Heracles

Not to be confused with Euripides’ tragedy Heracles or the 2014 film Hercules.

Heracles – or Hercules, as he has been more popularly known ever since Roman times – was the greatest of all Greek heroes, “one who surpassed all men of whom memory from the beginning of time has brought down an account” (Diodorus Siculus 4.8). The son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, he was a half-god of superhuman strength and violent passions, the champion of the gods against monsters and villains. His short temper brought both him and many innocent people trouble, but the magnitude of his labors earned him immortality (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.12). The protagonist of hundreds of myths – the chronology of which is impossible to figure out – Heracles is one of the most iconic figures in all of Greek mythology.

Hercules Birth and Childhood

A demigod sired by Zeus, Heracles showed immense promise ever since birth: he strangled two snakes sent by Hera in his cradle. He had the very best teachers in his childhood, and by the time he reached his teenage years, he had already outdone all of them in both stature and strength.

Hercules Origins

As is almost typical in the case of heroes, Heracles was the product of a union of a mortal woman (Alcmene) and a god (Zeus). Heracles is therefore a demigod and not, in his life, a god; Hesiod calls him the son of Zeus and Alcmene, born at Thebes (Hesiod, Shield 1–56; Homeric Hymn 15). In Heracles’ case, even his mother was of a noteworthy parentage: Alcmene was the granddaughter of Perseus, possibly Greece’s greatest hero before Heracles (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.5). Hera was not his mother but his enemy; Diodorus says that he was called Alcaeus until he was named Heracles because he gained glory (kleos) through Hera (Diodorus 4.10), and in Apollodorus the Pythian priestess first called him Heracles after the earlier name Alcides (Library 2.4.12).

Hercules Birth

Disguised as her husband Amphitryon, Zeus slept with Alcmene on the night before Amphitryon himself did. Alcmene gave birth to twin sons: Iphicles to her husband and Heracles to Zeus, who was the elder by one night (Library 2.4.8; compare Hesiod, Shield 27–56). Hera, angry at Zeus’ infidelity, sent two snakes to the cradle when the child was eight months old; Iphicles fled, but Heracles strangled them (Library 2.4.8; Pindar, Nemean 1.33–50).

Hera’s Curse

The sending of the snakes was not the first misdeed of Hera against Heracles – and it would certainly not be the last. In the Iliad, Zeus announced that the child about to be born that day of his own blood would rule all his neighbors; Hera made him swear it and then, by delaying the birth of Heracles through Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, brought about the birth of Eurystheus first, in the seventh month (Homer, Iliad 19.95–133). Eurystheus became lord of the Argives, and Heracles was bound to serve him. In Diodorus, Zeus afterward agreed that Heracles would serve Eurystheus for twelve labors and receive immortality when they were done (Diodorus 4.9).

Heracles’ Mentors

Heracles had a number of mentors. His mortal father Amphitryon taught him to drive a chariot; Autolycus, Odysseus’ grandfather, tutored him in wrestling; Eurytus, the king of Oechalia, instructed Heracles in archery; Castor, the mortal Dioscuri twin, trained Heracles in fencing; and Linus, a brother of Orpheus, taught him to play the lyre (Library 2.4.9). Heracles killed Linus with a blow of the lyre when he was struck by him in anger; tried for murder, he was acquitted by quoting a law of Rhadamanthys that whoever defends himself against a wrongful aggressor shall go free (Library 2.4.9). Amphitryon then sent him to the cattle farm, where he outdid all in stature and strength; even by the look of him he was plainly a son of Zeus, for his body measured four cubits and a gleam of fire flashed from his eyes (Library 2.4.9).

Hercules Early Adventures

Heracles’ adventures started in the eighteenth year of his life, when he killed the Lion of Cithaeron (Library 2.4.9).

The Lion of Cithaeron

The Lion of Mount Cithaeron preyed on the flocks of both Amphitryon and Thespius, the king of Thespiae; while staying with the latter, Heracles went out each day to hunt the lion for fifty days. Having killed the lion, he dressed himself in its skin and wore its scalp as a helmet (Library 2.4.10). This is not the Nemean Lion of the first labor, whose invulnerable skin he later took (Library 2.5.1).

Wishing that all of his daughters should have a child by him, Thespius, each night of the hunt, put one of his fifty daughters into Heracles’ bed. Thinking that his bedfellow was always one and the same, Heracles had intercourse with all of them, and Apollodorus lists the sons born to them (Library 2.4.10; 2.7.8).

The Heralds of Erginus

Coming back from the hunt, Heracles encountered the heralds of Erginus, sent by the Minyan king to collect the Theban tribute of one hundred cattle a year. Apollodorus says that Heracles “cut off their ears and noses and hands, and having fastened them by ropes from their necks, he told them to carry that tribute to Erginus and the Minyans.” Erginus marched against Thebes; Heracles, having received weapons from Athena, killed him, put the Minyans to flight, and compelled them to pay double the original tribute to the Thebans. Amphitryon fell fighting bravely in that battle (Library 2.4.11).

Heracles’ Madness

Creon, the Theban king, gave Heracles his eldest daughter Megara as a prize of valor. Then Heracles, driven mad by the jealousy of Hera, flung his own children by Megara, and two children of Iphicles, into the fire (Library 2.4.11–12). Euripides dramatizes the madness in his Heracles (Euripides, Heracles 822–1015). He condemned himself to exile and was purified by Thespius; at Delphi the Pythian priestess told him to dwell at Tiryns, serving Eurystheus for twelve years and performing the labors, and that when they were done he would be immortal (Library 2.4.12). Ten labors were imposed at first; these became the famous Twelve Labors of Heracles.

The Twelve Labors of Heracles

Heracles is most famous for the labors he did while serving his cousin Eurystheus; here these are only listed, and you can read more about each of them in the relevant article (Labours of Heracles). Apollodorus says that he completed them in eight years and a month (Library 2.5.1–12).

The Initial Ten Labors

Eurystheus’ original ten tasks for Heracles were the following ones (Library 2.5.1–10):

1. to kill the Nemean Lion,

2. to kill the Lernaean Hydra,

3. to capture the Ceryneian Hind,

4. to capture the Erymanthian Boar,

5. to clean the stables of Augeas in one day,

6. to kill the Stymphalian Birds,

7. to capture the Cretan Bull,

8. to steal the Mares of Diomedes,

9. to steal the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, and,

10. to steal the cattle of the monster Geryon.

The seventh labor, the Cretan Bull, was a bull that, in one account, Poseidon had sent up from the sea when Minos promised to sacrifice what should appear out of the sea; Heracles caught it and showed it to Eurystheus and let it go, and it roamed on to Marathon in Attica (Library 2.5.7).

The Final Two Labors

After Heracles completed the tenth labor, Eurystheus gave him two more, since he did not acknowledge the Hydra and the stables of Augeas: Heracles had killed the Hydra with the help of Iolaus, and had cleaned the Augean stables by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus into the cattle-yard in exchange for a promised payment (Library 2.5.2, 2.5.5, 2.5.11).

The final two labors Heracles was tasked with were possibly the most dangerous of them all:

11. to steal the Hesperidean Apples,

12. to capture Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld (Library 2.5.11–12)

Heracles’ Other Exploits

Heracles didn’t take any rest even after completing these twelve labors. It would be impossible to list – let alone describe – all of Heracles’ endeavors and victims in such a short space, so the brief catalog which follows does not do any of them justice.

Killing the Prometheus’ Eagle

On his road to the Hesperides, Heracles shot, on the Caucasus, the eagle, offspring of Echidna and Typhon, that was devouring the liver of Prometheus, and released the Titan (Library 2.5.11; compare Hesiod, Theogony 526–534). Prometheus advised him not to fetch the golden apples himself but to send Atlas for them while he held up the sky (Library 2.5.11).

Busiris, Emathion, and Antaeus

During this same journey, Heracles killed Busiris, the king of Egypt, and Emathion, son of Tithonus, whom Apollodorus places in Arabia; before that he fought Antaeus, son of Poseidon, in Libya. Antaeus was a wrestler who compelled strangers to wrestle with him; Heracles lifted him in a hold and broke him, because Antaeus grew stronger whenever he touched the earth (Library 2.5.11).

Freeing Theseus from Hades

While fetching Cerberus from the Underworld, Heracles came across Theseus and Pirithous, bound in Hades because of their attempt to carry off Persephone; he raised Theseus up, but when he tried to raise Pirithous the earth quaked and he let go (Library 2.5.12).

Murdering Iphithus and Fighting Apollo

After Eurytus, Heracles’ former teacher in archery, declined to give him his daughter Iole, though Heracles had beaten him and his sons at archery, Iphitus, the eldest son of Eurytus, alone argued that Iole be given. Later Iphitus came to Heracles looking for stolen cattle, and Heracles, going mad again, threw him from the walls of Tiryns (Library 2.6.1–2). Afflicted by a terrible disease for the murder, Heracles went to the oracle at Delphi to ask what to do. When the Pythian priestess would give him no answer, he seized the tripod to set up an oracle of his own, and Apollo fought him until Zeus separated the two with a thunderbolt (Library 2.6.2).

Serving Omphale

The oracle then told Heracles that he must be sold and serve for three years to pay for the murder. Hermes sold him, and he was bought by Omphale, daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia. While in her service, he seized and bound the Cercopes at Ephesus and killed Syleus, who compelled passing strangers to dig his vineyard (Library 2.6.2–3).

War with the Giants and Troy

Heracles also fought on the side of the gods against the Giants, for an oracle had said that the gods could not win without a mortal ally; he killed Alcyoneus and Porphyrion among the Giants (Apollodorus, Library 1.6.1–2). In the Iliad, Heracles had sacked Troy in the time of Priam’s father Laomedon, because of the horses Laomedon withheld (Iliad 5.638–642; Library 2.6.4).

Winning Alcestis Back from Death

Heracles came to the house of his friend Admetus at Pherae when Admetus’ wife Alcestis had just died, wrestled with Death, and gave Alcestis back to her husband (Euripides, Alcestis 837–860, 1006–1163; Library 1.9.15, 2.6.2).

The Argonauts

About this time, Heracles joined the Argonautic expedition. In Apollonius’ Argonautica the heroes wanted to choose him as their leader, but he refused, and said that the man who had brought them together, Jason, should lead (Argonautica 1.331–350). Soon afterward, his beloved Hylas was taken by the nymphs of a spring in Mysia; Heracles searched for him and was left behind (Argonautica 1.1207–1325).

War on Elis and the Olympic Games

When Augeas refused to pay, Heracles later marched against him with an Arcadian army, took Elis and killed him, and he also celebrated the Olympian games (Library 2.7.2). Pindar says that Heracles founded the games and marked out the sacred grove at Olympia after killing the sons of Actor and winning the war against Augeas (Pindar, Olympian 10.24–59). Pausanias reports a different tradition that gave the foundation to Heracles of Ida, a Curetan (Pausanias 5.7.6–9).

Death and Apotheosis

The Shirt of Nessus

Heracles’ second wife was Deianira, daughter of Oeneus and sister of the hero Meleager (Library 1.8.1, 2.7.5). Soon after their marriage, as they came to the river Evenus, the Centaur Nessus, who ferried passengers across, tried to violate Deianira; Heracles shot him with an arrow dipped in the poisonous blood of the Lernaean Hydra. With his dying breath, Nessus told Deianira to gather the blood that had flowed from his wound and keep it as a love-charm. Years later, fearing that Heracles loved Iole more than herself, she smeared a tunic with it; no sooner was the tunic warmed than the poison began to corrode his skin, and when he tore off the tunic his flesh was torn away with it (Library 2.7.6–7; Sophocles, Women of Trachis 555–581, 1046–1111).

The Funeral Pyre

In agony, Heracles built a pyre on Mount Oeta and mounted it. Apollodorus says that Poeas set it alight and received his bow and arrows; in the usual account it was Poeas’ son Philoctetes (Library 2.7.7; Diodorus 4.38). Heracles was taken up to heaven, reconciled with Hera and wedded to her daughter Hebe, and became an immortal god (Library 2.7.7). In Hesiod, Heracles became a god, with Hebe as his wife (Theogony 950–955). So the answer to whether Heracles is a god is that he was born a demigod, a mortal son of Zeus, and was made a god after his death. His children included Telephus, born to Auge at Tegea (Library 2.7.4), Tlepolemus (2.7.6), Hyllus by Deianira, and by Hebe, Alexiares and Anicetus (Library 2.7.7–8).

The Ghost of Heracles

In Homer’s account of Odysseus’ descent into the Underworld, Odysseus sees only a phantom of Heracles, “for he himself among the immortal gods takes his joy in the feast, and has to wife Hebe, of the fair ankles” (Odyssey 11.601–604). The phantom was formidable enough to cause fear and trembling all around the Underworld.

“About him,” informs us Odysseus in a rather chilling manner, “rose a clamor from the dead, as of birds flying everywhere in terror; and he like dark night, with his bow bare and with arrow on the string, glared about him terribly, like one in act to shoot. Awful was the belt about his breast, a baldric of gold, whereon wondrous things were fashioned, bears and wild boars, and lions with flashing eyes, and conflicts, and battles, and murders, and slayings of men.” (Odyssey 11.605–614)

Heracles Sources

For a relatively brief and nicely structured recounting of Heracles’ life and deeds, consult either Diodorus Siculus’ “Library of History” (4.8–39) or Apollodorus’ “Library” (2.4.8–2.7.8), on which our article above is based. Also used are Homer’s Iliad (5.638–642, 19.95–133) and Odyssey (11.601–614), Hesiod (Shield 1–56, Theogony 526–534, 950–955), Homeric Hymn 15, Pindar (Olympian 10.24–59, Nemean 1.33–50), Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica 1.331–350, 1.1207–1325), Pausanias (5.7.6–9), and the tragedians: Euripides dramatizes Heracles’ madness and his murder of his wife and children in “Heracles” and his struggle with Death in “Alcestis”, and Sophocles recounts Heracles’ death in “Women of Trachis”.

See Also: Labours of Heracles, Eurystheus, Lernaean Hydra, Shirt of Nessus, Ceryneian Hind, Erymanthian Boar, Stymphalian Birds, Cretan Bull, Geryon, Hesperides, Antaeus