. 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". 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's nephew and charioteer
Iolaus had helped him; and the cleansing of the
Augean stables, because Heracles accepted payment for the labour (in other versions, it was the
Stymphalian Birds that were discounted instead of the Augean stables for the help of Athena giving Heracles bronze rattles). Eurystheus thus set two more tasks (fetching the golden apples of the
Hesperides and capturing
Cerberus) which Heracles also performed, bringing the total number of tasks to twelve. In his labours, Heracles was sometimes accompanied by a male companion, such as his nephew
Iolaus. Several of the labours involved defeating or capturing the offspring (by various accounts) of
Typhon and his mate
Echidna; all were overcome by Heracles. The order of the labours given by the mythographer
Apollodorus is: • Slaying the
Nemean lion • Slaying the nine-headed
Lernaean Hydra • Capturing the
Ceryneian Hind • Capturing the
Erymanthian Boar • Cleaning the
Augean stables in a single day • Slaying the
Stymphalian birds • Capturing the
Cretan Bull • Stealing the
Mares of Diomedes • Obtaining the belt of
Hippolyta, queen of the
Amazons • Obtaining the cattle of the three-bodied giant
Geryon • Stealing three of the golden apples of the
Hesperides • 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 . . Detail of a Roman mosaic from
Llíria (Spain). 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, (which had been raised by Hera and set upon the hills of
Nemea), 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's 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. In the later Latin variants of the myth 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's second labour was to slay the
Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed snake. 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 (or two) 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 (who had come with Heracles) for help. Working in tandem, once Heracles had removed a head (with his sword or club), 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 (here nine) 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 |left Angered by Heracles's 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 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's earnestness, Artemis forgave him, foiling Eurystheus's 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.
Fourth: Erymanthian Boar ,
Eurystheus and the Erymanthian boar. Side A from an
Ancient Greek black-figured amphora, painted by the
Antimenes painter, ca. 525 BC, from
Etruria.
Louvre Museum, Paris. 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's 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 tradition 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 The fifth labour was to clean the stables of King
Augeas, without any help from another man. 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 () 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's 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.
Sixth: 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 The seventh labour, also categorised as the first of the non-Peloponneisan labours, was to capture the
Cretan Bull, father of the
Minotaur. According to Apollodorus, Heracles sailed to
Crete and asked King
Minos for help, but Minos told Heracles to capture the bull himself, which he did. After showing the bull to Eurystheus, Heracles released the bull which ended up at
Marathon.
Eighth: Mares of Diomedes As the eighth of his labours Heracles was sent by
King Eurystheus to steal the
Mares of Diomedes from
their owner. The mares' madness was attributed to their unnatural diet which consisted of the flesh of unsuspecting guests or strangers to the island. Some versions of the myth say that the mares also expelled fire when they breathed. 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 and were named Podargos (the swift), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the yellow) and Deinos (or Deinus, the terrible). 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. 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.
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. After the incident, Eurystheus sent Heracles to bring back
Hippolyta's Girdle.
Ninth: Belt of Hippolyta As his ninth labour, Heracles travelled to the land of the Amazons to bring back the Belt of
Hippolyta, the queen of the
Amazons. According to Apollodorus, the belt was gifted to Hippolyta by her father
Ares, as an emblem of her position as queen. In his account, Eurystheus set Heracles the task because his daughter
Admete wanted to have the belt for herself. In earlier sources, however, the purpose of the labour was seemingly for Heracles to overcome the Amazons, with Eurystheus requiring the belt as evidence of his success. Accompanied by a group of companions, Heracles set sail for the land of Amazons, which was generally believed to be along the shore at the southern end of the
Black Sea. Sources vary on who came with him:
Hellanicus states that he was accompanied by all of the
Argonauts, while
Pindar mentions that
Peleus came on the voyage,
Philochorus considered
Theseus to have been his companion, and an early Corinthian vase shows
Iolaus and another figure named Pasimelon by his side. The number of ships they leave in also varies: Apollodorus says they went in a single ship, while
Herodotus states that there were three, and in a late account there were nine. Apollodorus relates that on the way to
Themiscyra, where the Amazons lived, he and his crew stopped at the island of
Paros, where several of the sons of
Minos lived; when these sons killed two of Heracles's companions, he retaliated by murdering them. When he began threatening others, he was offered two of Minos's grandchildren,
Alcaeus and
Sthenelus, whom he took into his crew. Continuing on their voyage, they next arrived at the court of
Lycus in
Mysia; in a battle between Lycus and King
Mygdon of Bebryces, Heracles killed the rival king and gained land from the
Bebryces, and gifted it to Lycus, who named it Heraclea. Believing that Hippolyta had betrayed him, Heracles, now convinced of treachery, killed her, took the belt, and, after fighting the other Amazons, went to
Troy, where
Laomedon was attempting to sacrifice his daughter to appease Apollo and Poseidon, who had sent a plague and a sea monster respectively, this sea monster would come inland on a flood-tide and grab people on the plain. On the advice of his oracles, Laomedon had tied up his daughter,
Hesione, in a similar fashion to Andromeda, originally he was going to sacrifice the three daughters of Phoinodamos, however he refused, so Laomedon would have his own daughter sacrificed instead.seeing her exposed, Heracles promised to save her on condition of receiving from Laomedon the mares which Zeus had given in compensation for the rape of Ganymede. After Laomedon promised to give the horses to Heracles, he killed the monster and saved Hesione. But when Laomedon wouldn't give him the horses, Hercules went back to sea after threatening to declare war on Troy. Heracles then arrived in
Aenus, where he was entertained by
Poltys, as Heracles sailed away, he fired a shot and killed
Sarpedon, Polty's brother. Afterwards, he went to
Thasos and subjugated the Thracians living there, then left after he gave it to the sons of Androgeus to dwell in. From Thasos he proceeded to Torone, and there, being challenged to wrestle by Polygonus and Telegonus, both sons of Proteus, he killed them in the wrestling match. And having brought the belt to Mycenae he gave it to Eurystheus.
Tenth: Cattle of Geryon The tenth labour was to obtain the cattle of the three-bodied giant
Geryon. In Apollodorus's account, Heracles had to go to the island of Erytheia in the far west. On the way he became so frustrated at the heat that he aimed an arrow at the
Sun. The sun-god
Helios, impressed by his audacity, gave Heracles the golden cup that Helios used to sail across the sea from west to east each night. Heracles took the cup and rode it to Erytheia. 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's 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." 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's 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, which irritated them, and made them scatter across the skirts of the mountain of Thrace. He was able to capture some, and drove them to the Hellesponte, but the remainder were wild, after finally collecting the cows, Heracles blamed the river Strymon, and whereas it had been navigable before, he made it unnavigable by filling it with rocks. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera.
Eleventh: Golden apples of the Hesperides After Heracles completed the first ten labours, which according to Apollodorus, took eight years and a month, Eurystheus gave him two more, claiming that slaying the Hydra did not count (because Iolaus helped Heracles) and 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 went to
Illyria, and, at the river
Eridanus, met the
nymphs, who revealed the
Old Man of the Sea the shapeshifting sea god, to him, Heracles then caught the Old Man of the Sea, to learn where the Garden of the Hesperides was located. In some versions of the tale, Heracles was directed to ask
Prometheus. As payment, he freed Prometheus from his daily torture. This tale is more usually found as part of the story of the
Erymanthian Boar, since it is associated with
Chiron choosing to forgo immortality and taking Prometheus's place. Heracles then went to Libya, where the Old Man had told him to go, he 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. Heracles then stopped in
Egypt, where King
Busiris decided to make him the yearly sacrifice, but Heracles burst out of his chains, and killed both Busiris and his son Amphidamas. He then went to Asia, he put in to Thermydrae, the harbor of the Lindians. And having loosed one of the bullocks from the cart of a cowherd, he sacrificed it and feasted. But the cowherd, unable to protect himself, stood on a certain mountain and cursed. Which is why, Apollodorus claims, that when they sacrifice to Heracles, they do it with curses. 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, with a bow and arrow and carried the apples away. The following day,
Jason and the
Argonauts passed by on their
chthonic return journey from
Colchis, hearing the lament of "shining"
Aegle, one of the four
Hesperides, and viewing the still-twitching Ladon. Eurystheus was furious that Heracles had accomplished something that Eurystheus thought could not possibly be done.
Twelfth: Cerberus |left The twelfth and final labour was the capture of
Cerberus, the multi-headed dog that was the guardian of the gates of the
Underworld. To prepare for his
descent into the Underworld, Heracles first had to go to
Eleusis in order to be initiated into the
Eleusinian Mysteries. He was then able to enter the Underworld, with his half-siblings, Hermes and Athena, as his guides. While in the Underworld, Heracles met
Theseus and
Pirithous. The two companions had been imprisoned by
Hades for attempting to kidnap his wife,
Persephone. One tradition tells of snakes coiling around their legs, then turning into stone. Another says 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 his 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. ==Aftermath==