The twelve labors of Greek culture

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The Greek word for labors is athloi, which really means contests undertaken for a prize. In Heracles' case, as the Delphic oracle's advice made clear, the prize was immortality, so that we should not be surprised to find that at least three of the Labors (and possibly more) are variations on the "conquest of death" theme. Heracles did not necessarily perform the Labors unaided; sometimes Athena helped him, sometimes his nephew, Iolaus. The first six Labors all take place in the Peloponnese; such localization is to be expected, since the servitude to Eurystheus brought Heracles back to the area of Argos, the home of his parents.' The second group takes place in different parts of the world; in them Heracles has passed from being a local hero into being the benefactor of all mankind. The list of the Labors varies, but the twelve given here represent a widely accepted tradition.

1. The Nemean Lion. Heracles was required to bring the skin of this beast to Eurystheus; at Nemea he cut himself a club with which he killed the monster. This is the early tradition of the story; later authors (of whom Theocritus gives the fullest account in his twenty-fifth Idyll) made the lion invulnerable, so that Heracles was obliged to strangle it with his hands after clubbing it, and then to flay it by using its claws to cut the invulnerable hide. At any rate, the club and lion's skin henceforth were Heracles' weapon and clothing par excellence; in art as in literature, they are invariably associated with him.

2. The Lernaean Hydra. This serpent (hydra is the Greek word for water snake) lived in the swamps of Lerna, near Argos; it was said to have had nine heads, of which eight were mortal and the ninth immortal. Moreover, each time Heracles clubbed a head off, two grew in its place. The Labor was made the harder by a huge crab, which Hera sent to aid the hydra. Heracles killed this monster, and then, with the assistance of Iolaus, dealt with the hydra; each time he removed one of the heads Iolaus cauterized the stump with a burning brand so that another could not grow. Heracles chopped off the immortal head and buried it under a huge rock. He then dipped his arrows in the hydra's poison-an act that led indirectly

to his own death. As for the crab, Hera took it and made it the constellation Cancer.

3. The Cerynean Hind. This miraculous animal, with golden horns, was sacred to Artemis; it took its name from Mt. Cerynea in Arcadia. It w as harmless nor might it be harmed without incurring Artemis' wrath. So Heracles pursued it for a whole year and eventually only caught it by lightly wounding it with an arrow as it crossed the river Ladon. He then carried it back on his shoulders to Eurystheus; on the way, however, Artemis met him and claimed her sacred animal, but she was appeased (both for the theft and the wounding) when Heracles laid the blame on Eurystheus. This version of the story is entirely set in the Peloponnese. A different account, however, is given by Pindar in his beautiful third Olympian Ode. In this Heracles went to the land of the Hyperboreans- on the northern confines of the world-in search of the hind, on whose golden horns the nymph Taygete, a daughter of Atlas, had stamped the name of Artemis. In this version we have a certain clue that allows us to connect this Labor with that of the apples of the Hesperides; in the latter story Heracles goes to the limits of the world in search of a miraculous golden object, and again Ladon (in the form of a dragon) and Atlas appear. We shall see that the Hesperides Labor is in fact a conquest of death, and at this point we can say that the story of the Cerynean stag is another version of the same theme.

4. The Erymanthian Boar. This boar was ravaging the land around Mt. Erymanthus and had to be brought back alive; Heracles chased the animal out of its hiding place into some deep snow and there trapped it with nets. He brought it back to Eurystheus, who cowered in terror in a large jar. This rather unexciting Labor resulted in a side adventure (or parergon) of some interest; on his way to the chase Heracles was entertained by the centaur Pholus, who set before him a jar of wine that belonged to all the centaurs in common. When it was opened the other centaurs, attracted by its fragrance, came and attacked Heracles, who repelled and pursued them. Most of them were scattered all over Greece, but one who was wounded by one of Heracles' poisoned arrows was Chiron. Since he was immortal, he could not die, but had to suffer incurable agonies until Prometheus interceded with Zeus and took upon himself the immortality of Chiron. Heracles' host, Pholus, also met his death from a poisoned arrow that he accidentally dropped on his foot as he was examining it out of curiosity.

5. The Augean Stables. Augeas, son of Helius (the Sun) and king of Elis, was the owner of vast herds of cattle, whose stables had never been cleaned out. Heracles was commanded by Eurystheus to perform the task, and successfully achieved it within one day by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus so that they flowed through the stables. Augeas had agreed to give Heracles one-tenth of his herds as a reward, but refused to keep his promise after the performance of the task and expelled Heracles and his own son, Phyleus (who had taken Heracles' part in the quarrel), from Elis. Heracles was received by a nearby prince, Dexamenus (whose name, indeed, means the receiver or the hospitable), and was able to save his host's daughter from an unwanted marriage to the centaur Eurytion by killing Eurytion. Years later, when the Labors had been completed, Heracles returned to Elis at the head of an army, and after an initial setback took the city and killed Augeas, making Phyleus king in his place. It was after this expedition that Heracles was said to have instituted the Olympic Games, the greatest of Greek festivals, held every four years in honor of Zeus. He marked out the stadium by pacing it out himself; he was even said to have fetched from the land of the Hyperboreans an olive tree to be, as Pindar described it (Olympian Odes 3. 16-18), "a shade for the sacred precinct and a crown of glory for menv-for at that time there were no trees at Olympia, and at the Games the victors were awarded a garland of olive leaves.

6. The Stymphalian Birds. Heracles was required to shoot these creatures, which flocked together in a wood by the lake of Stymphalus (a town in Arcadia); he frightened them out of the wood by clashing a pair of brazen castanets given him by Athena and then shot them. Apparently these birds were not harmful; they were said, however, to have had feathers that they shot like arrows, together with other attributes varying with the imagination of individual authors. This ends the Peloponnesian Labors; the remaining Labors take Heracles all over the world; as is to be expected when so wide a geographical range is involved, this group is far richer in parerga.

7. The Cretan Bull. This bull was either the one that had brought Europa to Creteor the one that Minos had refused to sacrifice to Poseidon; Heracles caught it and brought it back alive to Eurystheus. It was then turned loose and eventually came to Marathon, where in time Theseus caught and sacrificed it. 8. The Mares of Diomedes. Diomedes, son of Ares, was a Thracian king who owned a herd of mares that were fed on human flesh. Heracles, alone or with an army (the accounts vary), got possession of them and tamed them by feeding them Diomedes himself; he then sailed back to Argos with the horses, where Eurystheus set them free and dedicated them to Hera. It was on his way to Thrace that one of Heracles' most famous victories over death was won. He was entertained by Admetus, king of Pherae, who disguised his grief at the recent death of his wife, Alcestis; Heracles discovered the truth and himself wrestled with Thanatos (i.e., Death) and made him give up Alcestis, whom he restored to her husband.

9. The Girdle of Hippolyta. Hippolyta was queen of the Amazons, the warlike women from the northern limits of the world, whom we have already mentioned in connection with the Trojan War. Heracles was sent to fetch her girdle (which evidently was thought to bestow some magical properties on its possessor), and in the fight against the Amazons killed Hippolyta and took her girdle. It was displayed at Argos in historical times. It was while returning from this Labor that Heracles came to Troy and there rescued Hesione from the sea monster. On this occasion he was cheated by King Laomedon of the agreed reward; he therefore returned later (after his time as the servant of Omphale) with an armed force and sacked the city, giving Hesione to his ally Telamon, and leaving Podarces (Priam) on the throne of the ruined city.

10. The Cattle of Geryon. The last three Labors are most clearly conquests of death, with the "harrowing of hell" in the abduction of Cerberus as their climax. Geryon lived in the island of Erythia, far away to the west; to place Erythia in Spain (or anywhere else for that matter) is mistaken, for in Greek legend the kingdom of death is generally symbolized by a mysterious land to be found somewhere far away toward the sunset. Geryon was a three-bodied monster, offspring of the Oceanid, Callirhoe, and Chrysaor; he tended a herd of cattle that Heracles was to bring back to Eurystheus, helped by a giant herdsman, Eurytion, and a twoheaded hound, Orthus (or Orthrus). To reach Erythia Heracles was helped by Helius (the Sun), who gave him a golden cup in which to sail upon the River of Ocean (which girdles the world). On the island he killed Orthus, Eurytion, and finally Geryon, and then sailed back to Tartessus (i.e., Spain) in the cup with the cattle. He gave back the cup to Helius and then began to drive the cattle back to Greece. As a monument of his journey to the western edge of the world he set up the Pillars of Heracles at the Atlantic entrance to the Mediterranean; some authorities identified them with the rocks of Calpe (Gibraltar) and Abyla (Ceuta), which flank the Straits of Gibraltar, but there were many other opinions about them.

Heracles' journey back to Greece has many parerga; while crossing the south of France he was attacked by the tribe of the Ligurians and exhausted his supply of arrows defending himself. He prayed for help from Zeus, who sent a rain of stones that gave Heracles the ammunition he needed to drive off the attackers. He then crossed the Alps and traversed Italy; since he was very widely worshiped both at Rome and throughout Italy, it is not surprising that Heracles was credited by the Romans with a number of conquests during his journey there and with the foundation of several cities. One legend in this group, however, is particularly famous, that of Cacus, which Vergil relates in the eighth book of the Aeneid. Cacus, son of Vulcan, was a fire-breathing monster living in a cave on the Aventine Hill (part of the future city of Rome) beside the Tiber; he lived by brigandage and stole some of the cattle of Geryon, dragging them backward to his cave, so that their hoof marks appeared to lead away from the cave. As Heracles, who had been unable to find the stolen cattle, was leaving with the remaining cattle, one of the stolen animals in the cave answered the lowing of its former companions. Thus the hiding place was discovered, and Heracles broke into the cave, throttled Cacus, and recovered his cattle.

The legend touches closely on Roman religion, for Heracles, it was said, left instructions for his cult at Rome, where he was in fact worshiped at the Ara Maxima (near the reputed site of his fight with Cacus) as well as in the several temples dedicated to him. Cacus, like his sister Caca, was probably an old Italian fire-god; his name is remembered by the rock staircase on the Palatine Hill called Scalae Caci (the steps of Cacus). Heracles' wanderings in Italy also took him across the strait to Sicily. Here he wrestled with Eryx (king of the mountain of the same name at the western end of the island), whom he killed. Eventually he returned to Greece, passing around the head of the Adriatic and through Dalmatia; his last adventure before reaching Argos was at the Isthmus of Corinth, where he killed the giant and brigand, Alcyoneus. As for the cattle, Eurystheus sacrificed them to Hera. Quite a different version of the Geryon legend is implied by Herodotus. In this, Heracles' journey brought him to the cold lands beyond the Danube; there Heracles met and lay with Echidna (Snake woman), a monster who was half woman and half serpent; she bore him three sons, Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes. When the three grew up, only Scythes was able to draw a bow and put on a belt that Heracles had left behind; the other two were driven away by Echidna, and Scythes became king and ancestor of the Scythians

11. The Apples of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were the three daughters of Night, living far away to the west; they passed their time in singing and guarding a tree in their garden, upon which grew golden apples, and in this were helped by the dragon (or serpent) Ladon, who was coiled around the tree. The apples had originally been given by Ge to Hera when she married Zeus and put by her in the garden of the Hesperides. To get them Heracles first had to find the sea-god Nereus and learn from him the whereabouts of the garden; Nereus would only tell him after he had turned himself into many different shapes, being held all the while by Heracles. At the garden, in Euripides' version, he killed Ladon and plucked the apples himself, but in the more well-known tradition he got the help of the Titan Atlas, who held up the heavens. Heracles took the heavens on his own shoulders while Atlas fetched the apples for him; he then returned the load to Atlas' shoulders (outwitting Atlas in doing so, since Atlas had no desire to resume it) and brought the apples back to Eurystheus. In the original version of the legend Heracles probably kept the apples, for they are symbols of immortality, and the tree in the garden of the Hesperides is the Tree of Life; we have already seen how the journey to a mysterious place in the farthest West is really a journey to the realm of death. But the original story acquired new details, for example that Athena took the apples back from Argos to the garden of the Hesperides, since they were too holy to be put down anywhere in the mortal world. On his journey across northern Africa to the garden of the Hesperides, Heracles conquered two dangerous enemies.

The giant Antaeus, son of Ge and Poseidon, ruled over Libya and would wrestle with those who came to his kingdom. He was invincible, since every time he came in contact with his mother (Earth) he rose again with renewed strength. Thus he had beaten and killed all comers and had used their skulls in building a temple to his father, Poseidon. Heracles destroyed his invincibility by holding him aloft and crushing him to death. In Egypt he killed King Busiris who used to sacrifice all strangers to Zeus. As in the third and tenth Labors, some versions of this story take Heracles to the North, where he came to the Caucasus mountains. Here Prometheus was chained to a rock; Heracles released him after killing the eagle that tormented him, and in return Prometheus advised him to use Atlas in getting the apples and foretold the battle against the Ligurians. On this occasion, too, Prometheus took over the immortality of Chiron and satisfied Zeus by letting Chiron die in his place.

12. Cerberus. The final Labor was to fetch Cerberus, the threeheaded Hound of Hell. In this legend Heracles' conquest of death is found in its most open form; Heracles himself (in the Odyssey) says that it was the hardest of the Labors, and that he could not have achieved it without the aid of Hermes and Athena. In the Underworld he wrestled with Cerberus, brought him back to Eurystheus, and then returned him to Hades. In Hades, Heracles saw Theseus and Pirithous, chained fast there because of their attempt to carry off Persephone. He was able to release Theseus, and Theseus out of gratitude sheltered him after his madness and the murder of Megara. Another person whose ghost Heracles saw in Hades was Meleager; when he told Heracles of his death, Heracles offered to marry his sister, if he still had one living. Meleager named Deianira, "upon whose neck was still the green of youth, nor did she know yet of the ways of Aphrodite, charmer of men" (Bacchylides 5. 56); thus the train of events that led eventually to the death of Heracles was set in motion. In conclusion we give here a chorus from Euripides' play Heracles, which tells of the great hero's labors. This choral ode also reveals to the student the nature of our sources for Greek legends, where the dry facts are often, as here, enlivened by the complexities of poetic expression (Euripides Heracles 352-427): I wish to offer a glorious crown for labors done, by singing the praises of him who descended into the darkness of earth's realm of shades-whether I am to call him the son of Zeus or of Amphitryon. For the renown of noble deeds is a joy to those who have died. First he cleared Zeus' grove of the lion; and he wore its tawny skin upon his back, with the fearful jaws of the beast framing his fair head. He laid low the mountain race of savage Centaurs with his deadly arrows, slaughtering them with his winged shafts.

The beautiful stream of Peneus was a witness and the vast extent of plains without crops and the vales of Mt. Pelion and the places on the green glens of Homole-all haunts where they filled their hands with weapons of pine and, galloping as horses, brought fear to the land of the Thessalians. He slew the dappled hind with golden horns and dedicated this ravaging plunderer to the huntress Artemis of Oenoe. He mounted the chariot of Diomedes and mastered with the bit the four mares, who ranged wild in stables drenched in blood and reveled in their horrid feasts of human flesh with ravenous jaws. In his labors for the king of Mycenae he crossed over the banks of the silver-flowing Hebrus; and along the seacliff of Pelion, by the waters of the Amaurus, he killed with his bow Cycnus, the guest-murderer who lived alone near Amphanaea. He came to the western home of the singing maidens, to pluck from amid the golden leaves the fruit of the apple, and the fiery dragon who kept guard coiled around the tree, hard even to approach, him he killed. He made his way into the farthest corners of the sea and made them safe for men who ply the oar. Having come to the abode of Atlas, he extended his hand to support the vault of heaven in its midst, and by his manly strength held up the starry homes of the gods. He crossed the swell of the Euxine Sea to the land of the Amazons, who rode in force where many rivers flow into Lake Maeotis. Mustering a band of friends from Hellas, he sought to win the gold-encrusted adornment of the warrior maid-the deadly booty of her girdle-and Hellas captured the renowned prize of the foreign queen, which is kept safe in Mycenae. He seared the many heads of the deadly monster, the Lernaean hydra, and dipped his arrows in its venom; with that he killed three-bodied Geryon, the herdsman of Erytheia. He won the glorious crown for these and other labors; and he sailed to the tearful realm of Hades-the final task of all.