The goddess, however, refused to accept a sacrifice that was a sign of Herakles’ success. He stifled the beast with his bare hands and shipped it back to Mycenae, whereupon Eurystheos decided to sacrifice it to Hera. According to legend, Athena and Hephaistos provided Herakles with bronze clappers that frightened the birds into flight, and he successfully shot them down with his arrows.Īs his seventh labor, Herakles was ordered to capture the Cretan Bull. He ordered Herakles to kill an enormous flock of man-eating birds that gathered near Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia, an area surrounded by a dense forest. When he returned, Eurystheos demanded of him another chore. This he accomplished by rerouting two rivers and flushing out the mess. The stables had never been cleaned, and Herakles was instructed to complete the task in one day. The king was angered by Herakles’ continued success and ordered him to clean out the Augean Stables, home to the greatest number of cattle in all of Greece. He chased the boar to exhaustion and then drove it into deep snow, where he successfully netted the beast and brought it to Eurystheos. Thus, as a fourth labor, Herakles was ordered to capture a vicious wild boar that lived on a mountain called Erymanthos. However, when he arrived, the sacred Hind leaped out of the hero’s arms and eventually returned safely to its mistress. The goddess consented and allowed Herakles to bring the animal to Eurystheos. On his journey home, he encountered the infuriated Artemis, but begged her forgiveness. For one year, Herakles hunted the beast until it finally stopped to rest, whereupon he shot it with his bow and arrow. Eurystheos hoped that Herakles would incur the wrath of Artemis. As a third labor, Eurystheos ordered Herakles to capture the Hind of Keryneia, a deer sacred to Artemis, goddess of the hunt. He accomplished this task by cutting off each of the Hydra’s heads and burning the exposed stumps, which finished off the beast. Thereafter, Herakles wore the legendary lion’s skin as his own impenetrable armor.Īs a second labor, Herakles was instructed to slay the Lernaean Hydra, a serpentlike creature with nine heads and poisonous venom ( 27.20.2 1999.325.227). Instead, he wrestled the lion to the ground, strangled it, and removed the creature’s tough hide with its own claws ( 63.11.6). Eurystheos instructed Herakles to bring back the skin of the slain Nemean Lion, but the hero’s weapons-his club, bronze sword, and bow and arrow-were useless against the impenetrable skin of the beast. The first of these labors was to kill a vicious lion that terrorized the area around Nemea in the Peloponnesos. According to some literary accounts, the Greek god Apollo instructed Herakles to atone for his crime by performing labors for Eurystheos, king of Mycenae. Yet even as a baby Herakles’ strength was legendary, and he saved himself from Hera’s serpents by grasping one in each hand and strangling them ( 25.28).Īfter Herakles married the Theban princess Megara, Hera afflicted the hero with madness, and he murdered his wife and all their children. And she sent two snakes to destroy the infant Herakles as he slept in his cradle. Thus, the vengeful Hera ensured that Eurystheos inherited the throne. Homer describes how Hera, wife of Zeus, delayed the birth of Herakles until the day after his cousin Eurystheos was born. However, on the day Herakles was to be born, Zeus boasted that his son would rule over Greece. Thus, he visited the mortal woman Alkmene in Thebes, where they conceived Herakles. According to Greek mythology, Zeus desired to sire a son who would be the guardian of mortals and immortals. Herakles, the Greek hero of superhuman strength, was the son of the Greek god Zeus and Alkmene ( 28.77 11.55).
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