Heracles

The Greek word for the “labors” is athloi, i.e., contests for a prize, which for Heracles was immortality. The first six of the labors were undertaken in the Peloponnese, and the other six were progressively further away from the center of Greece. Associated with them are incidental or subsequent exploits, known as parerga, “incidental deeds” (parergon in the singular).

1. The Nemean Lion. Heracles killed a lion at NEMEA by means of a club, skinning it by using the animal’s own claws. Henceforth he carried the club and wore the lionskin, his two most prominent attributes in art.
2. The Lernaean Hydra. A nine-headed serpent or HYDRA lived in the marshes of LERNA. Each time Heracles clubbed a head, two more grew in its place, while Hera sent a crab to make things even more difficult. Helped by his nephew, IOLAÜS, Heracles killed both monsters and dipped his arrows in the Hydra’s poison. The crab became the constellation Cancer.
3. The Cerynean Hind. A hind with golden horns, sacred to Artemis, lived on Mt. CERYNEA. After pursuing the beast for a year, Heracles caught it, carried it back alive to Eurystheus, and then released it. Pindar says that Heracles went to the land of the Hyperboreans to find the animal.
4. The Erymanthian Boar. Heracles brought back to Eurystheus the monstrous boar that lived on Mt. ERYMANTHOS.
5. The Augean Stables. Heracles cleaned the stables of AUGEA, son of Helius and king of Elis, who kept vast herds of cattle. Helped by Athena, he diverted the rivers Alpheus and Peneus so that they flowed through the stables.
6. The Stymphalian Birds. Heracles shot the birds that lived beside lake STYMPHALUS, in Arcadia.
7. The Cretan Bull. Heracles caught the bull that the Cretan king, MINOS, had failed to sacrifice to Poseidon. After bringing it back from Crete alive, he released it, and it came to Marathon, where Theseus caught it.
8. The Mares of Diomedes. The Thracian king DIOMEDES, son of Ares, owned a herd of mares that ate human flesh. Heracles brought the horses back to Eurystheus, who released them and dedicated them to Hera.
9. The Girdle of Hippolyta. Heracles killed HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons, in battle and presented her girdle to Eurystheus.
10. The Cattle of Geryon. Heracles brought back the cattle of GERYON from Erythia, a land far away in the west. He sailed there in a cup given him by Helius and killed Geryon (who had three bodies) and his herdsman, EURYTION, and his hound (Orthrus) and drove the cattle back to Greece.
11. The Apples of the Hesperides. Heracles needed the help of Athena and Atlas to get the apples of the HESPERIDES, (“daughters of night”), which they guarded in a garden far to the west; around the apple tree was coiled the serpent LADO. The many-formed sea-god Nereus had to be held by Heracles before he would divulge the location of the garden. While Euripides says that Heracles killed Ladon and took the apples himself, usually he is said to have held up the heavens, with the aid of Athena, while the titan Atlas fetched the apples. After shifting the heavens back to the shoulders of Atlas, he brought the apples back to Eurystheus. Later Athena took them back to the garden of the Hesperides.
12. Cerberus. The final labor was to go to the Underworld and bring back the three-headed hound of Hades, CERBERUS. Heracles himself said (in the Odyssey) that this was the hardest labor. He brought Cerberus to Eurystheus and then returned him to Hades.

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