What were the 12 Labors of Heracles? Heracles was punished for killing his children from being under the evil spell of Hera. For this crime, his was sentenced to perform a series of “Labors”, for his cousin Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae. These tasks were to fight mythical creatures and take objects back to Eurystheus. Hera

Labor One: The Nemean Lion As his first Labor, Heracles was challenged to kill the Nemean lion. This was no easy feat, for the beast's parentage was supernatural and it was more of a monster than an ordinary lion. Its skin could not be broken by spears or arrows. Heracles blocked off the entrances to the lion's cave, crawled into the close confines where it would have to fight face to face and throttled it to death with his bare hands. Ever afterwards he wore the lion's skin as a cloak and its gaping jaws as a helmet.

Labor Two: The Hydra Creature with eight, nine, or more heads. When one is chopped off, two more grew in its place. Hydra’s breath was lethal and smelling its footprints was enough to kill a mortal. The Hydra had an ally, a huge crab. Heracles had an ally, his nephew, Iolaus. Heracles cuts off the heads of the Hydra and Iolaus sears the wounded necks with flames one by one. Heracles cuts off the immortal head and buries it deep beneath a rock.

Labor Three: The Cerynitian Hind The Cerynitian Hind, a female deer with bronze hooves and golden horns. Sacred to Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Heracles dares not wound it!!! But Heracles aims with his bow and arrow and pins the Cerynitian Hind down without drawing blood. Artemis was angry, but Heracles tells her the truth about his labors and dodges her wrath by blaming Eurystheus.

Labor Four: Boar Heracles is challenged to bring back the enormous boar alive. While tracking the boar, Heracles visits his friend Pholus, a centaur (half-horse, half-man). Sadly, Pholus accidently drops one of Heracles’ arrows on his foot, which in turn kills him because it had been soaked in poisonous Hydra venom. Heracles locates the boar and drives it into a snowbank, immobilizing it. He flings it on his shoulder and carries it back to Eurystheus.

Labor Five: The Augean Sta bles Eurystheus dreams up the next labor to humiliate his heroic cousin. Heracles is to clean out the stables of King Augeas in a single day. Eurystheus believed Heracles would use a shovel and a basket, instead he diverted two rivers through the stable yard and got the job done without getting dirty. Pretty smart, don’t you think?? But because he had demanded payment of Augeas, Eurystheus refused to count this as a labor---but we do.

The sources differ as to whether these birds feasted on human flesh, killed men by shooting them with feathers of brass or merely constituted a nuisance because of their number. Heracles could not approach the birds to fight them—ground was too swampy. He resorted to castanets given to him by the goddess Athena. The noise caused the birds to take flight. Once in the air, he brought them down by the dozens with his arrows. Labor Six: The Stymphalian Birds

Labor Seven: The Cretan Bull Queen Pasiphae of Crete had been inspired by a vengeful god to fall in love with a bull, with the result that the Minotaur was born—a monster half-man and half-bull that haunted the Labyrinth of King Minos. The queen’s husband wanted to get rid of the bull, which was ravaging the countryside, so Heracles was assigned the task of removal. Although the beast belched flames, the hero overpowered it and shipped it back to the mainland. It ended up near Athens, where it became the duty of another hero, Theseus, to deal with it once more.

Labor Eight: The Mares of Diomedes The mares of Diomedes dined on the flesh of travellers who made the mistake of accepting Diomedes’ hospitality. In one version, Heracles pacified the beasts by feeding them their own master. In another, they satisfied their appetites on the hero’s squire. In any case, Heracles rounded them up and herded them down to sea, where he shipped them off for Tiryns. After showing them to Eurystheus, he released them. They were eventually eaten by wild animals on Mt. Olympus.

Labor Nine: Hippolyte’s Belt The Amazons were a race of warrior women, great archers who had invented the art of fighting from horseback. Heracles was to retrieve the belt of their queen for Eurystheus’s daughter. As it turned out, the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, willingly gave Hercules her belt, but Hera was not about to let the hero off so easily. The goddess stirred up the Amazons with a rumor that the Greeks had captured the queen, and a great battle ensued. Heracles made off with the belt.

Labor Ten: The Cattle of Geryon Geryon, the owner of some famous cattle that Heracles was now instructed to steal, had 3 heads and/or 3 separate bodies from the waist down. His watchdog, Orthrus, had only 2 heads. This labor took place somewhere in the country we know as Spain. Orthrus rushed at Heracles as he was making off with the cattle, and the hero killed him with a single blow from the wooden club which he carried. Geryon was dispatched as well, and Heracles drove the cattle herd back to Greece.

Labor Eleven: The Apples of the Hesperides The Hesperides were nymphs entrusted by the goddess Hera with certain apples which she received as a wedding present. These were kept in a grove surrounded by a high wall and guarded by Ladon, a many-headed dragon. The grove was located in the mountains named for Atlas, one of the Titans or the first generation of gods. Atlas, was compelled to support the weight of the Heavens by means of a pillar on his shoulders as punishment for siding against Zeus during the war. Heracles in his quest for the apples was told that he would never get them without the aid of Atlas. Atlas was happy to help. He told Heracles to hold the pillar while he went to retrieve the apples. Atlas returns with the apples. Heracles wonders if Atlas would mind taking back the pillar so he could fetch a cushion for his shoulder. Atlas obliged and Heracles strolled off never to return.

Labor Twelve: The Capture of Cerberus Heracles was instructed to bring Cerberus up from Hades. First challenge—the River Styx. The dead must take the ferryboat of Charon. Charon wouldn’t take anyone across unless they met two conditions. First, they had to pay a bribe in the form of a coin under the corpse’s tongue. Second, they had to be dead. Heracles was neither. Heracles simply glowered so fiercely that Charon took him across the River Styx. The second challenge was Cerberus, who reportedly had razor teeth, three heads, a venomous snake for a tail and another swarm of snakes growing out of his back. Heracles was wearing his trusty lion’s skin, which was impenetrable. He eventually choked Cerberus into submission and dragged him to Tiryns.