Heracles Twelve Labours Flashcards
What is the list of the labors ? LHHBSBBDBCAC, Lucky hungry hippos beg some baker bill down back causeway again causeway
Lion
Hydra
Hind
Boar
Stables
Birds
Bull
Diomedes
Belt
Cattle
Apples
Cerberus
Labour: Namean lion
Info and stuff
- first labour
- attacks it with bows and arrows but doesn’t work (it’s skin is impregnable)
- strangles it
- had to skin it with its tooth( Athena told him) to show it to King Eurythseus
Labour: The Lernaean Hydra
Info and stuff ( start with what number it is )
Labour 2
- Hydra had many heads and venom for blood
- when one head was removed two would grow back ( big problem)
- His cousin Iolaus helps him
- when one head was removed Iolaus would seal it with fire
- buried the immortal head under rocks and used its venom for his arrows
- Gets told it didn’t count as his cousin helped him
Labour: The golden Hind
Start with what number
- Labor 3
- Hind: a deer
- It was special as it was said to be larger than a bull and golden
- sacred to Artemis
- tracked it for a whole year and caught it by snaring it
- bound it’s legs and carried it back to Mycenae
-gets confronted by Artemis and Apollo who tell him to stop but he says he is borrowing it and was forced to they allow him to carry on
Labour: The Erymanthian boar
Start with what number it is
Labor 4
- ordered to bring it back alive
- boar was very large which made it special
- terrorized the country side
- he chased it through thick snow causing it to tire
- when it gave up he bound it’s legs and carried it back
- King was so scared of it he hid in a pithos jar
Labour: the Augean stables
Start with what number it is
Labour 5
-tasked to clean them
- famed for its large cattle and even larger amounts of dung
- with a combo of brains and brawn diverted a nearby River through them
- Augeus promised payment but didn’t pay so Hercules returned with an army
- to commemorate the victory the Olympic Games where founded
Labour: the Stymphalian Birds
Start with what number
Labour 6
- was to defeat the Stymlhalian Birds
- they had been a massive irratance and even ate people
- he received the help of Athena who gave him a rattle made by Hephistos
- the birds then flew into the sky upon rattling it and he shot them with either a bow or sling shot
Labour: The Cretan bull
Start with what labour number
Labour 7
- had to bring Eurytheus the Cretan Bull
- had been destroying Cretan farm land so when he arrived king Minos was happy for him to take it
- he crept up behind it and strangled it to just before passing out he loosened
- he then rode it back to Mycenae
- once again Eurytheus was terrified and hid in a pithos jar
Labour: The Mares of Diomedes
Start with what labour number
Labour 8
- the horses belonged to King Diomedes of the Bistones
- fed on human body parts of defeated enemies and passing strangers
- Hercules defeated the stablemen
- he left the horses with his friend Abderos but they ate him
- Angered by this Hercules fed Diomedes to them
- sources change the end of the myth but they get released and end up dying somehow
Labour: the Belt of Hippolyte
State the labour number
Labour 9
- Hippolyte: queen of the Amazons(female warrior race)
- given the belt by her father Ares so very important
- he took an army as he expected trouble but she instead admired his work and offered it to him
- Hera didn’t like this so she took the form as an Amazon and spread a rumor that he planned to steal the queen
- the Amazon don’t like this and try and kill him both sides are mislead and a bloody battle ensues
- Hercules kills Hipolyte and takes the belt
Labour: The Cattle of Geryon
What labour number and info ? How does this Myth into Rome ?
Labour 10
- the cattle where famed for their red hides
- he first had to defeat the herdsman Eurytion and his dog Orthrus
- Geryon gets word of this and rushes after Hercules
- he’s no normal bloke with three heads and three sets of arms+ legs
- Hercules uses his bow and club to defeat him
- he goes back through south Italy forming the Roman connection
-Eurytheus sacrificed them to Hera and now for the two additional tasks because the Lernean Hydra and Augean stables didn’t count
Labour: The Apples of the Hesperides
Start with labour number
Additional Info:
Atlas’ punishment was to hold up the sky
Labour 11
- Hesperides grew golden apples which Gaia (earth) made for Zeus and Hera
- Guarded by the Hesperides which are Nymphs
- he didn’t know where the garden was so he spent ages looking for it
- he found Prometheus and killed the eagle that had been torturing him and in return he told him where they where
-he asks Atlas to grab the apples if he held up the sky for him
- Atlas accepted and grabs them
-Atlas offers to return them but Odysseus knows his would mean he would have to hold up the sky forever
- He tells Atlas to hold it up for one moment but grabs the apples and runs
- Eurytheus not allowed to keep them as they are Zeus’ property
Labour: Cerberus
Labour number
Labour 12
- tasked to retrieve him from the underworld
- he was greeted by both Persephone and Hades who present him with a challenge
- capture Cerberus with no weapons
- he accepts and completes it and upon presenting Cerberus to Eurytheus he is returned to the underworld
