eracles, the most famous of all the heroes in Greek mythology, was born in Thebes, the son of Zeus by Alcmene, who was the wife of Amphitryon. While that warrior was busy fighting the Teleboi, Zeus visited Alcemene in the likeness of her husband, the result being that she gave birth to twins, Iphicles by Amphitryon, and Heracles by Zeus. Heracles symbolised physical strength and unflinching courage. He accomplished many marvellous deeds, beginning a few seconds after he was born.

Hera, who hated Heracles even before he was born as she did all the children of Zeus' mortal wives, sent two serpants to destroy both Heracles and Iphicles a few minutes after they first saw light; but Heracles alone strangled them in his crib. As an infant and in his young manhood Heracles studied under some of the finest teachers of his day. Amphitryon, his stepfather, but long regarded as his father, taught him how to drive a chariot. Autolycus (better known as a thief) taught him the art of wrestling. From Eurytus, one of the greatest archers of all time, he learned how to use the bow and arrow. Castor and Pollux taught him horsemanship and the use of millitary weapons, and how to fist fight respectively. Chiron, a centaur, taught him the various branches of science. Rhadamanthus, later to be one of the three judges of the dead in the underworld, taught him wisdom and virtue. From Eumolpus, a son of Poseidon and Chione, he learned the arts of song and music. According to some versions of this tale, it was a wandering minstrel, Linus, a son of Apollo, who taught him to play the lyre. When the master reproved or corrected the pupil, Heracles, forgetting the lessons of the judge, lost his temper and killed Linus with the lyre. Another account makes Apollo kill Linus because he challenged him to a musical contest.

After this display of lack of self control, Amphitryon decided that it was not safe to keep Heracles at home and sent him to Mount Cithaeron to tend his flocks, at which place and in which occupation he remained until he was eighteen. during this period he made what is known as The Choice of Heracles. Two women, Pleasure and Virtue, both tall, dark and beautiful, suddenly appeared before him as he was wondering what course of life to adopt. Pleasure promised him ease and enjoyment; Virtue, hard work and glory. The hero unhesitatingly accepted Virtue's offer. Before returning to his native city, Heracles hunted down and killed the huge hungry lion of Cithaeron that had been destroying the flocks of Amphitryon and of Thespius (or Thestius), the king of Thespiae. As a reward for saving his cattle, Thespius entertained the brave youth royally and offered him his fifty daughters. after slaying the lion, the hero wore its skin as a covering for his body; from the head and mouth he shaped a helmet that he wore on his own head. Having arrived at Thebes, he freed his city of the yearly tribute it had been forced to pay for twenty years to Erginus, the king of Orchomenus in Boeotia - the tribute being in the form of a hundred oxen a year. Heracles, fresh from killing the Cithaeronian lion, met Erginus' ambassadors or their way to collect the animals. Being either ignorant of, or without respect for diplomatic immunity, he cut off their ears and noses, tied their hands behind them, and sent them back to the king. Their report of the treatment accorded them so enraged Erginus that he immediately gathered his forces and marched on thebes, without bothering about the formality of a declaration of war. In the battle that followed, he and hundreds of his men with him were slain by Heracles who, as further punishment, ordered the Orchomenians to pay an annual tribute of two hundred oxen. In this bloody conflict, Heracles lost his stepfather, but gained a wife and many presents from the gods. The Theban king Creon, grateful to Heracles for having cut his taxes, gave him his daughter, Megara, as a wife. Hermes' gift was a sword; from Apollo came a bow and arrows; Hephaestus gave him a bronze club and a gold suit of armour, and Athene presented him with a peplus, a loose outer garment, richly embroidered with battle scenes, deeds of great heroes, historical events, and the images of famous men, to be draped over the cloting and wrapped around the entire body.

The joy and triumph of Heracles did not last long and congratulations and good wishes soon turned to grief and curses, for Hera sent him a fit of madness, under the influence of which he slew his own three children by Megara and two of his brother's children. To punish himself for these terrible deeds, Heracles sent himself into exile. At Delphi, the oracle told him that he had to be purified, and that this could be done only by a terrible penance. the oracle advised him to proceed to his cousin Eurystheus (the son of Nicippe and Stenelus), the king of Mycenae (or Tiryns), and serve hime for twelve years, performing twelve tasks to be imposed by him.

Although physically weak, Eurystheus proved to be a hard task master, capable of imposing on anyone unfortunate enough to be in his power tasks designed to break the heart and spirit of the stoutest hero. The twelve labours that Eurystheus imposed and that Heracles carried out triumphantly are known as The Twelve Labours of Heracles, and can be seen above.

A savage lion, offspring of Typhon, a hundred-headed monster, and Echidna, half-woman and half serpent, lived in Nemea, a valley in Argolis. Eurystheus commanded Heracles to bring him the skin of this ferocious animal. Without a word, the hero hurried away to carry out his instructions. When he found that his club and arrows were of no avail, Heracles strangled the beast with his own hands and returned to town carrying the dead lion on his shoulders. Eurystheus was so frightened at this exhibition of strength that he told Heracles to re-late his deeds to him from a distance, outside the city gates.

The hydra, another child of Typhon and Echidna, was a poisonous water snake living near the well of Amymone, so named after one of the fifty daughters of Danaus. Brought up by Hera, for reasons of her own, it ravaged the district of Lerna, near Argos. Its foul breath was fatal to those who ventured too close, and it had nine heads, the middle one of which was immortal. As soon as Heracles cut off one head with a swipe of his club, two new ones, larger and uglier, grew in its place, which made the struggle difficult and discouraging for the hero. Heracles also had to contend with a huge crab sent by Hera, that kept biting him. He finally overcame the monster, aided by his faithful companion and nephew, Iolaus. As fast as Heracles lopped off the heads, Iolaus burned the stumps with a torch, thus preventing the growth of the duplicate heads. Head number nine—the immortal one—Heracles buried under a huge rock.

This creature, with golden antlers and bronze feet, was sacred to Artemis, having been dedicated to her by Taygete, a nymph and one of the Pleiades, ingratitude for having been rescued from Zeus, who was pursuing her. Heracles was required in this labour to capture the animal and to bring it back alive to Eurystheus at Mycenae. Heracles chased the stag in vain for a whole year before wounding it with one of his arrows. While carrying it to Eurystheus, he met Artemis, who was enraged at him for wounding an animal sacred to her, but when he explained the situation to her and convinced her that he was not exactly a free agent, she forgave him and allowed him to continue his journey.

The terms of this exploit are similar to those connected with the Arcadian stag. Heracles, commanded to take the boar alive and to bring it to Mycenae, chased it through deep snows, exhausted it, and then caught it in a net. The sight of the animal threw Eurystheus into such a fit of fear that he hid himself in a tub under the ground and repeated, with much more emphasis, his definite instructions to Heracles that in the future he should exhibit the proofs of his prowess outside the city gates.

The fifth labour was not as dangerous perhaps as the first four tasks, but it had its own difficulties. Eurystheus ordered Heracles to do a thorough cleaning job— In one day —of the stables of Ageus, king of the Epeans in Elis. In order fully to realise the unpleasant nature of this task, one must bear in mind the fact that Augeas had three thousand oxen and that the stables had not been cleaned for thirty years. Heracles carried out his part of the performance by turning the Rivers Alpheus and Pencus into the stable yards and stalls. Both Augeas and Eurystheus cheated Heracles in connection with this assignment. Augeas had promised Heracles that he would give him three hundred oxen as a reward for cleaning his stables, but refused to abide by the agreement—made in the presence of his son, Phyleus—on the ground’s that Heracles was under obligation to Eurystheus; while that tricky task-master, always looking for a chance to discount one of Heracles' labours, so that another might be added, used the same argument in reverse, claiming that Heracles had disqualified himself by entering into negotiations secretly with Augeas. For testifying against him, that is, for telling the truth, Phyleus was banished by his father. Heracles later invaded Augeas' kingdom and killed him and all his other sons.

These creatures lived near Lake Stymphalis in Arcadia. Reared by Ares, they were man-eating monsters, always hungry, with brass beaks, wings, and claws, and with feathers that served as arrows which they shot out on the slightest provocation, or without any provocation at all. Heracles' task was either to kill them or drive them from their nests. By means of a brass rattle—Athene's gift—he frightened the birds and shot them with his own arrows as they flew away.

As in the cases of the stag and the boar, Heracles was instructed to bring the bull back alive. Minos, king of Crete, and son of Zeus and Europa, asked Poseidon to send him a bull for sacrificial purposes. The god of the sea responded by causing a beautiful snow-white bull to rise from the waves. Minos, attracted by the beauty of the animal, decided to keep it for his own herd and substituted another in its place. Poseidon punished him for trying to fool a god by driving the bull mad and by causing Minos' wife, Pasiphae, to fall in love with the brute and bear him a son, the monstrous Minotaur. Heracles bested the bull, threw him over his shoulders, and carried him home to Mycenae, where he set him free. The bull enjoyed a brief spell of liberty, wandering through Greece and devastating the country until it met its end in Marathon, where it was killed by the hero Theseus.

Diomedes, son of Ares and Cyrene, and king of the Bistones in Thrace, had a stable of mares to which he fed human flesh. Heracles captured the horses without much difficulty and was taking them to Mycenae when Diomedes and his Thracian followers attacked him. During the fight that followed, Heracles, unable to defend himself and look after the animals at the same time, turned them over to the care of his friend, Abderus, but the wild beasts tore him to pieces and ate him. Heracles defeated the Bistones, killed the king and threw his body to the mares, which immediately became tame after eating their master's flesh. They were now easy to manage and Heracles had no difficulty in bringing them to Eurystheus, who set them free. They were soon destroyed on Mount Olympus by beasts which were as wild as they had once been.

Hippolyte, daughter of Ares and Otrera, was queen of the Amazons, a race of heroic women, whose name comes from the fact that they cut off their right breasts so that they might the better draw their bows (a—without, mazos-breast). Hippolyte had a girdle, her father's gift and a symbol of her power, that Admete, daughter of Eurystheus, was eager to own. In order to please her—and without involving himself in any way—Eurystheus ordered Heracles to fetch it. After travelling through Europe and Asia, Heracles filially arrived at the court of the Amazonian queen, probably with no very clear idea of how he was going to carry out his delicate mission. To his great surprise and relief, Hippolyte received him with signs of friendship and told him that she would be only too glad to let him have the girdle for the asking. But this pleasant solution did not fall in with Hera's plans. The goddess spread a false report among the Amazons that Heracles was carrying off their queen. They rushed to defend her, and Heracles, thinking that Hippolyte had played him false, slew her. On the way back to Mycenae, Heracles stopped at Troy and saved the life of Hesione by rescuing her from the sea monster sent by Poseidon. For this deed (one of his many extra labours and apparently thrown in by the hero for good measure) Hesione's father, Laomedon, king of Troy, promised Heracles two divine horses that had been given to him by Zeus in return for the loss of his son, the beautiful Ganymede. Laomedon refused, as he always did, to keep his word; and Heracles later attacked Troy, killed the king, and gave Hesione to his good friend, Telamon, to whom she bore a son, Teucer, the famous archer and one of the great Greek heroes before Troy.

Geryon, a monster with three heads and three bodies and enormous wings, was a son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe, an Oceanid. He lived on the fabled island of Erythia in the Far West, the "red island", so called because it lay under the rays of the setting sun. His magnificent oxen, also red—which Heracles was commanded to capture—were guarded by a giant, Eurythion, and a two-headed dog, Orthrus, son of Typhon and Echidna. After passing through many countries, Heracles at last reached the island and killed the giant and the dog. Later, hurrying off with the oxen, he was pursued by Geryon, whom he finally, slew with his arrows after a fierce contest. Before arriving at his destination, Heracles travelled through Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and Thrace. The oxen, after being delivered to Eurystheus, were sacrificed by him to Hera.

These apples were in the keeping of the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas and Hesperis. Gaea had given them to Hera as a wedding present. The eleventh labour of Heracles was to fetch these apples. Easy as it appears this labour had one difficult feature: Heracles had no idea where they were. After covering much ground he found Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, and forced him to reveal where the apples were hidden. On his way to get them, he passed through Libya (where he killed Antaeus, the champion wrestler), Egypt (where he slew Busiris, and all his sons, whose custom it was to sacrifice a stranger every year to Zeus), and Ethiopia (where he killed Emathion, who had usurped the Ethiopian throne of his handsome brother, Memnon). His thirst for adventures till unsatisfied, he freed Prometheus from his chains and, following his advice, sent Atlas to bring him the golden apples. In order to carry out this commission, Atlas had to transfer the heavens from his own shoulders to those of Heracles) who agreed to hold the heavy weight while he was away. Returning with the coveted fruit, the tricky Atlas refused to take up the burden that belonged to him, telling Heracles that he would take the apples for him to Eurystheus. Heracles, as sly as Atlas when the situation demanded it, agreed to the proposal and asked Atlas to hold the heavens for just a minute while he arranged a pad for the convenience of his head and back. As the change was being made, Heracles picked up the apples and hurried away. When he reached Mycenae, Eurystheus gave him the apples as a gift, the first gracious sign exhibited by the taskmaster. According to another version of the eleventh labour, Heracles slew Ladon, a hundred-headed dragon, who stood guard over the apples with the Hesperides.

The twelfth and last labour of Heracles was the most difficult. It was to bring Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of Hades, from his home in the lower regions to the upper world. Conducted by Hermes and Athene, whose friendship for him served somewhat to counteract the deadly opposition of Hera, Heracles made the trip down without any mishap. Hades, the prince of darkness, allowed him to take the dog on the condition that he did so with his bare hands, without using any weapons of war. The hero grabbed the growling dog in his powerful arms, tied him up, took him to Eurystheus for a good look, and then brought him back to the lower world. As in his other adventures, Heracles accomplished extra tasks while carrying out one duty. During the short time that he spent in Hades, he rescued Theseus, the would-be kidnapper of Persephone, and Ascalaphus, who had been turned into an owl for revealing that Persephone had eaten a part of the pomegranate.