After he showed them to the king, he returned them to the gods’ garden where they belonged.įor his final challenge, Hercules traveled to Hades to kidnap Cerberus, the vicious three-headed dog that guarded its gates. This task was difficult-Hercules needed the help of the mortal Prometheus and the god Atlas to pull it off-but the hero eventually managed to run away with the apples.
Next, Eurystheus sent Hercules to steal Hera’s wedding gift to Zeus: a set of golden apples guarded by a group of nymphs known as the Hesperides. Once again, Hera did all she could to prevent the hero from succeeding, but eventually he returned to Mycenae with the cows. To protect their leader, the women attacked the hero’s fleet then, fearing for his safety, Hercules killed Hippolyte and ripped the belt from her body.įor his 10th labor, Hercules was dispatched nearly to Africa to steal the cattle of the three-headed, six-legged monster Geryon. However, the troublemaking Hera disguised herself as an Amazon warrior and spread a rumor that Hercules intended to kidnap the queen. At first, the queen welcomed Hercules and agreed to give him the belt without a fight. The ninth labor was complicated: stealing an armored belt that belonged to the Amazon queen Hippolyte. He brought them to Eurystheus, who dedicated the horses to Hera and set them free. Hercules’ eighth challenge was to capture the four man-eating horses of the Thracian king Diomedes. (She later gave birth to the Minotaur, a creature with a man’s body and a bull’s head.) Hercules drove the bull back to Eurystheus, who released it into the streets of Marathon. Next, Hercules went to Crete to capture a rampaging bull that had impregnated the wife of the island’s king. Hercules used these tools to frighten the birds away. This time, it was the goddess Athena who came to the hero’s aid: She gave him a pair of magical bronze krotala, or noisemakers, forged by the god Hephaistos. Hercules’ sixth task was straightforward: Travel to the town of Stymphalos and drive away the huge flock of carnivorous birds that had taken up residence in its trees. However, Hercules completed the job easily, flooding the barn by diverting two nearby rivers.
The Augean StablesHercules’ fifth task was supposed to be humiliating as well as impossible: cleaning all the dung out of King Augeas’ enormous stables in a single day. When the Military Expelled LGBTQ Soldiers With 'Blue Discharges'įourth, Hercules used a giant net to snare the terrifying, man-eating wild boar of Mount Erymanthus. Eurystheus had chosen this task for his rival because he believed that Diana would kill anyone she caught trying to steal her pet however, once Hercules explained his situation to the goddess, she allowed him to go on his way without punishment. This way, the pair kept the heads from growing back.The Golden HindNext, Hercules set off to capture the sacred pet of the goddess Diana: a red deer, or hind, with golden antlers and bronze hooves. He cut off each of the monster’s heads while Iolaus burned each wound with a torch. For this task, Hercules had the help of his nephew Iolaus. Second, Hercules traveled to the city of Lerna to slay the nine-headed Hydra-a poisonous, snake-like creature who lived underwater, guarding the entrance to the Underworld. For the rest of his life, he wore the animal’s pelt as a cloak. (Some storytellers say that Zeus had fathered this magical beast as well.) Hercules trapped the lion in its cave and strangled it. Once Hercules completed every one of the labors, Apollo declared, he would be absolved of his guilt and achieve immortality.įirst, Apollo sent Hercules to the hills of Nemea to kill a lion that was terrorizing the people of the region. He ordered Hercules to perform 12 “heroic labors” for the Mycenaen king Eurystheus. The Heroic Labors of HerculesĪpollo understood that Hercules’ crime had not been his fault-Hera’s vengeful actions were no secret-but still he insisted that the young man make amends. Guilty and heartbroken, Hercules tracked down Apollo, the god of truth and healing (and another of Zeus’ sons), and begged to be punished for what he had done. When her stepson was a young adult, she cast a kind of spell on him that drove him temporarily insane and caused him to murder his beloved wife and their two children.