The Myth of Heracles From Zero to Hero

Heracles = Greek name Hercules = Roman name -He is one of the most famous heroes of all time, and has been portrayed in numerous movies, TV shows, and other mediums.

The Birth of a Hero Zeus wanted a strong mortal son, so he disguised himself in order to seduce and impregnate the loyal woman, Alcmene. She would never cheat on her husband Amphitryon, so Zeus sent him away, and changed his appearance to look like her absent husband. When the real Amphitryon returned after three days, she was naturally confused because she had “been with him” during that time. Of course, Hera was angry with Zeus for cheating on her yet again, so she tried her hardest to prevent his birth by having her daughter Eileithya to sit at the threshold of Alcmene’s birthing room with her legs and fingers crossed. This worked in delaying her labor until a Theban matron told Eileithya that she could rejoice since the baby was born. Eileithya jumped up in surprise and as soon as her legs were uncrossed, the infant demigod (half man/half god) Heracles was born.

Heracles’ Youth Hera made a deal that in order to fulfill Zeus’ prophecy that Heracles would be granted immortality, he would have to perform ten labors. Still enraged, Hera tried to kill the young child and his brother Iphicles by sending two venomous serpents to kill the young boys in their nursery. However, eight-month-old Heracles grabbed both snakes and strangled them to death. Heracles grew up and learned the important skills necessary in order to become a great hero: archery, driving a chariot, wrestling, sword fighting, etc. During a music lesson, he became furious with his teacher Linus and struck him with a lyre. Not knowing his own strength, he accidentally killed the man.

Heracles’ Youth Cont. He eventually married a woman named Megara, daughter of King Creon, and started a family. He didn’t like the idea of serving King Eurystheus who held on to the promise that Heracles would complete any ten labors he asked of him. When Heracles refused, Hera infected him with a temporary insanity and caused him to think that his children were enemies and he brutally murdered them. He was so upset when he came to his senses and realized what had happened that he finally approached King Eurystheus to begin his ten labors.

Labor 1: The Nemean Lion For his first labor, King Eurystheus ordered Heracles to kill the Lion of Nemea. This was a huge, monstrous lion with invincible skin. Since Heracles’ arrows and sword could not pierce its hide, he strangled it with his great strength. After killing the lion he wore the skin as a cloak on the rest of his journeys. He was able to cut the skin off the animal by using its own claws to remove it. When Heracles returned to King Eurystheus to learn of his second labor, the king was so frightened by the lion that he hid in a jar.

Labor 2: The Hydra of Lerna Depending on which version of the myth you read, the hydra is a nine-headed (or many headed) dragon monster with poisonous blood. Only one of the heads is mortal though, and every time one head is cut off, two (or more) heads grow back in its place, so it is very hard to kill. Heracles needed help to complete this task, so his nephew Iaolüs brought a torch and seared the stumps every time Heracles cut off a head so that more couldn’t grow back. With these wounds now cauterized, Heracles could finally work on fighting the monster and cut off its mortal head killing it. Once the creature was dead, Heracles dipped his arrow heads into the blood so thereafter he had poison arrows to use in the rest of his labors. When King Eurystheus heard that he had help from his nephew, he claimed that that labor didn’t count, so one more labor must be completed.

Labor 3: The Cerynitian Hind So far, Heracles has proven that he can kill horrible monsters, so now Eurystheus demands that he capture the sacred deer of Artemis. This is a doe with golden horns (reindeer) that belongs to the goddess of the hunt. If Heracles harms this animal, then Artemis will punish him. He had to track and chase the animal down for a whole year before he finally was able to capture it. When Artemis and her brother Apollo saw Heracles carrying this sacred creature, he had to prove to them that it was still alive and that the king demanded it of him. Once he did, he released the animal back after proving he completed it.

Labor 4: The Erymanthian Boar In Arcadia, there was a huge boar that was ravaging fields, orchards, and farms. The king wanted Heracles to bring this boar back alive. On his journey there he had an adventure with the centaurs. These half horse/half men were driven wild and charged at one who opened a sealed jar of wine. Heracles had to subdue them, which was very difficult considering they were exceptionally strong and fierce warriors. The wisest and most trusted centaur Cheiron was wounded in the battle by one of Heracles’ poisoned arrows. In order to ease his pain, he agreed to take Prometheus’ place in his eternal punishment. After this, Heracles finally found the tracks of the wild pig. He knew that he would never be able to catch this amazingly fast animal on its normal terrain. So he chased it all the way up the mountain where the steep cliffs and snow slowed it down until Heracles could catch it, “hog-tie” it, and carried it back down the mountain.

Labor 5: The Augeian Stables After completing his first four labors, Heracles took a break and joined Jason and his crew on the Argo on his quest for the Golden Fleece. King Eurystheus was getting angry that none of these labors so far proved to be that difficult, so his next task was meant to be a demeaning act of humiliating hard labor. King Augeias had stables full of cows and goats and he stopped cleaning up their dung for years. For this task, Heracles was ordered to clean up all the piles of manure within one day without any help. Since this was so humiliating, Heracles demanded to be paid for this if he were to complete it. Heracles combined his great strength with strategy and easily completed this by damming and rerouting two rivers so that they flowed through the stables and washed them clean. Eurystheus was angry because Heracles relatively easily completed this labor without even getting dirty. When he heard that Heracles demanded to be paid, he deemed that this labor also didn’t count and one more (now 12 total) labor would be added.

Labor 6: The Stymphalian Birds These were evil birds that shoot their feathers like arrows and eat human flesh. Their were too many of them to track and fight normally. The creator gods Hephaestus and Athena gave him a gift of castanets/rattles that could make a loud noise. Heracles approached these ravenous birds and made a loud noise with the rattles that frightened them away and he easily shot them with his arrows as they flew away.

Labor 7: The Cretan Bull Heracles had to travel to the island of Crete and capture the Cretan Bull. This was the same bull that was the father of the Minotaur. King Minos was happy to be rid of this animal due to it embarrassing his family by impregnating his queen. Heracles captured it alive and brought it back. After showing it to King Eurystheus, he set it free where it ran from Sparta all the way to Marathon.

Labor 8: The Mares of Diomedes These were vicious horses whose master had trained them to eat human flesh. Heracles was shocked by how cruel this master was, so he subdued and controlled them after he fed the master Diomedes to his horses.

Labor 9: The Belt of Hippolyte Eurystheus and Hera were getting more and more angry as Heracles completed more and more tasks. None of them seemed to be that challenging to the hero. He was ordered to go visit the Amazons—the fierce tribe of warrior women. They hated men, only used them and raised even more huge women. Eurystheus thought that stealing the belt from their queen Hippolyte would be extremely difficult. Heracles approached the queen and asked if she would give him the belt. She said yes without any trouble at all, and Hera was furious that this one proved to be so easy. She disguised herself as an Amazon and claimed that Heracles took the belt by force, and the rest of the tribe attacked him. He had to defend himself as he left with the belt.

Labor 10: The Cattle of Geryon These were red cows that belonged to Geryon, a three-headed king. They were guarded by a cowherd and his two-headed dog. Heracles beat the cowherd and his dog to death. Then he shot each head of Geryon’s heads with his poison arrows. As he was herding these cows back to his ship, he had to defend them from Cacus-a monster who spewed fire and smoke from his cave.

Labor 11: The Golden Apples of the Hesperides These sacred apples were guarded by a hundred-headed dragon, Ladon, in a sacred garden. Heracles could not find the location of this sacred garden, so he went to the titan Atlas—who was still being punished by holding up the world/heavens on his shoulders. Atlas would not tell of the location, but agreed to go fetch the apples if Heracles would take over the weight while he was gone. He agreed and Atlas handed over the immense weight. Atlas brought the apples back and realized that with Heracles holding it up, he could finally be free from this punishment. Heracles had to think fast and thought of a plan. He asked Atlas to take the weight back for a bit while Heracles placed a pad/cushion on his shoulders to help him support it. Atlas stupidly agreed, and Heracles took off with the apples.

Labor 12: The Delivery of Cerberus For his final labor, Heracles was ordered to go to the Underworld and bring back Hades’ three-headed guard dog Cerberus. He could not use any weapons to complete this task and, but luckily, he still wore his invincible lion skin as protection against the fierce creature. If the dog’s heads and/or the row of snake heads along its back tried to bite him, the lion skin would protect him from getting hurt. He completed his final task and was free from the debt he owed King Eurystheus.

After the Labors Now that Heracles was free from his labors, he returned to his wife Megara. He allowed his nephew Iaolüs to marry her and he pursued a new woman Iole, daughter of King Eurytus. After hearing about what happened in Heracles’ first marriage, Eurytus was worried that the disease of “temporary insanity” would return. Heracles agreed to be sold into slavery and serve any wrongdoings that he has done. He encountered many more adventures and helped fight the race of giants with his father Zeus and the other Olympians. He fought the river god Acheloüs, who could shapeshift and tried turning himself into everything from a snake, a dragon, a boar, etc. to defeat Heracles. However, he had fought many of these types of monsters before and had no trouble. He defeated him by breaking off one of his horns and filled it with fruit—inventing the first cornucopia.

After the Labors cont. He married a new woman named Deïaneira and three years later, he accidentally killed a servant when he slapped him for pouring water on his hands. His superhuman strength killed the young man. His wife was tricked by the centaur Nessus who advised her to place a shirt onto him as a love charm. She didn’t realize that the shirt had Hydra blood on it, and when she placed it on him it seeped into his bloodstream causing him intense pain. She felt guilty and hanged herself. He tried to rip the shirt off, but his clung to him and he tore until he starting ripping his own flesh off. He asked to be burned alive on a funeral pyre to put him out of his misery, and the mortal part burned away and the immortal part remained. Hera finally forgave him and allowed him to join the rest of the gods on Mount Olympus.