Mr. Marassa's Greek Mythology Course
Hercules

The Mares of Diomedes

Introduction

Hera's wrath toward Hercules did not decrease with time.  On the contrary, the mounting glory of the young hero was for her a constant reminder of the humiliating deception she had had to endure.  But Hercules' refusal to acknowledge his cousin Eurysheus as the firstborn among Perseus' great-grandchildren----and therefore as the ruler of Argolis (the area encompassing Argos and Mycenae)---- went against Zeus' edict.  This played right into Hera's desire for vengeance, and she felt justified in submitting Hercules to divine retribution.

The queen of the gods tricked Hercules into believing that his three children by Megara were his deadliest enemies.  And so Hercules murdered them.  The crimes took place in front of the Temple of Zeus, where the sons and their mother were about to attend a sacrifice.  Hercules approached them like a madman, his eyes bulging and his veins engorged.  Then he laughed a sinister laugh and aimed him bow and his sons.  The children rushed away in terror.  The first tried to hide behind a pillar, but Hercules chased him in circles and finally pierced his heart with an arrow.  The second child fell at his father's knees and cried, "Dearest Father, do not murder me!" Unmoved, Hercules seized his club and smashed his son's skull.  The third son rushed toward him mother, who pulled him into the temple and locked the doors.  In his murderous rage, Hercules pried open the doors and ruthlessly plunged his sword into the boy's chest.

When Hercules returned to his senses, he was overwhelmed by grief and, thinking of suicide, cried out, " Why spare the life of the man who killed my sons? To avenge the murder of my children, let me hurl myself from a cliff, or expel with fire the madness that seized my body!"  But all Hercules could do was flee from human contact, so ridden was he with despair, shame, and puzzlement over his crimes.  In exile he sought advice from Apollo's Oracle at Delphi on how he might be purified.  The Pythoness told him to go to Mycenae in the western part of Argolis and to serve Eurystheus, who reigned over that city.  His servitude was to last twelve years.  The Pythoness also advised him to perform whatever labors might impose upon him, for he would be rewarded with immortality.

Hercules found in repugnant to serve a man who was so far from being his equal and who was known for his cowardice and mediocrity.  But determined to atone for his hideous crimes as well as to comply with the gods' incomprehensible demands, Hercules accepted the enslavement to Eurysheus and the ensuing trials.

Hercules set forth on his labors, having received many gifts: Athena gave him a golden breastplate, Hephaestus a helmet, Apollo a bow, Hermes a sword: from Poseidon he received his horses, and from Zeus a splendid shield decorated with enamel and gold.  But Hercules' most distinctive weapon was to be the club he had fashioned while hunting the lion of Cithaeron.
 

The First Labor  - The Nemean Lion

 The first labor imposed on Hercules was the slaying of the Nemean lion, a gigantic beast with a pelt impervious to both iron and stone.  The monster, whose sibling was the famous and deadly Sphinx of Thebes, had been brought up by Hera and released in the region of Nemea in Argolis.  There it had been devouring people and herds with unrestrained ferocity.  Hercules surprised the lion as it was about to enter its cave.  The beast was covered with blood from the day's slaughter.  He shot several arrows at it, but this was in vain, as they rebounded form the pelt without inflicting any injury.  An assault with the sword was similarly fruitless.  Finally Hercules, using his club, dealt the monster a violent blow on the muzzle, driving the somewhat shaken lion into the cave.  Not wasting a second, hr blocked one of the two exits with heavy rocks and entered by the other.  Having realized that
weapons were futile against such a formidable adversary, Hercules decided to wrestle the creature.  He wrapped his arms around the lion's neck, slowly choking the monster, which died in the midst of savage convulsion.  When he tried to flay the lion, Hercules was at a loss as to how to pierce the impenetrable skin.  He finally thought of using the beast's own razor-sharp claws to cut it, and proudly wore the invulnerable pelt as armor.

Thus clad in the lion skin, with the beast's gigantic corpse slung across his shoulders, Hercules returned to Thebes.  His appearance terrified Eurystheus, who ordered him to leave the fruits of his labors outside the
gate in the future.  Some claim that Zeus added the lion to the constellation to celebrate his son's exploit.
 

The Second Labor - The Lernaean Hydra

As the second labor, Eurystheus ordered the destruction of another monster reared by Hera, the Lernaean Hydra.  It had a doglike body and seven snakelike heads, one of them immortal.  The breath coming from its mouths was so venomous that it meant a sure death for anyone approaching it.  The Hydra was living near Argos by a grove of plane trees stretching down to the sea.  It had its lair in a swamp surrounding the source of the river Amymone and was ravaging the countryside, destroying the crops, and terrorizing people and animals.  The goddess Athena helped Hercules find the Hydra's lair and advised him to attack the monster with burning arrows so as to force it out of its refuge.  But each time Hercules crushed one of the Hydra's heads with him club, it grew back instantly.  The help of his nephew Iolaus, son of Iphicles, was crucial at this point.  At Hercules' request, Iolaus set the grove on fire and supplied Hercules with burning brands, with which he was able to sear each headless neck.  And with a sword, Hercules severed the central head, which was immortal, and buried it under a huge rock.  Then he dipped his arrows in the Hydra's blood, making each one so poisonous that the smallest wound inflicted by it would be fatal.

The Third Task - The Erymanthian Boar

The third labor imposed on Hercules was to bring back alive a monstrous boar that haunted the cypress-covered slopes of Mount Erymanthus in Arcadia.  The fierce and enormous beast was dislodged from a thicket by Hercules'
fearsome shouts and then driven into the deep snow that covered the mountain. Chasing the boar until exhaustion, Hercules eventually jumped on its back, bound it with chains, and brought it to Mycenae on his shoulders. When Eurystheus saw it, he was once more struck with terror and hid in a big bronze jar he had secretly prepared as a refuge in time of danger.

The Fourth Labor - The Ceryneian Hind

As the fourth labor, Hercules was to capture the hind of Ceryneia and bring it alive to Mycenae. This very large creature was one of five hinds that Artemis, a child at that time, had once seen grazing on Mount Lycaeus in Thessaly. They all had golden horns and were larger than bulls. The goddess, running in pursuit, caught four of them and harnessed them to her chariot. The fifth fled th the Ceryneian Hill, guided by Hera, who had Hercules‚ labors in mind. As the hind was sacred to Artemis, it was considered an act of impiety to kill or even touch it. Hercules intended to perform his labor without exerting the least force.

He hunted the swift animal for a year, going as far north as the land of the Hyperboreans; there he visited the fabled people who worship Apollo. Weary from the chase, the beast took refuge on Mount Artemisium, where Hercules pinned its forelegs with an arrow and caught it. He put it on his shoulders and hastened through Arcadia to Mycenae. But Artemis and Apollo blocked his path, intent on depriving him of the hind, which they considered their property. Hercules pleaded with them , laying the blame on Eurystheus. This appeased the anger of Artemis and her brother, and Hercules was allowed to carry the beast alive to Mycenae.

The Fifth Labor - The Stymphalian Birds

The fifth labor Eurystheus imposed on Hercules was to chase away man-eating birds living on the shores of Lake Stymphalus in Arcadia. They had multiplied to the point of becoming a plague to the surroundings, ravaging the crops with their poisonous excrement. In addition, they were taking to the air in great flocks, attacking men and beasts with their brazen beaks and claws, which could pierce a metal breastplate. They also poured showers of their brazen feathers down like arrows.

After having tried without success to drive them away with his bow and arrows, Hercules received the help of Athena, who gave him castanets of bronze made by Hephaestus. Standing on a mountain, overlooking the lake, Hercules clacked the castanets and created such a din that the terrified birds assembled in a gigantic flock and flew away, going as far as the black sea. Immediately Hercules shot at the dense pack with his arrows and slaughtered many of the birds.

The Sixth Labor - The Stables of Augeia

Hercules‚ sixth labor was to be the cleansing of Augeias‚ filthy cattle yard in one day. Augeias, son of the Sun, Helios, was king of Elis, a city located near Olympia in the Peloponnese. Helios had given him huge herds of cattle, so that Augeias was the wealthiest man in Greece. But through deplorable neglect, the dung in the cattle yard had not been cleared away for years and lay in a thick layer through which it was no longer possible to plow for grainˆ resulting in a stench that affected the entire Peloponnese.

Eurystheus could not disguise his glee at the idea of sending Hercules to that pestilent and sterile land and he pictured with malice his cousin‚s humiliation at having to load the dung into baskets and carry them on his shoulders.

Before starting work, Hercules struck a deal with Augeias: the king would give him a tenth of his herds if Hercules succeeded in cleaning the stables within the one day commanded by Eurystheus. Hercules did not waste a minute and, after having pierced a breach in the foundations of the cattle yard, undertook t divert the flow of two neighboring rivers, the Alpheius and the Peneius. As a result, the two rivers rushed through the yard and swept it clean. Subsequently the vigorous flow went on to cleanse the pastures, and by nightfall the land was restored to health. But Augeias did not keep his word and refused to pay the reward that they had agreed upon, claiming that the river gods had done the job.

    The Seventh Labor - The Cretan Bull

  Hercules was ordered to capture the Cretan bull as his seventh labor.  The beast had been the lover of Pasiphae, daughter of the Sun (Helios) and wife of Mino, the king of Crete. As Minos, breaking an earlier promise, had refused to sacrifice to Poseidon a fine bull, the god of the sea punished him by inspiring in Pasiphae a passion for the bull.  The Minotaur, a monster who had the body of a man and the head of a bull, was the result of their union. Hercules went to Crete and met Minos, who allowed him to capture the bull.  He caught the beautiful and ferocious beast without assistance after a long struggle and brought it back to Greece. Eurystheus wanted to dedicate the bull to Hera, but the goddess refused to accept an offering so closely associated with Hercules' glory.  She set it free and the beast wandered through Argos and the Isthmus of Corinth to Attica, where it was captured by Theseus, king of Athens, and sacrificed to Athena.

The Eighth Labor - The Mares of Diomedes

Diomedes was a king of the Bistones, a warlike Thracian people. His stables, in which four savage mares lived, were the terror of Thrace. The untameable mares were fed on the flesh of unsuspecting guests and were so ferocious that they were permanently tethered with iron chains. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to capture them and bring them back alive.

 Accompanied by a small troop of volunteers, Hercules set sail and landed on the coast of Thrace. Upon finding the stables, Hercules and his men massacred the grooms and captured Diomedes. Hercules set the king before his own mares, which tore his body apart and devoured him. Calmer after having satisfied their appetite for human flesh and kept solidly bound to each other, the four mares were led to the ship and brought to Mycenae.

The Ninth Labor - The Girdle of Queen Hippolyte

At the order of Eurystheus' daughter Admete, Hercules was to capture the golden girdle given by Ares to Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons. A nation of female warriors stemming from Ares, the Amazons had excluded men from their society except for reproduction, intermittently associating with men from neighboring tribes for this purpose. All their inflat boys were put to desth or had their arms and legs broken so that they were incapacitated. Girls, on the other hand, were reaed in a manly fashion, handling weapons and riding horses. The Amazons clad themselves in the skin of wild beast and cut off their right breasts to facilitate the use of weapons in battle. Hunting and fighting on horseback were their main occupations, and so savage and unrestrained was their behavior that they terrified even the most seasoned warrior.

Hercules set sail in one ship with a number of volunteers. After having passed the Bosphorus and sailed through the black sea, they arrived at Themiscryra, the harbor of the Amazons' country. Hippolyte visited Hercules, and, both intrigued by his fame and attracted by his muscular body, she promised to give him the girdle. But Hera, disguised in the likeness of an Amazon, started spreading a rumor that the stranger who had arrived were planning to abduct the queen. So armed Amazons charged the ship on horseback.

When Hercules saw them, he suspected treachery, killed Hippolyte, and stripped her of the girdle. He his troops than proceeded to put the Amazonian army to fight after great slaughter. But some claim that Hippolyte refused to give up the girdle and that battle ensued; and that Hercules, having managed to throw her off her hand, offering mercy, but that she chose to die rather than surrender the gift from her father.

Upon his return to Mycenae, Hercules gave the girdle to Admete, who was unaware of its meaning and of the blood that had been spent for the sake of her vain request.

The Tenth Labor - The Cattle of Geryon

The tenth labor was to be the capture of the immense herds of cattle owned by Geryon, who was a three-bodied and three-headed giant belived to be the strongest creature on earth. He was the son of Chrysaor, whise parents were Poseidon and the Gorgon Medusa, and of Callirhoe, daughter of the ?q? Oceanus. Geryon lived on a red island called Erytheia, located in the wide river that encircled the whole plain of Earth and where the Sun and stars rose and set; during the night, the Sun sailed over the steam of Okeanos from west to east, using a huge vessel called the Cup of the Sun. Geryon owned herds of beautiful red cattle, which were guarded by the herdsman, Eurtion, and a gigantic twoheaded dog named Orthrus.

 To reach the extraordinarily remote island, Hercules first crossed the Lybian desert. The heat of the Sun was intense and caused Hercules to suffer so greatly that he threatened to shoot it with his arrows. The Sun begged him not to, and Hercules agreed on the condition that he could use the Cup to cross Okeanos and reach Erytheia. Upon arriving at the channel separating Europe from Africa, Hercules erected as tokens of his journey two pillars facing each other across the straits. They became known as the Pillars of Hercules that is, the Rock of Gibraltar and the Rock of Ceuta.

As soon as Hercules landed on Erytheia, the dog Orthrus rushed at him, barking menacingly. Hercules quickly silenced the creature with two crushing blows of his famed club one per head. Eurytion, the herdsman, met a similar end. Hercules then set out to drive away the cattle, but Geryon, alerted by the turmoil, suddenly faced him and challenged him to battle. One of Hercules' deadly arrows pierced one of the monster's foreheads; it split right through the flesh and the bone and stuck at the top of the skull. Red blood darkened the monster's cuirass and legs, and soon one of Geryon's three bodies was leaning towards the floor. Owing to the Hydra's poison, the two other bodies followed suit. Shortly afterward, Hercules loaded the cattle onto the Cup and sailed over Okeanos.

 On his way back to Greece, Hercules followed the coasts of Spain, Gaul, Italy, and Sicily, where he became embroiled in numerous battle as well as in numerous romantic affairs. He left his mark everywhere he went, and local cults and sanctuaries honored him even centuries after his passage. It is said by some that the warlike Gauls descended from his union with a tall princess called Galata, who chose him as her lover. As he drove Geryon's cattle through Provence in the plain between Marseilles and the river Rhone, he was attacked by hostile natives. After he had killed many of them with his arrows, his supply ran out. Wounded, exhausted, and unarmed, he knelt down in tears and in desperation appealed to Zeus. The king of the gods, pitying his son, crested a cloud from which a shower of stones fell on the plain. With these deadly missiles, Hercules crushed the enemies fleeing in terror. In memory of the episode, the place was called the Stony Plain.

 When he passed through the Ligurian Alps he had to fight bands of robbers. He then went down the coast of Italy, traveling through Etruria, and crossed the Tiber with his cattle near the future location of Rome. Hercules slept while some of his finest bulls were stolen by Cacus, a hiteous three-headed, firebreathing shepherd. Cacus lived in a nearby cave littered with the remains of the men and beasts he had devoured, and he dragged the cattle into his cave tail first so that it was impossible to follow their tracks. Eventually Cacus' cahe was found, thanks to the bellowing of the stolen bulls. Hercules is said to have smashed each of Cacus' three heads against the cave walls.

 At Reggio in Calabria, one of the bulls broke away from the herd and plunged into the sea, where it swam across the strait to Sicily. Some claim that the neighboring country Italy owes its name to this bull, for the natives called it Italus. In Sicily the bull joined the herds of Eryx, who reigned over the Elymi. The king, a son of Poseidon, refused to surrender the animal unless Hercules beat him in a wrestling bout. In the eusuing match Hercules lifted Eryx high into the air, dashed him to the ground, and killed him. Some claim that Eryx had a daughter named Psophis, and that she bore Hercules a son.

 Eventually Hercules took the herd across the Ionian Sea, but when they reached the Greek coast, Hera afflicted the cows with gadflies, which drove them wild. As a result, the herd scattered in the foothills of the mountains of Thrace. Hercules went in pursuit of them but could round up only a few; the rest remained wild and strayed as far as the coasts of the Black Sea and the Scythian desert. During his pursuit of the cattle, Hercules fell asleep one night in the desert. When he woke up in the morning, his chariot horses were missing. He undertook a long and exhausting search, which led him to a wooded area called  Hylaea. There he encountered a strangle creature, half woman, half serpent, who claimed to have his horses; she added that she would return them only if he became her lover. Not giving him time to answer, the serpent-tail woman embraced him passionately and drew him into her cave, where they spent three intense nights of love. When she finally released Hercules, she asked, "Whats of the son I now carry in my womb?" Hercules gave her his bow and replied, "If he ever bends this bow, choose him as the ruler of your country!" He then went on his way able to bend the bow and became the ancestor of the Scythian kings. At long last Hercules reached Mycenae with surviving bulls and gave them to Eurystheus, who eventually sacrificed them to Hera.

The Eleventh Labor - The Golden Apples of the Hesperides

When here married Zeus Gaia, he Earth gave her golden apples as a wedding present.

Delighted with the gift, the goddess planted them in her garden near Mount Atlas, In the extreme West, where the chariot horses of the Sub complete their journey every evening.

The mountain took its name from the titan Atlas, who was the guardian of the pillars of Heaven. As punishment for his part in the revolt of the Titans against Zeus, Atlas had to support the sky on his shoulders. Hera, having found out that the daughters of Atlas were stealing from the garden, had the apple tree placed under the protection of Ladon, a dragon with a hundred heads. The dragon never slept, and each of its throats uttered a different sound, so that a cacophony of hisses announced its presence. Three nymphs of the evening, Aegle (brightness), Erythia (scarlet), and Hesperethusa (sunset glow), also guarded the apples; these daughters of Night (Nyx) and Darkness (Erebus) were called the Hesperides, and their names were reminiscent of the sunset sky. Hercules was to bring Eurystheus the golden apples as his eleventh labor.

 To find his way to the Hesperides, Hercules was advised to question Nereus, the river god, reputed to be omniscient. Nereus was unwilling to help and repeatedly assumed various shapes and appearances, but Hercules tied him up and did not release him until he had revealed the way to the garden.    The son of Zeus first reached the Caucasus, where he found Prometheus chained to the mountain. Prometheus was an immortal Titan who, ages before, had been the champion of mankind against the hostility of the Olympian gods. When Zeus deprived men of fire prometheus and brought it to them. To avenge himself, Zeus had the Titan chained and submitted to an eternal torture by an eagle that devoured his liver every day. Hercules shot the eagle through the heart and freed Prometheus. The Titan not only gave him the directions to Mount Atlas but advised him not to pluck the apples himself.

   So when Hercules finally reached the country of the Hyperboreans and found Atlas, who was bearing the whole weight of the sky on his shoulders, he offered to relieve the giant of his burden. In return, Hercules asked that Atlas retrieve three golden apples from the garden. Ever eager for a respite, Atlas accepted on the condition that Hercules first slay the dragon Ladon. The son of Zeus promptly obliged with an arrow shot over the garden wall; the dragon expired in a long, agonized death punctuated by the dwindling sounds of its hundred voices. Hercules than carries the phenomenal weight of the starry sky on his unfailing shoulders while Atlas went to collect three golden apples. Upon his return, the Titan was thrilled by his newfound freedom. He offered to take the apples to Eurystheus himself. Hercules pretended to agree but asked Atlas to support the sky for only a movement more while he put a cushion on his shoulders. The deceiver was easily deceived and resumed his burden. Meanwhile Hercules picked up the apples and went on his way. As for the Hesperides, despairing at the loss of the apples, they turned into tree-elm, poplar, and willow.

 On his way back to Mycenae, Hercules traveled through Libya. That country was ruled by Antaeus, son of Poseidon and of Gaia, who used to kill strangers by forcing them to wrestle with him. Antaeus was an accomplished athlete as well as a colossal and ruthless giant who feasted on the flesh of lions and used the skulls of his victims in the construction of a temple designed to honor his father. Challenged to a wrestling match, Hercules removed his lion pelt and rubbed himself with olive oil. When the  fight started, he quickly noticed that whenever he tossed Antaeus on the ground, the giant seemed revived and strengthened by his contact with the earth. Thereupon Hercules grabbed him and lifted him high in the giant's ribs were crushed aimed a sinister cracking noise. As a further precaution, Hercules held him aloft until he died.

 When Eurystheus received the apples, he was at a loss for what to do with them, so he handed them back to Hercules. In turn, Hercules presented them to Athena, who returned them to the garden, judging that they were the property of the Olympian gods.

The Twelveth Labor - The Capture of Cerberus

The last labor imposed on Hercules was to bring back Cerberus, a monster that had threeheads of a dog, the tail of a dragon, and a mane of snakes. Cerberus guarded th entrance of the Underworld. As a preliminary, Hercules had to be initiated into the Mysteries of Eleusis. ( It was in that town near Athens that Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades, god of the Underworld, was returned to her mother, Demeter.) The mysteries in involved a secret rite in which the initiate was taught how to cross safely to the other world after death.

 Guided by Athena and Hermes, Hercules descended into the Underworld from Cape Taenarum at the extreme south of the Peloponnese. His arrival terrified the dead, who all fled, except the Gorgon Medusa, Hercules drew his sword, but Hermes explain to him that she was merely an empty phantom. He aimed an arrow at Meleager, who moved Hercules to tears when he described the tragic circumstances of his own death, caused by his mother, Althaea. When Meleager mentioned that he had a living sister named Deianeira, who was unmarried, Hercules promised to marry her. Near the gates of Hell, Hercules met his friend Theseus; the hero had been put in chains by Hades, thus paying dearly fir his invasion of the Underworld in his attempt to carry Persephone away. But Hercules set him free with Persephone's permission. When the son of Zeus came to see Hades and asked him for Cerberus, the god replied, " He is your if you can master him without using your weapons" Clad only in his lion pelt and in different to the furious stings of the barbed tail, Hercules seized the dog's neck and did not relax his crushing pressure until the monster choked and yielded. Hercules then dragged Cerberus and emerged from the Underworld at Troezen in Argolis.

 Upon seeing Cerberus, Eurystheus was stuck with terror and took refuge in his bronze jar. Eventually returned the dog to Hades.

 This was Hercules' triumphant end to the Twelve Labors, which had started as repentance and humiliation at the hands of his cowardly and unworthy cousin. Unlike the Olympian gods, Hercules did not know that the glory he had won, and the superhumancourage he had shown, would earn him the immortality Zeus had had in mind from the outset.

updated March 29, 2001