Hercules life story. Hercules (Heraclius, Alcides, Hercules), the greatest hero of Greek myths and legends, son of Zeus

Origin of Hercules: son of Alcmene. - Jealousy of the goddess Hera: descendants of Perseus. - Milk of Hera: the myth of the Milky Way. - Baby Hercules and snakes. - Hercules at the crossroads. - Rabies of Hercules.

Origin of Hercules: son of Alcmene

Hero Hercules(in Roman mythology - Hercules) came from a glorious family of heroes. Hercules - greatest hero Greek myths and the beloved national hero of the entire Greek people. According to myths ancient Greece, Hercules represents the image of a man with great physical strength, invincible courage and enormous power will.

Performing the most difficult work, obeying the will of Zeus (Jupiter), Hercules, with the consciousness of his duty, humbly endures the cruel blows of fate.

Hercules fought and defeated the dark and evil forces nature, fought against untruth and injustice, as well as against the enemies of social orders and moral orders established by Zeus.

Hercules is the son of Zeus, but Hercules' mother is mortal, and he is real son earth and mortal.

Despite his strength, Hercules, like mortals, is subject to all the passions and delusions inherent in the human heart, but in the human and therefore weak nature of Hercules lies the divine source of kindness and divine generosity, making him capable of great feats.

Just as he defeats giants and monsters, so Hercules conquers all the bad instincts in himself and achieves divine immortality.

They tell the following myth of the origin of Hercules. Zeus (Jupiter), the ruler of the gods, wanted to give the gods and people a great hero who would protect them from various troubles. Zeus descended from Olympus and began to look for a woman worthy of becoming the mother of such a hero. Zeus chose Alcmene, the wife of Amphitryon.

But since Alcmene loved only her husband, Zeus took the form of Amphitryon and entered his house. The son born from this union was Hercules, who in mythology is called either the son of Amphitryon or the son of Zeus.

And this is why Hercules has a dual nature - man and god.

This incarnation of deity in man did not at all shock popular beliefs and feelings, which, however, did not prevent the ancient Greeks and Romans from noticing and laughing at the comic side of this incident.

One antique vase preserves a picturesque image of an ancient caricature. Zeus is depicted there in disguise and with a large belly. He is carrying a ladder, which he is going to put against Alcmene’s window, and she is watching everything that is happening from the window. The god Hermes (Mercury), disguised as a slave but recognizable by his caduceus, stands before Zeus.

Jealousy of the Goddess Hera: Descendants of Perseus

When it's time to be born son of Alcmene, the ruler of the gods could not resist boasting in the assembly of the gods that on this day a great hero would be born into the family, destined to rule over all nations.

The goddess Hera (Juno) forced Zeus to confirm these words with an oath and, as the goddess of childbirth, arranged it so that on this day not Hercules was born, but the future king Eurystheus, also a descendant of Perseus.

And thus, in the future, Hercules had to obey King Eurystheus, serve him and perform various difficult works at the command of Eurystheus.

Hera's Milk: The Myth of the Milky Way

When the son of Alcmene was born, god (Mercury), wanting to save Hercules from the persecution of Hera, took him, carried him to Olympus and laid him in the arms of the sleeping goddess.

Hercules bit Hera's breast with such force that milk poured out of her and formed a Milky Way, and the awakened goddess angrily threw Hercules away, who nevertheless tasted the milk of immortality.

In a museum in Madrid there is a painting by Rubens depicting the goddess Juno breastfeeding the infant Hercules. The goddess sits on a cloud, and next to her stands a chariot drawn by peacocks.

Tintoretto interprets this mythological plot somewhat differently in his painting. Jupiter himself gives Juno a son, Hercules.

Baby Hercules and snakes

His brother Iphicles was born with Hercules. The vengeful goddess Hera sent two snakes that climbed into the cradle to kill the children. The baby Hercules grabbed the snakes of Hera and strangled him right in his cradle.

The Roman writer Pliny the Elder mentions a painting by the ancient Greek artist Zeuxis, depicting the myth of the infant Hercules strangling snakes.

The same mythological plot is depicted on an ancient fresco, on a bas-relief and a bronze statue discovered in Herculaneum.

From newest works paintings by Annibale Carracci and Reynolds are known on the same theme.

Hercules at the crossroads

The young hero Hercules received the most careful education.

IN academic subjects Hercules was instructed by the following teachers:

• Amphitryon taught Hercules how to drive a chariot,
• - shoot a bow and carry weapons,
• - wrestling and various sciences,
• musician Lin - playing the lyre.

But Hercules turned out to be little capable of the arts. Hercules, like all people who have physical development prevailed over the mental, it was difficult to assimilate music and more willingly and easily pulled the string of a bow than plucked the delicate strings of the lyre.

Angry with his teacher Lin, who decided to reprimand him about his game, Hercules killed him with a blow of the lyre.

ZAUMNIK.RU, Egor A. Polikarpov - scientific editing, scientific proofreading, design, selection of illustrations, additions, explanations, translations from ancient Greek and Latin; all rights reserved.

if you need BRIEF For information on this topic, read the material “The 12 Labors of Hercules - a summary” on our website. Links to detailed accounts of the Hercules myths are given at the end of this article.

Greek myths about Hercules and their religious and moral meaning

The most famous of the heroes of Greek myths is Hercules, the son of Alcmene and Zeus, who took on the appearance of her husband, Amphitryon. Hercules was revered by all Greek tribes, all countries Greek world. But the Dorian military aristocracy called him their ancestor and wanted him to be a hero who belonged primarily to them. He is the personification human strength. The myths about Hercules are related to the tales of the gods of light and the sun, and the features of these gods are visible in him. But he has so many purely human properties that for the Greeks he was the ideal of a person who courageously acts according to the rules of practical morality. The cycle of myths about Hercules reflects the development of Greek concepts of morality. Initially, like the Olympian gods, he was the personification of material strength, but gradually the mythical Hercules became the personification of purely human morality, a man who, through willpower, the power of working on his moral improvement, the fight against everything bad and in outside world and in his own soul, he becomes worthy of heaven. IN ancient myths about Hercules, his difficult deeds were the disastrous fate to which he, personifying the power of the sun, was subjected to the hostile Hera, the goddess of the lower, foggy region of the atmosphere; but subsequently the difficult path of life is the path that he chose for himself of his own free will. In contrast to Paris, who prefers the pleasure of a beauty’s love to everything, “Hercules at the Crossroads,” according to a story written in the 5th century by the thoughtful sophist Prodicus, chooses not the path to which Aphrodite, who promises him the pleasures of bliss and love, draws him, but the one on who calls him Athena, the path of labor, struggle, hardship, leading to glory, to the home of the gods. He is under the patronage of Athena. In the myths about Hercules, her protective hand guides him through all difficulties and dangers; and when he, having won the victory, rests, Athena, with maternal care, creates warm springs for ablution, restoring his strength, prepares him beautiful clothes; and when Hercules, exhausted from suffering, calls out to heaven for help, Athena descends from Olympus to help him. She says in the Iliad (VIII, 362) that without her he would not have been saved from the terrible Stygian River.

Apollo, the sun god, is also close to him, the hero of the sun cult. The myth about the struggle of Apollo and Hercules for the Pythian tripod, about their reconciliation, about the conclusion of an alliance between them shows that ideas about them are related to each other. The dispute over the tripod ends in the myth with Hercules becoming a servant of the Pythian god, who becomes his patron and friend. He is the defender of the Delphic oracle, against whose enemies he goes to war, and the spreader of the cult of Apollo. Like Apollo, he is a “reconciler” of the guilty with the gods, and a “deliverer of evils” (alexikakos), leading the fight against evil and harmful to people, who delivers both gods and people from disasters with his exploits; he conquers even horrors underground kingdom, and therefore in the Eleusinian mysteries they glorified him, along with Demeter, with Dionysus.

The idea of ​​repentance in the myths of Hercules

Even the humiliating subordination of Hercules in myths to the insignificant Eurystheus, whose servant made him, according to ancient legend, Hera, who hates him, and in whose service he performs the most important of his exploits for the benefit of people, subsequently received high moral significance. He is quick-tempered, and impulses of passion sometimes cloud his reason; in such madness, he killed with his arrows the children whom his wife bore to him, Megara, the daughter of the Theban king, and threw Iphitus, who came to visit him in Tiryns, from the wall. According to myths, Hercules had to atone for these terrible deeds with difficult feats of repentance. The irresistible hero, defeating all enemies, also conquers his pride, submitting to the Pythian oracle, which tells him, in order to atone for the murders he has committed, to serve eight years as a slave of Eurystheus. On behalf of Eurystheus, Hercules performed labors, the number of which, according to later stories, was twelve. By these exploits, depicted on the bas-reliefs of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, he was cleared of his guilt. Voluntary submission to the divine commandment of purification made him the ideal of obedience to the gods, devotion, and loyalty to them; the ruler whom Hercules served in myths was a coward who hid in a barrel from the Erymanthian boar, which Hercules brought on his shoulders to the palace to him, who was afraid after that to see Hercules, who sent him his orders to Tiryns; but the less worthy of respect Eurystheus was, the more moral merit was Hercules’s obedience to the duty of serving him.

The influence of Eastern cults on the image of Hercules

Greek poetry has invested deep moral meaning and in those Syrian-Phoenician myths that were transferred to Hercules: in the legend borrowed from the myth of Melqart that he set up the pillars of the Strait of Hades (Gibraltar), passed through Libya, Iberia, Italy, Thrace, Scythia, founding cities everywhere; in the legend about serving the Lydian queen Omphale (goddess Astarte), that he then put aside his weapon and lion skin, put on women's dress and sat down to spin. This service to Omphale is also presented in the myths about Hercules as a matter of repentance for shed blood, a feat of selflessness, and takes on a religious character. But on the Attic stage, the service of Hercules to Omphale was presented in a satirically funny way; These plays expressed the opinion of the Greek people about the foreign element introduced into the stories about their favorite hero. The myth that Hercules burned himself on the top of Eta and rose again renewed, also, in all likelihood, passed on to the Greeks from the rites of the Eastern service to Sandon, the god of the sun and fire. The Iliad only says that the power of Hercules, the beloved son of Zeus Croton, was overcome by the inexorable goddess of death; in the Odyssey, the shadow of Hercules, armed with a bow, complains about the hard lot that Hercules suffered during his life under the light of the sun, serving an unworthy man who sent him even to the underworld to bring a dog from the dwelling of Hades. Just as during his life Hercules was a tireless warrior, so in the kingdom of shadows he appears to Odysseus as a formidable fighter: gloomy, he stands like a dark cloud in a crowd of dead heroes, his bow is drawn, his arrow lies on the string, he constantly takes aim.

Hercules as a national hero of the Greeks

In myths, Hercules was the hero not of just one tribe, but of the entire nation. True, he was a descendant of the Argive hero Perseus, therefore he most closely belonged to the Argive region, and his activities were devoted mainly to the good of the Peloponnese; but his homeland was Thebes, where his mother Alcmene, the granddaughter of Perseus, fled with her husband Amphitryon, and the exploits of his service to Apollo of Pythia were accomplished in the region of the mountains of Eta and Parnassus. He participated in the Argonaut expedition, so he also belongs to the Thessalian cycle of myths. And when the main subject heroic myths When the Trojan warrior became a warrior, an episode relating to Troy was also included in the legends about Hercules: he marched on Troy and destroyed it. The expansion of the maritime trade of the Greeks and the founding of Greek colonies in distant countries also expanded the geography of the myths about Hercules, introducing into the legends about him the legends of foreign peoples with which the Greeks became familiar. Many of the Greek colonies had him as their founder and patron. The Greeks found similarities between the myths about Hercules and the legends of the Indians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians; legends appeared about his campaigns in Libya, Spain, Gaul, Italy, on the Danube, on the shores of the Black Sea; traces of his exploits remained everywhere. The Dorians, having moved to the Peloponnese, justified their rights to the areas they conquered by the fact that these lands, according to myths, are the heritage of the ancestor of their kings, Hercules. Argos, Tiryns and Mycenae should have belonged to Hercules, because he was the eldest in the royal family; Hera, out of hatred for him, by deceit and against the will of Zeus, took away the royal rank from him and handed it over to the unworthy Eurystheus; Elis, Messenia, Laconia, Pylos were occupied by the descendants of Hercules by right of inheritance, as the conquerors claimed, because some of these regions were conquered by him, and others were given to him by treaties.

In Elis, Hercules rendered a service to the Epeian king Augius (“the shining one”), whose daughter Agameda knew all the magical herbs throughout the whole earth: Augius had very large herds; Hercules in one day cleaned his stables (or stables) by drawing the river Alpheus into them. The basis for this part of the myths about Hercules was probably the fact that by drawing a canal the swamp produced by the herds of Helios, that is, the clouds, was drained. Augeas did not give Hercules the promised reward; Hercules went to war against him; Augeas was helped by his nephews, the Molionides, gifted with gigantic strength; after a long and difficult struggle, Hercules won. In memory of the victory, he established the Olympic Games, erected six altars to the twelve gods, measured the stages for the games with his feet, planted shady trees in Olympia, and decreed that all hostilities should cease during the games. – He conquered Pylos, defeating Neleus, son of Poseidon; and Neleus himself and eleven of his twelve sons were killed by Hercules; only the twelfth son, Nestor, who was not in Pylos at that time, survived; he was in Geren (that’s why they call him Gerensky). – The king of Laconia, Tyndareus, was expelled from his kingdom; Hercules restored his power and he promised that subsequently the Laconian kingdom would be given to the descendants of Hercules. – Hercules took and destroyed the city of Echaly; some myths say that this city was also located in the Peloponnese, on the border of Arcadia and Messenia; according to other stories, it was a Thessalian or Euboean city. – Hercules helped the Dorian king Aegimius defeat the Lapiths; Aegimius, in gratitude for this, transferred his rank to the son of Hercules, Gill, and his descendants. – Myths tell that in Boeotia, Hercules liberated his hometown, Thebes, from tribute to the Orchomenian Minyans, defeated the Minyans, buried their underground canals and forced them to pay tribute to Thebes. Hercules and his faithful assistant, the ruler of his chariot, Iolaus (son of Iphicles, son of Amphitryon and Alcmene, mother of Hercules) were patrons of gymnastic games; they initially received this meaning in Thebes, but soon acquired it throughout Greece; Games were played in their honor, accompanied by merry feasts.

Hercules kills the Nemean lion. Copy from the statue of Lysippos

Divine and human traits in the personality of Hercules

Greek deities were personifications of the forces of nature and at the same time moral ideas. In the myths about Hercules, the hero, close to the gods, and after difficult feats of his earthly life accepted into their society, was also the personification of physical strength in close union with moral forces; ideas about man were combined in the image of the mythical Hercules with ideas about deity. He was the earthly likeness of Zeus, his father; there was a hero who triumphed in countless battles; he and his assistant Iolaus were the first winners of the olympic games. But he was a hero who served the sun deity, clearing the earth from the forces of darkness with his victories. In myths, Hercules performed his exploits for the benefit of people: he killed monsters, crossed rivers, set limits to their floods, cleared roads from robbers, established peace and order. Myths about Hercules paint a moral ideal strong man, with all his valor, leading a difficult, miserable life, fulfilling the difficult duty of humility, obedience, self-control, and as a reward for this, acquiring a life of eternal joy in the circle of the gods. But even with this idea of ​​Hercules, he did not turn into an abstract ideal of virtue: his image bears the stamp of a healthy, strong nature, in which ideal aspirations for high goals are combined with human qualities and drives, sensual, real. In myths, Hercules eats a lot; he happened to eat a whole bull, even with bones. He loves wine, games; he entered into a fraternal alliance with Dionysus; He loves beautiful women and had many children with them: Theban myth He said about Hercules that when he was still young, in one night he enjoyed the love of fifty daughters of Thespius, the Heliconian nymphs, and they gave birth to fifty sons. The moral greatness of the national hero did not suffer in the opinion of the Greeks because satirical drama and folk humor exhibited in comic exaggeration such features of his passion for sensual pleasures during leisure hours.

Hercules as the embodiment of the Hellenic spirit

The myths about Hercules were so diverse and the idea of ​​the hero in them was so complex. Hercules was a true personification of the multifaceted development of the Hellenic national character. In all parts of the Greek world, on all the shores where their commercial enterprise led the Greeks, they saw traces of the activities of their national hero, who paved the way for them with his courage, endurance in all dangers, hardships, and disasters, who personified them own life. In myths, Hercules visited everywhere, from the Atlas Mountains and the Gardens of the Hesperides in the far west, where the pillars he erected testified to the reliability of his campaign there, to Egypt, where he killed the enemy of foreigners, Busiris, and to the shores of the Black Sea. It is clear that such perfect image, into which each generation invested the features of its concepts, inclinations, interests, should have had a great influence on the mental life and on the entire culture of the Greek people, and that some elements of the idea of ​​​​Hercules penetrated the religious and moral views of the Greeks. The hero Hercules, who, according to myths about him, reached the sky through the labors of a hard life, was a type of valor for poetry. For Greek youths, he, a fighter, winner of lions and giants, was a type of athlete, patron of gymnastic exercises. The military aristocracy, especially the Spartans, saw in the myths of Hercules the embodiment of their own virtues in a strong-hearted and physically strong warrior who not only defeated enemies, but also subordinated himself to his duty. Patient and firm, obedient to the sense of his duty and victorious, Hercules was for the Spartans of the best time of Sparta the type of what they themselves should be. The main traits praised by the myths of Hercules: physical strength, victorious warlike behavior and obedience to legitimate authority were the characteristic qualities of the Spartans.

Alcmene. To woo Alcmene, Zeus took the form of her husband. Zeus' wife Hera made her husband promise that the one who would be born at a certain time would become a great king. Despite the fact that it was Hercules who was supposed to be at the appointed hour, Hera intervened in the process, as a result of which Hercules’ cousin named Eurystheus was born earlier. Nevertheless, Zeus agreed with Hera that Hercules would not obey his cousin forever, but would carry out only twelve of his orders. It was these acts that later became the famous 12 labors of Hercules.

Ancient Greek myths Many deeds are attributed to Hercules: from the campaign with the Argonauts to the construction of the city of Gytion together with the god Apollo.

Hera could not forgive Zeus for betraying him, but she took out her anger on Hercules. For example, she sent madness to him, and Hercules killed his own in a fit, born daughter King Megara of Thebes. The prophetess from the temple of Apollo in Delphi said that in order to atone for his terrible act, Hercules must carry out the instructions of Eurystheus, who was jealous of Hercules’ strength and came up with very difficult tests.

The painful death of a hero

In twelve years, Hercules completed all of his cousin’s tasks, gaining freedom. Future life The hero also had feats, the content and number of which depended on the authors of specific myths, since there are quite a lot of ancient Greek monuments.

Most authors agree that, having defeated the river god Achelous, Hercules won the hand of Deianira, the daughter of Dionysus. One day, Dejanira was kidnapped by the centaur Nessus, who admired her beauty. Nessus carried travelers across a stormy river on his back, and when Hercules and Deianira approached the river, he put his wife on the centaur and went swimming.

Nessus tried to escape with Dejanira on his back, but Hercules wounded him with an arrow poisoned with the most powerful poison in the world - Lernaean bile, which he killed while carrying out the second order of Eurystheus. Nessus, dying, advised Dejanira to collect his blood, lying that it could be used as a love potion.

Earlier, Hercules mortally wounded his teacher and friend the centaur Chiron with an arrow poisoned by hydra bile.

Some time later, Dejanira tells that Hercules wants to marry one of his captives. Having soaked the cloak in Nessus' blood, she sent it as a gift to her husband to return his love. As soon as Hercules put on his cloak, the poison entered his body, causing terrible torment.

To get rid of suffering, Hercules uproots trees, builds a huge fire out of them, and lies down on. According to legend, the hero’s friend Philoctetes agreed to set the funeral pyre on fire, for which Hercules promised him his bow and poisoned arrows.

It is believed that Hercules died at the age of fifty, after his death he was accepted among the immortals and ascended to Olympus, where he finally reconciled with Hera and even married her daughter.

Hercules - in ancient times Greek mythology hero, son of the god Zeus and Alcmene, wife of the hero Amphitryon. Among the numerous myths about Hercules, the most famous is the cycle of tales about the 12 labors performed by Hercules when he was in the service of the Mycenaean king Eurystheus. The cult of Hercules was very popular in Greece; through Greek colonists it early spread to Italy, where Hercules was revered under the name Hercules.

One day, the evil Hera sent a terrible illness to Hercules. The great hero lost his mind, madness took possession of him. In a fit of rage, Hercules killed all his children and the children of his brother Iphicles. When the fit passed, deep sorrow took possession of Hercules. Cleansed from the filth of the involuntary murder he committed, Hercules left Thebes and went to the sacred Delphi to ask the god Apollo what he should do. Apollo ordered Hercules to go to the homeland of his ancestors in Tiryns and serve Eurystheus for twelve years. Through the mouth of the Pythia, the son of Latona predicted to Hercules that he would receive immortality if he performed twelve great labors at the command of Eurystheus. Hercules settled in Tiryns and became a servant of the weak, cowardly Eurystheus... In the service of Eurystheus, Hercules accomplished his 12 legendary feats, for which he needed all his strength, as well as ingenuity and good advice of the gods.

12 labors of Hercules

The canonical scheme of 12 labors was first established by Pisander of Rhodes in the poem “Hercules”. The order of feats is not the same for all authors. In total, Pythia ordered Hercules to perform 10 labors, but Eurystheus did not count 2 of them. I had to perform two more and it turned out to be 12. In 8 years and one month he accomplished the first 10 feats, in 12 years - all of them.

1. Strangulation of the Nemean Lion
2. Killing the Lernaean Hydra (not counted due to Iolaus' help)
3. Extermination of Stymphalian birds
4. Capture of the Keryneian Hind
5. Taming of the Erymanthian Boar
6. Cleaning the Augean Stables (not counted due to fee requirement)
7. Taming of the Cretan Bull
8. The Stealing of the Horses of Diomedes, victory over King Diomedes (who threw strangers to be devoured by his horses)
9. The theft of the Belt of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
10. Stealing the cows of the three-headed giant Geryon
11. The theft of golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides
12. Taming the guard of Hades - the dog Cerberus

The first labor of Hercules (summary)

Hercules strangled the huge Nemean lion, which was born by the monsters Typhon and Echidna and caused devastation in Argolis. Hercules' arrows bounced off the lion's thick skin, but the hero stunned the beast with his club and strangled him with his hands. In memory of this first feat, Hercules established the Nemean Games, which were celebrated in the ancient Peloponnese every two years.

The second labor of Hercules (summary)

Hercules killed the Lernaean hydra - a monster with the body of a snake and 9 heads of a dragon, which crawled out of a swamp near the city of Lerna, killed people and destroyed entire herds. In place of each hydra head severed by the hero, two new ones grew until Hercules’ assistant, Iolaus, began to burn the hydra’s necks with burning tree trunks. He also killed a giant crayfish that crawled out of the swamp to help the hydra. Hercules soaked his arrows in the poisonous bile of the Lernaean hydra, making them deadly.

The third labor of Hercules (summary)

Stymphalian birds attacked people and livestock, tearing them apart with copper claws and beaks. In addition, they dropped deadly bronze feathers from a height like arrows. The goddess Athena gave Hercules two tympanums, with the sounds of which he scared away the birds. When they flew up in a flock, Hercules shot some of them with a bow, and the rest flew away in horror to the shores of the Pontus Euxine (Black Sea) and never returned to Greece.

The fourth labor of Hercules (summary)

The Kerynean doe with golden horns and copper legs, sent to punish people by the goddess Artemis, never tired, rushed around Arcadia and devastated the fields. Hercules chased a doe at a run whole year, reaching in pursuit of her the sources of the Istra (Danube) in the far north and then returning back to Hellas. Here Hercules wounded the doe in the leg with an arrow, caught her and brought her alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae.

The fifth labor of Hercules (summary)

Possessing monstrous strength, the Erymanthian boar terrified the entire surrounding area. On the way to fight him, Hercules visited his friend, the centaur Pholus. He treated the hero to wine, angering the other centaurs, since the wine belonged to all of them, and not to Fol alone. The centaurs rushed at Hercules, but with archery he forced the attackers to hide with the centaur Chiron. Pursuing the centaurs, Hercules burst into the cave of Chiron and accidentally killed this wise hero of many Greek myths with an arrow. Having found the Erymanthian boar, Hercules drove it into deep snow, and it got stuck there. The hero took the tied boar to Mycenae, where the frightened Eurystheus, at the sight of this monster, hid in a large jug.

The sixth labor of Hercules (summary)

King Augeas of Elis, the son of the sun god Helios, received from his father numerous herds of white and red bulls. His huge barnyard had not been cleared for 30 years. Hercules offered Augeas to clear the stall in a day, asking in return for a tenth of his herds. Believing that the hero could not cope with the work in one day, Augeias agreed. Hercules blocked the rivers Alpheus and Peneus with a dam and diverted their water to Augeas's farmyard - all the manure was washed away from it in a day.

Greedy Augeas did not give Hercules the promised payment for his work. A few years later, having already been freed from service with Eurystheus, Hercules gathered an army, defeated Augeas and killed him. After this victory, Hercules founded the famous Olympic Games in Elis, near the city of Pisa.

The seventh labor of Hercules (summary)

The god Poseidon gave the Cretan king Minos a beautiful bull to sacrifice himself. But Minos left the wonderful bull in his herd, and sacrificed another to Poseidon. The angry god sent the bull into a frenzy: he began to rush all over Crete, destroying everything along the way. Hercules caught the bull, tamed it, and swam on its back across the sea from Crete to the Peloponnese. Eurystheus ordered the bull to be released. He, again enraged, rushed from Mycenae to the north, where he was killed in Attica by the Athenian hero Theseus.

The Eighth Labor of Hercules (summary)

The Thracian king Diomedes owned horses of wondrous beauty and strength, which could only be kept in a stall with iron chains. Diomedes fed the horses with human meat, killing the foreigners who came to him. Hercules led the horses away by force and defeated Diomedes, who rushed in pursuit, in battle. During this time, the horses tore to pieces Hercules' companion, Abdera, who was guarding them on the ships.

The Ninth Labor of Hercules (summary)

The queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, wore a belt given to her by the god Ares as a sign of her power. Eurystheus's daughter, Admeta, wanted this belt. Hercules with a detachment of heroes sailed to the kingdom of the Amazons, to the shores of the Pontus Euxine (Black Sea). Hippolyta, at the request of Hercules, wanted to give up the belt voluntarily, but other Amazons attacked the hero and killed several of his companions. Hercules defeated seven of the strongest warriors in battle and put their army to flight. Hippolyta gave him the belt as a ransom for the captured Amazon Melanippe. On the way back from the land of the Amazons, Hercules saved Hesione, the daughter of the Trojan king Laomendont, who, like Andromeda, was doomed to sacrifice at the walls of Troy. sea ​​monster. Hercules killed the monster, but Laomedont did not give him the promised reward - the horses of Zeus belonging to the Trojans. For this, Hercules, a few years later, made a campaign against Troy, took it and killed the entire family of Laomedon, leaving only one of his sons, Priam, alive. Priam ruled Troy during the glorious Trojan War.

The tenth labor of Hercules (summary)

On the westernmost edge of the earth, the giant Geryon, who had three bodies, three heads, six arms and six legs, was tending cows. By order of Eurystheus, Hercules went after these cows. The long journey to the west itself was already a feat, and in memory of it, Hercules erected two stone (Hercules) pillars on both sides of a narrow strait near the shores of the Ocean (modern Gibraltar). Geryon lived on the island of Erithia. So that Hercules could reach him, the sun god Helios gave him his horses and a golden boat, on which he himself sails across the sky every day.

Having killed Geryon's guards - the giant Eurytion and two-headed dog Ortho - Hercules captured the cows and drove them to the sea. But then Geryon himself rushed at him, covering his three bodies with three shields and throwing three spears at once. However, Hercules shot him with a bow and finished him off with a club, and transported the cows on Helios’s shuttle across the Ocean. On the way to Greece, one of the cows ran away from Hercules to Sicily. To free her, the hero had to kill the Sicilian king Eryx in a duel. Then Hera, hostile to Hercules, sent rabies into the herd, and the cows that had fled from the shores of the Ionian Sea were barely caught in Thrace. Eurystheus, having received Geryon's cows, sacrificed them to Hera.

The Eleventh Labor of Hercules (summary)

Hercules had to find the way to the great titan Atlas (Atlas), who holds the firmament on his shoulders at the edge of the earth. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to take three golden apples from the golden tree in the garden of Atlas. To find out the way to Atlas, Hercules, on the advice of the nymphs, lay in wait for the sea god Nereus on the seashore, grabbed him and held him until he showed the right road. On the way to Atlas through Libya, Hercules had to fight the cruel giant Antaeus, who received new powers by touching his mother, Earth-Gaia. After a long fight, Hercules lifted Antaeus into the air and strangled him without lowering him to the ground. In Egypt, King Busiris wanted to sacrifice Hercules to the gods, but the angry hero killed Busiris along with his son.

The Twelfth Labor of Hercules (summary)

By order of Eurystheus, Hercules descended through the Tenar abyss into the dark kingdom of the god dead Hades, to take away his guard from there - the three-headed dog Cerberus, whose tail ended with the head of a dragon. At the very gates underworld Hercules freed the Athenian hero Theseus, rooted to the rock, who, together with his friend, Periphoes, was punished by the gods for trying to steal his wife Persephone from Hades. IN kingdom of the dead Hercules met the shadow of the hero Meleager, to whom he promised to become the protector of his lonely sister Deianira and marry her. The ruler of the underworld, Hades, himself allowed Hercules to take Cerberus away - but only if the hero was able to tame him. Having found Cerberus, Hercules began to fight him. He strangled the dog, pulled him out of the ground and brought him to Mycenae. The cowardly Eurystheus, at one glance at the terrible dog, began to beg Hercules to take her back, which he did.

The Greeks called Hercules Hercules. He was not endowed with great intelligence, but his courage eclipsed any lack of cunning. Hercules was easily irritated by outbursts of rage at innocent passers-by, and then regretted, felt guilty for what he had done and was ready to accept any punishment. Only supernatural forces could defeat him. There are only two figures in Greek mythology - Hercules and Dionysus from ordinary people became completely immortal and were worshiped as gods.

Hercules was the son of Zeus and Alcmene. Alcmene had a husband, Amphitryon, an outstanding Greek warrior and heir to the throne of Tiryns. One night, when Amphitryon was on a campaign, Zeus appeared to Alcmene under the guise of a husband. When Amphitryon returned, the blind prophet Tiresias told him that Alcmene would give birth to a child who would become a great hero.

The fight of Hercules with the Nemean lion

Alcmene gave birth to twin boys, Hercules and Iphicles. When the goddess Hera discovered that Zeus had seduced Alcmene and gave birth to Hercules, she was furious. Hera was jealous of Zeus and tried to kill the baby by sending two poisonous snakes to him. The child strangled snakes in his crib. Although Hera failed to kill Hercules, she haunted him throughout her life and brought him much suffering and punishment.

Lessons from Hercules

Like most Greek youths, Hercules attended music lessons. One day, Linus, his mentor, taught Hercules to play the lyre. Hercules, disappointed with his game, flew into a rage and broke the lyre on Linus's head. Linus died instantly, and Hercules was shocked and very sorry. He didn't want to kill his teacher. He just didn’t know his strength and didn’t learn to control it.

Miraculous acquisition of immortality

At a time when Hercules was very young, he went to fight the Minyan king Ergin, to whom Thebes paid tribute. As a reward for his release from tribute, the king of Thebes gave Hecules the hand of his daughter Megara. Hercules and Megara had three children. One day, Hercules was returning home after a trip, and Hera sent him into a fit of madness, during which he killed his wife and children. When Hercules came to his senses, he was horrified by his action. Heartbroken, he went to Delphi to the oracle to find out how he could atone for his guilt. The oracle told him to go to the king of Tiryns Eurystheus and carry out any of his orders. The oracle also said that if Hercules completed all the tasks assigned to him, he would become immortal.

Twelve Labors of Hercules

King Eurystheus gave Hercules 12 difficult and dangerous tasks. They became known as the twelve labors of Hercules.

The hero's first task was to kill the Nemean Lion, a beast that terrorized a certain area and could not be killed by any weapon. Hercules strangled the beast with his own strong hands, without using any weapons, but from its skin he built himself a cape, which made him invulnerable.

12 labors of Hercules on ancient coins

The second task was to destroy the Lernaean Hydra, a creature with nine heads that lives in the swamp. One of the hydra's heads was immortal, and the others grew back after being cut off. Hercules went to fight the hydra with his friend Iolaus. Hercules cut off the heads one by one, and Iolaus used a torch to burn them with fire so that new ones would not grow. The last ninth head of the hydra remained alive, and Hercules had to bury it under a pile of stones.

The next task was to catch the Kerynean hind with golden horns, which the goddess Artemis considered sacred. She rushed across the fields, devastating them. Hercules hunted her for a whole year, finally wounded her and brought her to Tiryns. Artemis demanded that the sacred animal be returned to her. Hercules promised that the doe would remain alive.

The fourth labor of Hercules was to catch the Erymanthian boar, which was terrorizing the lands around Mount Erymanthus. Chasing the animal from its lair, Hercules drove it so that the beast’s strength was exhausted; the hero easily dealt with it and brought the tied boar to Eurystheus.

The fifth labor of Hercules is known as the cleansing in one day Augean stables. The son of the sun god Helios, King Augeas had huge herds of cattle, the stables of which had not been cleaned for many years. Hercules offered to do this work in one day in exchange for a tenth of the herd. Augeas agreed, realizing that no one could do this in a day. Hercules filled up the river bed, it turned its waters towards the stables, and in one day all the manure was washed away.

The sixth feat was the fight against the Stymphalian birds, with iron claws, beaks and wings, which attacked people and terrorized countryside. The goddess Athena helped Hercules scare away the birds, forcing them to fly out of their nests, and Hercules shot them with a bow.

The seventh task was to bring the Cretan bull alive to Tiryns. This bull was given by the god Poseidon to the king of the island of Crete, Minos. Because Minos did not sacrifice this bull, but replaced it with another, Poseidon sent the bull into a frenzy, and it destroyed everything in its path. Hercules caught it and swam across the sea on it.

With his eighth task, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the horses of Diomedes. King Diomedes of Thrace had beautiful but wild horses, which he fed with human flesh. Hercules led away the herds of horses. Diomedes set off in pursuit of him, and Hercules was forced to kill him, and tamed his horses and brought him to Eurystheus.

The ninth test was to obtain the belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyta. When the Amazons attacked Hercules, thinking he was going to kidnap their queen, Hercules was forced to kill them. Hippolyta, as a ransom for one of the Amazons captured by Hercules, gave him a belt.

The tenth task was to bring Geryon's cows. Geryon was a monster with three bodies, had three heads and three pairs of arms and legs. The journey to Geryon to the west was difficult, it was necessary to overcome the desert and the sea. The sun god Helios gave Hercules his boat, on which he reached Geryon, killed him and took away his cows.

Hercules defeats the hydra

The eleventh task that Eurystheus gave to Hercules was to bring three fruits from the garden of Atlas, which held the sky. Atlas had a golden apple tree in his garden, from which three fruits had to be picked. Hercules lay in wait for the god Nereus to help him find the way to Atlas. While Atlas went to his garden to buy apples, Hercules had to hold the sky instead. According to other sources, Hercules received the fruit by killing the dragon who stood guard over the tree with golden apples.