The document outlines the life and legendary twelve labors of Hercules, the greatest hero of Greece, emphasizing his immense strength, confidence, and tragic encounters. It details his birth, early challenges, and various myths surrounding his feats, including battles with formidable creatures like the Nemean lion and the Hydra. Despite his extraordinary abilities, Hercules faced personal tragedies, including being driven to madness by Hera, which led to the death of his family and his subsequent quest for redemption through the completion of the labors set by King Eurystheus.

1. The Great Hero beforeThe Great Hero before
the Trojan Warthe Trojan War
“HERCULES”

2. Who is Hercules??

3.  He is the greatest Hero of Greece
 He was a personage of quite another order
from the great hero of Athens , THESEUS
 He was what all Greece except Athens most
admired
 Hercules embodied what the rest of Greece
most valued
 His qualities were those the Greeks in general
honored and admired.
 Except for unflinding courage, they were not
those that distinguished Theseus.
 He was the strongest man on Earth and he had
the supreme self- confidence magnificent
physical strength gives

4.  He considered himself on an “EQUALITY
WITH THE GODS”
 They needed his help to conquer the Giants
 In the final victory of the Olympians over the
brutish sons of Earth. His arrows played an
important part. He treated the Gods
accordingly.
 Once when the priestess on Delphi gave no
response to the question he asked , he seized
the tripod she sat on and declared that he
would carry it off and have an oracle of his
own. He was willing to fight Apollo but Zeus
had to intervene. The quarrel was easily
settled, however.

5. Throughout Hercules life,
he had this perfect
confidence that no matter
who was against him he
could never be defeated,
and facts bore him out.
Whenever he fought with
anyone the issue was
certain beforehand. He
could be overcome only by
a supernatural force. But
nothing that lived in the
air, sea or on land ever
defeated him.

6.  Once when he was too hot, he pointed an
arrow at the sun and threatened to shoot him.
 There also a time, when that boat he was in
was tossed about by the waves, he told the
waters that he would punish them if they did
not grow calm.
 His intellect was not strong. His emotions
were.
 They were quickly aroused and apt to get out of
control, as when he deserted the Agro and
forgot all about his comrades and the Quest of
the Golden Fleece in his despairing grief at
losing his young armor- bearer, HYLAS. (son of
King Theiodamas of the Dryopians)

7. Where Hercules came from?
 Hercules was born in Thebes.
 He was held to be the son of
Amphitryon, a distinguished general.
 In those early years, he was called
Alcides, or descendant of Alcaeus, who
was Amphitryon’s father.
 But in reality, he was the son of Zeus,
who had visited Amphitryon’s wife
Alcmena in the shape of her husband
when the general was away fighting.

8. Where Hercules came from?
ALCMENA:
 Mother of Hercules
 She bore two children:
- Hercules to Zeus,
- Iphicles to Amphitryon.
The difference in the boys’ descent was clearly
shown in the way each acted in face of a great
danger which came to them before they were a
year old. Hera, as always, was furiously jealous
and she determined to kill Hercules

9. “Hercules, of all of Zeus’s
illegitimate children
seemed to be the focus of
Hera’s anger.”

10. One evening Alcmena gave both the children their
baths and their fill of milk and laid them in their crib,
caressing them and saying, “Sleep my little ones, soul
of my soul. Happy be your slumber and happy your
awakening.” She rocked the cradle and in a moment
the babies were asleep. But at the darkest midnight
when all was silent in the house two great snakes
came crawling into the nursery. There was a light in
the room and as the two reared up above the crib,
with weaving heads and flickering tongues, the
children woke…..
Nex
t

11. Iphicles screamed and tried to get out of bed, but
Hercules sat up and grasped the deadly creatures
by the throat. They turned and twisted and wound
their coils around his body, but he held them fast.
The mother heard Iphicles’ screams and, calling to
her husband, rushed to the nursery. There sat
Hercules laughing, in each hand a long limp body.
He gave them gleefully to Amphitryon. They were
dead. All knew then that the child was destined to
great things.
Nex
t

12. Teiresias, the blind
prophet of Thebes, told
Alcmena:
“I swear that many
Greek woman as she
cards the wool at
eventide shall sing of
this son and you who
bore him. He shall be
the hero of all
mankind.”

13. Zeus talked Athena into tricking Hera into suckling
Hercules. As the story goes, Athena and Hera
came upon a baby abandoned at the walls of
Thebes. Athena suggested to Hera to suckle the
poor abandoned baby. Hera did so, but the baby
sucked so hard that she had to push him away.
The force was so strong that the milk from her
breast spurted out and became the Milky Way.
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14. Hercules had several teachers in his youth who taught
him well. Here is a partial list of his teachers and the
areas they instructed him in:
 Amphitrton – chariot driving
 Autolycus – boxing
 Castor – art of riding horses in battle
 Chiron(centaur)- politics, manners, and wisdom
 Eumolpus – playing the lyre and singing
 Eurytus – archery
Not only was he well trained, but Hercules also received
lavish gifts from the gods of Olympus. He was well
equipped with special swords, shields, bows, and horses.

15. By the time he was
eighteen he was full-
grown and he killed ,
alone by himself, a
great lion which lived
in the woods of
Cithaeron, the
Thespian lion. Ever
after he wore its skin
as a cloak with the
head forming a kind
of hood over his own
head.

16. His next exploit was to fight and conquer the
Minyans, who had been exacting a burdensome
tribute from the Thebans. The grateful citizens gave
him as a reward the hand of the Princess Megara.
When he married Megara, she had borne him three
sons, Hera drove Hercules to madness. He killed his
children and Megara too, as she tried to protect the
youngest. Then his sanity returned. He found himself
in his bloodstained hall, the dead bodies of his sons
and his wife beside him. He had no idea what had
happened, how they had been killed. He consulted the
Oracle of Delphi to see how he could purify himself.
The oracle instructed him to complete the 12 labors
that King Eurystheus set before him, and he could be
purified and also attain immortality.

17. The 12 Labors of Hercules
1. To kill the Nemean lion.
2. To destroy the Lernaean Hydra.
3. To capture the Ceryneian Hind.
4. To capture the Erymanthian Boar.
5. To clean the Augean Stables.
6. To kill the Stymphalian Birds.
7. To capture the Cretan Bull.
8. To round up the Mares of Diomedes.
9. To steal the Girdle of Hippolyte.
10. To herd the Cattle of Geryon.
11. To fetch the Apples of Hesperides.
12. To capture Cerberus.

18. Labor One: The Nemean Lion
As his first Labor, Heracles was challenged to
kill the Nemean lion. This was no easy feat, for
the beast's parentage was supernatural and it
was more of a monster than an ordinary lion. Its
skin could not be penetrated by spears or
arrows. Heracles blocked off the entrances to the
lion's cave, crawled into the close confines where
it would have to fight face to face 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.

19. Labor Two: The Hydra
King Eurystheus was so afraid of his heroic
cousin that when he saw him coming with the
Nemean lion on his shoulder, he hid in a storage
jar. From this shelter he issued the order for the
next Labor. Heracles was to seek out and
destroy the monstrous and many-headed Hydra.
The mythmakers agree that the Hydra lived in
the swamps of Lerna, but they seem to have 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.

20. 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 in its lair and brought it out into
the open with flaming arrows. But now the fight
went in the Hydra's favor. It twined its many
heads around the hero and tried to trip him up.
It called on an ally, a huge crab that also lived in
the swamp. The crab bit Heracles in the heel
and further impeded his attack. Heracles was on
the verge of failure when he remembered his
nephew, Iolaus, the son of his twin brother
Iphicles.

21. Iolaus, who had driven Heracles to Lerna in a
chariot, looked on in anxiety as his uncle became
entangled in the Hydra's snaky heads. Finally he
could bear it no longer. In response to his uncle's
shouts, he grabbed a burning torch and dashed
into the fray. Now, as soon as Heracles cut off
one of the Hydra's heads, Iolaus was there to
sear the wounded neck with flame. This kept
further heads from sprouting. Heracles cut off
the heads one by one, with Iolaus cauterizing the
wounds. Finally Heracles lopped off the one head
that was supposedly immortal and buried it deep
beneath a rock.

22. Labor Three: the Cerynitian Hind
The third Labor was the capture of the
Cerynitian hind. Though a female deer, this
fleet-footed beast had golden horns. It was
sacred to Artemis, goddess of the hunt, so
Heracles dared not wound it. He hunted it for an
entire year before running it down on the banks
of the River Ladon in Arcadia. Taking careful aim
with his bow, he fired an arrow between the
tendons and bones of the two forelegs, pinning it
down without drawing blood. All the same,
Artemis was displeased, but Heracles dodged her
wrath by blaming his taskmaster Eurystheus.

23. Labor Four: the Erymanthian Boar
The fourth Labor took Heracles back to Arcadia
in quest of an enormous boar, which he was
challenged to bring back alive. While tracking it
down he stopped to visit the centaur Pholus.
This creature -- half-horse, half-man -- was
examining one of the hero's arrows when he
accidentally dropped it on his foot. Because it
had been soaked in poisonous Hydra venom,
Pholus succumbed immediately. Heracles finally
located the boar on Mount Erymanthus and
managed to drive it into a snowbank,
immobilizing it. Flinging it up onto his shoulder,
he carried it back to Eurystheus, who cowered as
usual in his storage jar.

24. Labor Five: The Augean Stables
Eurystheus was very pleased with himself for
dreaming up the next Labor, 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
which had deposited their manure in such
quantity over the years that a thick aroma hung
over the entire Peloponnesus. Instead of
employing a shovel and a basket as Eurystheus
imagined, Heracles diverted two rivers through
the stableyard and got the job done without
getting dirty. But because he had demanded
payment of Augeas, Eurystheus refused to count
this as a Labor.

25. Labor Six: The Stymphalian Birds
The sixth Labor pitted Heracles against the
Stymphalian birds, who inhabited a marsh near
Lake Stymphalus in Arcadia. The sources differ
as to whether these birds feasted on human
flesh, killed men by shooting them with feathers
of brass or merely constituted a nuisance
because of their number. Heracles could not
approach the birds to fight them - 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.

26. Labor Seven: the Cretan Bull
Queen Pasiphae of Crete had been inspired by a
vengeful god to fall in love with a bull, with the
result that the Minotaur was born -- a monster
half-man and half-bull that haunted the
Labyrinth of King Minos. Pasiphae's husband
was understandably eager to be rid of the bull,
which was also ravaging the Cretan countryside,
so Hercules was assigned the task as his
seventh Labor. 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,
Theseus, to deal with it once more.

27. Labor Eight: the Mares of Diomedes
Next Heracles was instructed to bring
Eurystheus the mares of Diomedes. These
horses dined on the flesh of travelers who made
the mistake of accepting Diomedes' hospitality.
In one version of the myth, Heracles pacified the
beasts by feeding them their own master. In
another, they satisfied their appetites on the
hero's squire, a young man named Abderus. In
any case, Heracles soon rounded them up and
herded them down to sea, where he embarked
them for Tiryns. Once he had shown them to
Eurystheus, he released them. They were
eventually eaten by wild animals on Mount
Olympus.

28. Labor Nine: Hippolyte's Belt
The ninth Labor 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, great archers who had
invented the art of fighting from horseback.
Heracles recruited a number of heroes to
accompany him on this expedition, among them
Theseus. As it turned out, the Amazon queen,
Hippolyte, willingly gave Hercules her belt, but
Hera was not about to let the hero get off so
easily. The goddess stirred up the Amazons with
a rumor that the Greeks had captured their
queen, and a great battle ensued. Heracles made
off with the belt, and Theseus kidnapped an
Amazon princess.

29. Labor Ten: the Cattle of Geryon
In creating monsters and formidable foes, the
Greek mythmakers used a simple technique of
multiplication. Thus Geryon, the owner of some
famous cattle that Heracles was now instructed
to steal, had three heads and/or three separate
bodies from the waist down. His watchdog,
Orthrus, had only two heads. This Labor took
place somewhere in the country we know as
Spain. The hound Orthrus rushed at Heracles as
he was making off with the cattle, and the hero
killed him with a single blow from the wooden
club which he customarily carried. Geryon was
dispatched as well, and Heracles drove the herd
back to Greece, taking a wrong turn along the
way and passing through Italy.

30. Labor Eleven: the Apples of the Hesperides
The Hesperides were nymphs entrusted by the
goddess Hera with certain apples which she had
received as a wedding present. These were kept
in a grove surrounded by a high wall and
guarded by Ladon, a many-headed dragon. The
grove was located in the far-western mountains
named for Atlas, one of the Titans or first
generation of gods. Atlas had sided with one of
his brothers in a war against Zeus. In
punishment, he was compelled to support the
weight of the heavens by means of a pillar on his
shoulders. Heracles, in quest of the apples, had
been told that he would never get the them
without the aid of Atlas.

31. The Titan was only too happy to oblige. He told
the hero to hold the pillar while he went to
retrieve the fruit. But first Heracles had to kill
the dragon by means of an arrow over the
garden wall. Atlas soon returned with the apples
but now realized how nice it was not to have to
strain for eternity keeping heaven and earth
apart. Heracles wondered if Atlas would mind
taking back the pillar just long enough for him
to fetch a cushion for his shoulder. The Titan
obliged and Heracles strolled off, neglecting to
return.

32. Labor Twelve: the Capture of Cerberus
As his final Labor, Heracles was instructed to
bring the hellhound Cerberus up from Hades,
the kingdom of the dead. The first barrier to the
soul's journey beyond the grave was the most
famous river of the Underworld, the Styx. Here
the newly dead congregated as insubstantial
shades, mere wraiths of their former selves,
awaiting passage in the ferryboat of Charon the
Boatman. Charon wouldn't take anyone across
unless they met two conditions. Firstly, they had
to pay a bribe in the form of a coin under the
corpse's tongue. And secondly, they had to be
dead. Heracles met neither condition, a
circumstance which aggravated Charon's natural
grouchiness.

33. But Heracles simply glowered so fiercely that
Charon meekly conveyed him across the Styx.
The greater challenge was Cerberus, who had
razor teeth, three (or maybe fifty) heads, a
venomous snake for a tail and another swarm of
snakes growing out of his back. These lashed at
Heracles while Cerberus lunged for a purchase
on his throat. Fortunately, the hero was wearing
his trusty lion's skin, which was impenetrable by
anything short of a thunderbolt from Zeus.
Heracles eventually choked Cerberus into
submission and dragged him to Tiryns, where he
received due credit for this final Labor.

34. Childrens and consorts
 Megara
1. Therimachus
2. Creontiades
3. Ophitus
4. Deicoon
 Omphale
1. Agelaus
2. Tyrsenus
 Deianira
1. Hyllus
2. Ctesippus
3. Glenus
4. Oneites
5. Macaria
 Hebe
1. Alexiares
2. Anicetus

35. Childrens and consorts
 Astydameia, daughter of
Ormenius
1. Ctesippus
 Astyoche, daughter of
Phylas
1. Tlepolemus
 Auge --
1. Telephus
 Autonoe, daughter of
Pireus / Iphinoe,
daughter of Antaeus
1. Palaemon
 Barge
1. Bargasus
 Bolbe ---
1. Olynthus
 Celtine---
1. Celtus
 Chalciope---
1. Thessalus
 Echidna
1. Agathyrsus
2. Gelonus
3. Skythes

36. Childrens and consorts
 Epicaste ---
1. Thestalus
 Malis, a slave of Omphale
1. Acelus
 Meda ---
1. Antiochus
 Melite ---
1. Hyllus (possibly)
 Myrto ---
1. Eucleia
 Parthenope, daughter of
Stymphalus
1. Everes
 Phialo ---
1. Aechmagoras
 Psophis ---
1. Echephron
2. Promachus
 Pyrene ---
1. none known
 Rhea, Italian priestess
1. Aventinus
 50 daughters of Thespius
1. 50 sons
 Unnamed Celtic woman
1. Galates

37. Childrens and consorts
 Unnamed slave of Omphale
1. Alcaeus / Cleodaeus
 Unknown consorts
1. Agylleus
2. Amathous
3. Azon
4. Chromis
5. Cyrnus
6. Dexamenus
7. Leucites
8. Manto

38. Further AdventuresFurther Adventures
of Herculesof Hercules
…………………………………………

39. After completing these tasks, Hercules joined the Argonauts in a
search for the Golden Fleece. They rescued heroines, conquered
Troy, and helped the gods fight against the Gigantes. He also
fell in love with Princess Iole of Oechalia. King Eurytus of
Oechalia promised his daughter, Iole, to whoever could beat his
sons in an archery contest. Heracles won but Eurytus
abandoned his promise. Heracles' advances were spurned by
the king and his sons, except for one: Iole's brother Iphitus.
Heracles killed the king and his sons–excluding Iphitus–and
abducted Iole. Iphitus became Heracles' best friend. However,
once again, Hera drove Heracles mad and he threw Iphitus
over the city wall to his death. Once again, Heracles purified
himself through three years of servitude — this time to Queen
Omphale of Lydia.

40. Omphale
Omphale was a queen or princess of Lydia. As penalty
for a murder, imposed by Xenoclea, the Delphic
Oracle, Heracles was to serve as her slave for a year.
He was forced to do women's work and to wear
women's clothes, while she wore the skin of the
Nemean Lion and carried his olive-wood club. After
some time, Omphale freed Heracles and married him.
Some sources mention a son born to them who is
variously named. It was at that time that the cercopes,
mischievous wood spirits, stole Heracles' weapons. He
punished them by tying them to a stick with their
faces pointing downward.

41. Hylas
While walking through the wilderness, Heracles was set upon by
the Dryopes. In Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica it is recalled
that Heracles had mercilessly slain their king, Theiodamas, over
one of the latter's bulls, and made war upon the Dryopes
"because they gave no heed to justice in their lives". After the
death of their king, the Dryopes gave in and offered him Prince
Hylas. He took the youth on as his weapons bearer and beloved.
Years later, Heracles and Hylas joined the crew of the Argo. As
Argonauts, they only participated in part of the journey. In
Mysia, Hylas was kidnapped by the nymphs of a local spring.
Heracles, heartbroken, searched for a long time but Hylas had
fallen in love with the nymphs and never showed up again. In
other versions, he simply drowned. Either way, the Argo set sail
without them.

42. Rescue of Prometheus
Hesiod's Theogony and Aeschylus'
Prometheus Unbound both tell that Heracles
shot and killed the eagle that tortured
Prometheus (which was his punishment by
Zeus for stealing fire from the gods and giving
it to mortals). Heracles freed the Titan from
his chains and his torments. Prometheus then
made predictions regarding further deeds of
Heracles.

43. “The Death of Hercules”

44. Hercules was married to Deianeira. One day, long
after Hercules' marriage to Deianeira, the centaur
Nessus offered to ferry them across a wide river that
they had to cross. Nessus set off with Deianeira first,
but tried to abduct her. When Hercules realized the
centaur's real intention, Hercules chased after him
and shot him with an arrow which was poisoned
with Hydra's blood. Before he died, Nessus told
Deianeira to take some of his blood and treasure it,
since it was a very powerful medicine and: if she ever
thought Hercules was being unfaithful, the centaur
told her, the blood would restore his love. Deianeira
kept the vial of blood.

45. Many years after that incident she heard rumours
that Hercules had fallen in love with another woman.
She smeared some of the blood on a robe and sent it to
Hercules by a servant named Lichas. Lichas spilled
some blood on the floor and when the sun's rays fell
on it the blood begun to burn. Because of this
Deianeira began to suspect Nessus's advice and
decided to send another servant to fetch Lichas back
before he could hand over the blood soaked robe to
Hercules. She was too late. Hercules had already put
on the robe and when he did so the blood still
poisoned from the same arrow used by Hercules,
burnt into his flesh. When he jumped into a nearby
river in hope of extinguishing the fire, it only made it
worse. When he tried to rip off the robe from his body
his organs were also ripped off with it.

46. Furiously, Hercules caught Lichas and tossed
him into the sea. After that he told his friend
Philoctetes to build him a pyre on the
mountain Oata. He was burnt to death on the
pyre. Before dying, Hercules offered his bow
and arrows as a token of gratitude to
Philoctetes. His father Zeus then turned him
into a god. Deianeira, after hearing what she
had caused, committed suicide.

47. Afterlife

48. Hercules was the only hero to become a full-fledged
god upon his demise, but even in his case there was
his mortal aspect to be dealt with. By virtue of his
spectacular achievements, even by heroic standards,
he was given a home on Mount Olympus and a
goddess for a wife. But part of him had come not
from his father Zeus but from his mortal mother
Alcmene, and that part was sent to the Underworld.
As a phantasm it eternally roams the Elysian Fields
in the company of other heroes.
He was taken to heaven, where he was reconciled to
Hera and married her daughter Hebe.

49. Submitted By:Submitted By:
Anne Bernadette E. LaudatoAnne Bernadette E. Laudato
2 BSE English2 BSE English
Submitted To:Submitted To:
Mrs. Glenda PereyMrs. Glenda Perey
THE END…..