The Twelve Labours of Herakles.

Herakles was the illegitimate son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Alkmene.  He was a man of superhuman strength and was hated by Hera, Zeus's wife, who resented that this superb man was the son of her husband and a mortal woman.  Herakles had a wife and children but, in a fit of madness induced by Hera, he killed them all.  He went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask how he might atone for the crime and was told to serve Eurysthmeus, king of the Argolid, for 12 years and to carry out any task he might be assigned.  This was particularly odious because Zeus had intended that Hercules be king of the Argolid, but Hera had tricked him into appointing Eurysthmeus instead.

1. To kill the Nemean Lion and take its skin back to Eurysthmeus.
   This was no ordinary lion.  Born of Echidna and Orthos and nurtured by Hera, it had a skin impervious to any weapon.  Herakles realised this when his arrows bounced off the lion, so he cornered it in its cave and strangled it with his bare hands.  He carried the body back to Eurysthmeus who was so terrified by the size of the beast and, therefore, the prowess of Herakles that he forbade him ever to enter the city of Mycenae again.  Herakles used one of the lion's own claws to cut off the skin which he wore as a cloak with the head as a helmet and the front paws tried around his neck.
2. To kill the Hydra of Lerna.
   This was another monster, the offspring of Echidna and Typhon and nurtured once more by Hera.  It was a venomous, many-headed water snake which lurked in the swamps of Lerna to the south of Argos and preyed on the sheep in the neighbouring countryside.  Herakles forced it out of its lair by shooting it with burning arrows, but found that as he killed each head with his club, so two more grew in its place.  His task was made all the more difficult by a giant crab that came to the Hydra's aid, so Herakles killed it.  So pleased was Hera by the crab's efforts to thwart Herakles that she immortalised it in the sky as the constellation Cancer.  Herakles then enlisted the aid of his nephew, Iolaos son of Iphikles, who had become his charioteer and his faithful companion through all his labours.  As Herakles killed each head, Iolaos sealed the neck with a burning brand so preventing new heads from growing.  Gradually they killed all the heads but one, which was immortal, and this one Herakles buried under a large rock.  He slit open the body and collected it poisonous blood which he used as a deadly venom on his arrows.  This would serve him well many times dispatching deadly enemies, but would eventually lead to his own death.
3. To capture the Kerynitian Hind.
   The third labour was a test of endurance rather than bravery.nbsp; This hind had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis.nbsp; It lived near the river Kerynites in the north-east of Arcadia.nbsp; Herakles chased it for a whole year finally catching up with it near the river Ladon.nbsp; He brought down the weary hind with a judicious arrow, slung the still-living animal across his shoulders and set off for Mycenae to show it to Eurysthmeus.  On the way he met Artemis and Apollo.nbsp; At first Artemis was furious that her hind had been captured, but, when Herakles explained to her his subservience to Eurysthmeus, she allowed him to proceed.  He showed the hind to Eurysthmeus and then set it free.
4. To capture the Erymanthian Boar.
   Again he had to capture an animal alive, but this time a much more dangerous one.  It was a ferocious animal living on Mount Erymanthos in the north-west of Arcadia and was ravaging the countryside.
   On his way he passed Pholone and encountered the Centaurs.  These are wild and brutal creatures with the body of a horse with the upper part of a human replacing the head.  They were the offspring of Kentauros, son of Ixion, who mated with wild Magnesian mares on the slopes of Mount Pelion in Thessaly.  They were driven out by the Lapiths and went to live on Mount Pholoe.  Two centaurs were of different parentage and were civilised and hospitable.  These were Cheiron, the immortal son of Kronos and the Oceanid, Philyra, and Pholos, the son of the satyr, Silenos, and a Melian nymph.  Cheiron was particularly skilled in archery, medicine, and music.  When Herakles first arrived at Mount Pholoe, he was met by Pholos who welcomed him and invited him to dinner.  Herakles asked for wine, but Pholos hesitated to open a great jar of wine because it belonged to all the Centaurs as a group.  But Herakles opened it anyway and the other Centaurs come in demanding to share their wine.  A fight broke out and Herakles killed many Centaurs with his unerring arrows tipped with the Hydra's venom.  The rest fled south with Herakles in pursuit, and finally took refuge with the kindly Cheiron.  Herakles charged in firing his arrows, and unfortunately one struck Cheiron in the knee.  The wound was incurable, the poison deadly, but Cheiron was immortal so was liable to be in agony for eternity.  In sympathy, Zeus allowed him to give up his immortality and he died.  Zeus immortalised him in the stars as the constellation Sagitarius.  The other Centaurs dispersed, but one of them, Nessos, would encounter Herakles again to both their misfortunes (see Hercules).  Herakles returned to Pholos to find that his friend had pulled one of the arrows from the body of a Centaur puzzled that so small a thing could kill so large an animal and had accidentally let it fall on his foot and so died of the Hydra's poison.
   Herakles continued his search for the boar and found it in its lair on Mount Erymanthos.  He chased it through the mountain finally driving it into deep snow where he caught the exhausted beast.  He carried it back to Mycenae where the terrified Eurystheus hid from him in a large jar.
5. To clean the Augeian Stables.
   Augeias, son of Helios the God of the Sun, was king of Elis in the Peloponnese.  He had many herds of cattle which were kept in stables that had never been cleaned.  Herakles's task was to clean them in one day.  Herakles asked that, if he succeeded, Augeias would give him a tenth of the herd.  Thinking the task impossible, the king agreed.  Herakles broke great holes in the walls of the stables and diverted the two local rivers through the buildings washing all the filth away.  Augeias refused to honour his promise, despite the support of his son, Phyleus, who had witnessed the agreement.  In fury the king banished both Herakles and Phyleus from his kingdom.  Herakles was given hospitality by Dexamenos, the king of Olenos in Achaia where he was able to do him a great service by killing the Centaur Eurytion who was plaguing the family trying to force the king's daughter, Mnesimache, into marriage.
6. To drive away the Stymphalian Birds.
   A huge flock of birds had taken up residence in the woods around Lake Stymphalos in north-eastern Arcadia.  They had become a nuisance simply because of their numbers. Herakles dealt with them fairly easily.  He frightened them out of the trees by making a great din with a bronze rattle and then shot them with his unerring arrows (of which he seems to have had an inexhaustible supply).
7. To obtain the Cretian Bull.
   In order to cement his claim to the kingdom of Crete, Minos asked Poseidon to send him a Bull, promising to sacrifice it.  Poseidon complied and sent him a white Bull so beautiful that Minos could not bring himself to kill it and substituted another for the sacrifice.  Poseidon was so furious at this broken pledge that he inflicted Pasiphae, Minos's wife, with an insatiable passion for the bull.  She managed to couple with it and gave birth to the Minotaur.  Poseidon also made the bull very savage, so Herakles's task of capturing it was difficult and dangerous.  He fought it long and hard but eventually subdued it to such an extent that he could ride it back to Mycenae where he showed it to Eurystheus and let it go free.  The bull made its way to the plain of Marathon in Attica where it became a plague to the inhabitants thereof.
8. To capture the Horses of Diomedes.
   Diomedes was the son of Ares the God of War and was king of the Bistones, a warlike tribe in Trace, which lies to the north of the Aegean Sea.  This whole area was considered by the Greeks as cruel and Barbaric.  He owned four ferocious mares which he kept chained to bronze mangers by iron chains, and he fed them on human flesh.  Herakles tamed them by feeding them with Diomedes himself, whom they tore to pieces and gorged on his flesh.  This cured them of their taste for human flesh.  Herakles made them into a chariot team and drove hem back to Mycenae where Eurystheus dedicated them to Hera and bread from them.
9. To obtain the belt of Hippolyte for Admete, daughter of Eurystheus.
   For this labour Herakles had to travel even further, to the southern shores of the Black Sea.  Here lived a tribe of Amazons rules by Queen Hippolyte who possessed a belt that was a symbol of there authority.  Herakles was to obtain this belt for the daughter of Eurystheus.  When Herakles and his companions arrive, they were received kindly by Hippolyte and she agreed to give him her belt.  But Hera thought that was too easy, so she disguised herself as an Amazon and told the others that their queen had been abducted.  They mounted horses and charged down to the ships to retrieve her.  Herakles assumed treachery by Hippolyte and killed her and took her belt before he and his companions overcame the entire Amazon army.  On his way home he called in ant Troy and saved King Laomedon's daughter from a sea monster.  Laomedon had promised to reward him with some divine horses given to him by Zeus in exchange for Ganymede.  However he went back on this promise and refused to hand them over, a big mistake as Herakles left vowing revenge.
10. To obtain the cattle of Geryon.
    Geryon was the monstrous son of the Oceanid Kallirhoe and Chrysaor, son of Poseidon, and kept great herds of cattle in the land of Erytheia which was situated in the far west beyond the river of Ocean which surrounds the world.  The herds were guarded by a ferocious herdsman, Eurytion, and his two-headed hound, Orthos, offspring of Echidna and Typhon and so brother of Kerberos and the Hydra of Lerna.  Geryon himself had three heads and is often depicted in art as having three bodies joined at the waist—a formidable opponent for Herakles as he would have to overcome all three bodies before he could defeat the whole.
    He travelled west through northern Africa, clearing the country of wild beasts as he went, until he arrived at the western extreme where he created the Pillars of Herakles on either side of the Straits of Gibraltar to keep the monsters from the ocean beyond from entering the Mediterranean Sea.  These pillars marked the western end of the known world and only an outstanding hero could travel beyond.  Herakles was tired of the heat of African Sun and took his bow and threatened the Sun God.  Helios was so impressed by his audacity that he offered to lend him his great golden bowl in which he sailed back east each night.  Herakles was pleased and set sail for Erytheia.  Ocean sent huge waves to rock the vessel until Herakles threatened him with his bow and frighted him into calm.
    As Herakles approached the cattle, Orthos rushed to attack him and Herakles killed him with his club.  Eurytion rushed up and Herakles killed him too.  A nearby herdsman tending Hades's cattle ran to tell Geryon what was happening and he rushed in to try to prevent his cattle being stolen.  After a long fight Herakles killed him too, loaded the cattle into the golden bowl and set sail eastwards.  He landed in Spain, returned the bowl to Helios and started to drive his cattle across land to Greece.  He had many adventures on the way as local tribes tried to steal his cattle, but he fought them all off.  Finally he approached Greece but Hera inflicted the cattle with a gadfly and they scattered as far as the mountains of Trace, so Herakles had the added trouble of rounding them all up again before he could deliver them to Eurystheus, who sacrificed them to Hera.
11. To obtain the golden apples of the Hesperides.
    When Zeus married Hera, Gaia put forth a tree bearing golden apples as a wedding present.  The tree grew in the garden of the Hesperides where it was guarded by Landon, the giant serpent offspring of Phorkys and Keto.  The Hesperides were a group of singing nymphs, the children of Night.  Even in antiquity, the whereabouts of the garden was uncertain, but their name seems to imply that the Hesperides lived somewhere in the west beyond the sunset.  Herakles knew that Nereus, an ancient god of the sea, would know so he jumped on him while he slept and refused to let him go until he gave him the information he wanted.
    There are two versions of the next part of the story.  In one, Herakles eventually finds the gardens, kills Landon, and picks the apples.  As this is the only account of the death of Landon, who was immortalised in the sky as Draco, I feel obliges to go with it, but the second account makes a better story.  In this one Herakles comes upon the Titan Prometheus who was being punished by Zeus for giving fire to mankind by being chained to the rocks and each day an eagle came and ripped out his liver which grew back again each night so that it could be ripped out again next day.  Herakles killed the eagle with an arrow and released Prometheus.  Zeus permitted this as he felt the act brought credit on his son.  In gratitude, Prometheus told Herakles that it would be easy to get the apples if he sent another Titan, Atlas, to fetch them.  Alas was also being punished by Zeus by having to hold up the sky for eternity.  So Herakles offered to take over his burden if Atlas would go and fetch the apples.  Atlas readily agreed, only too pleased to be relieved of his burden.  He returned with the apples but, not wanting to take on his heavy load again, said that he should take the apples to Eurystheus himself.  Herakles agreed but asked Atlas to take back the load for a moment so that he could make himself more comfortable with a cushion for his head.  Atlas, who was not the brightest of giants, took back the load, Herakles grabbed the apples and made good his escape.  After Herakles had presented them to Eurystheus, Athene returned them to the garden because they were too sacred to remain in mortal hands.
12. To fetch Kerberos, the many-headed dog, from the Underworld.
    Kerberos was the monstrous offspring of Typhon and Echidna and guarded the entrance to the Underworld to ensure that no one who entered ever left again.  Herakles was guided through the deep and gloomy caves at Tainaron in the Peloponnese by Hermes, the god whose task it was to conduct the souls of the dead down to Hades.  They passed through the gates guarded by Kerberos, and met the souls of many departed spirits including the hero Meleagros, who had killed the Kalydonian boar, and he was so moved by Meleagros's account of his death that he promised to marry his sister if one was still living.  Meleagros nominated Deianeira and later Herakles kept his promise.  Eventually Herakles came face to face with Hades himself, Lord of the Underworld, and explained his mission.  Hades gave him permission to take Kerberos back to earth for a short time on condition that he used no weapons to subdue him.  So Herakles subdued Kerberos by brute force along despite being bitten by the serpent that formed the dog's tail.  Herakles dragged him snarling and barking from his three huge mouths up to the daylight where the foam from his mouth took root and formed the aconite plant with its deadly poison which grows to this day.  Herakles took the hound to Eurystheus, who hid in terror, before returning the animal to its rightful place in the Underworld.

With this task, Herakles's long servitude to this ignoble king was at an end.

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