Let’s start with the name. You may have noticed that some people write it as “Heracles” and others as “Hercules.” In Greek it’s “Heracles” or even “Herakles” with a “k.” (There’s no “C” in Greek.) But the Romans changed it to “Hercules” because it fit better into Latin word structure conventions. For the purposes of this article we’ll go with the less popular, but more accurate Greek version of his name.

Early Life

Greatest of the Greek heroes, Heracles was born to Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, after Zeus disguised himself as Alcmene’s husband and tripled the length of the night to ensure conception. The pathologically jealous Hera, wife of Zeus, tried to kill the infant in his crib using large serpents, but failed when little Heracles strangled the snakes meant to strangle him.

Heracles’ original name, by the way, was Alcaeus, but later he changed his name to Heracles (“the glory of Hera,”), foreshadowing his jujitsuing Hera’s constant attacks into a growing fame which eclipsed that of all other Greek heroes.

At some point as a young demi-god, Heracles was given the choice described in the Greek parable known as Heracles at the Crossroads. Contemplating his future life, he was visited by two deities and was given a choice between a life of honor, hardship and virtue (by the goddess Arete- Virtue), or one of pleasure and vice (by the goddess Kakia- moral depravity). He chose the harder, more rewarding path of virtue.

Like all of mortals, Heracles suffered pain and setbacks. On the other hand, being a semi-deity, he also made god-sized mistakes in his. He has been described as a “superpowered everyman” who went through serious difficulties and reminded the ancients that even demi-gods have bad days, which endeared them to him.

Raised in the court of his “father,” Amphitryon, Heracles was tutored in wrestling, horseback riding, fencing, archery, chariot driving, music and singing. Unfortunately, forgetting his great strength, he killed his music teacher accidently during the course of an argument. Later, Hera sent a madness upon him, during which he killed his 3 young sons and his wife.

Heracles traveled to Delphi to seek absolution, and was commanded to serve the king of Tiryns, Eurystheus. Hera then put into the mind of Eurystheus to give Heracles 12 impossible tasks. Originally the number was 10, but Eurystheus invalidated two of them and added two more, for a total of 12. Hera figured that one of these Labors would kill Heracles.

The 12 Labors

One: The Nemean Lion

The first Labor took place in Nemea, south of Corinth. The Nemean lion was a mythical beast with golden, weapon-proof fur, and claws that could slice through armor. Hera is supposed to have raised it, and sent it to terrorize the Nemean countryside, knowing it would eventually cause problems for Heracles. Historically, excavated lion remains have been found all over southern Greece and have been mentioned by at least 5 ancient Greek writers. Learning that his arrows just bounced off the lion’s hide, Heracles stopped up one of two entrances to the Nemean lion’s cave, marched in, wrestled the lion into a chokehold, and killed it. He then skinned it and wore the skin and head as a sort of protective uniform in subsequent Labors.

Two: The Lernaean Hydra

The slaying of the Hydra took place in the swamps of Lerna, just south of Argos in the Peloponnese. The Hydra was a multi-headed creature with a central, immortal head. It was created by Hera specifically to kill Heracles. Heracles gamely fought the Hydra, but quickly saw that each time he cut a head off, two more would replace it. He was also attacked by a giant crab, which he killed. He asked for advice from his squire and traveling companion, Iolaus, who suggested that as Heracles cut off one head, Iolaus would cauterize the stump. In this way Heracles successfully killed the Hydra, dipping his arrows into its poisonous blood. Because he had help in this Labor, king Eurystheus added an 11th Labor to the list.

Three: The Ceryneaian Hind

Unhappy with Heracles’ success to this point, Hera inspired another impossible task: to capture the Hind of Cerynea, Peloponnese, an enormous deer antlers of gold and brass hooves which could run faster than any arrow. Heracles chased the hind for a year throughout Greece, Thrace in the north, Istria in modern Croatia, and to the land of the Hyperboreans (“beyond the north”), where he threw a net over it as it slept. The hind was sacred to Artemis, the huntress, and on his return to Tiryns, Heracles was braced by Artemis, from whom he asked forgiveness, promising to return the hind to the wild after presenting it to king Eurystheus. He then tricked the king into coming out and taking possession of the hind on his arrival at Tiryns. As soon as Heracles let it go, it ran off, angering the king, but satisfying Artemis.

Four: The Erymanthian Boar

Unhappy with the loss of the Ceryneaian Hind, king Eurystheus assigned another impossible task to Heracles: capture alive the massive boar of Mt. Erymanthos, northern Peloponnese, who would harass the locals. Heracles accomplished this by shouting and chasing the boar to exhaustion to the snowy peak of the mountain, where, completely spent, it collapsed. There is a lengthy subplot to this story involving Pholus, a centaur who lived on Mt. Erymanthos, Heracles’ poison arrows, and the slaying of the eagle who daily ate the liver of Prometheus (punishment for giving fire to men), but it’s not germane to this story. Heracles carried the boar back to king Eurystheus, who was terrified of the beast and ducked his head inside a large water vessel.

Five: The Augean Stables

King Augeas owned a thousand immortal cattle. Their stables hadn’t been mucked out in 30 years.

Heracles offered to clean them in a day if the king would give him a tenth of his herd in return. King Augeas agreed. Heracles went to work re-routing two rivers to flow through the stables, thus demonstrating the power of moving water. King Augeas turned out to be a sore loser, and refused to pay, explaining that King Eurystheus had commanded the cleansing anyway. His son, Phyleus, disagreed. Heracles’ solution to this was simple: he killed the king, and handed the throne to Phyleus. King Eurystheus disqualified this Labor of two grounds: the rivers did all the work, and Heracles had been paid for his labor. The king decreed that Heracles had an additional 7 Labors to perform.

Six: The Stymphalian Birds

Lake Stymphalia, Arcadia, was home to these terrifying man-eating creatures with bronze beaks, toxic dung, and metallic feathers that could be launched as weapons. The birds were sacred to Ares, god of war, and would also be encountered by the Argonauts. Heracles’ task was to drive them away, as they were terrorizing the countryside and ruining local crops. He couldn’t get at them, however, because they lived in an impassable swamp. Athena came to his rescue, providing him with a rattle, which startled the birds. As they took flight, Heracles shot many of them with arrows, while the survivors flew away an never returned.

Seven: The Cretan Bull

In this first of the Labors outside of the Peloponnese, Heracles was tasked with the capture of Cretan Bull, who had fathered the Minotaur with the wife of Crete’s King Minos. Heracles sailed there, where Minos was glad to get rid of the bull, since it had been ravaging the countryside. Heracles captured the bull, brought it back to the mainland and presented it to King Eurystheus. The bull later escaped and wandered up to Marathon, future site of Athen’s greatest military victory. As a side note, Theseus, second greatest Greek hero, caught the bull in Marathon and penned it up in Athens, where it broke free during games held by King Aegeus of Athens. The bull killed Androgeus, son of King Minos, triggering a war with Athens which Minos won. His terms were for Athens to send youths to Crete every 9 years to be devoured by the Minotaur.

Eight: The Mares Of Diomedes (Mares of Thrace)

Heracles was then sent to the north, to Thrace, to steal the giant flesh-eating horses of Thrace’s King Diomedes. Bucephalus, Alexander’s horse, was considered a descendant of these horses. These four mares were fastened to a bronze manger by iron chains. There are three versions of this story, all of which involve the horses eating flesh to calm them down, and all of which have Heracles feeding King Diomedes to his own horses. The pacified horses were then fit with bits and bridles by Heracles and led to Eyrystheus, who dedicated them to Heracles’ nemesis, Hera.

Nine: The Girdle Of Hippolyta

One naturally thinks of a woman’s undergarment here, but a girdle in ancient times was simply a belt, in possession, in this case, of Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons, who lived along the Black Sea (not in the South American rainforest). Setting sail with a group of companions (some versions say they were the Argonauts). Things would have gone swimmingly if it were not for the interference of, surprise surprise, Hera. Heracles convinced Hippolyta to give her his belt, but Hera had infiltrated the Amazons and slandered Heracles, causing the female warriors to saddle up and confront him. Long story short, Heracles, suspecting the plot by Hera, had to kill Queen Hippolyta. He took her belt and presented it to King Eurystheus.

Ten: The Cattle Of Geryon

Geryon was the grandson of Medusa and a nephew of Pegasus the winged horse. He lived on Erytheia, an island in the Hesperides in the far west. This humanoid monster either had three heads and a body, or three bodies and a head. Crossing the desert in Libya, Heracles grew angry with the sun’s heat and shot an arrow at it. Helios, the sun god, admiring Heracles’ gumption, gifted Heracles with the cup Helios used to sail from west to east every night. Heracles landed on Erytheia, dispatched its two-headed watch dog with his olivewood club, with the cattle’s herdsman suffering the same fate, all of which alerted Geryon, who turned out to be sort of one-man army, carrying three shields, three spears, and wearing three helmets. At this point the arrows Heracles had dipped into the poisonous blood of the Hydra during his second Labor came in handy when he shot Geryon through the forehead, killing him. While herding the cattle home. Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, causing them to scatter. It took a year, but Heracles finally re-gathered them, after which Hera flooded a river, making it un-fordable. Heracles raised the riverbed with flat stones, and finally made it to Tiryns, where Eurystheus sacrificed the cattle to, ironically, Hera.

Eleven: The Apples Of The Hesperides

These golden apples were said to convey immortality to those who ate them. King Eurystheus assigned the theft of three of these apples to Heracles. The apples were a wedding gift from Gaia, the earth mother, to Hera upon her marriage to Zeus. They were guarded by the Hesperides, nymphs of the evening. So “Hesperides” were both a paradise to the far west, and the name of these nymphs. Heracles asked for help in this task from Atlas, the Titan who had been condemned to hold up the sky after being on the losing side of the Titanomachy, the battle between the Olympian gods and the Titans. In an ancient version of “hold my beer,” Atlas agreed to help, provided Heracles hold the sky up for him while he retrieved the apples. But then Atlas, after bringing the apples to Heracles, refused to relieve him, offering instead to deliver the apples to King Eurystheus himself. Heracles, suspecting that this would be the last he’d ever see of Atlas, agreed. “But do me a favor,” Heracles said, “take the sky again for just a few minutes while I adjust my cloak and this padding on my shoulders.” Atlas obliged, and that was that. Heracles took the apples Atlas had set down, and headed for Tiryns, where the apples were eventually returned to...you guessed it, Hera, their rightful owner.

Twelve: Cerberus

The last Labor was the capture of Cerberus, the three-headed canine guardian of the Underworld. Heracles traveled to Eleusis where he was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, allowing him to enter the Underworld. Eleusis was where Demeter’s daughter Persephone was captured and wed by Hades. While in the Underworld, Heracles encountered Theseus and his best friend, Pirithous, King of Larissa. The two had been caught by Hades trying to kidnap Persephone and were imprisoned in the Underworld. Heracles liberated Theseus, but Pirithous, who desired Persephone for himself, was condemned to stay in the Underworld forever. Heracles requested to bring Cerberus to the surface. “Sure,” Hades said, “but only if you can subdue him without weapons.” Heracles managed to do this, and brought the beast to King Eurystheus, who once again ducked his head into in a large water vessel to hide. He begged Heracles to take Cerberus back, and promised if he did so he would free him from and further Labors.

Some ancient writers attach allegorical meaning to these Labors. Heraclitus the Grammarian (1st century AD) suggested that the cleansing of the Augean Stables symbolized the filth that fouls human nature, the capture of the Cretan Bull symbolized to taming of human passions, and the capture of the hind of Cerynea represented victory over cowardice in the world. Be that as it may, these are entertaining, rip-roaring adventures of a flawed character with whom we can identify because of those flaws.