This article is about the Greek myth. For the short story collection by Agatha Christie, see The Labours of Hercules.
Roman relief (3rd century AD) depicting a sequence of the Labours, representing from left to right the Nemean lion, the Lernaean Hydra, the Erymanthian Boar, the Ceryneian Hind, the Stymphalian birds, the Girdle of Hippolyta, the Augean stables, the Cretan Bull and the Mares of DiomedesMosaic of Llíria (Valencia, Spain)
The Labours of Hercules or Labours of Heracles (Greek: ἆθλοι, âthloi[1] Latin: Labores) are a series of tasks carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, whose name was later romanised as Hercules. They were accomplished in the service of King Eurystheus. The episodes were later connected by a continuous narrative.
The establishment of a fixed cycle of twelve labours was attributed by the Greeks to an epic poem, now lost, written by Peisander (7th to 6th centuries BC).[2]
Having tried to kill Heracles ever since he was born, Hera induced a madness in him that made him kill his wife and children. Afterwards, Heracles went to the Oracle of Delphi to atone, where he prayed to the god Apollo for guidance. Heracles was told to serve Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, for ten years. During this time, he was sent to perform a series of difficult feats, called labours.[3]
^LSJ, ἆθλος.
^Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Peisander (6).
^Hard, p. 253.
and 22 Related for: Labours of Hercules information
The LaboursofHercules or Laboursof Heracles (Greek: ἆθλοι, âthloi Latin: Labores) are a series of tasks carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the...
that the Preface to the Labours takes place at one date but that the labours are completed over a matter of twenty years. None of the explanations is especially...
The LaboursofHercules) "The Lernaean Hydra" (short story from The LaboursofHercules) "The Arcadian Deer" (short story from The LaboursofHercules) "The...
Jonghelinck's collection was Frans Floris, who made ten panels of the LaboursofHercules (which are now lost and only known through later engravings)....
canvas of the LaboursofHercules commissioned from Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo by Piero di Cosimo de' Medici for the Sala Grande of the Palazzo Medici...
Selene, who threw him from the Moon at Hera's request. The first of Heracles' twelve labours, set by King Eurystheus (his cousin), was to slay the Nemean...
brother of Actor, Tiphys and Diogeneia. His children were Epicaste, Phyleus, Agamede, Agasthenes, and Eurytus. The fifth Labourof Heracles (Hercules in Latin)...
monster is killed by Heracles (Hercules) as the second of his Twelve Labors. According to Hesiod, the Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. It had...
Heracles as part of the LaboursofHercules. In Greek sources, he was the son of Poseidon and Gaia, who lived in the interior desert of Libya. His wife...
Sarcophagus of Genzano is a Roman sarcophagus from Genzano, which is in store at the British Museum. It features the Twelve LaboursofHercules. It has been...
intense than Hercules' Twelve Labours. Hercules fights Kratos to claim the throne as God of War, which was left vacant after Zeus stripped Kratos of his powers...
The first of these two additional Labours was to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Heracles first caught the Old Man of the Sea, the...
in the Schloss Wittenberg, which contains other paintings of the LaboursofHercules. Hercules, armed with bow and arrow, is ready to shoot at two winged...
Pillars ofHercules are the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar, Calpe Mons, is the Rock of Gibraltar...
prominence in the modern view of Quattrocento art: the loss of his very large paintings of some of the LaboursofHercules, and "a name which looks difficult...
defeated by Heracles (Hercules) in his sixth labour for Eurystheus. Heracles could not go into the marsh to reach the nests of the birds, as the ground...
of his Twelve Labours, slaying Diomedes in the process. Heracles encounters King Diomedes through performing his eighth labour. Eurystheus, King of Tiryns...
Global Information
