Transcript MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS & HEROES

MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS & HEROES
Chapters 11-12
THE LABORS OF HERCULES
Heracles (Hercules)
 Son
of Zeus and Alcmene
(mortal)
 Persecuted throughout his life
by Hera who is jealous of
Zeus’s affair with Alcmene
 Born “Alcides” but renamed
“Heracles” (glory of Hera) to
appease Hera
 Sends snakes to kill him in his
crib when he is a baby
Hera’s Revenge
 Hercules
married Megara,
daughter of the King of Thebes
They had three sons together
 Hera found the family and struck
Hercules with a fit of madness
 Hercules killed his three sons and his
wife because he thought they were
beasts
 Athena knocks out Hercules with a
rock
 When he recovers, he realizes what
he’s done

Hercules’ Penance
 Feeling
guilty for murdering his
family, Hercules consults the
Oracle at Delphi
He is ordered to accomplish ten
tasks given to him by King
Eurystheus
 Completing these “labors” would
purify him and earn him immortality
 Although he was supposed to
complete ten, he was made to
perform 12 since he got help
completing two of them

1. Kill the Nemean Lion
 Lion
had hide so thick it could
not be pierced by arrows or
knife
 Hercules wrestled the lion to
the ground and strangled it
2. Kill the Hydra of Lerna
Hydra is a huge serpent with many
heads
 Each time he cut off a head, two
more grew in its place
 So, when he cut off a head, Iolaus
cauterize the stump, preventing the
new heads from growing.
 Hydra had one immortal head,
which Hercules buried
 Didn’t get credit for this one
because Iolaus helped him

3. Capture the Cerynitian Hind
 The
deer with the golden
antlers was sacred to Artemis
 Hercules had to capture it
unharmed
 Took him one year to catch it
 Finally caught it in a huge net
while it slept
4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar
 The
boar had plagued the
countryside for a long time
 Hercules called it out and
led it straight into a snow
drift.
 Caught the boar in chains
5. Clean the Augean Stables
This task was intended to humiliate
him and it seemed impossible
 The stables belonging to King
Augeus contained thousands of
cattle and hadn’t been cleaned in
thirty years
 He had to complete the task in one
day
 Diverted the courses of two rivers to
make them run through the stables
and wash away the dung

6. Drive out Stymphalian Birds
 These
man-eating birds had
taken over a forest in Arcadia
 Hercules got rid of them by
using a giant rattle made by
Hephaestus
 Rattle’s noise scared them
away
 Because Hephaestus helped
him, he did not get credit for
this one.
7. Capture the Cretan Bull
 Beautiful
bull given to
Minos by Poseidon
 Hercules subdues the
bull after a long
struggle
8. Captures the Mares of Diomedes
 Dangerous
man-eating horses
 Hercules rounds up the horses
 Diomedes attacks Hercules
 Hercules defeats Diomedes
and feeds him to his own
horses
 The horses then become tame
9. Fetch Hippolyte’s Girdle
 Belt/sash
owned by
the Queen of the
Amazons
 Hercules asks for the
girdle and the Queen
simply gives it to him.
10. Steal the Cattle of Geryon
 Hercules
first has to kill a twoheaded watch dog
 Encounters many other
obstacles along the way to
completing the task
11. Fetch the Golden Apples
 These
apples belonged to
Atlas’s daughters.
 Hercules convinces Atlas to
fetch the apples for him while
he holds the world on his
shoulders for Atlas
 Atlas returns with the apples
but refuses to take the world
back on his shoulders
 Hercules tricks Atlas
12. Fetch Cerberus from Hades
 Three-headed
guard dog of
the Underworld
 Gets guidance from Athena,
Hermes, and Hestia
 Wrestles Cerberus barehanded because he promised
Hades not to use weapons
Death and Immortality
 Hercules
finally “purified”
 He was given immortality, but
he would first have to die.
 A dying centaur tricked
Hercules’ wife (Deianeira) into
killing him with a poison shirt
 His mortal body was burned
alive at his request
 He ascends to Mount Olympus