Let us briefly recall the biography of Hercules, the illegitimate son of Zeus - the main god of Greece, the leader of the Olympians. The stepson was disliked by the goddess Hera, a very spiteful, wayward and jealous wife of the Thunderer. Jera's jealousy manifested itself in the behavior of her husband, who had dozens of illegitimate children. They also suffered from the willfulness of their “stepmothers” for their origins. Since Hercules was his father's favorite, he got more than others. And then read the 12 labors of Hercules in full order.
In this regard, the hero went to Delphi to the soothsayer of the god Apollo, to ask him: what to do next? Apollo recommended to leave Thebes and go to his brother Eurystheus for twelve years of hard work. The 12 labors of Hercules are read online in full below.
Victory One: Death of the Nemean Lion
The current location of the Greek Nemea is the northwest of the Peloponnese peninsula. There, in ancient times, this huge mythical monster destroyed everything around it. When Hercules went in search of him to destroy, there were no animals or people, even the birds were silent.
Shepherds and farmers were afraid to leave their homes.
The lion was enormous and descended from a dragon with a hundred heads of Typhon and an anthropomorphic (half beautiful woman and half snake) Echidna. Day after day, the son of Zeus was looking for a lion's den and one evening he discovered a cave with two exits in the rock. The hero quickly filled one exit with stones.
Promotional video:
And so, against the background of the darkening sky, a huge shadow of a shaggy animal appeared, which then approached the cave.
Hercules shot several arrows at him. But the skin of the lion was so strong that the arrowheads bounced off the beast like a stone.
Finally, Hercules came into the field of lion's sight. The jump, which followed with lightning speed, almost knocked him down. With his club, Hercules knocked the monster backwards, then strangled him with his hands and brought the carcass to Erisfei, frightening him even more.
And then read the 12 labors of Hercules in full order.
Second victory: Lernaean hydra lost its heads
This mythical hydra also lived in the Peloponnese. Near one lake there were karst sinkholes in the ground, in which there was an entrance to the underground kingdom. He was guarded by the Lernaean monster, which had to be exterminated.
The hydra crawled out of the den, destroyed herds of animals and ravaged the fields of farmers. Our hero found her and immediately attacked with fiery arrows. She knocked Hercules down, grabbing his legs in her rings. But the brave hero stubbornly held on, knocking down all the snake's heads with a huge club. Finally he got to a very dangerous head and blew it off. The monster went limp and fell at his feet.
The last head was deeply buried and covered with rock. Then Hercules dipped his arrows in the bile of the hydra, which inflicted mortal wounds on further campaigns.
Victory three: birds with steel feathers
Each bird is a real bow! They threw down their arrow-feathers of durable metal and killed all who attacked on the move.
Hercules felt that this task would be difficult to complete. He called for help the deity of war and at the same time wisdom Pallas Athena. She suggested that these birds are scary, but shy, afraid of even the slightest noise. Heracles Pallas Athena presented two metal plates - tympanes. If you bang them against each other, you can make an incredible noise. Near the nesting place of birds, he struck his timpani. Stymphalian birds in fear flew into the sky in a huge flock and sent their weapons - feather arrows - to the rock. But they did not get Hercules. In response, he began to kill the bloodthirsty birds with his arrows. Many birds died, and the living flew away from this land in an instant, and even from Greece. They did not appear here again.
Victory four: the Kerinean doe wounded
Eurystheus sent Hercules to Arcadia, where the swift deer lived. The illegitimate daughter of Zeus and sister of Apollo sent her iconic animal here. She took revenge on both people and her brother.
For twelve months, Hercules ran after a beautiful and fast animal. It never got tired. Doe turned fertile fields into deserts, people starved. But Hercules did not lose sight of her and constantly pursued her. The doe was close to capture in the far north, in the country of the Hyperboreans. As soon as the young man tried to capture the doe, she turned sharply to the south. Hercules almost caught up with the nimble animal in the same Arcadia, from where the chase began.
And here he decided to take up arms and wounded the doe in the leg.
Victory five: the battle with the Erymanth boar
The new mission was difficult and dangerous. On the lands of Arcadia, no one was given rest by the evil Erythman wild boar. He destroyed everything in his path. Whoever was caught was torn to shreds with fangs.
The son of the Thunderer Olympus came to the indicated mountain. There he drove the boar out of the rookery and chased him for a long time until he was exhausted on the top of the mountain. Hercules tied him alive and took him to the city to Eurystheus. Seeing the terrible boar, albeit tightly bound, the king, out of fear, managed to climb into the neck of the metal barrel.
Victory six: cleaning the Augean stables
On this campaign, Hercules for the first time did not take his traditional weapon with him. Because he received a purely economic task: to clear the premises for the bulls of King Augean from the accumulated manure, besides the son of one of the main mythical gods of Greece. Therefore, Hercules could not refuse the dirty work.
Hercules promised Augustus to make the courtyard clean in just a day. But for this he asked for payment - tithes from the flock. The king agreed, because the work here, he thought, would be enough for months. Hercules did not need a shovel, otherwise he would really have to work for many months. Therefore, he turned the waters of the rivers flowing nearby into the courtyard. They washed all the manure in the evening.
But the cunning tsar did not pay for the work, as agreed. So the son of Zeus took revenge on Augia for breaking the agreement when he left Eurystheus. He went with an army to Aegis, and the battle came to an end to Augia.
Seventh victory: taming the Cretan bull
It was an overseas mission. Hercules took a long time to get to the island of Crete, where he had to tame a rabid animal. There was such a cleverly-wise interweaving here: according to the myth, one owner sends this bull to another. Next, the animal must be sacrificed back to the owner. But the first was sorry to part with a bull of an amazing constitution, so he replaced the Cretan bull with his usual bull, which he sacrificed. The one to whom the sacrifice was intended was offended and sent a mad bull to Crete.
The bull ran across the island, sweeping away everything in the way with its hooves. Hercules tamed a rabid animal. Together they crossed the sea from the island to the Peloponnese. The bull was released into the field here. He ran free until he was killed by someone else.
Victory Eight: Diomedes' Man-Eating Horses
The son of the Thunderer was to complete the next task in the region in the east of the Balkans. King Diomedes had beautiful and hardy horses there. But they constantly stood in chains in the stables, since no fetters were holding them. These were man-eating horses, which were fed with the corpses of foreigners approaching the capital.
Hercules was able to successfully lead the horses out of the stable and drove them to the ship, but they were overtaken by the pursuit. Leaving the horses under the guard of an assistant, Hercules began the battle. He won the battle. But, returning to the ship, he learned that the man-eating horses had torn apart Abder's assistant. He was buried with honors.
Then the horses were no longer needed by anyone and scattered around the neighborhood.
Victory nine: Amazon's belt obtained
One domineering woman wished to get Hippolyta's belt - a symbol of dominion. According to mythology, it was the queen of the Amazons, who lived somewhere on the far coast of the Black Sea. After a long sea voyage, Hercules' detachment reached this land.
The Amazons came out amicably to greet the son of the Olympian god. Hercules honestly told Hippolyta why he came to her country. The queen wanted to voluntarily give up the belt so that blood would not be shed. But Artemis intervened. She became the same Amazon, like everyone else, and wanted to destroy Hercules here.
The Amazons drew their weapons, and a bloody battle ensued. There were losses on both sides. In the end, Hippolyta gave up the ill-fated belt.
Victory ten: stealing Geryon's cows
Eurystheus sends Hercules to drive Geryon's herd from the island of Erythia. The path was difficult and endless. There was no way to get to the coveted island. The hero was helped by one important god, who ferried both to the island and back with a herd of cows. True, the owner of the herd had to fight back.
Geryon did not want to give up the cows, so he sent herd guards to the hero. Hercules coped with all and drove the cows to the shore, where the ship of the sun god stood. Geryon rushed after him. It is difficult to describe this powerful monster. But the will of the son of Zeus, his bow, arrows, and also the club did their job. The herd of animals crossed the ocean. Here they were simply beaten.
Victory Eleventh: Stealing the Evil Cerberus
For the first time, Hercules from the earth reached the kingdom of the dead. He was strictly guarded by a huge evil dog with three heads named Cerberus. The dog had to be delivered alive.
The fact that it would be almost impossible to cope with it, the newcomer to the other world understood immediately. He decided to seek help from the lords of the underworld. Those were allowed only to measure their strength. Hercules wrapped his arms around the dog, and cut one head off with his forehead. Cerberus was already harmless. The hero pulled him out into the light. On the ground near the walls, the dog was released, but he rushed back.
Victory twelfth: golden apples plucked
Singing nymphs of the Hesperides lived somewhere very far away. They had an amazing garden with one unique tree. Its branches bent down to the ground under the weight of golden apples. The fruits gave immortality and eternal youth to the one whose hand touches them.
Hercules on the way met Atlanta, looking in horror at how hard it was for him to hold the weight. He knew that only Atlas could pick the golden apples. Hercules asked him for this service. The giant complained that he would not reach it, and his hands were busy. And he asked to change it for a while.
They switched places. Hercules is almost rooted in the ground. And that strong man no longer wanted to stand back and said that he would take the apples himself. Hercules also cheated: he asked the giant to lend his shoulder in order to supposedly put something on his own. And he took the apples and returned home.