Labours of Hercules

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The Twelve Labours of Hercules (Greek: dodekathlos) are a series of archaic episodes connected by a later continuous narrative, concerning a penance carried out by the greatest of the Greek heroes Heracles, romanised as Hercules. The establishment of a fixed cycle of twelve labours was attributed by the Greeks to an epic poem, now lost, written by Peisandros of Rhodes, dated about 600 BC (Burkert).

As they survive, the Labours of Hercules are not told in any single place, but must be reassembled from many sources. Ruck and Staples assert that there is no one way to interpret the labours, but that six were located in the Peloponnese, culminating with the rededication of Olympia. Six others took the hero farther afield. In each case, the pattern was the same: Hercules was sent to kill or subdue, or to fetch back for Hera's representative Eurystheus a magical animal or plant. "The sites selected were all previously strongholds of Hera or the 'Goddess' and were Entrances to the Netherworld".

A famous depiction of the labours in Greek sculpture is found on the metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, which date to the 450s BC.

The framing narrative

Zeus, having made Alcmene pregnant with Hercules, proclaimed that the next son born of the house of Perseus would become king. Hera, Zeus' wife, hearing this, caused Eurystheus to be born two months early as he was of the house of Perseus, while Hercules, also of the house, was three months overdue. When he found out what had been done, Zeus was furious; however, his rash proclamation still stood.

In a fit of madness, induced by Hera, Hercules slew his wife, Megara, and their three children; the fit then passed. Realizing what he had done, he isolated himself, going into the wilderness and living alone. He was found (by his cousin Theseus) and convinced to visit the Oracle at Delphi to regain his honor. The Oracle told him that as a penance he would have to perform a series of ten tasks, or labours, set by King Eurystheus, the man who had taken Hercules' birthright and the man he hated the most.

The labours

In his labours, Hercules was often accompanied by a male companion (an eromenos), according to Licymnius and others, such as Iolaus, his nephew. Although he was only supposed to perform ten labours, this assistance led to him suffering two more. Eurystheus didn't count the Hydra, because Iolaus helped him, or the Augean stables, as he received payment for his work, or because the rivers did the work.

A traditional order of the labours found in Apollodorus is:

Inner meaning

Walter Burkert has called the labours and other myths of Hercules "a conglomerate of popular tales which was exploited only secondarily by the high art of poetry", and it was not until the fifth century that poets of the Classic age could draw the myth into "a tragic, heroic, and human atmosphere and away from its natural thrust outwards to a carefree realm beyond the human" (Burkert 1985:208). As philosophical, moral, and eventually allegorical overlays came to be applied to his death-cheating superhuman exploits, behind their outer, literal meaning, the Hercules figure came to represent an inner mystical tradition, and thus the labours could be interpreted in terms of the spiritual path. The last three labours (10-12) of Heracles are generally considered metaphors about death. Hercules was unique among Greek heroes in that no tomb of Hercules was ever localized, and the Olympian sacrifices and chthonic libations were offered simultaneously to him everywhere.

Geographic locations

Pointing to a possible location for their origin, or at least their formalisation, is the fact that most of the geographic locations are located in, or on the borders of what was classical Arcadia (todays prefecture of Arcadia is smaller).

Town and prominent archeological site of Nemea, southwest of Corinthos, prefecture of Corinthia.
Lake Lerna at the Argolic Gulf gradually silted up, its last remnants were drained. It is now a fertile alluvial bay. The strong Karst springs between the villages Mili (archeological:Lerna) and Kefalari now irrigate fruit plantations.
The Mountain Erymanthos, currently called Olonos, prefecture of Achaea, Peloponnese.
Town Ceryneia, prefecture of Achaea.
Lake Stymphalia, ca. 20km northwest of Nemea. In ancient times a birds' domain. An extraordinary Karst formation. The lake is a law-protected preserve for endangered habitats and species (Natura 2000), prefecture of Corinthia.
The River Alphaeus feeds the bay of Elis, and drains the north western mountains.
The City of Sparta, southern Peloponnese, prefecture of Laconia.
The Island of Crete, a sea trading nation.

Modern popular culture

The Twelve Labours have been spoofed a number of times in comic books:

Asterix starred in his own Twelve Tasks, since the original were "outdated"
Monica, a popular Brazilian character, fought the "original" 12 labours, with a few changes
In a French comic strip of the 1960s, a time-travelling Mickey Mouse assisted Hercules, often employing modern techniques such as a music-playing pocket radio to subdue Cerberus.
In a 1970s story arc, Wonder Woman underwent her own twelve labours to demonstrate her fitness to rejoin the Justice League of America. Each of these tasks was monitored by an incumbent member of the League.
In a 1995 Marvel Comics mini-series, Heracles undertook modernized versions of his twelve labours, often with comedic results.

Howard Waldrop also reset the Twelve Labours to the Depression-era American South in his novella A Dozen Tough Jobs.

Agatha Christie used the twelve labours as allegories for the last twelve cases that her detective Hercule Poirot would solve before his retirement in the 1947 short story collection The Labours of Hercules. (He didn't retire until Curtain in 1975.)

The alternate reality game Perplex City involves a puzzle card entitled The Thirteenth Labour, which is likely a reference to the Twelve Labours of Heracles (as this puzzle is one of the few still unsolved by any participant, the allusion to a "herculean effort" may well be appropriate).

In the Japanese anime Fate/stay night, the antagonist Illyasviel von Einzbern's servant Berserker, whose true name is Hercules, can not die until he is killed twelve times. When explaining this, Illyasviel makes a direct reference to The Twelve Labours of Hercules.

In the Japanese anime Heroic Age, the savior of humanity is a boy named Age who is a Nodos, or a being merged with one of the Heroic Tribe. The Heroic Bellcross must complete Twelve Labors for humanity (aka the Iron Tribe) by decree of the Golden Tribe, the galaxy's previous elder race. Age's superhuman strength, as well as Bellcross' inhuman strength (on a solar flare scale), is a direct parallel to Hercules.

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely 's "All Star Superman" series revolves around the 12 Labours Of Superman -- a progression that may or may not (as of this writing) lead to the hero's death.

Michael E. Arth, in The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems, compares the Twelve Labors to twelve modern problems that humans must solve.

The storyline for the video game God of War is largely similar to the story of Hercules and the 12 Labours.

The metal band Myth & Symbol wrote a song called The Labors of Hercules .

References

Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion 1985 (Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press)
Ruck, Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, 1994. The World of Classical Myth (Durham:Carolina Academic Press)
Arth, Michael E. The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems (online edition) link to site

External links

- Livius Picture Archive: Labors of Heracles
- The Labors of Hercules at - the Perseus Digital Library

Gallery of Public Domain Book Engravings Depicting the Twelve Labours of Hercules

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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 20:09:17 PDT (GMT -0700)
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