By: Ryan Miske

 Hercules was born in Thebes.  His parents were Zeus and Alcmena.  Zeus took the form of Alcmena’s husband Amphitryon.

 The difference between he and his brother Iphicles was significant even at young age.  His courage was shown even at a young age  When he was first born and was lying in his crib two large snakes came into his room and his killed them protecting him and his brother.

 Hera didn’t get mad at Zeus for his affair instead she was angry with Hercules.  When he was older and was married with his three children she made him go mad and murder them.  He couldn’t remember what he had done, but he spent most of his life trying to redeem himself for his mistakes.

 He consulted an oracle as to what he should do to gave forgiveness.  The oracle told him to go to Eurystheus, King of Mycenae and become his slave.  The King assigned him twelve labors which had to complete.

 His first task was to kill Nemea, a lion which couldn’t be harmed through weapons. To solve this Hercules choked the lion.  His second task was to kill the hydra which was a creature that had nine heads. When he cut one of another would grow back, so when he cut one off he seared the neck.  His third labor was to capture a stag with horns of gold.  His fourth labor was to capture a great boar which lived on Mount Erymanthus.

 His fifth labor was to clean the Augean stables in a single day.  The sixth labor was to kill the Stymphalian birds which would plague the people.  The seventh labor was to capture a savage bull that Poseidon had given to Minos.  The eighth labor was to remove man-eating mares.

 The ninth labor was to get the girdle of Hoppolyta from the Amazons.  The tenth task was the bring back the cattle of Geryon to Mycenae.  The eleventh task was to bring back the Golden Apples of Hesperides, who was the son of Atlas. Hercules couldn’t find him so he went to Atlas to ask were Hesperides was. Hercules held the earth while Atlas brought back the apples and he tricked Atlas into bearing the weight of the world again.  The twelfth and final labor was to bring back the Cerberus from Hades, a three headed dog.

 After he completed his tasks he didn’t feel as though he was forgiven for the murder of his wife and children.  He continued to go on other adventures after this.  He wished to die because he could never feel rest and felt that he would never die. So he asked the people to build a great pyre around him and asked his follower Philoctetes to set the wood on fire.