus. They continued their voyage and landed at the court of Lycus,
whom Heracles defended in a battle against King Mygdon of Bebryces. After killing King Mygdon,
Heracles gave much of the land to his friend Lycus. Lycus called the land Heraclea. The crew then
set off for Themiscyra, where Hippolyta lived.
All would have gone well for Heracles had it not been for Hera. Hippolyta, impressed with Heracles
and his exploits, agreed to give him the belt and would have done so had Hera not disguised herself
and walked among the Amazons sowing seeds of distrust. She claimed the strangers were plotting
to carry off the queen of the Amazons. Alarmed, the women set off on horseback to confront
Heracles. When Heracles saw them, he thought Hippolyta had been plotting such treachery all along
and had never meant to hand over the belt, so he killed her, took the belt and returned to
Eurystheus.
Tenth: Cattle of Geryon[edit]
Main article: Geryon

Heracles and the Cattle of Geryones

The tenth labour was to obtain the Cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon. In the fullest account in
the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus,[23] Heracles had to go to the island of Erytheia in the far west
(sometimes identified with the Hesperides, or with the island which forms the city of Cádiz) to get the
cattle. On the way there, he crossed the Libyan desert[24] and became so frustrated at the heat that
he shot an arrow at the Sun. The sun-god Helios "in admiration of his courage" gave Heracles the
golden cup Helios used to sail across the sea from west to east each night. Heracles rode the cup to
Erytheia; Heracles in the cup was a favorite motif on black-figure pottery.[citation needed] Such a magical
conveyance undercuts any literal geography for Erytheia, the "red island" of the sunset.
When Heracles landed at Erytheia, he was confronted by the two-headed dog Orthrus. With one
blow from his olive-wood club, Heracles killed Orthrus. Eurytion the herdsman came to assist
Orthrus, but Heracles dealt with him the same way.
On hearing the commotion, Geryon sprang into action, carrying three shields and three spears, and
wearing three helmets. He attacked Heracles at the River Anthemus, but was slain by one of
Heracles' poisoned arrows. Heracles shot so forcefully that the arrow pierced Geryon's forehead,
"and Geryon bent his neck over to one side, like a poppy that spoils its delicate shapes, shedding its
petals all at once."[25]
Heracles then had to herd the cattle back to Eurystheus. In Roman versions of the narrative,
Heracles drove the cattle over the Aventine Hill on the future site of Rome. The giant Cacus, who
lived there, stole some of the cattle as Heracles slept, making the cattle walk backwards so that they
left no trail, a repetition of the trick of the young Hermes. According to some versions, Heracles
drove his remaining cattle past the cave, where Cacus had hidden the stolen animals, and they
began calling out to each other. In other versions, Cacus' sister Caca told Heracles where he was.
Heracles then killed Cacus, and set up an altar on the spot, later the site of Rome's Forum
Boarium (the cattle market).
To annoy Heracles, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them, and scatter them. Within a
year, Heracles retrieved them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the level of a river so much that
Heracles could not cross with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower.
When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera.
Eleventh: Golden Apples of the Hesperides[edit]
Main article: Hesperides

Atlas and Heracles

Heracles stealing the apples from the Hesperides

After Heracles completed the first ten labours, Eurystheus gave him two more, claiming that slaying
the Hydra did not count (because Iolaus helped Heracles), neither did cleaning the Augean Stables
(either because he was paid for the job or because the rivers did the work).
The first additional labour was to steal three of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides.
Heracles first caught the Old Man of the Sea, the shapeshifting sea god,[26] to learn where the
Garden of the Hesperides was located. [27]
In some variations, Heracles, either at the start or at the end of this task, meets Antaeus, who was
invincible as long as he touched his mother, Gaia, the Earth. Heracles killed Antaeus by holding him
aloft and crushing him in a bear hug.[28]
Herodotus claims that Heracles stopped in Egypt, where King Busiris decided to make him the
yearly sacrifice, but Heracles burst out of his chains.
Heracles finally made his way to the garden of the Hesperides, where he encountered Atlas holding
up the heavens on his shoulders. Heracles persuaded Atlas to get the three golden Apples for him
by offering to hold up the heavens in his place for a little while. Atlas could get the apples because,
in this version, he was the father or otherwise related to the Hesperides. When Atlas returned, he
decided that he did not want to take the heavens back, and instead offered to deliver the apples
himself, but Heracles tricked him by agreeing to remain in place of Atlas on the condition that Atlas
relieve him temporarily while Heracles adjusted his cloak. Atlas agreed, but Heracles reneged and
walked away with the apples. According to an alternative version, Heracles slew Ladon, the dragon
who guarded the apples, instead. Eurystheus was furious that Heracles had accomplished
something that Eurystheus thought could not possibly be done.

Twelfth: Cerberus[edit]
Main article: Cerberus

Heracles and Cerberus

The twelfth and final labour was the capture of Cerberus, the three-headed, dragon-tailed dog that
was the guardian of the gates of the Underworld. To prepare for his descent into the Underworld,
Heracles went to Eleusis (or Athens) to be initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries. He entered the
Underworld, and Hermes and Athena were his guides.
While in the Underworld, Heracles met Theseus and Pirithous. The two companions had been
imprisoned by Hades for attempting to kidnap Persephone. One tradition tells of snakes coiling
around their legs, then turning into stone; another that Hades feigned hospitality and prepared a
feast inviting them to sit. They unknowingly sat in chairs of forgetfulness and were permanently
ensnared. When Heracles had pulled Theseus first from his chair, some of his thigh stuck to it (this
explains the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians), but the Earth shook at the attempt to liberate
Pirithous, whose desire to have the goddess for himself was so insulting he was doomed to stay
behind.
Heracles found Hades and asked permission to bring Cerberus to the surface, which Hades agreed
to if Heracles could subdue the beast without using weapons. Heracles overpowered Cerberus with
his bare hands and slung the beast over his back. He carried Cerberus out of the Underworld
through a cavern entrance in the Peloponnese and brought it to Eurystheus, who again fled into
his pithos. Eurystheus begged Heracles to return Cerberus to the Underworld, offering in return to
release him from any further labours when Cerberus disappeared back to his master.