Idiom : Labours of Hercules Group : 8 Members:213 22 林宏宇 213 23 林義修(evaluator) 213 24 洪德瑋(presenter) 213 25 胡庭愷

Definition : * The thing that is difficult to deal with *The troublesome work

Example sentence : No one wants to take the labours of Hercules ordered by our teacher. However, it is always a way to train ourselves to grow up despite their hardship.

The story of Hercules Driven mad by Hera, Hercules killed his wife and six sons. After recovering his sanity, Hercules asked for Apollo’s help. There his oracle Pythoness advised him to reside at Tyrins and served King Eurystheus for twelve years and performed whatever labour might beset him; in return, he would be rewarded with immortality. We here only presented you three of the 12 labors due to the time limit.

The first labour : Slay the Nemean lion According to the myth, the Nemean lion would kill the warriors who wanted to rescue the hostaged women in a cave. Hercules wandered to a town named Cleonae. There a boy told Hercules his first labour to kill the Nemean lion and returned alive within 30 days, and the town would sacrifice a lion to Zeus, but if he did not return within 30 days or he died, the boy would sacrifice himself to Zeus. However, Hercules found that the lion’s golden fur was impenetrable after several trials. After some time, Hercules made the lion return to its cave. In those dark and close quarters, Hercules stunned the beast with his club and, using his immense strength, strangled it to death. After slaying the lion, he skinned the lion’s fur with one of its own claws and put it on so that he could prevent from any weapons.

The second labours : Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra After slaying the Nemean lion , Eurystheus sent Hercules to slay a nine-headed monster, the Hydra, whose weakness was that only one of its heads was immortal. Brave and wise Hercules accomplished the labour by cutting off the immortal head with a golden sword given to him by Athena. After that, Hercules placed the head under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius, and dipped his arrows in the Hydra‘s poisonous blood.

The third labour : Capture the Golden hind of Artemis Hercules and the Ceryneian Hind, 19th-century painting by Adolf Schmidtin its architectural setting

The fourth labour : Capture the Ermanthian Boar Heracles and the hind, with Athenaand Artemis looking on (Attic amphora, 540–530 BCE)

The fifth labour : Clean the Augean stables in a single day Hercules presenting the boar to the cowering Eurystheus (black-figureamphora, ca. 510 BC)

The sixth labour : Slay the Stymphalian Birds After cleaning the Augean Stables, Eurystheus sent Hercules to defeat the Stymphalian Birds, man-eating birds with beaks of bronze, sharp metallic feathers and highly toxic dung. They had migrated to Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia, where they bred quickly and took over the countryside. Hercules could not go too far into the swamp, for it would not support his weight. Athena hence gave him a rattle which Hephaestus had made especially for the occasion. Hercules shook the rattle and frightened the birds into the air. Hercules then shot many of them with his arrows. The rest flew far away, never to return.

The seventh labour : Capture the Cretan Bull Hercules and the Stymphalian birds (mosaic from Roman Spain, 201–250 CE)

The eighth labour : Steal the Mares of Diomedes Hercules and the Mares of Diomedes, model for a tondo of theBrandenburg Gate (terracotta relief by Johann Gottfried Schadow, ca. 1790)

The ninth labour: Belt of Hippolyta Hercules obtaining the belt of Hippolyta, by J.M. Félix Magdalena (b. 1941)

The tenth labour : Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon To annoy Hercules, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. The hero was within a year able to retrieve them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the level of a river so much, Heracles could not cross with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera.

The eleventh labour : Steal the apples of the Hesperides Hercules stealing the apples of the Hesperides (mosaic from Roman Spain, 3rd century CE)

The twelfth labour : Capture and bring back Cerberus Hercules capturing Cerberus (1545), by Sebald Beham From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labours_of_Hercules#Ninth_Labour:_Belt_of_Hippolyta