Heracles’s Twelve Labors

Author: Pseudo-Apollodorus

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE

Country or Culture: Greek

Genre: Myth

Overview

The great warrior Heracles (more commonly known by his Roman name, Hercules) is the subject of a large range of myths and legends. Carrying a wooden club and wearing the fur of a lion, he battles his way across Greek and Roman mythology, crushing poisonous snakes with his bare hands as a baby, sacking the great city of Troy, and adventuring in new lands with the legendary Argonauts. He seems to be in a continuous process of falling in and out love, fathering fifty sons at one moment and building a shrine to his fallen male lover in the next. Representing the heights of masculinity, heroism, and strength, Heracles and his myths are dominant forces in Greek mythology. It is the story of his twelve labors, however, that is most familiar to modern audiences.

The story of Heracles’s twelve labors is an important component of both the life of Heracles and the progression of Greek mythology. Before the myth properly begins, Heracles is driven into a rage by the goddess Hera. Heracles is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, and jealous Hera, the immortal wife of Zeus, makes a project out of tormenting the earthly hero. In that rage, Heracles slaughters his children. Seeking forgiveness, he visits the oracle of Delphi and is ordered to serve his cousin Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns. Hera and Eurystheus then set Heracles to his labors, which are designed to kill the hero, testing his strength, endurance, and wit in the most extreme of circumstances.

The myth is an engaging and thrilling read, as Heracles completes seemingly impossible tasks and encounters the greatest monsters and gods of all Greek mythology. However, the myth is most important on a symbolic level. Greek culture separated the realm of the earth and mortality (the chthonic realm) from that of the sky and immortality (the Olympian realm). The tale of Heracles’s twelve labors is the story of the chthonic and mortal hero proving his might and elevating himself to the Olympian realm. He is a champion of Greek civilization and of the immortal Olympians who lord above it. Because of this, as he conquers the great beasts of the wilderness and vanquishes entire armies, he is demonstrating the power and value of the chthonic and Olympian realms both. When he completes his final task and returns from the underworld, he represents the ultimate triumph, moving beyond the confines of mortality and becoming a deity. The rare story of a chthonic hero overcoming his own nature, the myth of Heracles’s labors speaks to the hopes of Greek civilization and to the belief that within one’s earthly self might rest something heroic, legendary, and immortal.

Summary

The son of the god Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, Heracles is both blessed and cursed from the start of his life. Incredibly mighty and heroic, he accomplishes feats of great strength at a young age. However, the goddess Hera, Zeus’s wife, decides to punish Heracles in order to take revenge for her husband’s infidelities. One day she drives Heracles into a frenzy, during which he kills his children. When Heracles then goes to the oracle of Delphi to seek forgiveness, Hera influences the oracle, who tells Heracles that he must swear allegiance to his mortal cousin Eurystheus for twelve years, after which he will be redeemed and gain immortality. Hera, who is in league with Eurystheus, plans to set Heracles to such great tasks during this time that he will meet his mortal death.

Eurystheus immediately orders Heracles to complete ten great labors, which Heracles attempts with legendary heroism. First, he slays the Nemean lion, an invulnerable beast born to the monster Typhon. When he brings the body of the beast back to Eurystheus, Eurystheus realizes how strong Heracles truly is and commands

“When Hercules [Heracles] asked Pluto [Hades] for Cerberus, Pluto ordered him to take the animal provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried. Hercules found him at the gates of Acheron, and, cased in his cuirass and covered by the lion’s skin, he flung his arms round the head of the brute, and though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his grip and pressure till it yielded.”

that he never enter the city again and instead bring proof that he has completed each task to the city gates. Next, Heracles slays the Lernaean hydra, a nine-headed beast that had been killing cattle throughout the countryside. When he fights the monster, he realizes that for every head he cuts off, two more grow in its place, and so he instructs his nephew, Iolaus, to burn the necks to prevent new heads from growing back. Eurystheus, however, denies the success of this labor, as Iolaus had assisted Heracles in the battle.

For his third labor, Heracles captures the Cerynitian hind, a beast precious to the goddess Artemis, after chasing it for an entire year. Next, he goes to capture the Erymanthian boar. While this task is simple compared to the others, Heracles stops to visit the centaur Pholus and, after being convinced to drink the wine that belongs to the other centaurs, finds himself in a bloody battle when those centaurs return. For his fifth labor, Heracles is ordered to dispose of the dung of the cattle of King Augeas in a single day. The son of a god, Augeas has seemingly endless cattle. After convincing the king to pay him for the work, Heracles redirects mighty rivers into the cattle yards, washing the dung away. However, Eurystheus rejects this labor on the grounds that Heracles received payment for completing it.

For his sixth labor, Heracles chases away the birds of Stymphalus by clanging together castanets given to him by the goddess Athena. Next, he captures the Cretan bull, showing it to Eurystheus before letting it go free again. For his eighth labor, he captures the man-eating mares of King Diomedes, the son of the god Ares. In addition to slaying Diomedes and taking the mares, Heracles founds a new city on the grave of Abderus, who had been the mares’ caretaker before dying during the battle. For his ninth labor, Heracles goes to fetch the belt of Hippolyte, who is the queen of the Amazons, a community of fierce warrior women. On the way to Hippolyte, he slays a massive army that attacks his ships. Hippolyte at first offers the belt freely, but Hera, disguised as an Amazon, convinces the female army to attack Heracles, and so he is forced to kill them all. Next, Heracles travels a great distance and kills many people in order to fetch the cattle of Geryon, a monster with the body of three men.

Eight years and one month after the start of the labors, Heracles finishes the tenth task. However, because he received help with the second labor and payment for the fifth, Eurystheus requires two more tasks of him. For his eleventh labor, Heracles must fetch the apples of the Hesperides from the ends of the earth, where they are guarded by the Hesperides themselves as well as an immortal dragon. Rather than steal the apples himself, however, he convinces the Titan Atlas to do so for him. Because Atlas has been punished by Zeus and tasked with holding up the sky, Heracles takes his position temporarily and tricks Atlas into holding the sky when he returns. Finally, Heracles enters the underworld itself to capture Cerberus, a three-headed hellhound with the tail of a dragon. After successfully wrestling the beast without using weapons, Heracles is allowed to bring it to the gates of Eurystheus, though he returns it shortly after. With this final labor complete, Heracles concludes his obligation to Eurystheus, having done exactly as the oracle of Delphi asked of him years before.

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