Heracles

He was considered the mightiest hero of Greece, Zeus’ favorite human child. In some of the earlier stories about him, he is a giant slob and lazy but then people started to join the Heracles fan club and he started to be someone who all except Athens considered their hero. He was the strongest man in the world and had the confident attitude to match, thinking himself as great as any god – he was kinda right. He helped in the Titanomachy and he could best a god in a fight but what he is most famous for is Hera’s hatred of him and how she made him mad, during this madness he killed his family. He then had to perform the famous twelve labors for punishment. His first labor was killing the Nemean lion, no weapon could penetrate it’s hide and so Heracles choked it to death and then used its own claws to cut off the hide to wear as a cloak, this became one the things he was known for, wearing a lion cloak. The second labor was to kill the nine-headed Hydra, only one of its heads was immortal but if you cut off one of the others, two would grow in its place. Some say when his nephew Iolaus grave him a fire brand to help, he seared the necks after cutting off a head so two could not grow back, but others say he just set the whole guy on fire and watched him burn. The third labor was to bring back a deer with golden antlers, sacred to Artemis, he had to capture it alive which took him a whole year to achieve. The fourth labor was to catch a great boar which he chased until it got tired and then trapped it. The fifth labor was to clean out the gigantic Augean stable, which had not been cleaned in years, in a single day. Heracles diverted a river into two streams and washed out the stables. The sixth labor was to get rid of the Stymphalian birds which he shot down while Athena scared them into flight. The seventh labor was to collect the beautiful bull that Midas was gifted from Poseidon, he mastered the bull and easily walked him away. The eighth labor was to get King Diomedes of Thrace’s man-eating mares and kill them. Heracles first killed Diomedes and then the mares were easily finished off. With Heracles ninth labor, Hera intervened, he had to get the girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyta. Hera told the amazons he was coming to kidnap the queen so they attacked him, Heracles without thinking killed the queen and fought off the rest, getting away with the girdle. His tenth labor was to gather the cattle of Geryon, on his way he set up the pillars of Heracles as a memorial to his labors, then easily finished his tenth labor. The eleventh labor was Heracles’ hardest labor, he had to collect the Golden Apples form the Hesperides but he did not know where they were. He went to their father, Atlas and asked if he could retrieve the apples. Atlas gladly put his burden onto Heracles’ shoulders and went and got the apples. When he returned he told Heracles he was now stuck holding up the sky forever in his place, Heracles asked if Atlas could hold the sky for a moment so he could put some padding on his shoulders, when Atlas agreed, Heracles took the Apples and left him there, again holding up the skies. Heracles’ twelfth and final labor was to bring the guardian dog of the underworld, Cerberus, to Eurystheus, Hades allowed him but only if he used no weapons. Heracles defeated Cerberus and carried him all the way out and then carried him all the way back when Eurystheus said he didn’t really want him.

Image by Group of London B 174 – User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-06-15, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2256235