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Heracles. Liebig illustrations, early 20C AD. Artist n/a.

This was Heracles 1's first labour. He shot the lion with an arrow, but having perceived that the animal was invulnerable, he broke its neck with his bare hands.

The lion of Nemea

As a second labour Heracles 1 was ordered by Eurystheus to kill the Lernaean hydra, a monster with nine heads, one of them being immortal. He chopped all heads, and the immortal one he buried, putting a heavy rock on it.

The illustration shows Heracles 1 bringing the Erymanthian boar to Mycenae. Eurystheus, terrified at the sight, hides himself inside a bronze vessel (or inside something else, according to this artist).

As a third labour he was ordered to bring the Cerynitian hind alive to Mycenae. This hind had golden horns, and was sacred to Artemis. Therefore Heracles 1 did not wish to wound it, but he nevertheless shot it just as it was about to cross a river. He then caught it and hastened through Arcadia towards Mycenae.

Another labour was to chase the man-eating birds who used their feathers as arrows. Their place of abode was the Stymphalian Lake in Arcadia. To help him in this task, Athena gave Heracles 1 brazen castanets. By clashing these on a certain mountain that overhung the lake, he scared the birds, which could not abide the sound, but fluttered up in a fright.

The Stymphalian birds

Another labour was to fetch the belt of Hippolyte 2, queen of the AMAZONS. She had the belt of Ares for being the best among the AMAZONS. Heracles 1 was sent to fetch it because Admete 2, daughter of Eurystheus, desired to get it. When he arrived to the land of the AMAZONS, a fight broke out, and Heracles 1 killed Hippolyte 2, stripping her of her belt. And having defeated the rest, he sailed away to Troy and later to Mycenae, where he surrendered the belt to Eurystheus.

The belt of Hippolyte 2

Eurystheus prescribed to carry out the dung of the cattle of King Augeas of Elis in a single day, without the assistance of any other man. Heracles 1, declining the task as unworthy to be done by his own hands, turned the course of the rivers Alpheus and Peneus into the stables, cleansing them by the rivers' streams.

Augeas' stables

Eurystheus ordered to bring the Cretan Bull. Heracles 1 then came to Crete, caught the Cretan Bull and brought it to Eurystheus, who just let it go again. The beast then, having first roamed to Sparta and Arcadia, traversed the Isthmus of Corinth and arrived at Marathon in Attica, where it pestered the inhabitants all it could.

The Cretan bull

As yet another labour Eurystheus demanded that the MARES OF DIOMEDES 1 (Dinus, Lampon, Podargus 1, and Xanthus 2) be brought to Mycenae. Heracles 1 came to Thrace with a group of volunteers, and after overpowering the grooms who were in charge of the stables, drove the mares to the beach. As the Bistonians in arms attacked him, Heracles 1 defended himself, defeating them and slaying King Diomedes 1. Some have said that Heracles 1 killed Diomedes 1 by throwing him to his mares, so that these devoured their master (as the illustration shows).

As another labour, Eurystheus ordered to fetch the Cattle of Geryon, who had the body of three men grown together and joined in one at the waist, but divided in three from the flanks and thighs. When Geryon hastened to join battle with Heracles 1 beside a river, he was shot, losing both life and cattle. But in this illustration Heracles 1 kills Geryon with his club.

Eurystheus ordered Heracles 1 to fetch the Apples of the HESPERIDES, which were either in Libya or in the far north.

It was on this occasion that Heracles 1, following Prometheus 1's instructions, asked Atlas to fetch the Golden Apples instead of fetching them himself. That is why for a short time the Pillars of Heaven were supported by Heracles 1, who relieved Atlas while he went to fetch the Golden Apples. Atlas soon returned carrying three Golden Apples, but was no longer willing to support the vault of the sky, declaring that he could deliver the fruits to Eurystheus himself. Seeing that Atlas could not be persuaded, Heracles 1 asked him to hold the sky just for a moment while he placed a pad on his head, and when Atlas held the sky again, Heracles 1 picked up the apples and left.

In the illustration, Atlas appears holding, not the vault of the sky but the earth, on which a geographic contour, well known by later times, has been depicted.

Atlas and the Apples of the HESPERIDES

Finally Eurystheus imposed on Heracles 1 a twelfth labour: to bring Hades' three-headed dog Cerberus 1 from the Underworld. Having descended to the nether world, Heracles 1 asked Hades for Cerberus 1, and the god replied that he could take it if he could master it without weapons. So finding the three-headed hound at the gates of the river Acheron, he grasped it without relaxing his grip, and although the dragon in Cerberus 1's tail bit him, he at last gained control over the brute. Heracles 1 returned to this world through an exit at Troezen, and after showing the hound to Eurystheus, he carried it back to the Underworld.

The capture of Cerberus 1