| The
labours of Hercules
By Priyanwada Ranawaka
The most popular of Greek heroes, Hercules was celebrated in stories,
sculptures, paintings, and even in the geography of the ancient
world. ‘Hercules’ was what the Romans called him and
the Greeks called him ‘Heracles’. Like most heroes,
Heracles had a god as one of his parents. He was the son of the
supreme god Zeus and a mortal woman. Zeus’s queen Hera was
jealous of Heracles, and when he was still an infant she sent two
snakes to kill him in his crib. Heracles was found prattling delighted
baby talk, a strangled serpent in each hand.
By
rights, Hercules should have been king himself, but Hera had tricked
her husband Zeus into crowning Eurystheus instead. To stop him from
becoming a threat, Eurystheus kept Hercules busy by giving him various
tasks to complete, one after the other.
Labour
One: The Nemean Lion
As his first Labour, Heracles was challenged to kill the
Nemean lion. This was no easy feat, for it was more of a monster
than an ordinary lion. Spears or arrows could not penetrate its
skin. Heracles entered its cave and blocked the entrance and throttled
it to death with his bare hands. Ever afterwards he wore the lion’s
skin as a cloak and its gaping jaws as a helmet.
Labour
Two: The Hydra
Heracles was to seek out and destroy the monstrous and
many-headed Hydra. The Hydra lived in a big swamp, but those who
saw it had trouble counting its heads. Some said that the Hydra
had eight or nine, while others claimed as many as ten thousand.
All agreed, however, that as soon as one head was beaten down or
chopped off, two more grew in its place.
To
make matters worse, the Hydra’s very breath was lethal. Even
smelling its footprints was enough to kill an ordinary mortal. Fortunately,
Heracles was no ordinary mortal. He sought out the monster and brought
it out into the open with flaming arrows. The first few minutes,
the fight went in the Hydra’s favour. Heracles was on the
verge of failure when he remembered Iolaus, his nephew.
Iolaus
grabbed a burning torch and as soon as Heracles cut off one of the
Hydra’s heads, Iolaus was there to sear the wounded neck with
flame. This stopped further heads from sprouting. Heracles cut off
the heads one by one, while Iolaus burned the wounds.
Labour
Three: the Cerynitian Hind
The third Labour was the capture of the Cerynitian hind.
Though a female deer, it had golden horns. It was sacred to Artemis,
goddess of the hunt, so nobody dared to wound it. It took Heracles
an entire year to hunt it down with his bow an arrows.
Labour
Four: the Erymanthian Boar
The fourth Labour took Heracles on a quest of an enormous
boar, which he was challenged to bring back alive. Heracles finally
located the boar on top of a mountain. He managed to drive it down
a cliff. Flinging it up onto his shoulder, he carried it back to
Eurystheus.
Labour
Five: The Augean Stables
Eurystheus was very pleased with himself for dreaming
up the next Labour, which he was sure would humiliate his heroic
cousin. Heracles was to clean out the stables of King Augeas in
a single day. Augeas possessed vast herds of cattle, and the stable
hadn’t been cleaned for many many years. Instead of using
a shovel and a basket Heracles diverted two rivers through the stable-yard
and got the job done without getting dirty. But because Heracles
had demanded payment of Augeas, Eurytheus refused to count this
as a Labour.
Labour
Six: The Stymphalian Birds
The sixth Labour pitted Heracles against the Stymphalian
birds, who inhabited a marsh near a lake. Heracles could not approach
the birds to fight them because the ground was too swampy to bear
his weight and too mucky to wade through. Finally he resorted to
some castanets given to him by the goddess Athena. By making a racket
with these, he caused the birds to take wing. And once they were
in the air, he brought them down by the dozens with his arrows.
Labour
Seven: the Cretan Bull
Heracles had to fight the Minotaur; a monster half-man
and half-bull that haunted the Labyrinth of King Minos. Although
the beast belched flames, the hero overpowered it and shipped it
back to the mainland. It ended up near Athens, where it became the
duty of another hero, Theses, to deal with it once more.
Labour
Eight: the Mares of Diomedes
Next Heracles was instructed to bring Eurystheus the mares
of Diomedes. These horses dined on the flesh of travellers who made
the mistake of accepting Diomedes’ hospitality. Heracles pacified
the beasts by feeding them their own master. Heracles soon herded
them down to sea, and shipped them to Eurystheus.
Labour
Nine: Hippolyte’s Belt
The ninth Labour took Heracles to the land of the Amazons,
to retrieve the belt of their queen for Eurystheus’ daughter.
The Amazons were a race of warrior women. Heracles recruited a number
of heroes to accompany him on this expedition. As it turned out,
the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, willingly gave Hercules her belt.
Labour
Ten: the Cattle of Geryon
Geryon was the owner of some famous cattle that Heracles
was now instructed to steal. The animals had three heads and three
separate bodies from the waist down. His watchdog, Orthrus, had
only two heads. This labour took place somewhere in the country
we know as Spain. The hound Orthrus rushed at Heracles as he was
hurrying off with the cattle, and the hero killed him with a single
blow from the wooden club. Geryon was dispatched as well, and Heracles
drove the herd back to Greece. |
