Hercules and the 12 laboursFrom TinWiki.orgHercules is the son of Zeus, his grandfather was Perseus. Hercules or known by some as Herkales was a greek demi-god who did heroic deeds and is regaurded as one of the best people in mythology ever. Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon, made love to both Zeus and her husband on the same night and bore two sons, Hercules (son of Zeus) and Iphicles (son of Amphitryon). Hercules incurred the everlasting wrath of Hera because he was the child of her unfaithful husband. A few months after his birth Hera set two serpents in his cradle, but the prodigious infant promptly strangled them.
[edit] The 12 Labours of Hercules-Hercules defended thebes from Orchomenus and as a reward he was givin Megara who was the daughter of King Creon. But Hera who had tried to kill him as a child would not stop, Hera eventully drove Hercules insane and in a moment of madness Hercules killed his wife Megara and his children. Hercules regained his sanity and instatly weeped for his loss, he then travelled to the court of King Eurystheus of Tiryns where he sought purification, which is where he got the 12 labours. The 12 Labours of Herkales are as follows...
[edit] The Nemean LionThe Nemean Lion was well known to Hercules and needed to be delt with. The Lion was found most days wandering the hills around Nemea. Hercules set out to do his duty to do all the labours, he went to a town named Cleonae where he stayed at a house which was for workman-for-hire. Hercules was in trouble, after tracing the lion for some days he found that his arrows were less than useless against the lion' tough skin. So after he found that a ranged attack would not work he picked up his club and chased the beast into a cave that only had 2 entraces/exits; hercules had planned this and had already blocked one of the holes, so now it was just him and the lion toghter in the cave. He ran towards the fierce lion and grabbed the beast in his hands and slowly choked it to death. [edit] The HydraNumber two is the Lernean Hydra. Near Lerna is a place of murky waters and swamps and that is the place of the Hydra, they Hydra would rise up and terrorize the countryside with its fierce self. The beast had 9 heads, one of which is immortal, it attacks with poisonous vemon. Hercules may be a demi-god but he knew when he needed help, so he brought along his trusted nephew Iolaus.So the pair drove to Lerna and by the springs of Amymone, they discovered the lair of the loathsome hydra. First, Hercules lured the coily creature from the safety of its den by shooting flaming arrows at it. Once the hydra emerged, Hercules seized it. The monster was not so easily overcome, though, for it wound one of its coils around Hercules' foot and made it impossible for the hero to escape. With his club, Hercules attacked the many heads of the hydra, but as soon as he smashed one head, two more would burst forth in its place! To make matters worse, the hydra had a friend of its own: a huge crab began biting the trapped foot of Hercules. Quickly disposing of this nuisance, most likely with a swift bash of his club, Hercules called on Iolaus to help him out of this tricky situation. Each time Hercules bashed one of the hydra's heads, Iolaus held a torch to the headless tendons of the neck. The flames prevented the growth of replacement heads, and finally, Hercules had the better of the beast. Once he had removed and destroyed the eight mortal heads, Hercules chopped off the ninth, immortal head. This he buried at the side of the road leading from Lerna to Elaeus, and for good measure, he covered it with a heavy rock. As for the rest of the hapless hydra, Hercules slit open the corpse and dipped his arrows in the venomous blood.
[edit] The Erymanthian BoarThis labour was about Hercules catching the Boar that lived on mount Erymanthus. Each day the Boar would come crashing down from its mountain liar and he would leave death in its wake, people and animals died at the tusks of this Boar. Once again hercules thought it through and did not just go charging in; he went and consulted Pholus who was a centaur living in a cave near mount Erythmanthus. hercules was fed at that cave and when he asked for a drink of wine Pholus said no because it was everyones. Hercules opened it anyway and then all the centaurs came after him, hercules attacked them and won but Pholus dropped one of Herc's magic arrows and killed Pholus.It wasn't too hard for Hercules to find the boar. He could hear the beast snorting and stomping as it rooted around for something to eat. Hercules chased the boar round and round the mountain, shouting as loud as he could. The boar, frightened and out of breath, hid in a thicket. Hercules poked his spear into the thicket and drove the exhausted animal into a deep patch of snow. Then he trapped the boar in a net. [edit] The Hind of CeryneiaYou'd think it would have been easy for a hero like Hercules to go shoot a deer and bring it back to Eurystheus, but a few problems made things complicated. This was a special deer, because it had golden horns and hoofs of bronze. Not only that, the deer was sacred to the goddess of hunting and the moon, Diana; she was Diana's special pet. That meant that Hercules could neither kill the deer nor hurt her. He couldn't risk getting Diana angry at him; he was already in enough trouble with Hera. hercules had to get the beast, after one year of tracking it, it was about to run away for good when he shot it through the legs. Diana was very angry because Hercules tried to kill her sacred animal. She was about to take the deer away from Hercules, and surely she would have punished him, but Hercules told her the truth. He said that he had to obey the oracle and do the labors Eurystheus had given him. Diana let go of her anger and healed the deer's wound. Hercules carried it alive to Mycenae.
[edit] The Augean StablesFor the fifth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clean up King Augeas' stables. Hercules knew this job would mean getting dirty and smelly, but sometimes even a hero has to do these things. Then Eurystheus made Hercules' task even harder: he had to clean up after the cattle of Augeas in a single day. Now King Augeas owned more cattle than anyone in Greece. Some say that he was a son of one of the great gods, and others that he was a son of a mortal; whosever son he was, Augeas was very rich, and he had many herds of cows, bulls, goats, sheep and horses.
[edit] Stymphalian BirdsEurystheus came up with a task much harder than those before hand, he told Hercules to drive away a giant flock of birds near a lake beside Stymphalos. Hercules arrived at the lake but didn't know what he was going to do, but to his aid came Athena who had a pair of bronze krotala which had been forged by the immortal craftsman Hephaestus, the god of the forge. With this gift from Athena and Hephaestus he climbed a mountain and clashed them together and scared all the birds, he then shot them down with his bow, or sling shot that part of the legend is unclear.
[edit] The Cretan BullAt that time, Minos, King of Crete, controlled many of the islands in the seas around Greece, and was such a powerful ruler that the Athenians sent him a tribute every year. There are many bull stories about Crete. Zeus, in the shape of a bull, had carried Minos' mother Europa to Crete, and the Cretans were fond of the sport of bull-leaping, in which contestants grabbed the horns of a bull and were thrown over its back. Hercules got to Crete and easily wrestled the bull to the ground and drove it back to the King, Eurystheus. The foolish king released the bull and it wandered around Greece and terrorized people, it ended up in a city named Marathon. [edit] Mares of DiomedesAfter the Bull he went after man-eating Horses, these mares lived in Diomeds.After Hercules had traveled across the sea with a group of volenters he entrusted the mares to a youth named Abderos. Unfortunately, the mares got the better of young Abderos and dragged him around until he was killed.In honor of the slain Abderos, Hercules founded the city of Abdera.The hero took the mares back to Eurystheus, but Eurystheus set them free. The mares wandered around until eventually they came to Mount Olympos, the home of the gods, where they were eaten by wild beasts.
[edit] Belt of HippolyteQueen Hippolyte had a special piece of armor. It was a leather belt that had been given to her by Ares, the war god, because she was the best warrior of all the Amazons. She wore this belt across her chest and used it to carry her sword and spear. Eurystheus wanted Hippolyte's belt as a present to give to his daughter, and he sent Hercules to bring it back. She asked Hercules why he had come, and when he told her, she promised to give him the belt. But the goddess Hera knew that the arrival of Hercules meant nothing but trouble for the Amazons. Disguised as an Amazon warrior, Hera went up and down the army saying to each woman that the strangers who had arrived were going to carry off the queen. So the Amazons put on their armor.But when Hercules saw that they were wearing their armor and were carrying their weapons, he knew that he was under attack. Thinking fast, he drew his sword and killed Hippolyte, and so the 9th was done.
[edit] Cattle of GeryonNumber 10 was just as hard as the rest and was not to be taken lightly, Hercules had to travel to the end of the world. The kings labour for hercules this time was to bring him the cattle of the monster which was named Geryon. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe. Chrysaor was a after-effect of Medousa, Chrysaor had sprung from the gorgon body after hercules had beheaded it. Callirrhoe was the daughter of two great Titans, Oceanus and Tethys, with such a great family lineage its not surprising that geryon was weir, he had three heads and three sets of legs, and joined at his waist. Hercules built two super-massive mountains which our now known as the pillars of Hercules. Not long after arriving a two headed dog attacked him, this dog was the brother of Cerberus its name as Orthus; this was no problem though, hercules just bashed it in the head with his club. Our hero eventully got the cattle but on his way back Geryon attacked, hercules solved this problem by sending arrows straight into Geryons body.
[edit] Apples of HesperidesThis is number 11, Origionly there were only 10 labours but the hydra and the cattle were not reconside by the king, so now Hercules had been doing these for 8 years and 1 month. This task was to retreave the golden apples from the Hesperides. The hard part of this task was to find the garden; hercules started by heading due west to find it. Whilst on this bearing he came across Cycnus who was the son of Ares who was the god of war. Cycnus killed travellers and passers-by then offered his fathe the flesh as a scafirice.Hercules subsiquintly killed him, rather easily aswell. He was told at this point that he should talk to Nereus and that he would knwo the location of the garden. Heracles found Nereus and asked him for directions. When Nereus refused, Heracles leapt on the sea-god, and held him in a clinch, but Nereus could transform himself into many forms, including fire and water. However, Heracles held on and in the end Nereus was forced to give the hero the directions he needed. Needless to say Hercules found the garden and manged to complete his task.
[edit] Hounds Of hades, CerbeusThe last labours was for Hercules to get the Hound named cerberus which guarded the gates of hell. herc set out using the steps of Theseus, Pirithous and Orpheus. He travelled down into hell and then asked hades if he could fight the hound and if he won, he would keep it; Hades was arrogant enough to accept. Before departing, Hercules asked for the release of Theseus, who had participated in, but not planned the ill fated attempt to kidnap Persephone. Theseus witnessed the battle with Cerberus, saw Hercules grip two of the three throats in a vice-like grip, threw the beast over his shoulder, and returned to Eurystheus. [edit] See Also[edit] External Websites
[edit] Relevant Dissucions on AboveTopSecret |
 |
Personal tools
- This page was last modified 02:02, 29 September 2008.
- This page has been accessed 1,819 times.
- Content is available under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.5.
- About TinWiki.org
- Disclaimers