classical civil Flashcards
- Nemean Lion
The first of Heracles’ labours was to slay the Nemean Lion and bring back its skin. In art he is sometimes shown to be more youthful here than in his later tasks. The Nemean lion had been terrorising the area around Nemea, and had a skin so thick that it was impenetrable to weapons. When Heracles first tackled it, his weapons - bow and arrow and bronze sword - were all ineffective. At last Heracles threw away his weapons and wrestled the lion to the ground, eventually killing it by strangling it.
Heracles needed to present the lion’s skin to Eurystheus as proof of his victory, but could not even skin it with his knife.
Eventually Athena told Heracles that the best tools to cut the hide were the creature’s own claws.
From this point Heracles is often shown wearing the lion skin as a cloak and its head as a helmet. As the hide was almost impenetrable, this lion-skin gave Heracles magical protection.
- Lernaean Hydra
The second labour was killing the hydra, a monster which had many heads and venom for blood. Upon cutting off each of its heads he found that two grew back. Realising that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way, Heracles called on his nephew Iolaus for help. His nephew came up with the idea of using a torch to burn the neck stumps after decapitation. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus burned the open stump. Hera was annoyed at Heracles’ progress and sent a giant crab to bite his foot, but he crushed it and carried on with his attack. Eventually the hydra was dead and Heracles buried its head under a pile of rocks; he then used its venom as poison for his arrows.
- Golden/Ceryneian Hind
The third task did not involve killing a beast, as it had already been established that Heracles could overcome even the most fearsome opponents, so Eurystheus decided to make him capture the Ceryneian Hind – a deer that was bigger than a bull and golden from horns to hooves. It was also sacred to Artemis.
Although this task did not pose the same level of danger as the previous two, it was difficult because the deer was so fast – Heracles followed it for a whole year before he was able to catch it. On his way back Heracles was met by Apollo and Artemis, who was angry that he had caught her sacred deer. This was another reason that Eurystheus had set the task – he hoped that Heracles would get into trouble with Artemis. However he told her that he had been forced into it by Eurystheus and that he only wanted to borrow the hind, so she let him go.
- Erymanthian Boar
The Erymanthian Boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on Mount Erymanthos. Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring it back to him alive. Heracles tired out the boar by chasing it through the thick winter snow. After catching the boar, Heracles bound it and carried it back to Eurystheus, who was frightened of it and hid in his half-buried storage pithos jar.
- Augean Stables
The fifth of the Twelve Labours set to Heracles was to clean the stables of Augeas, King of Elis, in a single day. Augeas was famed for having a herd of enormous cattle that produced an extremely large amount of dung and so Eurystheus thought the task impossible. Also, all the previous labours praised Heracles in the eyes of the people and this one would surely degrade him. However, Heracles once again rose to the challenge and with a combination of brains and brawn rerouted the rivers Alpheus and Peneius through the stables, cleaning them instantly.
Augeas was angry because he had promised Heracles payment if the job was finished in one day. He refused to honour the agreement, so Heracles returned with an army and defeated the king. To commemorate his victory Heracles founded the Olympic Games for his father Zeus.
- Stymphalian Birds
- Stymphalian Birds
Stymphalian Birds were man-eating birds with wings of brass and sharp metallic feathers. Furthermore, their dung was highly toxic. They had migrated to Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia and took over the countryside, destroying local crops and fruit trees. Ridding the land of these birds was Heracles’ sixth task.
The forest around Lake Stymphalia was very dense, making it so dark that Heracles couldn’t see. Athena helped by giving Heracles a rattle made by the god Hephaistos. After shaking it the birds flew into the sky and Heracles shot them down with his arrows, or according to other versions, a catapult.
- Cretan Bull of King Minos
Heracles was forced to capture the bull as his seventh task. He sailed to Crete, and King Minos gave him permission to take the bull away, as it had been wreaking havoc on Crete. Heracles used his hands to strangle the bull, but released his grip before it passed out so he could ride it across the sea back to Greece. Eurystheus was afraid and hid in the pithos again. The bull was released and wandered into Marathon, where it was later defeated by Theseus.
- Mares Of Diomedes (man-eating horses)
The Mares of Diomedes were four man-eating horses. They belonged to the giant king Diomedes who kept them tethered in a bronze manger with iron chains. He fed them on the limbs of defeated enemies and passing strangers.
Upon arriving Heracles defeated the stablemen looking after the horses. Diomedes found out and set out with some men to fight Heracles. Heracles left his friend Abderos in charge of them while he fought Diomedes, but the boy was eaten. In revenge, Heracles fed Diomedes to his own horses.
Eating made the horses calmer and Heracles easily took them back to King Eurystheus. In some versions, they were allowed to roam freely around Argos, having become permanently calm, but in others they were taken to Olympus and killed by wild animals.
- Belt of Hippolyte (Amazon Queen)
Hippolyte was queen of the Amazons, a race of female warriors who lived near the black sea. She was given a magic belt by her father Ares, the god of war. Heracles was sent to retrieve this belt for Admeta, the daughter of king Eurystheus, who wanted it for herself. As with the last task, Heracles took an army with him because he expected trouble, but Hippolyte was an admirer of his deeds and offered him her belt freely. To stop him succeeding, Hera came down to the Amazons disguised as one of their own and ran through the land, crying that Heracles meant to kidnap their queen. Therefore the Amazons charged toward the ship to kill Heracles and his men. Thinking that Hippolyte had betrayed him, Heracles killed her and ripped the belt from her body.
- Cattle of the giant Geryon
Geryon was a fearsome giant who lived on the island Erytheia in the far west of the Mediterranean. Geryon had three heads and three sets of arms and legs. He owned a two-headed dog named Orthrus, and a herd of magnificent red cattle. Orthrus and a herdsman called Eurytion guarded the cattle.
Heracles was required to fetch the Cattle of Geryon as his tenth labour.
With one huge blow from his olive-wood club, Heracles killed the watchdog. Eurytion the herdsman came to assist Orthrus, but Heracles dealt with him the same way. Geryon then attempted to defend the cattle but Heracles eventually killed him too.
The journey back from Erytheia took Heracles through southern Italy and this is where the Roman version of his story started – you will learn about this later.
When Heracles returned, Eurystheus sacrificed the bulls from the herd to Hera. He then set Heracles two more tasks on top of the original ten as he did not count the Hydra (as Heracles got help) or the Stables (as Heracles got paid).
- Apples from the Garden of the Hesperides
In Greek mythology, the Hesperides were nymphs who lived in a garden in a far western corner of the world. They had golden apples in their garden, which were originally a wedding present to Hera to Zeus from Gaia (Earth).
It took Heracles a lot of time and effort to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. He got lost, going first to North Africa then the Near East then Illyria, and finally Mount Caucasus where he found out where the Golden Apples were and how to get them from Prometheus the Titan. Heracles killed the eagle that had been feeding on his liver every day as a punishment for defying the gods, and Prometheus helped him as a reward.
Finally making his way to the Garden of the Hesperides, Heracles tricked Atlas into retrieving some of the golden apples for him, by offering to hold up the heavens for a little while. Upon his return, Atlas decided that he did not want to take the heavens back, and instead offered to deliver the apples himself, but Heracles tricked him again by agreeing to take his place on condition that Atlas swapped with him briefly so he could put a pillow on his shoulders. Atlas agreed, but Heracles went back on the deal and walked away. As the apples were the property of Zeus, Eurystheus could not keep them ; once he had seen them, Athena took them back to the garden.
- Cerberus – hound of Hades
Heracles’ final task was to capture Cerberus from the Underworld. He was initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries to gain the favour of Persephone.
Heracles presented himself before the throne of Hades and Persephone and asked permission to take Cerberus, to which the gods agreed as long as Heracles could capture the dog without any weapons. He used the same stranglehold that had worked on the Nemean Lion and the Cretan Bull and was successful. After presenting Cerberus to Eurystheus (who hid in the pithos again!) he returned him to guard the entrance of the underworld.
- What is the Iliad?
The Iliad is an epic poem in 24 books that is traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. The epic is about the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles. The subject of this poem is the Trojan War.
- Who is Homer?
Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two hugely influential epic poems of ancient Greece.
- What qualities do ancient heroes have?
In ancient Greek culture, a hero was a person of great strength and courage who was admired for their noble qualities and celebrated in legends and stories.
