Labours of Hercules


The Labours of Hercules or Labours of Heracles are a series of tasks carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, whose name was later romanised as Hercules. They were accomplished in the service of King Eurystheus. The episodes were later connected by a continuous narrative.
The establishment of a fixed cycle of twelve labours was attributed by the Greeks to an epic poem, now lost, written by Peisander.
Having tried to kill Heracles ever since he was born, Hera induced a madness in him that made him kill his wife and children. Afterwards, Heracles went to the Oracle of Delphi to atone, where he prayed to the god Apollo for guidance. Heracles was told to serve Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, for ten years. During this time, he was sent to perform a series of difficult feats, called labours.

Background

was the son born by the mortal woman Alcmene after her rape by Zeus, the king of the gods, who had disguised himself as her husband Amphitryon. Alcmene, fearing the jealousy of Zeus's wife Hera, exposed her infant son, who was taken by either Zeus or his daughter Athena to Hera, who did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity. Heracles sucked so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and when she pushed him away, her milk sprayed across the heavens, forming the Milky Way. But with divine milk, Heracles had acquired supernatural strength. Either Zeus or Athena brought the infant back to his mother, and he was subsequently raised by his parents. The child was originally given the name Alcides by his parents; it was only later that he became known as Heracles in an unsuccessful attempt to mollify Hera, with Heracles meaning Hera's "pride" or "glory". He and his mortal twin, Iphicles, were just eight months old when Hera sent two giant snakes into the children's chamber. Iphicles cried from fear, but his twin brother grabbed a snake in each hand and strangled them. He was found by his nurse playing with them on his cot as if they were toys. Astonished, Amphitryon sent for the seer Tiresias, who prophesied an unusual future for the boy, saying he would vanquish numerous monsters.
Heracles married Megara, eldest daughter of King Creon of Thebes. However, in a fit of madness induced by Hera, Heracles killed Megara and their children. According to Euripides's play Herakles, however, it was not until after Heracles had completed his labours and on his return from the Underworld that he murdered Megara and his children.
After recovering his sanity, Heracles deeply regretted his actions; he was purified by King Thespius, then traveled to Delphi to inquire how he could atone for his actions. Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, advised him to go to Tiryns and serve his cousin, King Eurystheus of Mycenae, for twelve years, performing whatever labours Eurystheus might set him; in return, he would be rewarded with immortality. Heracles despaired at this, loathing to serve a man whom he knew to be far inferior to himself, yet fearing to oppose his father, Zeus. Eventually, Heracles placed himself at Eurystheus's disposal.

The twelve labours

Of the twelve labours performed by Heracles, six were located in the Peloponnese, culminating with the rededication of Olympia. Six others took the hero farther afield, to places that were, according to Ruck and Staples, "all previously strongholds of Hera or the 'Goddess' and were entrances to the Netherworld". In each case, the pattern was the same: Heracles was sent to kill or subdue, or to fetch back for Eurystheus a magical animal or plant.
A famous depiction of the labours in Greek sculpture is found on the metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, which date to the 460s BC.
Eurystheus originally ordered Heracles to perform ten labours. Heracles accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus refused to recognize two: the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra, as Heracles' nephew and charioteer Iolaus had helped him; and the cleansing of the Augean stables, because Heracles accepted payment for the labour. Eurystheus thus set two more tasks which Heracles also performed, bringing the total number of tasks to twelve.
In his labours, Heracles was sometimes accompanied by a male companion, according to Licymnius and others, such as his nephew Iolaus. Several of the labours involved defeating or capturing the offspring of Typhon and his mate Echidna; all were overcome by Heracles.
The order of the labours given by the mythographer Apollodorus is:
  1. Slaying the Nemean lion
  2. Slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra
  3. Capturing the Ceryneian Hind
  4. Capturing the Erymanthian Boar
  5. Cleaning the Augean stables in a single day
  6. Slaying the Stymphalian birds
  7. Capturing the Cretan Bull
  8. Stealing the Mares of Diomedes
  9. Obtaining the belt of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons
  10. Obtaining the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon
  11. Stealing three of the golden apples of the Hesperides
  12. Capturing and bringing back Cerberus
Diodorus Siculus gives a similar sequence of the labours, though the orders of the third and fourth, fifth and sixth, and eleventh and twelfth labours are swapped.

First: 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 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 impervious to projectiles. When he found and shot the lion using 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 confined 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. Others say that he shot arrows at it, eventually shooting it in the vulnerable 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 using 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 to ever again 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 himself in which to hide from Heracles if need be. Eurystheus then warned him that the tasks would become increasingly difficult.

Second: Lernaean Hydra

Heracles' second labour was to slay the Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed snake which Hera had raised with the sole purpose of slaying Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the hydra dwelt, Heracles attacked the hydra's several heads, but each time one of its heads was removed, a new head would grow back. Additionally, during the fight, a giant crab came to assist the Hydra by biting Heracles on the foot. Heracles was able to kill the crab, but realizing that he could not defeat the hydra alone, he called on his nephew Iolaus for help. Working in tandem, once Heracles had removed a head, Iolaus burned the stumps with a firebrand, preventing them from growing back. In such a way Heracles was able to kill the hydra, after which he dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood. According to Apollodorus, one of the Hydra's heads—the middle one—was immortal, so when Heracles cut off this head, Heracles buried it and placed a great rock on top of it.
Later, Heracles used one of his poisonous arrows 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.

Third: Ceryneian Hind

Angered by Heracles' success against the Nemean Lion and the Lernaean Hydra, Eurystheus 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 trapping 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 commented that Eurystheus had not been quick enough, outraging the King.