The story of the 12 Labors begins with the murder of Hercules’ wife, Megara, and their children - by the hero himself! This occurred as a result of a temporary madness inflicted upon Hercules by the goddess Hera, who never liked him. When Hercules snapped out of his insanity, he was filled with remorse.
The Twelve Labors are a series of archaic episodes connected by a later continuous narrative, concerning a penance carried out by Hercules, the greatest of the Greek heroes.
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.
- Accompany Hercules on a quest to rescue his wife, kidnapped by the evil Hades in 12 Labours of Hercules! You'll meet heroes from Ancient Greece as you vanquish beasts, repair roads and construct wonders in this stunning Time Management game! No magical creatures were harmed in the making of the game. They're all actors.
- These labours will be dangerous, challenging, and seemingly insurmountable. Can Hercules overcome his labours and take his place among the gods? Features: - A new story based on the popular mythological story of the great hero Hercules. Fun and challenging match-3 puzzles as you follow Hercules.
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.
The traditional order of the labors is:
1. Slay the Nemean Lion and bring back its skin.
- Initially, Hercules was required to complete ten labors, not twelve. King Eurystheus decided Hercules' first task would be to bring him the skin of an invulnerable lion which terrorized the hills around Nemea. Setting out on such a seemingly impossible labor, Hercules came to a town called Cleonae, where he stayed at the house of a poor workman-for-hire, Molorchus. When his host offered to sacrifice an animal to pray for a safe lion hunt, Hercules asked him to wait 30 days. If the hero returned with the lion's skin, they would sacrifice to Zeus, king of the gods. If Hercules died trying to kill the lion, Molorchus agreed to sacrifice instead to Hercules, as a hero.
When Hercules got to Nemea and began tracking the terrible lion, he soon discovered his arrows were useless against the beast. Hercules picked up his club and went after the lion. Following it to a cave which had two entrances, Hercules blocked one of the doorways, then approached the fierce lion through the other. Grasping the lion in his mighty arms, and ignoring its powerful claws, he held it tightly until he'd choked it to death.
Hercules returned to Cleonae, carrying the dead lion, and found Molorchus on the 30th day after he'd left for the hunt. Instead of sacrificing to Hercules as a dead man, Molorchus and Hercules were able to sacrifice together, to Zeus.
When Hercules made it back to Mycenae, Eurystheus was amazed that the hero had managed such an impossible task. The king became afraid of Hercules, and forbade him from entering through the gates of the city. Furthermore, Eurystheus had a large bronze jar made and buried partway in the earth, where he could hide from Hercules if need be. After that, Eurystheus sent his commands to Hercules through a herald, refusing to see the powerful hero face to face.
Many times we can identify Hercules in ancient Greek vase paintings or sculptures simply because he is depicted wearing a lion skin. Ancient writers disagreed as to whether the skin Hercules wore was that of the Nemean lion, or one from a different lion, which Hercules was said to have killed when he was 18 years old. The playwright Euripides wrote that Hercules' lion skin came from the grove of Zeus, the sanctuary at Nemea.
2. Slay the Lernaean Hydra
- The second labor of Hercules was to kill the Lernean Hydra. From the murky waters of the swamps near a place called Lerna, the hydra would rise up and terrorize the countryside. A monstrous serpent with nine heads, the hydra attacked with poisonous venom. Nor was this beast easy prey, for one of the nine heads was immortal and therefore indestructible.
Hercules set off to hunt the nine-headed menace, but he did not go alone. His trusty nephew, Iolaus, was by his side. Iolaus, who shared many adventures with Hercules, accompanied him on many of the twelve labors. Legend has it that Iolaus won a victory in chariot racing at the Olympics and he is often depicted as Hercules' charioteer. So, the pair drove to Lerna and by the springs of Amymone, they discovered the lair of the loathsome hydra.
First, Hercules lured the coily creature from the safety of its den by shooting flaming arrows at it. Once the hydra emerged, Hercules seized it. The monster was not so easily overcome, though, for it wound one of its coils around Hercules' foot and made it impossible for the hero to escape. With his club, Hercules attacked the many heads of the hydra, but as soon as he smashed one head, two more would burst forth in its place! To make matters worse, the hydra had a friend of its own: a huge crab began biting the trapped foot of Hercules. Quickly disposing of this nuisance, most likely with a swift bash of his club, Hercules called on Iolaus to help him out of this tricky situation.
Each time Hercules bashed one of the hydra's heads, Iolaus held a torch to the headless tendons of the neck. The flames prevented the growth of replacement heads, and finally, Hercules had the better of the beast. Once he had removed and destroyed the eight mortal heads, Hercules chopped off the ninth, immortal head. This he buried at the side of the road leading from Lerna to Elaeus, and for good measure, he covered it with a heavy rock. As for the rest of the hapless hydra, Hercules slit open the corpse and dipped his arrows in the venomous blood.
Eurystheus was not impressed with Hercules' feat, however. He said that since Iolaus had helped his uncle, this labor should not count as one of the ten. This technicality didn't seem to matter much to anyone else: the ancient authors still give Hercules all of the credit. Even so, Pausanias did not think that this labor was as fantastic as the myths made it out to be: to him, the fearsome hydra was a big water snake.
3. Capture the Ceryneian Hind
- For the third labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the Hind of Ceryneia. Ceryneia is a town in Greece, about fifty miles from Eurystheus' palace in Mycenae. A hind is a female red deer. Hercules set out on this adventure, and he hunted the deer for a whole year. At last, when the deer had become weary of the chase, she looked for a place to rest on a mountain called Artemisius, and then made her way to the river Ladon. Realizing that the deer was about to get away, Hercules shot her just as she was about to cross the stream. He caught the deer, put her on his shoulders and turned back to Mycenae. As Hercules hurried on his way, he was met by Diana and Apollo. Diana was very angry because Hercules tried to kill her sacred animal. She was about to take the deer away from Hercules, and surely she would have punished him, but Hercules told her the truth. He said that he had to obey the oracle and do the labors Eurystheus had given him. Diana let go of her anger and healed the deer's wound. Hercules carried it alive to Mycenae.
4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar
- For the fourth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the Erymanthian boar alive. Now, a boar is a huge, wild pig with a bad temper, and tusks growing out of its mouth. This one was called the Erymanthian boar, because it lived on a mountain called Erymanthus. Every day the boar would come crashing down from his lair on the mountain, attacking men and animals all over the countryside, gouging them with its tusks, and destroying everything in its path.
On his way to hunt the boar, Hercules stopped to visit his friend Pholus, who was a centaur and lived in a cave near Mount Erymanthus. Everyone knows that centaur is a human from his head to his waist, and a horse for the rest of his body and his legs. Hercules was hungry and thirsty, so the kindly centaur cooked Hercules some meat in the fireplace, while he himself ate his meat raw.
When Hercules asked for wine, Pholus said that he was afraid to open the wine jar, because it belonged to all the centaurs in common. But Hercules said not to worry, and opened it himself.
Soon afterwards, the rest of the centaurs smelled the wine and came to Pholus's cave. They were angry that someone was drinking all of their wine. The first two who dared to enter were armed with rocks and fir trees.
He shot arrows at the rest of them and chased after them for about twenty miles. The rest of the centaurs fled in different directions. One of the centaurs, Chiron, received a wound that no amount of medicine would heal...but what happened to Chiron is another story.
While Hercules was gone, Pholus pulled an arrow from the body of one of the dead centaurs. He wondered that so little a thing could kill such a big creature. Suddenly, the arrow slipped from his hand. It fell onto his foot and killed him on the spot. So when Hercules returned, he found Pholus dead. He buried his centaur friend, and proceeded to hunt the boar.
It wasn't too hard for Hercules to find the boar. He could hear the beast snorting and stomping as it rooted around for something to eat. Hercules chased the boar round and round the mountain, shouting as loud as he could. The boar, frightened and out of breath, hid in a thicket. Hercules poked his spear into the thicket and drove the exhausted animal into a deep patch of snow.
Then he trapped the boar in a net, and carried it all the way to Mycenae. Eurystheus, again amazed and frightened by the hero's powers, hid in his partly buried bronze jar.
5. Clean the Augean stables in one day
- For the fifth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clean up King Augeas' stables. Hercules knew this job would mean getting dirty and smelly, but sometimes even a hero has to do these things. Then Eurystheus made Hercules' task even harder: he had to clean up after the cattle of Augeas in a single day.
Now King Augeas owned more cattle than anyone in Greece. Some say that he was a son of one of the great gods, and others that he was a son of a mortal; whosever son he was, Augeas was very rich, and he had many herds of cows, bulls, goats, sheep and horses.
Every night the cowherds, goatherds and shepherds drove the thousands of animals to the stables.
Hercules went to King Augeas, and without telling anything about Eurystheus, said that he would clean out the stables in one day, if Augeas would give him a tenth of his fine cattle.
Augeas couldn't believe his ears, but promised. Hercules brought Augeas's son along to watch. First the hero tore a big opening in the wall of the cattle-yard where the stables were. Then he made another opening in the wall on the opposite side of the yard.
Next, he dug wide trenches to two rivers which flowed nearby. He turned the course of the rivers into the yard. The rivers rushed through the stables, flushing them out, and all the mess flowed out the hole in the wall on other side of the yard.
When Augeas learned that Eurystheus was behind all this, he would not pay Hercules his reward. Not only that, he denied that he had even promised to pay a reward. Augeas said that if Hercules didn't like it, he could take the matter to a judge to decide.
The judge took his seat. Hercules called the son of Augeas to testify. The boy swore that his father had agreed to give Hercules a reward. The judge ruled that Hercules would have to be paid. In a rage, Augeas ordered both his own son and Hercules to leave his kingdom at once. So the boy went to the north country to live with his aunts, and Hercules headed back to Mycenae. But Eurystheus said that this labour didn't count, because Hercules was paid for having done the work.
6. Slay the Stymphalian Birds
- After Hercules returned from his success in the Augean stables, Eurystheus came up with an even more difficult task. For the sixth Labor, Hercules was to drive away an enormous flock of birds which gathered at a lake near the town of Stymphalos.
Arriving at the lake, which was deep in the woods, Hercules had no idea how to drive the huge gathering of birds away. The goddess Athena came to his aid, providing a pair of bronze krotala, noisemaking clappers similar to castanets. These were no ordinary noisemakers. They had been made by an immortal craftsman, Hephaistos, the god of the forge.
Climbing a nearby mountain, Hercules clashed the krotala loudly, scaring the birds out of the trees, then shot them with bow and arrow, or possibly with a slingshot, as they took flight.
Some versions of the legend say that these Stymphalian birds were vicious man-eaters. The 2nd century A.D. travel writer, Pausanias, trying to discover what kind of birds they might have been, wrote that during his time a type of bird from the Arabian desert was called 'Stymphalian,' describing them as equal to lions or leopards in their fierceness. He speculated that the birds Hercules encountered in the legend were similar to these Arabian birds.
Pausanias also saw and described the religious sanctuary built by the Greeks of Stymphalos and dedicated to the goddess Artemis. He reported that the temple had carvings of the Stymphalian birds up near its roof. Standing behind the temple, he saw marble statues of maidens with the legs of birds.
7. Capture the Cretan Bull
- After the complicated business with the Stymphalian Birds, Hercules easily disposed of the Cretan Bull. At that time, Minos, King of Crete, controlled many of the islands in the seas around Greece, and was such a powerful ruler that the Athenians sent him tribute every year. There are many bull stories about Crete. Zeus, in the shape of a bull, had carried Minos' mother Europa to Crete, and the Cretans were fond of the sport of bull-leaping, in which contestants grabbed the horns of a bull and were thrown over its back.
Minos himself, in order to prove his claim to the throne, had promised the sea-god Poseidon that he would sacrifice whatever the god sent him from the sea. Poseidon sent a bull, but Minos thought it was too beautiful to kill, and so he sacrificed another bull. Poseidon was furious with Minos for breaking his promise. In his anger, he made the bull rampage all over Crete, and caused Minos' wife Pasiphae to fall in love with the animal. As a result, Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Minos had to shut up this beast in the Labyrinth, a huge maze underneath the palace, and every year he fed it prisoners from Athens.
When Hercules got to Crete, he easily wrestled the bull to the ground and drove it back to King Eurystheus. Eurystheus let the bull go free. It wandered around Greece, terrorizing the people, and ended up in Marathon, a city near Athens.
The Athenian hero Theseus tied up some loose ends of this story. He killed the Cretan Bull at Marathon. Later, he sailed to Crete, found his way to the center of the Labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur.
8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes
- After Hercules had captured the Cretan Bull, Eurystheus sent him to get the man-eating mares of Diomedes, the king of a Thracian tribe called the Bistones, and bring them back to him in Mycenae.
According to Apollodorus, Hercules sailed with a band of volunteers across the Aegean to Bistonia. There he and his companions overpowered the grooms who were tending the horses, and drove them to the sea. But by the time he got there, the Bistones had realized what had happened, and they sent a band of soldiers to recapture the animals. To free himself to fight, Hercules entrusted the mares to a youth named Abderos.
Meanwhile Hercules fought the Bistones, killed Diomedes, and made the rest flee. In honor of the slain Abderos, Hercules founded the city of Abdera.
The hero took the mares back to Eurystheus, but Eurystheus set them free. The mares wandered around until eventually they came to Mount Olympos, the home of the gods, where they were eaten by wild beasts.
Euripides gives two different versions of the story, but both of them differ from Apollodorus's in that Hercules seems to be performing the labor alone, rather than with a band of followers. In one, Diomedes has the four horses harnessed to a chariot, and Hercules has to bring back the chariot as well as the horses. In the other, Hercules tames the horses from his own chariot:
9. Obtain the Girdle [Belt[ of Hippolyte
- For the ninth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the belt of Hippolyte [Hip-POLLY-tee]. This was no ordinary belt and no ordinary warrior. Hippolyte was queen of the Amazons, a tribe of women warriors.
These Amazons had nothing to do with the Amazon river in South America. Their name comes from a Greek word meaning 'missing one breast.' This is because an Amazon's right breast got in the way when she threw a spear.
The Amazons lived apart from men, and if they ever gave birth to children, they kept only the females and reared them to be warriors like themselves.
Queen Hippolyte had a special piece of armor. It was a leather belt that had been given to her by Ares, the war god, because she was the best warrior of all the Amazons. She wore this belt across her chest and used it to carry her sword and spear. Eurystheus wanted Hippolyte's belt as a present to give to his daughter, and he sent Hercules to bring it back.
Hercules' friends realized that the hero could not fight against the whole Amazon army by himself, so they joined with him and set sail in a single ship.
She asked Hercules why he had come, and when he told her, she promised to give him the belt. But the goddess Hera knew that the arrival of Hercules meant nothing but trouble for the Amazons. Disguised as an Amazon warrior, Hera went up and down the army saying to each woman that the strangers who had arrived were going to carry off the queen. So the Amazons put on their armor.
But when Hercules saw that they were wearing their armor and were carrying their weapons, he knew that he was under attack. Thinking fast, he drew his sword and killed Hippolyte.
Then he undid her belt and took it away from her. Hercules and the Greeks fought the rest of the Amazons in a great battle.
12 Trials Of Hercules
- To accomplish his tenth labor, Hercules had to journey to the end of the world. Eurystheus ordered the hero to bring him the cattle of the monster Geryon. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe. Chrysaor had sprung from the body of the Gorgon Medusa after Perseus beheaded her, and Callirrhoe was the daughter of two Titans, Oceanus and Tethys. With such distinguished lineage, it is no surprise that Geryon himself was quite unique. It seems that Geryon had three heads and three sets of legs all joined at the waist.
Geryon lived on an island called Erythia, which was near the boundary of Europe and Libya. On this island, Geryon kept a herd of red cattle guarded by Cerberus' brother, Orthus, a two-headed hound, and the herdsman Eurytion. Hercules set off on for Erythia, encountering and promptly killing many wild beasts along the way, and he came to the place where Libya met Europe. Here, Apollodorus tells us, Hercules built two massive mountains, one in Europe and one in Libya, to commemorate his extensive journey. Other accounts say that Hercules split one mountain into two. Either way, these mountains became known as the Gates or Pillars of Hercules. The strait Hercules made when he broke the mountain apart is now called the Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco, the gateway from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
Sailing in a goblet which the Sun gave him in admiration, Hercules reached the island of Erythia. Not long after he arrived, Orthus, the two-headed dog, attacked Hercules, so Hercules bashed him with his club. Eurytion followed, with the same result. Another herdsman in the area reported these events to Geryon. Just as Hercules was escaping with the cattle, Geryon attacked him. Hercules fought with him and shot him dead with his arrows.
The stealing of the cattle was not such a difficult task, compared to the trouble Hercules had bringing the herd back to Greece. In Liguria, two sons of Poseidon, the god of the sea, tried to steal the cattle, so he killed them. At Rhegium, a bull got loose and jumped into the sea. The bull swam to Sicily and then made its way to the neighboring country. The native word for bull was 'italus,' and so the country came to be named after the bull, and was called Italy.
The escaped bull was found by a ruler named Eryx, another of Poseidon's sons, and Eryx put this bull into his own herd. Meanwhile, Hercules was searching for the runaway animal. He temporarily entrusted the rest of the herd to the god Hephaestus, and went after the bull. He found it in Eryx's herd, but the king would return it only if the hero could beat him in a wrestling contest. Never one to shy away from competition, Hercules beat Eryx three times in wrestling, killed the king, took back the bull, and returned it to the herd.
Hercules made it to the edge of the Ionian Sea, with the end of his journey finally in sight. Hera, however, was not about to let the hero accomplish this labor. She sent a gadfly to attack the cattle, and the herd scattered far and wide. Now, Hercules had to run around Thrace gathering the escaped cows. Finally, he regrouped the herd and, blaming his troubles on the river Strymon in Thrace, he filled the river with rocks, making it unnavigable. Then, he brought the cattle of Geryon to Eurystheus, who sacrificed the herd to Hera. The ancients don't tell us how long either Hercules or Europe took to recover from this eventful jaunt.
11. Steal the Apples of the Hesperides
- fter eight years and one month, after performing ten superhuman labors, he was still not off the hook. Eurystheus demanded two more labors from the hero, since he did not count the hydra or the Augean stables as properly done.
Eurystheus commanded Hercules to bring him golden apples which belonged to Zeus, king of the gods. Hera had given these apples to Zeus as a wedding gift, so surely this task was impossible. Hera, who didn't want to see Hercules succeed, would never permit him to steal one of her prize possessions, would she?
These apples were kept in a garden at the northern edge of the world, and they were guarded not only by a hundred-headed dragon, named Ladon, but also by the Hesperides, nymphs who were daughters of Atlas, the titan who held the sky and the earth upon his shoulders.
Hercules' first problem was that he didn't know where the garden was. He journeyed through Libya, Egypt, Arabia, and Asia, having adventures along the way. He was stopped by Kyknos, the son of the war god, Ares, who demanded that Hercules fight him. After the fight was broken up by a thunderbolt, Hercules continued on to Illyria, where he seized the sea-god Nereus, who knew the garden's secret location. Nereus transformed himself into all kinds of shapes,trying to escape, but Hercules held tight and didn't release Nereus until he got the information he needed.
Continuing on his quest, Hercules was stopped by Antaeus, the son of the sea god, Poseidon, who also challenged Hercules to fight. Hercules defeated him in a wrestling match, lifting him off the ground and crushing him, because when Antaeus touched the earth he became stronger. After that, Hercules met up with Busiris, another of Poseidon's sons, was captured, and was led to an altar to be a human sacrifice. But Hercules escaped, killing Busiris, and journeyed on.
Hercules came to the rock on Mount Caucasus where Prometheus was chained. Prometheus, a trickster who made fun of the gods and stole the secret of fire from them, was sentenced by Zeus to a horrible fate. He was bound to the mountain, and every day a monstrous eagle came and ate his liver, pecking away at Prometheus' tortured body. After the eagle flew off, Prometheus' liver grew back, and the next day he had to endure the eagle's painful visit all over again. This went on for 30 years, until Hercules showed up and killed the eagle.
In gratitude, Prometheus told Hercules the secret to getting the apples. He would have to send Atlas after them, instead of going himself. Atlas hated holding up the sky and the earth so much that he would agree to the task of fetching the apples, in order to pass his burden over to Hercules. Everything happened as Prometheus had predicted, and Atlas went to get the apples while Hercules was stuck in Atlas' place, with the weight of the world literally on his shoulders.
When Atlas returned with the golden apples, he told Hercules he would take them to Eurystheus himself, and asked Hercules to stay there and hold the heavy load for the rest of time. Hercules slyly agreed, but asked Atlas whether he could take it back again, just for a moment, while the hero put some soft padding on his shoulders to help him bear the weight of the sky and the earth. Atlas put the apples on the ground, and lifted the burden onto his own shoulders. And so Hercules picked up the apples and quickly ran off, carrying them back, uneventfully, to Eurystheus.
There was one final problem: because they belonged to the gods, the apples could not remain with Eurystheus. After all the trouble Hercules went through to get them, he had to return them to Athena, who took them back to the garden at the northern edge of the world.
12. Capture Cerberus
- The most dangerous labor of all was the twelfth and final one. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to go to the Underworld and kidnap the beast called Cerberus (or Kerberos). Eurystheus must have been sure Hercules would never succeed at this impossible task!
The ancient Greeks believed that after a person died, his or her spirit went to the world below and dwelled for eternity in the depths of the earth. The Underworld was the kingdom of Hades, also called Pluto, and his wife, Persephone. Depending on how a person lived his or her life, they might or might not experience never-ending punishment in Hades. All souls, whether good or bad, were destined for the kingdom of Hades.
Cerberus was a vicious beast that guarded the entrance to Hades and kept the living from entering the world of the dead. According to Apollodorus, Cerberus was a strange mixture of creatures: he had three heads of wild dogs, a dragon or serpent for a tail, and heads of snakes all over his back. Hesiod, though, says that Cerberus had fifty heads and devoured raw flesh.
Among the children attributed to this awful couple were Orthus (or Othros), the Hydra of Lerna, and the Chimaera. Orthus was a two-headed hound which guarded the cattle of Geryon. With the Chimaera, Orthus fathered the Nemean Lion and the Sphinx. The Chimaera was a three-headed fire-breathing monster, part lion, part snake, and part goat. Hercules seemed to have a lot of experience dealing with this family: he killed Orthus, when he stole the cattle of Geryon, and strangled the Nemean Lion. Compared to these unfortunate family members, Cerberus was actually rather lucky.
Before making the trip to the Underworld, Hercules decided that he should take some extra precautions. This was, after all, a journey from which no mortal had ever returned. Hercules knew that once in the kingdom of Hades, he might not be allowed to leave and rejoin the living. The hero went to Eleusis and saw Eumolpus, a priest who began what were known as the Eleusinian Mysteries. The mysteries were sacred religious rites which celebrated the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The ancients believed that those who learned the secrets of the mysteries would have happiness in the Underworld. After the hero met a few conditions of membership, Eumolpus initiated Hercules into the mysteries.
Hercules went to a place called Taenarum in Laconia. Through a deep, rocky cave, Hercules made his way down to the Underworld. He encountered monsters, heroes, and ghosts as he made his way through Hades. He even engaged in a wrestling contest! Then, finally, he found Pluto and asked the god for Cerberus. The lord of the Underworld replied that Hercules could indeed take Cerberus with him, but only if he overpowered the beast with nothing more than his own brute strength.
A weaponless Hercules set off to find Cerberus. Near the gates of Acheron, one of the five rivers of the Underworld, Hercules encountered Cerberus. Undaunted, the hero threw his strong arms around the beast, perhaps grasping all three heads at once, and wrestled Cerberus into submission. The dragon in the tail of the fierce flesh-eating guard dog bit Hercules, but that did not stop him. Cerberus had to submit to the force of the hero, and Hercules brought Cerberus to Eurystheus. Unlike other monsters that crossed the path of the legendary hero, Cerberus was returned safely to Hades, where he resumed guarding the gateway to the Underworld. Presumably, Hercules inflicted no lasting damage on Cerberus, except, of course, the wound to his pride!
ANCIENT GREECE INDEX
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS INDEX
ALPHABETICAL INDEX =
CRYSTALINKS HOME PAGE
PSYCHIC READING WITH ELLIE
2012 THE ALCHEMY OF TIME
12 Labours Of Hercules Game Download
The Nemean lion was a terrible monster that roamed in the region of Nemea, capturing women as hostages and luring brave men to save them. When someone entered the lion's den and tried to free the woman, she would turn into the lion and eat the warrior alive. When Heracles arrived in a town of the region, he met a boy who asked him to kill the lion. He also told him that if Heracles killed the lion within a month, a lion would be sacrificed to Zeus; otherwise, the boy would sacrifice himself.
Heracles eventually found the lion roaming, and shot many arrows against it. Only then did he realise that the lion's skin was impenetrable, and that his arrows would be of no use. So, he decided to follow it to its den. There, he blocked one of the two entrances to the cave and entered through the other. Fumbling in the dark, Heracles managed to find the lion; he stun it with his club and then he strangled it with his bare hands.
After he had killed it, he thought of taking the impenetrable skin of the lion and use it as an armour. So, he managed to skin it with the help of the goddess Athena, who advised him to use the lion's claw to remove the pelt. Wearing the lion skin, Heracles entered the city on the thirtieth day. Upon seeing him, Eurystheus was initially horrified, for he feared the lion was roaming in the streets of the city.
Labour two: slaying the Lernaean Hydra
The Lernaean Hydra was a fearsome monster that lived in the swamp of the lake Lerna. It had been specifically raised by Hera to kill Heracles. The Hydra had nine heads, one of which was immortal and the rest were mortal.
The swamp was covered in a poisonous mist, so upon his arrival, Heracles put a cloth on his mouth and nose. To lure the Hydra out of its lair, the hero shot flaming arrows, achieving his intent. However, when he chopped one of the Hydra's heads, he realised in horror that two new heads would spring back.
At that point, the hero felt hopeless, so he asked for the help of his nephew, Iolaus. Iolaus, probably advised by the goddess Athena who favoured the hero, thought of an idea and put it in action; as soon as Heracles would chop one of the monster's heads, Iolaus would cauterise the stump with a firebrand. The plan was successful; no more heads would appear. Hera, angry that her side was losing the battle, sent a huge crab to distract Heracles, which he simply squashed under his foot. When it was time for the immortal head to be cut off, Heracles took a golden sword that Athena gave him, and using the same technique, the two heroes managed to kill the monster.
Before Heracles left, he dipped his arrows in the poisonous blood of the Hydra, one of which he later used to kill the centaurNessus; this would later become Heracles' doom, as the hero died due to the Shirt of Nessus which was smeared in the centaur's blood containing some of Hydra's poison. Hera turned her slain monster into the constellation of the same name, while she transformed the crab into the constellation Cancer.
Eurystheus did not count the success of killing the hydra as one of the labours, using as an excuse the fact that Heracles was helped by Iolaus.
Labour three: capturing the Ceryneian Hind
In their effort to mark an end to Heracles' successes, Eurystheus and Hera decided that the next task Heracles should do would be to capture the Ceryneian Hind. This was a sacred deer belonging to the goddess Artemis, and had golden antlers and hooves of bronze. It was believed that it was so fast that it could outrun a flying arrow.
Heracles made a real effort to track the animal. When he saw it, he followed it for a whole year through the lands of Greece, Thrace, Istria and the land of Hyperboreans. According to one version of the myth, he managed to capture the hind while it was sleeping. On his way back, Artemis and her twin brother Apollo appeared in front of Heracles. This task was given by Eurystheus, thinking that Heracles would cause the anger of the goddess and that she would punish him. However, when she appeared in front of him, Heracles asked for forgiveness, explaining to her that this was part of his penance for killing his wife and children. He also told her he would return the hind to her as soon as he showed it to Eurystheus. Artemis accepted his apology and let him go.
When he returned to the king's court, Eurystheus told Heracles that the animal now belonged to him. Not forgetting his promise to the goddess, Heracles tricked Eurystheus by telling him he should take the animal himself and bring it to the palace. When Eurystheus came out to take the deer, the hero let it go and the animal ran back to Artemis. Heracles simply replied to Eurystheus that he was not been quick enough.
Labour four: capturing the Erymanthian Boar
The Erymanthian Boar was a giant animal living on Mount Erymanthos, which was dedicated to the goddess Artemis as well. Eurystheus thought that capturing this beast would be the perfect task that would lead to the hero's death. Heracles set forth on his journey to the mountain, but decided to stop by his friend's place, Pholus, a kind centaur. After eating together, Heracles asked his friend to open a jug of wine that he had, which attracted the other centaurs to Pholus' dwelling. Not knowing that wine was supposed to be watered down before being consumed, the centaurs quickly became drunk and attacked Heracles. The hero killed most of them by shooting his poisonous arrows against them; the centaurs that remained fled to Chiron's cave.
Pholus did not understand why these arrows were so lethal. Out of curiosity, he picked one up but it fell on his foot and poisoned him as well. Another version has it that one of the arrows mistakenly hit Chiron as well; although Chiron, being immortal, did not die, he could still feel an insufferable pain. Not able to withstand it, the wise centaur asked to be rid of the pain, exchanging his immortality as well as take the place of the Titan Prometheus, who was bound on the top of a mountain and his liver was being eaten daily by an eagle. Zeus accepted the exchange. Heracles then killed the eagle with one of his arrows, stopping the torture for Chiron.
Chiron advised Heracles how to catch the Erymanthian Boar; he told him that it would be very easy if the hero lured the boar into thick snow. Heracles followed Chiron's advice and captured the boar in no time. He then returned to Eurystheus, who upon seeing the creature was so scared that he hid himself in a large jar and asked Heracles to get rid of the animal.
Labour five: cleaning the stables of Augeas
King Augeas of Elis had a large number of cattle in his stables. All of them were blessed with perfect health and immortality, and being so lively, created a huge amount of dung. The stables of Augeas had never been cleaned in thirty years, and Eurystheus asked Heracles to clean them within a day. This task was set to stain Heracles' reputation as it was quite humiliating.
When Heracles reached Augeas' court, he asked for one tenth of the cattle if he managed to clean the stables in a day; the king agreed. The hero managed to complete the task by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to pass through the stables and wash them out. Augeas refused to pay Heracles, and the hero took him to court, where he managed to win his claim, backed by Augeas' son, Phyleus. However, Phyleus and Heracles were both banished by Augeas before the court had ruled. Furious, Heracles returned to Elis, killed Augeas and handed the throne to Phyleus. This is when he was said to have founded the Olympic Games.
Although Heracles was successful, Eurystheus did not count it as a success, saying that it was the rivers that had done the work for him, and that he accepted payment for it.
Labour six: slaying the Stymphalian Birds
Eurystheus' next task to Heracles was to kill the Stymphalian birds, large flying monsters that ate humans with their bronze beaks; their wings were made of metallic feathers that could be thrown against their prey, while their dung was highly poisonous. They belonged to the god of war, Ares, and lived in the area of the lake Stymphalia, where they destroyed all the surrounding area and the towns.
Heracles was unable to go too deep into the swamp as he would eventually drown. Athena helped him by providing him with a rattle; the sound the rattle produced scared the birds and made them fly from their hiding place. While in the air, they were an easy target for Heracles, who shot many of them down with his poisonous arrows. The remaining birds flew away to plague other lands; in fact, they were later encountered by the Argonauts.
Labour seven: capturing the Cretan Bull
The seventh task Eurystheus gave to Heracles was to capture the Cretan Bull. This was a legendary creature that wreaked havoc on the island of Crete, destroying crops and land. After getting permission from King Minos, Heracles managed to catch the bull with his bare hands and sent it back to Eurystheus' court. Upon seeing the creature, Eurystheus hid in his jar and decided to sacrifice the animal to Hera. The goddess rejected the offer, as this would glorify Heracles' success even more. Instead, the animal was left free and went to the area of Marathon, getting the name Marathonian Bull. It was later caught by Theseus and was sacrificed to Athena and Apollo.
Labour eight: stealing the Mares of Diomedes
The Mares of Diomedes were fearsome animals that had been trained to eat human flesh. They were owned by Diomedes, king of Thrace. It was believed that due to their unnatural diet, the horses were seized with madness, uncontrollable and sometimes they even breathed fire. According to one source, Heracles brought a number of young men with him to help him with his task. After they managed to steal the animals, they were all chased by Diomedes and his army. Heracles told his companion Abderus to take care of the horses, while he was fighting Diomedes. Upon his return, Heracles realised that Abderus was devoured by the mares. Overcome with anger, Heracles fed Diomedes to his own horses, and later founded the city of Abdera in memory of his friend. After the horses were fed, they became calm and Heracles seized the opportunity to bind their mouths shut. He brought them back to Eurystheus, who either sacrificed them to Hera or left them roam free, as they had now become permanently calm.
Labour nine: stealing the girdle of Hippolyta
Admete, the daughter of Eurystheus, learned that Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, had been given a girdle as a gift from her father, Ares, and wanted it for herself. So, Eurystheus decided to make this the ninth labour that Heracles would have to complete.
Heracles took some friends with him and set sail for the region of Themiscyra, where the Amazons dwelled. On their way there, they stopped at the island of Paros, where the sons of king Minos of Crete killed two of Heracles' friends. Furious, Heracles killed the sons of Minos and demanded that two of the inhabitants replace his dead comrades. Thus, two of Minos' grandsons joined the band, and they all set sail again.
After a brief stop at the court of Lycus, a friend of Heracles, they eventually reached the land of the Amazons. Hippolyta had heard of the glorious feats that Heracles had performed, and impressed, she immediately agreed to give her girdle. Heracles asked her to have lunch together on the ship and Hippolyta eagerly followed. At the same time, however, a disguised Hera went to the Amazons and started spreading rumours about Heracles wanting to abduct their queen. The Amazons decided to confront Heracles and rode towards the ship. Upon seeing them, Heracles thought that this had all been set up by Hippolyta and that she had no intention of handing over the girdle; so, he killed her, took the belt and set sail back to Tiryns.
Labour ten: stealing the cattle of Geryon
The tenth labour of Heracles was to steal the cattle of Geryon, who lived on the island of Erytheia, somewhere in the west. Heracles went on his quest, and he first had the cross the desert of Libya. At some point, having been so frustrated at the heat, he shot an arrow at the sun. Helios, the sun god, was so impressed by Heracles' courage, that he decided to help him by offering him his own golden chariot with which he sailed across the sea from west to east every night. Heracles hopped on the chariot and reached Erytheia overnight.
There, his first obstacle was the two-headed dog Orthrus, brother of Cerberus, the three-headed dog and guardian of the Underworld. One blow with Heracles' club was enough to kill Orthrus. Eurytion, the herdsman, heard what happened and when he tried to confront Heracles, he was killed in the same way. Geryon immediately grabbed his three shields and three spears, while wearing three helmets and attacked the hero. However, a powerful shot of an arrow from Heracles' bow was enough to pierce Geryon's forehead and sent him to his demise.
Bringing the cattle back to Tiryns was another task on its own. According to the Roman version of the story, Heracles took the road over the Aventine Hill where Rome would later be built on. There, a giant named Cacus stole some of the cattle, but they were later retrieved, called out by the animals remaining in the possession of Heracles. As an extra obstacle, Hera sent a gadfly to irritate the animals and scatter them. Heracles managed to get them back within a year. Before he reached Tiryns, though, Hera caused a flood that raised the level of a river so much that it could not be crossed. So, Heracles started piling stones into the river, and bridged the two riverbanks. He eventually reached Tiryns, where the cattle were sacrificed to the goddess.
Upon finishing the tenth labour, Eurystheus told Heracles that he considered two of the labours invalid; the Hydra was not slain by Heracles alone but was helped by Iolaus, while he accepted payment for the cleaning of the Augean Stables. So, two more labours had to be completed. These were:
11. to steal the Hesperidean Apples,
12. to capture Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld.
Labour eleven: stealing the apples from the garden of Hesperides
The Hesperides were nymphs of the sunset that tended a garden somewhere in the far western corner of the world. Heracles managed to capture the Old Man of the Sea, a shape-shifting sea deity, in order to find out the exact location of the garden. During this quest, Heracles also confronted the half-giant Antaeus, who was invincible by drawing power from his mother, Gaea (the earth), as long as he touched it. To kill him, Heracles held him high so his feet wouldn't touch the ground, and crushed him with his hands.
There are two versions on how Heracles managed to acquire the apples. One version has it that he reached the Hesperidean Garden, where he killed Ladon, the dragon guardian of the apples, and took the apples. According to another version, he came across Atlas, the Titan god who was condemned to hold the heavens on his shoulders. Atlas was also the father of the Hesperides, and thus had access to the garden at any time. Heracles persuaded Atlas to change places for a while, so that Atlas would fetch some of the apples. Atlas agreed and indeed took some of the apples. However, on his return, he decided he did not want to take the heavens back on his shoulders. Heracles tricked him and he said he would be keeping the heavens but wanted to adjust his cloak first. Atlas agreed to take the heavens back momentarily, but Heracles walked away taking the apples with him.
Labour twelve: capturing Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld
The final labour that Heracles had to complete was to capture Cerberus, the three-headed dog and guardian of the Underworld. Before going to the Underworld, Heracles decided to be initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries, so that he would be taught how to travel alive from the world of the living to the realm of the dead and vice versa. He then went to Tanaerum, where one of the entrances to the Underworld lay, and was helped there by Athena and Hermes. The goddess Hestia also helped him with negotiating with Charon, the boatman that guided the souls over the river Acheron towards the Underworld.
Once he reached the Underworld, he met Theseus and Pirithous, the two heroes that had been incarcerated in the Underworld by Hades for attempting to steal Persephone. According to one version of the story, snakes coiled around their legs and then turned into stone. A different version has it that the god of the Underworld feigned hospitality and invited them to a feast. However, the chairs on which the heroes were seated magically caused forgetfulness, thus keeping them there. Heracles pulled Theseus from his chair, managing to save him; however, part of his thigh was stuck to it, thus providing an explanation of the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians. When the hero tried to save Pirithous, though, the earth started trembling; it seems that because he desired Persephone for himself, it was so insulting that he was not allowed to leave.
Heracles found Hades and asked him to take Cerberus to the surface. The god agreed on the condition that no weapons should be used to achieve it. Heracles managed to subdue the dog with his hands and brought it on his back to Tiryns. Eurystheus fled in horror into his jar and asked Heracles to take the monster back to the Underworld, releasing him from any other labours.
After the Twelve Labours were complete, Heracles decided to join Jason and the Argonauts in their attempt to obtain the Golden Fleece.
See Also: Eurystheus, Hera, Megara, Nemean Lion, Zeus, Athena, Lernaean Hydra, Shirt of Nessus, Iolaus, Ceryneian Hind, Artemis, Erymanthian Boar, Chiron, Centaur, Stymphalian Birds, Cretan Bull, Minos, Theseus, Apollo, Diomedes, Abderus, Hippolyta, Ares, Geryon, Orthrus, Hesperides, Antaeus, Atlas, Ladon, Cerberus, Hades, Jason, the Argonauts