Idiom : labours of Hercules  Group: 8  Members: 陳昱安 曾柏鈞 (evaluator) 楊昀笙 楊祐宸 (presenter)

 Definition : Cost of great efforts to work  Example Sentence: After performing our labours of Hercules assigned by Joanne, we have been totally exhausted.

Script of the story  Hera, Queen of gods, was very jealous of Hercules because he was the son of Jupiter and a mortal. Determined to make trouble for Hercules, Hera made him lose his mind. In a confused and angry state, he killed his own wife and six sons.  When he awakened from his "temporary insanity," Hercules was shocked and upset by what he'd done. He prayed to the god Apollo for guidance, and the god's oracle told him he would have to serve Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae, for twelve years, in punishment for the murders.

 As part of his sentence, Hercules had to perform twelve Labors. Those missions were so difficult that they seemed impossible to accomplish. Fortunately, Hercules had the help of Hermes and Athena, sympathetic deities who showed up when he really needed help. By the end of these Labors, Hercules was, without a doubt, the greatest hero in Greece.  After experiencing virtuous struggle and suffering, Hercules won a great fame and gained immortality.

Twelve Labors of Hercules  The first of Hercules‘ twelve labours, set by his cousin King Eurystheus, was to kill the Nemean lionHercules Eurystheus  2nd Labour: Lernaen hydra  3rd Labour: Ceryneian Hind  4th Labour: Erymanthian Boar  5th Labour: Augean stables  6th Labour: Stymphalian Birds

 7th Labour: Cretan Bull  8th Labour: Mares of Diomedes  9th Labour - Hippolyte's Girdle  10th Labour - The Cattle of Geryon  11th Labour - the Apples of the Hersperides  12th Labour - the Capture of Cerberus

1 st Labor 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. lvelabors/ig/12-Labors-of- Hercules/Hercules-and-the-Nemean- Lion.--1R.htm

2 nd Labor 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.immortal the-Lernean-Hydra.htm

As a third labour he ordered him to bring the Cerynitian hind alive to Mycenae. Now the hind was at Oenoe; it had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis; so wishing neither to kill nor wound it; Hercules hunted it a whole year. But when, weary with the chase, the beast took refuge on the mountain called Artemisius, and thence passed to the river Ladon, Hercules shot it just as it was about to cross the stream, and catching it put it on his shoulders and hastened through Arcadia. But Artemis with Apollo met him, and would have wrested the hind from him, and rebuked him for attempting to kill her sacred animal. Howbeit, by pleading necessity and laying the blame on Eurystheus, he appeased the anger of the goddess and carried the beast live to Mycenae. 3rd Labor /12-Labors-of-Hercules/Hercules---Cerynitian- Hind.htm

As a fourth labour he ordered him to bring the Erymanthian Boar alive; now that animal ravaged Psophis, sallying from a mountain which they call Erymanthus. 4th Labor aW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Ftw.image.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DErymanthian%2BBoar%26n%3D30% 26ei%3Dutf- 8%26vm%3Dr%26y%3D%25E6%2590%259C%25E5%25B0%258B%26fr%3Dyfp%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D26&w=1984&h=14 88&imgurl= F%2Fdeadhead16mb.deviantart.com%2Fart%2FThe-Erymanthian-Boar &size=713.2+KB&name=The+%3Cb%3EErymanthian+Boar%3C%2Fb%3E+by+%7Edeadhead16mb+on+deviantART&p =Erymanthian+Boar&oid=3a838149b25983f105f359b9559e6486&fr2=&fr=yfp&tt=The%2B%253Cb%253EErymanthian%2BBoar%2 53C%252Fb%253E%2Bby%2B%257Edeadhead16mb%2Bon%2BdeviantART&b=0&ni=128&no=26&ts=&vm=r&tab=organic&sigr= 124g1gf31&sigb=142jn447r&sigi=12dsasrdr&.crumb=.5F9YDIH17q

The fifth labour he laid on him was to carry out the dung of the cattle of Augeas in a single day. 5th Labor Hercules/Hercules-and-the-Augean-Stable.--1a.htm

In the course of the 6th labor, the chasing away of the Stymphalian birds, Hercules was at a loss, until that goddess-who-helps-heroes, Athena, came to his assistance. 6 th Labor Hercules/Hercules---Stymphalian-Birds.--1d.htm

With the seventh labor, Hercules leaves the area of the Peloponnese to travel to the far corners of the earth and beyond. Their offspring was the minotaur, the half-bull, half-man creature who yearly ate the Athenian tribute of fourteen young men and women. Hercules/Hercules---the-Cretan-Bull.htm 7th Labor

In the eighth labor Hercules, with a few companions, heads to the Danube, to the land of the Bistones in Thrace. 8th Labor Hercules/Mares-of-Diomedes.htm

Hercules volunteered to rectify the situation and rescue Hermione on condition that Laomedon give him the mares which Zeus had given him to compensate for Ganymede's abduction. 9th Labor Hercules/Hercules---Hippolyte-s-Belt.htm

Hercules was ordered to fetch the red cattle of Geryon, son of Chrysaor by Callirhoe, daughter of Ocean. 10th Labor Hercules/Hercules---Geryon-s-Cattle.htm

Eurystheus set Hercules on the extra task of fetching the golden apples from the Hesperides that had been given to Zeus as a wedding gift 11th Labor Hercules/Hercules---Stymphalian-Birds.htm

Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. 12th Labor Hercules/Hercules-and-Cerberus.htm

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