Heracles

The most well-known hero in Greek mythology.

Parents

Zeus and Alcmene.

Important Relationships

His first wife was Megara, daughter of Creon, king of Thebes, but he killed their children in a fit of madness sent by Hera and had to become the servant of Eurystheus who gave him his famous 12 labors of Heracles. Omphale, the Lydian queen. Deianira, for whom he had to fight the river god Achelous. Soon after they had married, Heracles and Deianira had to cross a river, and a centaur named Nessus offered to help but then double-crossed them. Heracles shot the centaur from the opposite shore with a poisoned arrow and killed him. As he lay dying, Nessus plotted revenge, told Deianira to gather up his blood if she ever wanted to prevent Heracles from having affairs with other women, she should put it on his clothes. Nessus knew that his blood had become tainted by the poisonous blood of the Hydra and would burn through the skin of anyone it touched. Later, when Deianira suspected that Heracles might have an affair, she soaked a shirt of his in the blood and this is how Heracles died. Hebe, goddess of Youth who he married after he had died and became a god.

The 12 Labours of Heracles

As punishment of killing his family after being driven mad by Hera, Heracles was sent to a king called Eurystheus who gave him ten tasks to complete. The first was to kill the Nemean lion, an invulnerable lion that lived in Nemea. Heracles travelled to Nemea and tracked the lion, first he shot an arrow at it, but when he saw that it had no effect, he used his club. The lion hid in a cave for two mouths, Hercules blocked one entrance and crept in through the other. Once he had reached the lion, he choked it. Eurystheus was amazed at his strength and was so scared that he hid in a jar and told Heracles to show him the skin of the lion through the city gates.

For second task, the king ordered Heracles to kill the Lernaean hydra. A creature, born in Lerna, that used to kill cattle and rampage across the land. The hydra was huge, with nine heads, eight of the heads could be killed, but the middle one immortal. So, Heracles rode a chariot driven by Iolaus, to Lerna, and discovered the hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone. He forced it to come out of it’s den with fire, and grabbed onto it, smashing it with his club, but as soon as he destroyed one head, two grew in it’s place. While he was fighting the Hydra a huge crab came to help the Hydra and bit his foot. Heracles killed the crab and asked Iolaus to burn the stumps of the heads as soon as they are destroyed to prevent the heads from growing back. He chopped of the immortal head, buried it and put a heavy rock on top. However, once he returned, Eurystheus said that this task didn’t count because he had needed Iolaus’s help to kill the Hydra.

For his third task he was told to bring the Cerynitian deer to the king without killing it. The deer had beautiful golden horns and was sacred to the Artemis, so without killing or wounding it Heracles could not manage to catch it for a whole year. But the deer was tired and Heracles finally caught it as it was crossing a river. He was carrying it back to the king across the kingdom of Arcadia when he met Artemis and Apollo, before they could take the deer from him Heracles told them about the tasks and how much he needed to take the deer and that it has been the king Eurystheus who had ordered him to do it. Heracles arrived and showed the deer to the king before releasing it.

For his fourth task the king told him to bring him the Erymanthian boar while it was still alive. The boar had been attacking a kingdom called Psophis and lived on a nearby mountain. On the way Heracles fought with some centaurs over a jar of wine. Heracles drove the boar into snow to trap it then bought it to the king.

The fifth task Heracles had to complete was to clear the dung from the cattle of Augeas who was a monster who had never cleaned out his cattle farm. He had only a day to do this, so Heracles diverted the flow of two nearby rivers into the cattle pen and the dung was cleared away within a day.

For his sixth task, Heracles had to drive away the Stymphalian birds that were living at a lake. Athena gave him brass castanets that were made by Hepathetus and the sound was so loud that it drove the birds into the air and Heracles could shoot them down.

His seventh task was to bring the king the Cretan Bull, which had been sent up to Crete from Poseidon when King Minos, the king of Crete, had promised to sacrifice to Poseidon whatever was sent up out of the sea. But the bull was such a perfect bull that Minos sent it to his herd for breeding instead. This made Poseidon angry, so he made the bull attack Crete. Heracles caught the bull alive and bought it back to king Eurystheus.

For his eighth task Heracles had to bring the mares (female horses) of Diomedes from Thracian to Mycenae. These horses ate humans and once Heracles and a group of volunteers had killed their grooms they drove them into the sea. One of his friend, Abderus, died in the fight and Heracles founded the city of Abdera by his grave. Once he bought the horses to the king they were released and eventually killed in the wild.

His ninth task was to bring the king the belt of Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons, to the king for his daughter. The Amazons were a war-like race of women and the belt was a gift from Ares as a sign of their skill in battle. Hercules caught the attention of the Amazons by starting a battle. Once he met with Hippolyte she decided to give him the belt, but Hera disguised herself as an Amazon and told the rest of the Amazons that Heracles was kidnapping Hippolyte, so they went to defend their queen. This made Heracles think that Hippolyte had betrayed him so he killed her and stole the belt.

For his tenth task he had to find Geryon who looked after sacred red cattle and take them. Geryon lived on the island of Erythia and had three bodies, joined at the waist. The journey was long and difficult, and he crossed form Europe to Libya putting up two columns to mark his crossing. The Sun was so impressed at his endurance of the long heat of the journey that he gave him a large goblet. Once Heracles arrived, he killed the two headed watch dog of the cattle and the herdsman before shooting Geryon through his three chests. He put the cattle in the goblet for transport before giving it back to the Sun.

These ten labors had taken eight years and one month, but king Eurystheus didn’t recognize the killing of the Hydra and the cleaning of dung from the cattle of Augeas so he gave him two more tasks to complete. The eleventh task was to collect the golden apples from the Hesperides. The Hesperides were daughters of Atlas and the tree was near where Atlas had to hold up the sky as punishment for his involvement in the war between the gods and the titans. The tree was a gift from Gaia to Zeus and Hera on their wedding day and was guarded by an immortal, one-hundred headed dragon. To get there he had to as Nereus, an old sea god, for the location and crept up on him when he was asleep and grabbed him without letting go until the god gave up the location, even though the god shapeshifted between different animals to shake him off. He faces multiple challenges for fights on the journey and freed Prometheus from Zeus’s punishment, but he eventually reached the mountain. Prometheus had told him to take the weight of the world from Atlas and have him receive the apple for him. When Atlas had done this he tried to trick Heracles into holding up the sky for him for longer, but Heracles managed to trick Atlas into taking it back.

For his twelfth labor, Heracles had to bring Cerberus, the three headed dog with a dragon tail, which guards the underworld to the king. He cleansed himself of all the deaths he had caused before descending into the underworld. There he met many spirits and prisoners, fighting some and freeing others. He asked Hades is he could borrow Cerberus and Hades agreed, provided he did not use any weapons to subdue it and that her bought it back. Heracles managed to capture Cerberus and take him back to the palace to show the king before returning it to the underworld.