1st LABOR
To bring back the skin of the Nemean Lion, who couldn’t be wounded. Heracles’ arrow bounced off the lion. He strangles it and skins it with its claw. He wears the skin as his trademark.
2nd LABOR
To kill the Hydra of Lerna. The Hydra has 9 or more heads, one immortal, and the body of a snake. If a head is cut off it grows two more. Heracles clubs the head and sears them with a burning tree provided by Iolaus. He cuts off the immortal head and buries it. He clubs the giant crab (sent by Hera) that is biting his foot. Heracles dips his arrows in the Hydra’s blood. Eurytheus refuses to accept this labor because he had help.
3rd LABOR
To bring back alive the Cerynitian deer sacred to Artemis and Apollo. The deer never rests. Heracles chases it for a year, finally netting it in the Ladon River.
4th LABOR
To bring back alive The Erymanthian Boar. Heracles fights with centaurs accidently killing a friendly centaur Cherion. Heracles shouts the boar out of a thicket and chases him into deep snow where he eventually tires. He carries him back on his back.
5th LABOR
To clean out the manure from Augeus’s barnyard in one day. The barnyard has been used by hundreds of cattle for many years uncleaned. Augeus promises Heracles one tenth of his herd if he can do it. Heracles diverts two rivers into the barnyard, cleans it out and replaces the rivers. Augeus refuses to pay. Eurytheus refuses to accept the labor, saying it was done for profit.
6th LABOR
To drive away the Stymaphalion Birds from Lake Stymaphalis. The birds are man eating, have metal feathers and are polluting the lake. Heracles climbs a mountain and shakes a brass noise-maker given him by Athena. The birds fly away terrified. Heracles shoots many with his bow.
7th LABOR
To bring back the Cretan Bull. King Minos had been given a spectacular white bull from Posidon which was to be sacrificed to Zeus. Minos didn’t sacrifice it. Posidon made the bull go wild, ravaging the land and killing people. Heracles refuses Minos’s help, wrestles the bull and contains it with a net.
8th LABOR
To bring back the man eating mares of Diomedes of Thrace. The horses are fed strangers. Heracles feeds Diomedes to the horses, but not before losing his friend Abderus who is torn apart by the horses. The mares are satiated. He returns with them.
9th LABOR
To bring back the belt of the Amazon Queen Hippolyte for Admeta, daughter of Eurytheus. After many adventures, Heracles arrives with men at Themiscyra on the Black Sea. Hippolyte comes on board ship and agrees to give him her belt. Hera tells the Amazons on shore that Heracles has killed their Queen and stolen her belt. They attack Heracles and his men. Heracles wins, Hippolyte is killed.
10th LABOR
To bring back the cattle of Geryon. The monster Geryon has either three heads or has three human bodies from the waist down. He lives on an island near the edge of the world. His herds are tended by Eurytion and a two headed dog Orthrus. Heracles journeys across Africa, sets up the Pillers of Hercules and rides across the ocean in a golden cup loaned to him by the sun god Helios. After many adventures, he arrives in Erythia. He kills the dog and herdsman when they attack him as he is herding the cattle. Geryon comes after him and is shot. He sails back in the cup and returns it to Helios. He returns via Spain and Italy having many adventures with monsters and thieves while trying to keep his cattle together.
11th LABOR
To bring back the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. The apples were a wedding present from Ge to Zeus and Hera. The apples are on Mt. Atlas guarded by the Hesperides and an immortal serpent Ladon with 100 heads and as many voices. Heracles gets directions on where to go from a sea god, Nereus, who can change his shape at will. Heracles wrestles with him as he changes shape. After many adventures, he rescues Prometheus from Mt. Caucasus, who advises him to go to Atlas and get him to get the apples for him. Heracles holds the heavens for Atlas who gets the apples for him. Heracles brings the apples to Eurytheus and then returns them to the Hesperides. He may have killed Ladon at the same time.
12th LABOR
To bring the dog Cerberus from Hades. Heracles goes to Eleusis to be initiated in the mysteries and to be purified. He enters Hades. All the spirits run away from him except Meleager and the Gordon Medusa. He draws his sword, but Hermes who is guiding him tell him they are just spirits. He sees his old friend Theseus who is being held fast in the chains of forgetfulness. He pulls him loose. He sacrifices one of the cattle of Hades for the souls of the dead and wrestles with their keeper until Persephone asks him to stop. He asks Hades for Cerberus. Hades says yes, but only if he can subdue Cerberus without weapons. Heracles holds Cerberus at arms length by his head and neck and subdues him, although he is bitten by Cerberus’s serpent tail. He brings Cerberus to Eurytheus and returns him to Hades.
