The Twelve Labors
After a fit of madness sent by
Hera, Heracles
butchered his wife and children. He left his home in Thebes and, commanded
by the Oracle at Delphi,
he went to Tiryns and serve the king Eurystheus for
twelve years, accomplishing ten labors. The
Pythia said that by doing this, Heracles would
become immortal.
Eurystheus, fearful of the power of
Heracles, hoped to kill him by assigning the
impossible. He even did not accept two of the labors after being
completed, making the actual number of labors twelve instead of ten.
Heracles was able to do each, however, and by doing
so achieved immortality through apotheosis.
The Labors:
For more information on each
specific labor, click on the name.
1. The
Nemean Lion
The first of the
twelve labors given to
Heracles by
the king Eurystheus was to kill this mighty beast. As
Heracles soon found
out, no weapon could pierce its tough hide.
Heracles had to resort to
fighting the Nemean Lion with his bare hands, eventually strangling it to death.
Once dead,
Heracles brought the dead beast
back to a stunned Eurystheus, who had assumed the
hero would be killed. Afraid the king forbid
Heracles to enter the gates,
and instead he gave him the second labor using a herald.
2. The Lernaean Hydra
An offspring of
Echidna and
Typhaon, the Hydra is is a
serpent-like creature with nine heads, one of which is immortal.
Moreover, each time a head is cut off, two more grow up in its place. To
defeat it,
Heracles cut of the heads and had his friend Iolaus who pressed
down with a branding iron, searing the wound so that two more heads would not be
created.
Heracles then hid the immortal head under a rock.
Heracles then dipped his arrows
into its blood, so that his enemies would be poisoned with the blood.
When he returned to Eurystheus,
however, the weak king declared that this labor did not count, since
Heracles had enlisted the help
of a friend.
3. The Cerynitian Hind
Eurystheus ordered
Heracles to bring him this
hind, which was sacred to the goddess
Artemis, alive. This
creature was exceptionally swift, and he chased it for a year with no success.
At last, he wounded the creature with an arrow, thereby slowing it enough to
be captured. He then took it alive back to Tiryns. Enraged,
Artemis wanted to take the hind
from
Heracles, but he explained that
it was not his fault, but Eurystheus'
4. The Erymanthian Boar
Heracles was ordered to bring
in this beast alive. While traveling to Mt. Erymanthos,
Heracles accidentally killed
Cheiron, the famous king of the
Centaurs.
Heracles then proceeded
to capture the Boar by trapping it in the snow of a mountain.
5. The Cattle of Augeias
Eurystheus ordered
Heracles to clean the fields of
king Augeias without help in one day. Since
Augeias knew nothing of Eurystheus'
order,
Heracles first went to the king
and said he would clean the stables for a price: one-tenth of his cattle.
Augeias quickly agreed, believing the task
impossible.
Heracles then diverted the flow
of two nearby rivers, cleaning off the dung from all of the land. When
he returned to Augeias and demanded his pay, the
king refused, saying that he had made no such promise.
Heracles was driven from the
town.
When
Heracles returned to Tiryns, Eurystheus
refused to accept this labor. He said that since
Heracles had worked for pay, it
did not count.
6. The Stymphalian Birds
Eurystheus ordered
Heracles to drive away the
birds, which crowded lake Stymphalia.
Heracles was at a loss as to
how to drive them all away, until he was helped by the goddess
Athena. She gave him
castanets forged by Hephaestus.
These were so loud that they drove the birds completely away from the lake.
7. The Cretan Bull
For the seventh labor,
Heracles was ordered to
retrieve the Cretan Bull alive. He captured the bull with little
difficulty, then took it back to Tiryns.
8. The Mares of Diomedes
For his eighth labor, Eurystheus ordered the
hero to bring him the mares of the King Diomedes, who possessed man-eating
horses. Gathering a group of volunteers,
Heracles captured the horses
and took them to Tiryns.
9. The Belt of Hippolyte
Hippolyte is one of the queens of
the Amazons, and Heracles'
task was to retrieve her belt. Eurystheus
assigned this task because his daughter desired to wear it.
Hippolyte was willing to give him her
belt, but because of Hera,
Heracles was forced to kill
her.
While sailing back, he stopped at Troy.
There he saved the daughter of
Laomedon, but the foolish
king would not give him the promised reward. Angry,
Heracles promised to return and
destroy the city.
10. The Cattle of Geryon
Geryon, a grandson of Oceanus,
inhabited an island on the ocean. He owned red cattle, which were
guarded by a shepherd and Geryon's dog,
Orthos.
Heracles' task was to drive the cattle to Tiryns.
Only with great difficulty did he accomplish this, and many of the cattle were
lost along the way.
11. The Apples of the
Hesperides
As the eleventh labor, Eurystheus ordered
Heracles to retrieve some
golden apples from the Hesperides. On the
journey,
Heracles encountered
Prometheus, still being
tortured for defying Zeus.
He shot the eagle, which daily devoured his liver. Then, he set
Prometheus free. In
exchange, he presented Cheiron to
Zeus. As thanks,
Prometheus gave
Heracles advice on how to best
obtain some golden apples.
Following the advice of
Prometheus,
Heracles went to
Atlas for help.
Atlas took three apples, but
was unwilling to assume his burden once again. Through trickery,
Heracles got Atlas to resume
his eternal punishment. After he showed the apples to Eurystheus,
Athena then carried them back to
the Hesperides.
12. The Capture of Cerberus
As the last of his labors,
Heracles was ordered by Eurystheus
to bring back Cerberus
from the underworld alive. While in the underworld,
Heracles encountered the hero
Theseus, whom he rescued. Forbidden
by Hades,
Heracles used no weapons.
He wrestled with the dog until he had broken its will. He then rode the
dog back to Tiryns and showed it to Eurystheus.
After completing the twelve labors, Heracles
became an immortal, just as the oracle had said. He was not immediately
taken to Olympus, but instead
remained on the earth for some time as a mortal.
Source(s):
-
Apollodorus. Bibliotece.
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