 Son of Zeus and a mortal woman named

Alcmene (seduced by Zeus in the form of

her husband, Amphitryon)
 Roman name: Hercules
 Famous for possessing exceptional
strength
 Hera hated Heracles more than the other demigods
because she was afraid that Zeus might favor him due
to his strength. That might make him a constant part
of her family and a reminder of her husband’s
infidelity.
 Hera punished the hero by making him go berserk
and attacking everyone he sees.
 Confused and angry, the hero killed his own wife,
Maegara, and their children.
 When he was sane again, he was
shocked by what he did.
 He prayed to the god Apollo for
guidance and was advised to serve King
Eurystheus (of Mycenae and Tyrins) for
twelve years.
These labors are considered to be very
difficult and impossible to perform.
Fortunately, Hermes and Athena helped
him on certain tasks.
 Boss battle: Kill and skin the lion
 Difficulty: The lion’s hide is impenetrable. No weapon could harm
or even scratch its hide.
 So knowing that, the king wanted the skin of this lion which
means Hercules needed to kill it.
 Hercules choked it to death.
 Eurystheus was shocked by Hercules’ achievement. He started to
fear the hero and refuse him entry to the city. He would send a
messenger to communicate with Hercules by the city gates. No
more face to face encounter with the hero. The king simply
became so scared that he even buried a huge vase
underground as a hiding place in case Hercules plans to attack
him.
 Boss battle: Kill the hydra
 Difficulty: The hydra is a nine-headed creature, eight of its head
are mortal but very powerful, and a ninth head is immortal.
 As soon as the head is cut, two more will grow.
 He was accompanied by his nephew, Iolaus. He would hold a
torch to the neck of the beast as soon as Hercules would cut or
bash a head (or shoot a fiery arrow). The ninth-head was dealt
with by burying it underground and placing a heavy rock on top
of it.
 As an added bonus, when the hydra was finally dead, Hercules,
slit it open and dipped his arrows in its venom.
 Capture the hind (a female deer)
 Difficulty: Sacred to Artemis
 Hercules hunted the deer for a whole year. Out of desperation,
he shot an arrow to stop the hind from getting away, injuring it in
the process. When he was ready to leave with the hind on his
shoulder, Diana and Apollo appeared. The goddess was very
angry and wanted to punish Hercules but the hero explained that
he needed to perform the task as advised by Apollo’s oracle.
 Another version of the story: Hercules waited for the deer to drink
from the lake after chasing it for a whole year. Then he jumped
out of his hiding spot to capture the animal while it was busy
drinking.
 Boss battle: Capture the boar
 Difficulty: It’s strong, humongous in size and it stinks.
 The beast had caused trouble for the people living
around Mt. Erymanthus.
 Hercules chased the boar from one place to another
for months until it became utterly exhausted, then
drove it into deep snow and trapped it.
 Side Quest: Clean the stables in a single day
 Difficulty:The stables hold thousands of cattle and the
stalls had not been cleaned out for years. Hercules
had to clean it.
 He diverted the courses of two rivers and made them
flow through the stables in a great flood. This might
also have drowned some of the cattle.
Drive away the Stymphalian birds
plaguing the people of Stymphalus
Helped by Athena who drove them out
of their hiding place and Hercules shot
them down as they fly away.
Fetch the Cretan bull, a beautiful bull.
Hercules had to tame the beast and put
it on a boat.
Get the man-eating mares of Diomedes
The mares’s diet mainly consists of
human flesh.
Hercules had to fight off Diomedes, the
tyrant king of Thrace, to get close to the
mares. Instead of getting into combat,
he fed the king to the mares. This tamed
the mares which made it easier for
Hercules to capture them and bring
them back to Eurystheus.
 Girdle – corset-type belt
 Hippolyta – queen of the Amazons, the women warriors
 Trivia about the Amazons:
1. When a son is born to an Amazon woman, the baby is taken to a
nearby village. If a daughter is born, the child will stay in the village to
be trained.
2. They
only have one breast. They remove one of their breast to avoid
impeding the use of a bow.
 When Hercules visited the Amazons to get this girdle, Hippolyta welcomed
him kindly (probably thinking that he is a good mate to produce strong
off-springs). Things were going well because the queen herself was
actually willing to give the girdle. But Hera didn’t like what was going on.
So she disguised herself as an Amazon and started spreading a rumor that
Hercules was going to take away their queen. This led to the women to go
aggressive and attack Hercules. Thinking that the attack was planned,
Hercules killed Hippolyta while fighting off some other Amazons before
taking the girdle and fleeing.
Get the cattle of Geryon.
Geryon is a giant with three heads, 6
arms, and 6 legs.
Hercules had to fight off Geryon and
other monsters guarding the cattle
before he was able to get the cattle. He
managed to get the cattle using his
strength.
 It’s difficult to find the Hesperides, they are women who guard
the golden apples that are precious.
 Atlas helped him. Sort of.
 The titan promised to tell Hercules where to find the Hesperides if
he could hold the pillars of the earth in his stead for a while just
so he could rest a bit. When Hercules hesitated, Atlas offered to
get the apples for him. This made Hercules relent but when the
titan return he thought it was a chance for him to escape his
punishment. When Hercules noticed that Atlas was taking a while
to take back the pillars, he pretended that he needed to tie his
sandal laces and asked Atlas to take it back again so he could
tie his laces properly and concentrate on carrying the pillars, as
well as put pads on his shoulder for more support. Atlas relented.
As soon as Atlas took the pillars, Hercules picked the apples and
left.
 He needed to tame the beast and carry it from the
underworld.
 Difficulty level: 2000!!!
 Hercules went to the underworld and asked Hades to
borrow the guard dog. The god of the underworld
relented on one condition. Hercules must tame the
monster using no weapons. Even with just his fist, he
was able to tame the beast and carry it up into the
upper world.
 Sidequest: While in the underworld, Hercules freed
Theseus from the Chair of Forgetfulness.
After performing the twelve labors,
Heracles travelled and joined a few
other quests that became well-known in
mythology.
But one of the more popular stories that
involved him told about his death.
When Heracles married Daenara (2nd
wife), Hera became enraged that the
hero was happy.
So she disguised herself as a maid and
offered a cloak (sometimes cape or
robe) that was said to be a gift from a
guest at the wedding.
Daenara happily gave the piece of
clothing to her husband who also put it
on as soon as he received it.
The cloth was actually poisoned and as
soon as Heracles wore it, it stuck to his
skin and started to burn.
 Inan attempt to save himself, he tried to tear off the
cloth but every time he ripped it off, part of his skin
and flesh came off with the cloth until he was close to
bleeding to death.
 Zeus stepped in and gave him ambrosia, food of the
gods, which made the Greek hero an instant god (god
of strength).
 To
add insult to Hera, Zeus enforced the marriage of
Heracles to Hebe, the goddess of youth, and the
daughter of Hera with Zeus.