Hercules

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Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek demigod Heracles, son of Jupiter (the Roman
equivalent of Zeus), and the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported
Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his
strength, who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became associated with the earliest Roman cult of
Hercules.[1] While adopting much of the Greek Heracles' iconography and mythology as his own,
Hercules adopted a number of myths and characteristics that were distinctly Roman. With the
spread of Roman hegemony, Hercules was worshiped locally from Spain through Gaul.

Etymology
Hercules's Latin name is not directly borrowed from Greek Heracles but is a modification of the
Etruscan name Herceler\, which derives from the Greek name via syncope, Heracles translates to
"The Glory of Hera". An oath invoking Hercules (Hercle! or Mehercle!) was a common
interjection in Classical Latin.[2]

[edit] Character
In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art that adapts Roman
iconography, Hercules can be identified by his attributes, the lion skin and the club (his favorite
weapon): in mosaic he is shown tanned bronze, a virile aspect.[3] Hercules was the illegitimate
son of Zeus and Alcmene, the wisest and most beautiful of all mortal women. Hera was enraged
at Zeus for his infidelity with Alcmene, and even more so that he placed the infant Hercules at
Hera's breast as she slept and allowed Hercules to feed, which caused Hercules to be partially
immortal, thus, allowing him to surpass all mortal men in strength, size and skill. However, Hera
still held a spiteful grudge against Hercules and sent Hercules into a blind frenzy, in which he
killed all of his children. When Hercules regained his sanity, he sought out the Oracle at Delphi
in the hope of making atonement. The Oracle ordered Hercules to serve Eurystheus, king of
Mycenae, who sent him on a series of tasks known as the Labors of Hercules. While he was a
champion and a great warrior, he was not above cheating and using any unfair trick to his
advantage. However, he was renowned as having "made the world safe for mankind" by
destroying many dangerous monsters.

Roman cult
Gilded bronze Roman "Hercules of the Theatre of Pompey", found near the Theatre of Pompey
in 1864, (Vatican Museums, Rome)[4]

In their popular culture the Romans adopted the Etruscan Hercle, a hero-figure that had already
been influenced by Greek culture — especially in the conventions of his representation — but
who had experienced an autonomous development. Etruscan Hercle appears in the elaborate
illustrative engraved designs on the backs of Etruscan bronze mirrors made during the fourth
century BC, which were favoured grave goods. Their specific literary references have been lost,
with the loss of all Etruscan literature, but the image of the mature, bearded Hercules suckling at
Uni/Juno's breast, engraved on a mirror back from Volterra, is distinctively Etruscan. This
Hercle/Hercules — the Hercle of the interjection "Mehercle!" — remained a popular cult figure
in the Roman legions.

The literary Greek versions of his exploits were appropriated by literate Romans from the 2nd
century BCE onwards, essentially unchanged, but Latin literature of Hercules added anecdotal
detail of its own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Western Mediterranean.
Details of the Greek cult, which mixed chthonic libations and uneaten holocausts with Olympian
services, were adapted to specifically Roman requirements as well, as Hercules became the
founding figure of Herculaneum and other places, and his cult became entwined with Imperial
cult, as shown in surviving frescoes in the Herculanean collegium. His altar has been dated to the
5th or 6th century BC. It stood near the Temple of Hercules Victor. Hercules became popular
with merchants, who customarily paid him a tithe of their profits.

Marcus Antonius identified himself with Hercules, and even invented a son of Hercules, called
Anton, from whom Antonius claimed descent. In response, his enemy Octavianus identified with
Apollo. Some early emperors, such as Trajan, took up the attributes of Hercules, and later
Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, went further and often identified or
compared themselves with him and supported his cult; Maximianus styled himself "Herculius".
The cult of Hercules spread through the Roman world. In their gardens, wealthy Romans would
often build altars to Hercules, who was regarded as the benefactor of mankind.[5] In Roman
Egypt, what is believed to be the remains of a Temple of Hercules are found in the Bahariya
Oasis.

The Romans adopted the myths of Heracles including his twelve labors, essentially unchanged,
but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking Hercules with the geography of the
Western Mediterranean.

In Roman mythology, Acca Larentia was Hercules's mistress. She was married to Tarutius, a
wealthy merchant. When he died, she gave his money to charity. In another version, she was the
wife of Faustulus.

In Aeneid 8.195ff, Virgil relates a myth about Hercules' defeating the monstrous Cacus, who
lived in a cave under the Palatine Hill (one of the eventual Seven Hills of Rome).

Death of Hercules
Hercules was married to Deianeira. Long after their marriage, one day the centaur Nessus offered
to ferry them across a wide river that they had to cross. Nessus set off with Deianeira first, but
tried to abduct her. When Hercules realized the centaur's real intention, Hercules chased after
him and shot him with a poisoned arrow. Before he died Nessus told Deianeira to take some of
his blood and treasure it: if she ever thought Hercules was being unfaithful, the centaur told her,
the blood would restore his love. Deianeira kept the phial of blood. Many years later after that
incident she heard rumours that Hercules had fallen in love with another woman. She smeared
some of the blood on a robe and sent it to Hercules. When he put on the robe, the blood still
poisoned from the same arrow used by Hercules, burnt into his flesh and when he realized this,
he told his friends to build him a pyre out of hardy oak and wild olive. He was burnt to death on
the pyre; the fire hurt far less than the poison. His father Jupiter then turned him into a god.

Germanic association
Tacitus records a special affinity of the Germanic peoples for Hercules. In chapter 3 of his
Germania, Tacitus states:

... they say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sang of him
first of all heroes. They have also those songs of theirs, by the recital of this barditus[6] as they
call it, they rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the result of the approaching
conflict. For, as their line shouts, they inspire or feel alarm.

In the Roman era Hercules' Club amulets appear from the 2nd to 3rd century, distributed over the
empire (including Roman Britain, c.f. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden
apples. A specimen found in Köln-Nippes bears the inscription "DEO HER[culi]", confirming the
association with Hercules.

In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Migration Period, the amulet is theorized to have rapidly
spread from the Elbe Germanic area across Europe. These Germanic "Donar's Clubs" were made
from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or precious metals. They are found
exclusively in female graves, apparently worn either as a belt pendant, or as an ear pendant. The
amulet type is replaced by the Viking Age Thor's hammer pendants in the course of the
Christianization of Scandinavia from the 8th to 9th century

The Legends & Labours of Heracles

Birth

Hercules was the Roman name for the greatest hero of Greek mythology -- Heracles. Like most authentic
heroes, Heracles had a god as one of his parents, being the son of the supreme deity Zeus and a mortal
woman. Zeus's queen Hera was jealous of Heracles, and when he was still an infant she sent two snakes
to kill him in his crib. Heracles was found prattling delighted baby talk, a strangled serpent in each hand.

The Labors

When he had come of age and already proved himself an unerring marksman with a bow and arrow, a
champion wrestler and the possessor of superhuman strength, Heracles was driven mad by Hera. In a
frenzy, he killed his own children. To atone for this crime, he was sentenced to perform a series of tasks,
or "Labors", for his cousin Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae. By rights, Hercules should have
been king himself, but Hera had tricked her husband Zeus into crowning Eurystheus instead.

Labor One: The Nemean Lion

As his first Labor, Heracles was challenged to kill the Nemean lion. This was no easy feat, for the beast's
parentage was supernatural and it was more of a monster than an ordinary lion. Its skin could not be
penetrated by spears or arrows. Heracles blocked off the entrances to the lion's cave, crawled into the
close confines where it would have to fight face to face and throttled it to death with his bare hands. Ever
afterwards he wore the lion's skin as a cloak and its gaping jaws as a helmet.

Labor Two: The Hydra

King Eurystheus was so afraid of his heroic cousin that when he saw him coming with the Nemean lion on
his shoulder, he hid in a storage jar. From this shelter he issued the order for the next Labor. Heracles
was to seek out and destroy the monstrous and many-headed Hydra. The mythmakers agree that the
Hydra lived in the swamps of Lerna, but they seem to have had trouble counting its heads. Some said
that the Hydra had eight or nine, while others claimed as many as ten thousand. All agreed, however, that
as soon as one head was beaten down or chopped off, two more grew in its place.

To make matters worse, the Hydra's very breath was lethal. Even smelling its footprints was enough to kill
an ordinary mortal. Fortunately, Heracles was no ordinary mortal. He sought out the monster in its lair and
brought it out into the open with flaming arrows. But now the fight went in the Hydra's favor. It twined its
many heads around the hero and tried to trip him up. It called on an ally, a huge crab that also lived in the
swamp. The crab bit Heracles in the heel and further impeded his attack. Heracles was on the verge of
failure when he remembered his nephew, Iolaus, the son of his twin brother Iphicles.

Iolaus, who had driven Heracles to Lerna in a chariot, looked on in anxiety as his uncle became entangled
in the Hydra's snaky heads. Finally he could bear it no longer. In response to his uncle's shouts, he
grabbed a burning torch and dashed into the fray. Now, as soon as Heracles cut off one of the Hydra's
heads, Iolaus was there to sear the wounded neck with flame. This kept further heads from sprouting.
Heracles cut off the heads one by one, with Iolaus cauterizing the wounds. Finally Heracles lopped off the
one head that was supposedly immortal and buried it deep beneath a rock.

Labor Three: the Cerynitian Hind

The third Labor was the capture of the Cerynitian hind. Though a female deer, this fleet-footed beast had
golden horns. It was sacred to Artemis, goddess of the hunt, so Heracles dared not wound it. He hunted it
for an entire year before running it down on the banks of the River Ladon in Arcadia. Taking careful aim
with his bow, he fired an arrow between the tendons and bones of the two forelegs, pinning it down
without drawing blood. All the same, Artemis was displeased, but Heracles dodged her wrath by blaming
his taskmaster Eurystheus.

Labor Four: the Erymanthian Boar

The fourth Labor took Heracles back to Arcadia in quest of an enormous boar, which he was challenged
to bring back alive. While tracking it down he stopped to visit the centaur Pholus. This creature -- half-
horse, half-man -- was examining one of the hero's arrows when he accidentally dropped it on his foot.
Because it had been soaked in poisonous Hydra venom, Pholus succumbed immediately. Heracles finally
located the boar on Mount Erymanthus and managed to drive it into a snowbank, immobilizing it. Flinging
it up onto his shoulder, he carried it back to Eurystheus, who cowered as usual in his storage jar.

Labor Five: The Augean Stables

Eurystheus was very pleased with himself for dreaming up the next Labor, which he was sure would
humiliate his heroic cousin. Heracles was to clean out the stables of King Augeas in a single day. Augeas
possessed vast herds of cattle which had deposited their manure in such quantity over the years that a
thick aroma hung over the entire Peloponnesus. Instead of employing a shovel and a basket as
Eurystheus imagined, Heracles diverted two rivers through the stableyard and got the job done without
getting dirty. But because he had demanded payment of Augeas, Eurystheus refused to count this as a
Labor.

Labor Six: The Stymphalian Birds

The sixth Labor pitted Heracles against the Stymphalian birds, who inhabited a marsh near Lake
Stymphalus in Arcadia. The sources differ as to whether these birds feasted on human flesh, killed men
by shooting them with feathers of brass or merely constituted a nuisance because of their number.
Heracles could not approach the birds to fight them - the ground was too swampy to bear his weight and
too mucky to wade through. Finally he resorted to some castanets given to him by the goddess Athena.
By making a racket with these, he caused the birds to take wing. And once they were in the air, he
brought them down by the dozens with his arrows.

Labor Seven: the Cretan Bull

Queen Pasiphae of Crete had been inspired by a vengeful god to fall in love with a bull, with the result
that the Minotaur was born -- a monster half-man and half-bull that haunted the Labyrinth of King Minos.
Pasiphae's husband was understandably eager to be rid of the bull, which was also ravaging the Cretan
countryside, so Hercules was assigned the task as his seventh Labor. Although the beast belched flames,
the hero overpowered it and shipped it back to the mainland. It ended up near Athens, where it became
the duty of another hero, Theseus, to deal with it once more.

Labor Eight: the Mares of Diomedes

Next Heracles was instructed to bring Eurystheus the mares of Diomedes. These horses dined on the
flesh of travelers who made the mistake of accepting Diomedes' hospitality. In one version of the myth,
Heracles pacified the beasts by feeding them their own master. In another, they satisfied their appetites
on the hero's squire, a young man named Abderus. In any case, Heracles soon rounded them up and
herded them down to sea, where he embarked them for Tiryns. Once he had shown them to Eurystheus,
he released them. They were eventually eaten by wild animals on Mount Olympus.
Labor Nine: Hippolyte's Belt

The ninth Labor took Heracles to the land of the Amazons, to retrieve the belt of their queen for
Eurystheus' daughter. The Amazons were a race of warrior women, great archers who had invented the
art of fighting from horseback. Heracles recruited a number of heroes to accompany him on this
expedition, among them Theseus. As it turned out, the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, willingly gave Hercules
her belt, but Hera was not about to let the hero get off so easily. The goddess stirred up the Amazons with
a rumor that the Greeks had captured their queen, and a great battle ensued. Heracles made off with the
belt, and Theseus kidnapped an Amazon princess.

Labor Ten: the Cattle of Geryon

In creating monsters and formidable foes, the Greek mythmakers used a simple technique of
multiplication. Thus Geryon, the owner of some famous cattle that Heracles was now instructed to steal,
had three heads and/or three separate bodies from the waist down. His watchdog, Orthrus, had only two
heads. This Labor took place somewhere in the country we know as Spain. The hound Orthrus rushed at
Heracles as he was making off with the cattle, and the hero killed him with a single blow from the wooden
club which he customarily carried. Geryon was dispatched as well, and Heracles drove the herd back to
Greece, taking a wrong turn along the way and passing through Italy.

Labor Eleven: the Apples of the Hesperides

The Hesperides were nymphs entrusted by the goddess Hera with certain apples which she had received
as a wedding present. These were kept in a grove surrounded by a high wall and guarded by Ladon, a
many-headed dragon. The grove was located in the far-western mountains named for Atlas, one of the
Titans or first generation of gods. Atlas had sided with one of his brothers in a war against Zeus. In
punishment, he was compelled to support the weight of the heavens by means of a pillar on his
shoulders. Heracles, in quest of the apples, had been told that he would never get the them without the
aid of Atlas.

The Titan was only too happy to oblige. He told the hero to hold the pillar while he went to retrieve the
fruit. But first Heracles had to kill the dragon by means of an arrow over the garden wall. Atlas soon
returned with the apples but now realized how nice it was not to have to strain for eternity keeping heaven
and earth apart. Heracles wondered if Atlas would mind taking back the pillar just long enough for him to
fetch a cushion for his shoulder. The Titan obliged and Heracles strolled off, neglecting to return.

Labor Twelve: the Capture of Cerberus

As his final Labor, Heracles was instructed to bring the hellhound Cerberus up from Hades, the kingdom
of the dead. The first barrier to the soul's journey beyond the grave was the most famous river of the
Underworld, the Styx. Here the newly dead congregated as insubstantial shades, mere wraiths of their
former selves, awaiting passage in the ferryboat of Charon the Boatman. Charon wouldn't take anyone
across unless they met two conditions. Firstly, they had to pay a bribe in the form of a coin under the
corpse's tongue. And secondly, they had to be dead. Heracles met neither condition, a circumstance
which aggravated Charon's natural grouchiness.

But Heracles simply glowered so fiercely that Charon meekly conveyed him across the Styx. The greater
challenge was Cerberus, who had razor teeth, three (or maybe fifty) heads, a venomous snake for a tail
and another swarm of snakes growing out of his back. These lashed at Heracles while Cerberus lunged
for a purchase on his throat. Fortunately, the hero was wearing his trusty lion's skin, which was
impenetrable by anything short of a thunderbolt from Zeus. Heracles eventually choked Cerberus into
submission and dragged him to Tiryns, where he received due credit for this final Labor.
Death

Heracles had a great many other adventures, in after years as well as in between his Labors. It was
poisonous Hydra venom that eventually brought about his demise. He had allowed a centaur to ferry his
wife Deianara across a river, and the centaur had attacked her on the other side. Heracles killed him with
an arrow, but before he died he told Deinara to keep some of his blood for a love potion. Deinara used
some on Heracles' tunic to keep him faithful, little realizing that it had been poisoned with Hydra venom
from the arrow. Heracles donned the tunic and died in agony.

Afterlife

Heracles was the only hero to become a full-fledged god upon his demise, but even in his case there was
his mortal aspect to be dealt with. By virtue of his spectacular achievements, even by heroic standards,
he was given a home on Mount Olympus and a goddess for a wife. But part of him had come not from his
father Zeus but from his mortal mother Alcmene, and that part was sent to the Underworld. As a
phantasm it eternally roams the Elysian Fields in the company of other heroes.

Constellation of Hercules:

Hercules: earliest descriptions of the constellation identify it as Engonasi, the kneeling one. Its
representation of the most famous of Greek heroes, Hercules, wasn't recognized by astronomers in their
stellar catalogs until well after 300 BC when Herodotus' uncle, the historian Panyassis sought to add
another of the Argonauts to the stellar vault in the fifth century BC. Hercules wasn't connected with this
constellation for several more years. For a star group so close to Thuban, the pole star of 2700 BC,
surprisingly little history survives.

Mesopotamia: representation of Marduk, the patronal god of the city of Babylon in Ur whose cult replaced
the cult of Bel. Marduk was the most popular Babylonian god in the fourteenth century BC and was
considered the god from which all others derived their power. His popularity arose from his triumphant
duel with Tiamat, the celestial Dragon, as he created all from Chaos. He is said to have brought order
from Chaos when he slew the Dragon with his mace and cut her body into two parts. One part was placed
above and became the heavens, one he placed below his feet and became the earth. Her breasts
became the mountains, the Tigris and Euphrates flowed from her eyes, the sea sprang from her body, her
blood was oil. He then made a path for the sun to follow, divided time into a calendar of twelve months of
thirty days each and created man from the bones of Qingu, ally of and lover to Tiamat. All ziggurats were
dedicated to Bel-Marduk. The most famous ziggurat, Esagila, in the city of Babylon became famous as
the Tower of Babel. See the Mesopotamian legends of Andromeda, Cetus, Draco, Hydra and Perseus.

Greece: the legend of Hercules is perhaps one of the most well known stories in classical Greek
mythology. The assignment of the constellation as Hercules was first depicted in a star atlas in 1485 in
Venice. The figure appears in all illustrations with various trophies of his labors including his club, the
Nemean lion's skin, the golden apples of the Hesperides, and the three heads of Cerberus, among
others.

The constellations surrounding Hercules include Boötes as the Titan Atlas with the inclusion of the
Corona Borealis as the globe on the giant's shoulders, Leo as the Nemean lion, Cancer the crab, Hydra
the sea serpent and Draco as the defeated dragon, Ladon, who protected the golden apple tree of the
Hesperides. See the Greek legends of Andromeda, Cancer, Centaurus, Draco, Hydra, Leo, Sagitta and
Perseus.

Hercules
Young Hercules
Hercules's mother was Alcmena or Alcmene, the wife of King Amphitryon of Troezen. His
father was Zeus, the king of the gods, who disguised himself as Amphitryon and visited Alcmena
on a night that lasted as long as three ordinary nights. Zeus's wife, Hera, was furious when she
learned that Alcmena was pregnant with Zeus's child. She sent witches to Troezen to stop
Alcmena from going into labor, but the witches failed and Alcmena gave birth to twins: Hercules
(or Heracles), Zeus's son, and Iphicles, Amphitryon's son.Hera sent two giant snakes to kill
Hercules in his cradle. His mother saw the snakes and called to her husband for help, but
Hercules stood up and strangled the snakes with his bare hands. In another version of this story,
it was Amphitryon who put the snakes in the babies' bed. A soothsayer had told him of Zeus's
visit to Alcmena, and Amphitryon wanted to find out which twin was Zeus's son. When Hercules
killed the snakes while Iphicles cried and tried to escape, Amphitryon's question was
answered.Amphitryon acted as a father to Hercules and even taught him to drive a chariot.
Hercules had many teachers. A famous thief, Autolycus, taught him to wrestle. Prince Castor of
Sparta taught him to fence, and Prince Eurytus of Oechalia taught him to shoot a bow. Hercules's
low intelligence and terrible temper sometimes interfered with his lessons. When his music
teacher, Linus, hit him, Hercules went into a rage and smashed Linus with his lyre, killing him.
He was tried for the murder, pleaded self defense, and was acquitted.

Afraid that his stepson would kill someone else, Amphitryon sent Hercules away from Thebes,
where the family was living, to a cattle ranch. There Hercules grew to be seven or eight feet tall.
He was the strongest man on earth, a fact he demonstrated by single-handedly killing a lion that
attacked the cattle of King Thespius of Thespiae. After that he always wore the lion's skin as a
cloak, with its head as a helmet.Thespius was so impressed with mighty young Hecules that he
decided that each of his fifty daughters should have Hercules's baby. He sent a different daughter
to Hercules every night, and Hercules never noticed the difference -- he thought they were all the
same person! Altogether Thespius's daughters had 51 babies by Hercules. (One of the

daughters didn't sleep with him, but two sisters had twins.) Hercules had many, many girlfriends
and children in his career, far too many to list here.One day Hercules met some heralds who
were going to Thebes to collect a yearly tribute of cattle Thebes owed to King Erginus of
Orchomenus. The heralds told Hercules that the Thebans were lucky Erginus hadn't previously
cut off their ears, noses, and hands. Infuriated, Hercules promptly cut off the heralds' ears, noses
and hands and sent them home.This was a terrible crime - you weren't supposed to hurt a herald,
no matter what he did. In retaliation Orchomenus attacked Thebes, and Hercules's stepfather
Amphitryon was killed in the fighting. Hercules commanded the Theban army and defeated the
enemy. The king of Thebes was so grateful that he let Hercules marry his daughter Megara.
Hercules's brother Iphicles married Megara's youngest sister. Their widowed mother later
married Rhadamanthys, a son of Zeus.

The Labors of Hercules

Hercules and Megara had two or more sons. But Hera still hated Hercules, and eventually she
drove him insane. He threw his sons, and two of his brother's sons, into a fire - then returned to
his senses and realized what he had done. He consulted an oracle to find out how he could be
purified. The oracle told him that he must serve King Eurystheus of Tiryns for 12 years and
perform 10 labors for him. He was assisted in some of his labors by Iphicles's young son,
Iolaus.The first labor Eurystheus gave Hercules was to kill the Nemean lion, which couldn't be
hurt by weapons. Hercules hit it with his club and shot it without success. Finally he strangled it
to death and carried it on his shoulders back to Eurystheus. Terrified by Hercules's strength, the
king forbade him to enter the city again. He even had a bronze jar made that he could hide in
when Hercules was around!

Hercules's next labor was killing the Lernaean Hydra, a swamp monster with nine heads, one of
which was immortal. Every time Hercules knocked off one of the Hydra's heads with his club,
two new heads grew. A giant crab helped the Hydra by biting Hercules's foot. Hercules managed
to kill the crab, but he couldn't defeat the Hydra until Iolaus set fire to the nearby trees and used
burning brands to sear the Hydra's necks after Hercules cut its heads off. That prevented new
heads from growing, and the Hydra was finally slain except for the immortal head, which
Hercules and Iolaus buried under a rock.The Hydra's gall was poisonous, so Hercules dipped his
arrows in them. This would later cause Hercules's death.Because Iolaus had helped Hercules,
King Eurystheus said that the second labor didn't count. Next he ordered Hercules to capture a
stag called the Ceryneian Hind and bring it to Mycenae alive. The hind had golden horns and
was sacred to the goddess Artemis. Hercules spent a year trying to catch it. Finally his patience
ran out and he shot it. It was wounded, but still alive, so he picked it up and started to carry it
away. Artemis and Apollo confronted him for attacking the sacred animal, but Hercules put the
blame on Eurystheus and the gods let him go on to Mycenae.The fourth labor was to capture the
large Erymanthian Boar and bring it alive to Mycenae. Hercules did that easily. The next labor
was to clean the stables of Augeas, King of Elis, in one day. The catch was that Augeas had
3,000 oxen, and his stables hadn't been cleaned in 30 years. Hercules handled this in a clever way
(probably suggested by Iolaus). He re-routed two rivers to run through the stables, cleaning them
out quickly. Augeas had promised to pay Hercules, but he backed out of the deal. Nonetheless,
Eurystheus said the job didn't count as one of the labors because Hercules had done it for
profit.For his next labor Hercules had to scare a flock of man-eating birds away from the woods
around the Stymphalian Marsh. He couldn't figure out how to accomplish this, so the goddess
Athena gave him some castanets to clash. This scared the birds out of the trees and Hercules shot
them.

Next Hercules had to capture the fire-breathing Cretan Bull, a simple enough task for Hercules.
After that he caught the four man-eating mares of King Diomedes of Thrace. To soothe the
animals Hercules fed their master, Diomedes, to them, after which he had no trouble taming
them.Then Eurystheus ordered Hercules to steal the girdle of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons,
a race of fierce warrior women who only raised their daughters. Their sons were sent to foreign
countries or killed. The Amazons were so dedicated to war that they each cut off one of their
breasts to make it easier to throw their javelins. Hippolyte fell in love with Hercules and agreed
to give him her girdle, but Hera disguised herself as Hippolyte and told the Amazons that
Hercules wanted to kidnap her. The Amazons raced to attack Hercules's ship. Assuming that
Hippolyte had lied to him, Hercules killed her, then fought off the whole Amazon army and
sailed away with the girdle.For the next labor he captured the oxen of Geryon, a monstrous
creature with three heads and three bodies. Geryon's cattle was guarded by a two-headed dog, but
Hercules killed Geryon and his dog and took possession of the cattle.Hercules had performed 10
labors in eight years, but Eurystheus insisted that Hercules owed him two labors more. He told
Hercules to steal some golden apples that were guarded by the Hesperides, daughters of Atlas,
the Titan who held the heavens on his shoulders as punishment for warring with Zeus. So
Hercules visited Atlas and offered to hold the sky up for a while if Atlas would get the apples for
him. Atlas agreed; but once he had the apples he refused to take his burden back from Hercules.
For once Hercules thought quickly. He asked Atlas to take the sky back for just a moment so he
could put a pad on his shoulders. Atlas acquiesced, and Hercules took the golden apples and
left.Hercules's last labor was to bring the three-headed dog Cerberus up from the underworld,
Hades. The god of the underworld, also called Hades, told Hercules that he could have the dog if
he caught it with his bare hands. Hercules managed to do that. At last he was purified of his
crime, and free from Eurystheus's service.

The Murder of Iphitus

But Hercules didn't stay out of trouble for long. He thought that his first marriage was unlucky because
he had murdered his children, so he gave his wife, Megara, to his nephew Iolaus and went looking for a
new bride.

Prince Eurytus of Oechalia (who had taught Hercules to shoot) had promised his daughter, Iole, to
anyone who could beat him and his sons in an archery match. Hercules accepted the challenge and won.
But Eurytus refused to let Hercules marry Iole because he was afraid Hercules would lose his mind again.
Hercules soon proved that Eurytus was right. He unknowingly bought some cattle that had been stolen
from Eurytus, and Iole's brother Iphitus, who was Hercules's friend, went to Hercules to discuss the
theft, whereupon Hercules went insane and threw Iphitus from the highest tower in Tiryns.

Once again Hercules was a murderer, and once again he wished to be purified. He went to the priestess
who had helped him before, but this time she turned him away because he had killed his own guest. So
Hercules went crazy again and tore her shrine apart. Angry at this sacrilege, the god Apollo attacked
Hercules, and they fought until Zeus intervened and made them shake hands. Hercules put the shrine
back together and the priestess told him that he could be purified by becoming a slave for three
years.So the god Hermes sold Hercules to Queen Omphale of Lydia. She had him dress in women's
clothes and made him weave and do other chores usually assigned to women. She also made him her
lover. When his three years of slavery had ended, Hercules left Lydia and returned to his adventures.

The Death of Hercules

Eventually Hercules married Deianeira, the warrior step-daughter of King Oeneus of Calydon (her real
father was the god Dionysus). One day Hercules paid a centaur named Nessus to take Deianeira across a
river, but Nessus tried to rape Deianeira and Hercules shot him. Before he died Nessus told Deianeira
how to make a love potion from his blood. She saved the potion until Hercules conquered Oechalia and
took Iole as his mistress. Then Deianeira made a shirt, soaked it in the potion, and sent it to Hercules,
thinking that it would cause him to abandon Iole for her.But Nessus had tricked Deianeira. His blood
contained Hydra poison from Hercules's arrow, and when Hercules donned the shirt it burned his flesh
and made his blood boil. He jumped into a stream, but that only made the pain worse. He tore the shirt
off and pieces of his body came off with it. Enraged, he found the man who had delivered the shirt and
killed him. Still in agony, he boarded a ship and headed home to kill Deianeira. She saved him the
trouble by killing herself.Unable to stand the pain any longer, Hercules built a funeral pyre, climbed onto
it, and ordered his friends to set it on fire. His friend Philoctetes obeyed. (Hera later punished
Philoctetes for putting Hercules out of his misery by causing a viper to bite him. He survived, however,
and fought in the Trojan War.)Proud of Hercules for dying so nobly, Zeus made him immortal. Somehow
he even convinced Hera to let Hercules marry her daughter Hebe. Hercules became the porter of
Olympus, where he remained forever. However, since Hercules was half mortal, a part of him went to
the underworld, to spend eternity in the Elysian Fields with other great heroes.

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