Labours of Heracles

The Twelve Labours of Heracles were a number of tasks that the mythical hero Heracles was told to complete by King Eurystheus. It all started when Hera, who loathed Heracles for he was a living example of her husband's infidelities, drove the hero mad, making him kill his children. When he recovered his senses, he deeply regretted what he had done and went to the Oracle of Delphi to ask how he might atone. There, the priestess told him to live at Tiryns serving Eurystheus for twelve years and to perform the labours imposed on him; when the tasks were accomplished, she said, he would become immortal (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.12). Heracles did not like this, as he considered Eurystheus to be a lesser person than himself, but he decided to follow the Oracle's advice.

In Apollodorus' account the madness came after the battle with the Minyans: Heracles flung the children he had by Megara, and two children of his brother Iphicles, into the fire, and condemned himself to exile (Library 2.4.12). In Euripides' tragedy Heracles, Megara is killed as well. Apollodorus adds that the Pythian priestess first called him Heracles at this moment; until then he had been called Alcides.

The Ten? Labours of Heracles

When he arrived in Tiryns, Eurystheus initially asked Heracles to perform ten labours. These ten labours were (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.1–2.5.10):

1. to kill the Nemean Lion,
2. to kill the Lernaean Hydra,
3. to capture the Ceryneian Hind,
4. to capture the Erymanthian Boar,
5. to clean the stables of Augeas in one day,
6. to kill the Stymphalian Birds,
7. to capture the Cretan Bull,
8. to steal the Mares of Diomedes,
9. to steal the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, and,
10. to steal the cattle of the monster Geryon.

Apollodorus says the ten were finished in eight years and a month (Library 2.5.11). Eurystheus refused to count two of them, which is why two more were added.

Labour one: slaying the Nemean Lion

The Nemean lion was an invulnerable beast that lived in the region of Nemea. Hesiod says Hera raised it and settled it at Nemea as a plague to men (Theogony 326–332); Apollodorus calls it the offspring of Typhon (Library 2.5.1). On his way, Heracles lodged at Cleonae with a day-labourer called Molorchus. When Molorchus wanted to sacrifice a victim to him, Heracles told him to wait thirty days: if he came back safe, he should sacrifice to Zeus the Saviour, but if he were dead, to Heracles as a hero.

Heracles tracked the lion down and shot an arrow at it. Only then did he realise that the lion's skin was impenetrable, and that his arrows would be of no use. So he raised his club and went after it. The lion took refuge in a cave with two mouths; Heracles walled up one entrance and went in through the other, put his arm round the beast's neck, and held it tight until he had choked it (Library 2.5.1).

Wearing the lion skin

He carried the lion on his shoulders to Cleonae, where he found Molorchus on the thirtieth day, about to sacrifice to him as to a dead man; instead they sacrificed to Zeus the Saviour. The impenetrable skin became the hero's armour: in Theocritus' poem Heracles himself says that one of the immortals put it into his mind to cleave the hide with the lion's own claws, and that he flayed it and wore it as his defence (Idyll 25). The lion skin is worn by Heracles for the rest of his story. Eurystheus was amazed at his manhood and forbade him ever to enter the city again; he was to show the fruits of his labours before the gates. In his fear the king is said to have had a bronze jar made to hide in under the earth, and he sent his commands through a herald, Copreus (Library 2.5.1).

Labour two: slaying the Lernaean Hydra

The Lernaean Hydra was a fearsome monster that lived in the swamp of Lerna, from which it went out into the plain to ravage the cattle and the country. Hesiod says it was raised by Hera, whose anger against Heracles was unrelenting (Theogony 313–318). Apollodorus gives it a huge body and nine heads, eight of them mortal and the middle one immortal (Library 2.5.2).

Heracles drove there in a chariot driven by Iolaus. He found the Hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where its den was, and forced it out by pelting it with flaming arrows. He seized it and held it fast, but it wound itself about one of his feet. Smashing its heads with his club was no use, for as fast as one head was smashed two grew up in its place.

A little help from his nephew

A huge crab came to the help of the Hydra and bit his foot; Heracles killed it. He then called for help on his nephew Iolaus, who set fire to a piece of the neighbouring wood and burned the roots of the heads with the brands, which prevented them from sprouting. Having got the better of the sprouting heads, Heracles chopped off the immortal head, buried it beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus, and put a heavy rock on it (Library 2.5.2).

Heracles slit up the body of the Hydra and dipped his arrows in its gall. The poisoned arrows became part of his story: one of them wounded the centaur Nessus, and the blood of Nessus, smeared on a robe, brought about the death of Heracles (Library 2.7.6; Sophocles, Women of Trachis). Hyginus says that Hera set the crab among the stars as the constellation Cancer, in return for its service (Astronomica 2.23).

Eurystheus did not count the success of killing the Hydra as one of the labours, using as an excuse the fact that Heracles was helped by Iolaus (Library 2.5.2).

Labour three: capturing the Ceryneian Hind

Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring the Ceryneian Hind alive to Mycenae. This was a deer sacred to the goddess Artemis, which had golden horns (Library 2.5.3). Pindar calls it the hind Taygete had dedicated to Artemis, and says Heracles pursued it as far as the land of the Hyperboreans beyond the Ister (Olympian 3.26–32).

The hind was at Oenoe. Wishing neither to kill nor to wound it, Heracles hunted it for a whole year. At last, weary with the chase, the animal took refuge on Mount Artemisius and then went on to the river Ladon; Heracles shot it just as it was about to cross the stream, put it on his shoulders and hastened through Arcadia. There Artemis, together with Apollo, met him and would have taken the hind from him, rebuking him for attempting to kill her sacred animal. By pleading necessity and laying the blame on Eurystheus, he appeased the anger of the goddess and carried the beast alive to Mycenae (Library 2.5.3).

Labour four: capturing the Erymanthian Boar

The Erymanthian Boar was a beast that ravaged Psophis, coming down from the mountain called Erymanthus; Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring it alive (Library 2.5.4). On the way, Heracles was entertained by the centaur Pholus, a son of Silenus by a Melian nymph, who set roast meat before him while he himself ate his meat raw. When Heracles called for wine, Pholus said he feared to open the jar which belonged to the centaurs in common. Heracles told him to be of good courage and opened it, and before long the other centaurs, scenting the smell, arrived at the cave of Pholus armed with rocks and fir trees. Heracles drove them off with firebrands and arrows and pursued them as far as Malea, where they took refuge with Chiron.

Chiron hit by mistake

As the centaurs cowered about Chiron, Heracles shot an arrow at them; it passed through the arm of Elatus and stuck in the knee of Chiron. Heracles ran up to him, drew out the shaft and applied a medicine which Chiron gave him, but the wound proved incurable. Chiron retired to his cave and wished to die, but could not, for he was immortal. Prometheus then offered himself to Zeus to be immortal in his stead, and so Chiron died (Library 2.5.4). Apollodorus later says that when Heracles released Prometheus on the Caucasus by shooting the eagle that fed on his liver, he presented Chiron to Zeus, who was willing to die in the place of Prometheus (Library 2.5.11).

Pholus, meanwhile, drew an arrow out of a corpse and wondered that so small a thing could kill such big creatures; it slipped from his hand, fell on his foot and killed him on the spot. Heracles buried him and went on to the boar hunt. He chased the boar with shouts out of a thicket, drove the exhausted animal into deep snow, trapped it and brought it to Mycenae (Library 2.5.4). According to Diodorus, when the king saw Heracles carrying the boar on his shoulders he was terrified and hid himself in a bronze vessel (4.12).

Labour five: cleaning the stables of Augeas

Augeas was king of Elis and had many herds of cattle. Eurystheus ordered Heracles to carry out the dung of the cattle in a single day (Library 2.5.5). Heracles went to Augeas without revealing the command of Eurystheus, and said that he would carry out the dung in one day if Augeas would give him a tenth of the cattle. Augeas did not believe him but promised.

Founder of the Olympic Games

Having taken Augeas' son Phyleus to witness, Heracles made a breach in the foundations of the cattle-yard and turned the rivers Alpheus and Peneus, which flowed near each other, into it, after making an outlet for the water through another opening. When Augeas learned that this had been done at the command of Eurystheus, he refused to pay the reward and even denied he had promised it. The matter went to arbitration; Phyleus was called by Heracles and bore witness against his father. In a rage, Augeas, before the vote was taken, ordered both Phyleus and Heracles out of Elis (Library 2.5.5).

Heracles took his revenge later. He gathered an army of Arcadians and volunteers from Greece and marched against Augeas; after a setback against the Molionides, he ambushed and killed them at Cleonae, took Elis, killed Augeas and his sons, and gave the kingdom to Phyleus. He then celebrated the Olympic games, founding an altar of Pelops and six altars of the twelve gods (Library 2.7.2; Pindar, Olympian 10).

Although Heracles was successful, Eurystheus would not admit this labour among the ten, alleging that it had been performed for hire (Library 2.5.5).

Labour six: slaying the Stymphalian Birds

Eurystheus' next task to Heracles was to chase away the Stymphalian birds. At the city of Stymphalus in Arcadia was the lake called Stymphalian, surrounded by a deep wood, and countless birds had flocked there for refuge (Library 2.5.6). Pausanias describes them as man-eating birds (8.22.4), and in Apollonius' epic they are birds that Heracles could not drive off with his bow (Argonautica 2.1052–1057).

Heracles was at a loss how to drive the birds from the wood. Athena gave him bronze castanets, which she had received from Hephaestus. He clashed these on a mountain that overhung the lake; the birds could not stand the sound, fluttered up in fright, and Heracles shot them (Library 2.5.6). Apollonius says that Heracles stood on a lofty peak and shook a rattle of bronze, and the birds fled far off screeching. Pausanias adds that, according to the poet Peisander, Heracles did not kill the birds at all, but drove them away with the noise of rattles (8.22.4). Apollonius also has the Argonauts meet birds of this kind, which belonged to Ares, on the island of Ares (Argonautica 2.1030–1089).

Labour seven: capturing the Cretan Bull

The seventh task Eurystheus gave to Heracles was to bring the Cretan Bull. Apollodorus reports two accounts: Acusilaus said that it was the bull that carried Europa across the sea for Zeus, but some say it was the bull that Poseidon sent up from the sea when Minos promised to sacrifice to him whatever appeared. Minos was struck by its beauty, sent it to his herds and sacrificed another bull; in his anger Poseidon made the bull savage (Library 2.5.7).

Heracles came to Crete to deal with this bull. When he asked Minos for help, Minos told him to fight and catch the bull for himself, and he did, brought it to Eurystheus and, after showing it to him, let it go free. The bull roamed to Sparta and all Arcadia, crossed the Isthmus, and arrived at Marathon in Attica, where it harried the inhabitants (Library 2.5.7). Theseus later overcame it as the Marathonian Bull (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.5).

Labour eight: stealing the Mares of Diomedes

The eighth labour was to bring the Mares of Diomedes to Mycenae. Diomedes was a son of Ares and Cyrene and king of the Bistones, a very warlike Thracian people, and he owned man-eating mares. Heracles sailed with a band of volunteers, overpowered the grooms who had charge of the mangers, and drove the mares to the sea. When the Bistones came after him in arms, he committed the mares to the guardianship of Abderus, a son of Hermes from Opus in Locris and a favourite of Heracles; but the mares dragged him after them and killed him. Heracles fought the Bistones, killed Diomedes and made the rest flee, and he founded a city, Abdera, beside the grave of Abderus (Library 2.5.8). In Diodorus' version Heracles exposes Diomedes to his own mares, which devour him (4.15).

Heracles brought the mares to Eurystheus. Apollodorus says Eurystheus let them go, and they came to Mount Olympus, where they were destroyed by wild beasts (Library 2.5.8).

Labour nine: stealing the girdle of Hippolyta

Hippolyta was queen of the Amazons, who lived about the river Thermodon, and she had the belt of Ares as a token of her superiority. Heracles was sent to fetch this belt because Admete, the daughter of Eurystheus, desired to have it (Library 2.5.9).

Heracles took a band of volunteer comrades in a single ship and put in at the island of Paros, which was inhabited by the sons of Minos. Two of the crew landed and were killed by them. Indignant, Heracles killed the sons of Minos on the spot and besieged the rest, until they sent envoys to ask him to take two of their number in place of the dead men. He raised the siege and took on board two sons of Androgeus, a son of Minos, Alcaeus and Sthenelus.

At the land of the Amazons

He then came to Mysia, to the court of Lycus, son of Dascylus, who entertained him. In a battle between Lycus and the king of the Bebryces, Heracles took the side of Lycus and killed many, among them King Mygdon. Heracles took much land from the Bebryces and gave it to Lycus, who called it all Heraclea (Library 2.5.9).

He put in at the harbour of Themiscyra, where Hippolyta came to see him, asked why he had come, and promised to give him the belt. But Hera, in the likeness of an Amazon, went up and down the crowd saying that the strangers were carrying off the queen. The Amazons charged on horseback down to the ship in arms. When Heracles saw them armed, he suspected treachery; he killed Hippolyta and stripped her of the belt. After fighting the rest, he sailed away and put in at Troy (Library 2.5.9). In Apollonius' epic, Heracles ambushed Melanippe, a daughter of Ares, and Hippolyte gave him her girdle as her sister's ransom (Argonautica 2.966–969). He gave the belt to Eurystheus at Mycenae.

Labour ten: stealing the cattle of Geryon

The tenth labour of Heracles was to fetch the cattle of Geryon from Erytheia, an island near the ocean in the far west. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe, daughter of Ocean, and he had the body of three men grown together, joined at the waist but separate in three from the flanks and thighs (Library 2.5.10; Hesiod, Theogony 287–294, 979–983). His red cattle were herded by Eurytion, and guarded by the two-headed hound Orthus, born of Typhon and Echidna.

Heracles journeyed through Europe, destroyed many wild beasts and set foot in Libya. Reaching Tartessus, he set up two pillars facing each other on the boundaries of Europe and Libya. Being scorched by the Sun on his journey, he bent his bow at the god, who in admiration of his boldness gave him a golden goblet in which he crossed the ocean (Library 2.5.10). Pherecydes, quoted by Athenaeus (11.470c), says that this was the cup in which the Sun himself travelled through Ocean at night to the east.

Having reached Erytheia, Heracles lodged on Mount Abas. The dog rushed at him, but he struck it with his club, and when the herdsman Eurytion came to the dog's help, Heracles killed him too. Menoetes, who was pasturing the cattle of Hades there, reported what had happened to Geryon, who came up with Heracles beside the river Anthemus as he was driving the cattle away, and was shot dead (Library 2.5.10).

Bringing the cattle back

Heracles embarked the cattle in the goblet, sailed to Tartessus and gave the goblet back to the Sun. He came to Liguria, where Ialebion and Dercynus, sons of Poseidon, tried to rob him of the cattle; he killed them and went on through Tyrrhenia. At Rhegium a bull broke away and swam across to Sicily; in the plain of Eryx, Heracles left the cattle in the care of Hephaestus, found the bull among the herds of Eryx, who ruled the Elymi, and wrestled him three times, killing him. When he came to the creeks of the Ionian sea, Hera afflicted the cows with a gadfly and they scattered into the mountains of Thrace. Heracles caught some and drove them to the Hellespont; the rest remained wild. He blamed the river Strymon and made it unnavigable by filling it with rocks. He gave the cattle to Eurystheus, who sacrificed them to Hera (Library 2.5.10).

According to the Roman version of the story, Heracles drove the cattle across the Tiber on the site of the future Rome. There a shepherd called Cacus, struck by the beauty of the cattle, stole some while Heracles slept, dragging them backwards by the tails into his cave so that their tracks would mislead their owner. The lowing of the remaining cattle was answered from the cave; Heracles killed Cacus with his club and was greeted by King Evander, who foretold that an altar would be dedicated to him there, the later Ara Maxima (Livy 1.7.3–15). In Virgil, Evander tells the same story to Aeneas, but his Cacus is a fire-breathing half-human son of Vulcan (Aeneid 8.185–275).

Eurystheus had now refused to count two of the labours: the Hydra, because Iolaus helped, and the stables of Augeas, because Heracles had accepted payment. Two more therefore had to be completed (Library 2.5.11). These were:

       11. to steal the Hesperidean Apples,

       12. to capture Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld.

Labour eleven: stealing the apples from the garden of Hesperides

Eurystheus ordered Heracles to fetch golden apples from the Hesperides. According to Apollodorus, the apples had been presented to Zeus by Earth after his marriage to Hera, and they were guarded by an immortal dragon with a hundred heads, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which spoke with many different voices; the Hesperides Aegle, Erytheia, Hesperia and Arethusa also guarded them (Library 2.5.11). Apollodorus places the apples on Atlas among the Hyperboreans, but the more usual tradition puts the garden in the far west; Heracles did not know the way.

On the road he came to the river Echedorus, where Cycnus, a son of Ares, challenged him to single combat; Ares backed his son, but a thunderbolt hurled between them parted the fighters. Going on, Heracles came to the nymphs, daughters of Zeus and Themis, who showed him Nereus. He seized the sea god while he slept, and though Nereus turned himself into all kinds of shapes, Heracles bound him and did not let him go until he had learned where the apples and the Hesperides were.

Then he travelled through Libya, which was ruled by Antaeus, a son of Poseidon, who used to kill strangers by forcing them to wrestle. Heracles hugged him, lifted him aloft, and crushed him; for when Antaeus touched the earth, he grew stronger, and some said he was a son of Earth. In Egypt, ruled by Busiris, he was seized and led to the altars to be sacrificed, but he burst his bonds and killed Busiris and his son (Library 2.5.11).

There are two versions of how Heracles got the apples. Prometheus had told him not to go after them himself but to send Atlas, first relieving him of the sky. Heracles went to Atlas in the land of the Hyperboreans, shot the eagle that fed on the liver of Prometheus, freed Prometheus, and took the sky on himself. Atlas brought three apples from the Hesperides, but did not want to take the sky back; he said that he would carry the apples to Eurystheus himself, and told Heracles to hold the sky in his place. Heracles promised, but at the advice of Prometheus asked Atlas to hold the sky for a moment while he put a pad on his head. Atlas laid the apples on the ground and took the sphere again, and Heracles picked up the apples and left. The other version is that Heracles picked the apples himself after killing the guardian snake. Eurystheus gave the apples to Heracles, who gave them to Athena, and she took them back, since it was not lawful for them to be laid down anywhere (Library 2.5.11).

Labour twelve: capturing Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld

The final labour that Heracles had to complete was to bring Cerberus from Hades. According to Apollodorus, Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes (Library 2.5.12). Other writers differ on his heads; Hesiod gives him fifty (Theogony 311–312).

Before going down, Heracles went to Eumolpus at Eleusis to be initiated. Foreigners were not then allowed to be initiated, so he proposed to be initiated as the adopted son of Pylius; but he could not see the mysteries because he had not been cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, so Eumolpus cleansed him first. He then went to Taenarum in Laconia, where the mouth of the descent to Hades is, and descended through it. When the souls saw him they fled, except Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa; Heracles drew his sword on the Gorgon as if she were alive, but learned from Hermes that she was an empty phantom (Library 2.5.12).

Near the gates of Hades he found Theseus and Pirithous, the two heroes bound fast because Pirithous had wooed Persephone in wedlock. When they saw Heracles, they stretched out their hands as if he could raise them from the dead by his might. Heracles took Theseus by the hand and raised him up, but when he would have brought up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he let go. He also rolled away the stone of Ascalaphus, and, wishing to provide the souls with blood, slaughtered one of the cattle of Hades. Menoetes, who tended the cattle, challenged Heracles to wrestle and had his ribs broken, but was let off at the request of Persephone (Library 2.5.12). In the Epitome of the Library (1.24) the two had been tricked by Hades into sitting on the Chair of Forgetfulness, to which they grew fast and were held by coils of serpents.

When Heracles asked Pluto (Hades) for Cerberus, Pluto told him to take the animal provided he mastered him without the weapons he carried. Heracles found him at the gates of Acheron, and, wearing his cuirass and covered by the lion's skin, flung his arms round the head of the beast; though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his grip until the dog yielded. He carried Cerberus off and ascended through Troezen. After showing the dog to Eurystheus, he carried him back to Hades (Library 2.5.12).

After the Twelve Labours

Heracles' service to Eurystheus was now over. His later life, including his expedition to Troy, the war against Augeas, his marriage to Deianira and his death by the robe of Nessus, is told in the Library (2.6–2.7) and on the page of Heracles; some ancient sources also place him among the Argonauts for the early part of the voyage (Apollonius, Argonautica 1.122–132).

Labours of Heracles Sources

The main source for the order and details of the labours is Apollodorus' Library (2.4.12, 2.5.1–2.5.12, 2.7.2, 2.7.6) and his Epitome (1.5, 1.24). Further sources are Hesiod's Theogony (287–294, 311–318, 326–332, 979–983), Pindar (Olympian 3.26–32, Olympian 10), Theocritus (Idyll 25), Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica 1.122–132, 2.966–969, 2.1030–1089), Diodorus Siculus (4.12, 4.15), Pausanias (8.22.4), Pherecydes (quoted by Athenaeus 11.470c), Livy (1.7.3–15), Virgil (Aeneid 8.185–275), Hyginus (Astronomica 2.23), Sophocles' Women of Trachis and Euripides' Heracles.

See Also: Eurystheus, Hera, Megara, Nemean Lion, Zeus, Athena, Lernaean Hydra, Shirt of Nessus, Iolaus, Ceryneian Hind, Artemis, Erymanthian Boar, Chiron, Centaur, Stymphalian Birds, Cretan Bull, Minos, Theseus, Apollo, Diomedes, Abderus, Hippolyta, Ares, Geryon, Orthus, Hesperides, Antaeus, Atlas, Ladon, Cerberus, Hades, Jason, the Argonauts