Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic and today we’re outlining the 12 labors of Hercules
from Greek mythology.
Let me say that yes, some people prefer using Heracles and some even pop a K in there.
We’re referring to the same person but Hercules is the most popular now.
Now, to catch us up on some Herculean history, Hercules is the song of Zeus, the King of
the Gods, and a mortal woman.
Zeus had a wife named Hera, who was very jealous of Zeus’ other lovers, so she even tried
to kill Hercules as a baby, sending snakes to kill him in his crib, though he was able
to strangle them in self-defense.
Hera not got over this jealousy and continuously tried to ruin his life, even going as far
as driving Hercules mad, where in a fit of rage and confusion, he killed both his wife
and his own children.
How this happens differs as to what material you’re using as a source.
When he regains his sanity, he asks the gods for forgiveness and asks how he can redeem himself.
He is told to serve the King Eurystheus for twelve years, where the King gives him twelve
near-impossible tasks to complete.
His first task to defeat a lion that has been rampaging and killing locals in an area called
Nemea, hereafter referred to as the Nemean lion.
Hercules tried to shoot arrows but its fur was impenetrable.
He eventually knocked the creature down with his mighty club and strangled it to death.
He needed the hide as proof but since it was impenetrable, he had to use the beasts’
own claws to cut the fur from the body, giving him a fur that he is often seen wearing in
art and sculptures.
Hera didn’t like the idea of Hercules succeeding at these tasks so she rose a creature in a
nearby swap, a hydra which initially appeared like a giant snakelike creature.
As he fought the hydra, he realized that each time he cut the creature’s head, two new
heads grew in its place, eventually resulting a massive beast with many many heads.
He eventually discovered that he could burn the stumps to stop new heads from growing,
though one of its heads was immortal and he had to find a different way, so he crushed
the head under a boulder to be hidden away forever.
So let’s talk for a second about King Eurystheus, who happened to be Hercules’ cousin, and
he was becoming quite upset that Hercules was conquering his challenges, which made
him look like a fool.
So if Hercules could kill every monster, let’s figure out a monster he can’t even catch,
so Hercules was tasked with capturing the Ceryneian Hind, a deer that was so fast it
could outrun arrows.
Hercules chased it for an entire year.
There’s a few versions of how he captured it, some saying he managed to catch it sleeping,
another that he was gifted the hind from the goddess Artemis.
The fourth labor is another massive beast, this time the mighty Erymanthian Boar, who
Hercules managed to trap in a snowstorm and catch that way.
When he brought the boar to his cousin, Eurystheus was terrified and hid inside a giant pithos,
like a large jar.
He realized this was a great place to hide and would later resort to hiding here, as
to not hear the success stories that Hercules would bring back.
For the fifth labor, they had to find something impossible to do, so they assigned Hercules
to clean the stables of King Augeas.
These animals were immortal and healthy, so the amount of excrement was immense, with
over 1,000 cattle and 30 years without being cleaned.
Hercules smartly noticed two rivers nearby that he could reroute to flood the area and
wash the entire stables.
King Eurystheus was upset and discounted this labor, as Hercules wasn’t originally supposed
to do twelve, he was supposed to do ten.
If Hercules could defeat one monster, what about a whole flock?
For labor number six, he was charged with eliminating the Stymphalian birds, large man-eating
birds with metallic wings.
They had taken over an entire countryside and were murdering the local townspeople.
They lived in a swamp that Hercules couldn’t venture into, so instead he scared them from
the trees and shot them down with arrows, killing enough that they would fly away and
never return there.
Labor number seven was to capture the Cretan Bull, a large bull terrifying the island of Crete.
He strangled it, stopping just short of killing it, and shipped it back to King Eurystheus alive.
He wanted to sacrifice it to Hera, but she declined because killing it would honor the
fact that Hercules caught it.
It was released again into the wild.
The eighth labor was to calm and capture a group of horses known as the Mares of Diomedes.
Diomedes was a king of Thrace, who taught these horses to eat human flesh and it drove
them insane, so these horses were incredibly dangerous.
Again, there’s several stories, most of which end with Hercules feeding the King to
his own horses, which calmed them long enough for Hercules to strap their mouths shut and
bring them to Eurystheus.
Now at this point Eurystheus was running low on ideas, Hercules was accomplishing every
task he gave him!
So when his own daughter came forward and said that she wanted the belt of Hippolyta,
the Queen of the Amazons, Eurystheus saw this as a perfect chance to have Hercules try to
get it for her.
So Hercules sailed to Themiscyra, the land of the Amazons, and befriended Hippolyta.
She liked him and believed him, so was going to give him the belt.
However, all this time Hera has been whispering in the ears of the other Amazons, who thought
Hercules was coming to kidnap the Queen.
When Hercules saw them rushing towards him, he thought it was an ambush, so he killed
the queen, took her belt, and gifted it to the daughter of Eurystheus.
What else could Eurystheus conjure up?
How about the giant beast Geryon, a fabled monster with three heads.
This beast had a fleet of cattle and Hercules was tasked with stealing these cattle from him.
All it took was one arrow, dipped in the poisonous blood from the Hydra he killed long ago and
Geryon was downed.
Hera tried everything in her power to stop the cattle, such as sicking flies on them
and downpouring rain, so it took Hercules a full year but he eventually got them to Eurystheus.
Who else could Hercules steal from?
Eurystheus decided to task Hercules with finding a place no mortal has ever gone, the Garden
of the Hesperides and to steal apples from these nymphs that lived there.
No one should be able to accomplish this, right?
Well, Hercules eventually found the Garden and discovered Atlas there, who held the heavens
on his shoulders.
Atlas was actually related to these nymphs so it’d be easy for him to get apples, so
Hercules agreed to hold the heavens while Atlas got the apples.
Well, Atlas wasn’t about to go back to holding the heavens, so he wanted to take them to Eurystheus.
Hercules saw a chance and said he’d agree to hold the heavens forever in Atlas’ place,
he just had to readjust his lion cloak to be comfortable.
So Atlas took the heavens back for a moment and Hercules grabbed the apples and left him there.
Is there anything Hercules can’t do?
For his last labor, Hercules was asked to capture and bring the three-headed dog Cerberus
to the King.
Cerberus is the guardian to the underworld, keeping the dead there.
Hades, who controls the underworld, told Hercules that he could take him, as long as Hercules
was able to subdue Cerberus without weapons.
Hercules did just that, slinging the dog over his back and bringing to Eurystheus, who again
hid inside his giant jar.
Eurystheus in fear said that Hercules was finishing serving him and his labors were completed.
Now there are many other adventures of Hercules that take place before and after these labors,
but that’s not really what we’re covering.
If these tales of mythology interest you and you want to see more stuff like this, let
me know in the comments!
Thanks for watching!