The cave had two entrances, one of which Heracles blocked he then entered the other. After some time, Heracles made the lion return to his cave. When he found and shot the lion, firing at it with his bow, Heracles discovered the fur's protective property as the arrow bounced harmlessly off the creature's thigh. While searching for the lion, Heracles fletched some arrows to use against it, not knowing that its golden fur was impenetrable. If he did not return within 30 days, it would be sacrificed to the dead Heracles as a mourning offering. Another version claims that he met Molorchos, a shepherd who had lost his son to the lion, saying that if he came back within 30 days, a ram would be sacrificed to Zeus. There he met a boy who said that if Heracles slew the Nemean lion and returned alive within 30 days, the town would sacrifice a lion to Zeus, but if he did not return within 30 days or if he died, the boy would sacrifice himself to Zeus. Heracles wandered in the area until he came to the town of Cleonae. Heracles with the head of the Nemean lion Steal three of the golden apples of the Hesperides.Obtain the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon.Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazon.Clean the Augean stables in a single day.Several of the labours involved the offspring (by various accounts) of Typhon and his mate Echidna, all overcome by Heracles.Ī traditional order of the labours found in the Bibliotheca by Pseudo-Apollodorus is: Although he was supposed to perform only ten labours, this assistance led to two labours being disqualified: Eurystheus refused to recognize slaying the Hydra, because Iolaus helped him, and the cleansing of the Augean stables, because Heracles was paid for his services and/or because the rivers did the work.
In his labours, Heracles was sometimes accompanied by a male companion (an eromenos), according to Licymnius and others, such as Iolaus, his nephew. In each case, the pattern was the same: Heracles was sent to kill or subdue, or to fetch back for Eurystheus (as Hera's representative) a magical animal or plant.Ī famous depiction of the labours in Greek sculpture is found on the metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, which date to the 460s BCE. Six others took the hero farther afield, to places that were, per Ruck, "all previously strongholds of Hera or the 'Goddess' and were Entrances to the Netherworld". Ruck and Staples assert that there is no one way to interpret the labours, but that six were located in the Peloponnese, culminating with the rededication of Olympia. Heracles's first six labours were located in the Peloponnese.Īs they survive, the labours of Heracles are not recounted in any single place, but must be reassembled from many sources. Heracles accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus refused to recognize two: the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra, as Heracles' nephew and charioteer Iolaus had helped him and the cleansing of the Augean stables, because Heracles accepted payment for the labour or in some versions of this story it was the Stymphalian Birds that was discounted instead of the Augean stables for the help of Athena giving him bronze rattles.Įurystheus set two more tasks (fetching the Golden Apples of Hesperides and capturing Cerberus), which Heracles also performed, bringing the total number of tasks to twelve. Eventually, he placed himself at Eurystheus's disposal.Įurystheus originally ordered Heracles to perform ten labours.
Heracles despaired at this, loathing to serve a man whom he knew to be far inferior to himself, yet fearing to oppose his father Zeus. Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, advised him to go to Tiryns and serve his cousin, King Eurystheus, for ten years, performing whatever labours Eurystheus might set him in return, he would be rewarded with immortality. Although, according to Euripides in Herakles, it was not until after Heracles had completed his labours and on his return from the Underworld that he murdered Megara and his children.Īfter recovering his sanity, Heracles deeply regretted his actions he was purified by King Thespius, then traveled to Delphi to inquire how he could atone for his actions.
The Heracles Papyrus, a fragment of a 3rd-century Greek manuscript of a poem about the Labours of Heracles ( Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2331)ĭriven mad by Hera (queen of the gods), Heracles slew his sons and his wife, Megara.
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