The Twelve Labors of Hercules:

The King assigns Hercules twelve labors: the first four are the Beastly chores.

Hercules and King Eurystheus at Tiryns.

1. Hercules battles the Nemean Lion, a beast that could not be wounded by any weapon except the human hand. He chokes the beast in his arms and clothed himself with its skin. He used the beast’s own claws to skin the hide from the body.

Hercules wearing a Lion's Skin: Attic Amphora, ca. 525-500 B.C.

2. The Hydra, a poisonous snake with numerous heads, each one growing back when it is cut off. Some affirm that the Hydra had a huge body with nine heads, eight of which were mortal, the middle one being immortal. Yet Hercules cuts off the heads and sears the stumps. Hercules dips his arrows into the Hydra’s blood, which makes the wounds incurable. He also kills the crab that hangs out with Hydra.

Hercules and the Hydra

3. The Boar: Hercules was to catch a live boar. The Centaurs, lured to a cave by the smell of wine, get drunk and attack Hercules. He defends himself with the poisonous arrows.

4. Hercules captures the Hind. This beautiful animal could neither be killed nor wounded, because it is sacred to Artemis. That is why Heracles uses sagacity instead of strength and captured it by the use of nets, although others have said that he caught it asleep whereas still others affirm that he wore it out by running it down.

EVEN MORE BEASTLY CHORES

5. The crane-sized Stymphalian birds had claws, beaks, and wings of bronze. These birds use their wings as weapons, killing men and beasts. According to some, these birds were not regular birds, but men-eating birds. Hercules shots them with his arrows and scares the rest away with a pair of bronze castanets forged by Hephaetus.

6. Hercules is to clean the stables of the cattle of Helios; these stables had never been cleaned before. He diverts the river Alpheus so that it flows through the yard and cleans the dung off the land in a single day.

7. The Cretan Bull breaths fire. Hercules catches it alive and brings it back to show the gods.

8. The Horses of Diomedes were fed on human flesh. Hercules kills Diomedes and feeds his body to his horses, whereupon they became tame and Hercules brings them to Argos.

Diomedes Devoured by his Horses

THE FAR CORNERS OF THE EARTH

9. HERCULES is dispatched to the ends of the earth. The Queen of the Amazons: she owns a belt (Girdle) used to carry a sword and Hercules must procure it. With war stirred up Hercules strips the girdle from the dead body from the Queen.

10. The Cattle of Greyton: Hercules travels to the extreme West. The sun god so admires Hercules boldness, he gives him a golden cup.

11. The daughters of the night: apples given by Gaia to Hera as a wedding present, kept in a garden at the end of the world. Hercules who had to bring back the apples, had difficulty finding his way and forced Nereus--the sea god, father of sea =-maidens--to give him directions to the garden. Hercules kills the dragon guarding the apples and carries them off.

12. the descent into the underworld: Hercules last labour. He frees Theseus and wounds Hades. He captures the dog Cerberus and takes him to the King who later asks Hercules to later return Cerberus to the underworld.

What is generally regarded as the 13th Labor of Hercules? King Thespia resolves that each of his fifty daughtrers will have a child by Hercules. In a single night Hercules impregnates 49 out of the 50 daughters. This marathon love-making is regarded, by many, as his greatest feat.