Information of satrtkabel. In this map you can see de twelve Hercules` works in Europa.
| 0: 1 - Slay the Nemean Lion and bring back its skin Ver detalle |
| 1: 10 - Obtain the Cows of Geryon Ver detalle |
| 2: 11 - Steal the Apples of the Hesperides Ver detalle |
| 3: 12 - Capture Cerberus Ver detalle |
| 4: 2 - Slay the Lernaean Hydra Ver detalle |
| 5: 3 - Capture the Ceryneian Hind Ver detalle |
| 6: 4 - Capture the Erymanthian Boar Ver detalle |
| 7: 5 - Clean the Augean stables in one day Ver detalle |
| 8: 6 - Slay the Stymphalian Birds Ver detalle |
| 9: 7 - Capture the Cretan Bull Ver detalle |
| 10: 8 - Steal the Mares of Diomedes Ver detalle |
| 11: 9 - Obtain the Girdle of Hippolyte Ver detalle |
The lion had been terrorising the area around Nemea, and had a skin so thick that it was impenetrable to weapons. When Heracles first tackled it, using his bow-and-arrow, a club made from an olive tree he pulled out of the ground himself, and a bronze sword, all were ineffective. At last Heracles threw away his weapons and wrestled the lion to the ground, eventually killing it by thrusting his arm down its throat and choking it to death.
Heracles spent hours trying unsuccessfully to skin the lion, and gradually growing angrier as it appeared he would be unable to complete his first task. Eventually Athena, in the guise of an old crone, helped Heracles to realise that the best tools to cut the hide were the creature's own claws. Thus, with a little divine intervention, Heracles completed his first task.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemean_Lion
Herakles tried to steal the cattle, and killed Orthrus, then Eurythion. Herakles finally kills Geryon, tearing his body into its three pieces. Heracles then had to herd the cattle back to Eurystheus. To annoy Heracles, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. Hera then sent a flood which rose the water level of a river so much Heracles could not ford the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. Heracles then had to kill a monster that was half-woman and half-serpent. When he finally reached he court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geryon
According to the Greek poet Stesichorus, in his poem the "song of Geryon", and the Greek geographer Strabo, in his book Geographika (volume III), the Hesperides are in Tartessos, a location placed to the south of iberia(Spain).The Greek poet Hesiod said that the ancient name of Cádiz was Erytheia.
Additionally, Hesperides (also called Fortunate Isles) is a name given by the ancients to a series of islands located to the extreme west of the then known world. These may have included the Canary Islands, the Madeira Islands, and Cape Verde.
In some versions of the tale, Herakles did not know where to travel, and so sought help, being directed to Prometheus to ask, and when reaching Prometheus freed him from his torture as payment. This tale is more usually found in the position of the Erymanthian Boar, since it is associated with Chiron choosing to forgoe immortality and to take Prometheus' place.
In some variations, Herakles, either at the start or at the end of his task, meets Antaeus, who was invincible as long as he touched his mother, Gaia, the earth. Antaeus was killed by placing him above the earth, suspended in a tree.
According to the Greek poet Stesichorus, in his poem the "song of Geryon", and the Greek geographer Strabo, in his book Geographika (volume III), the Hesperides are in Tartessos, a location placed to the south of iberia(Spain).The Greek poet Hesiod said that the ancient name of Cádiz was Erytheia.
Additionally, Hesperides (also called Fortunate Isles) is a name given by the ancients to a series of islands located to the extreme west of the then known world. These may have included the Canary Islands, the Madeira Islands, and Cape Verde.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erytheia
Heracles' final labour was to capture Cerberus. After having been set the task, Heracles went to Eleusis to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries so that he could learn how to enter and exit the underworld alive, and in passing absolve himself for killing centaurs. He found the entrance to the underworld at Tanaerum, and Athena and Hermes helped him to traverse the entrance in each direction. He passed Charon thanks to Hermes' insistence, and his own heavy and fierce frowning.
Whilst in the underworld, Heracles freed Theseus but the earth shook when he attempted to liberate Pirithous, so he had to leave him behind. They had been imprisoned by Hades, by magic binding them to a bench, because they had attempted to kidnap Persephone. The magic was so strong that when Heracles pulled Theseus free, part of Theseus' thighs remained on the bench, explaining why his descendants had notably lean thighs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus
Taenarum or cape Tenaron is where Hercules (Herakles) went to find the entrance to Hades to fulfill his last labor of capturing Cerberus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanaerum
Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt, Heracles covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to protect himself from the poisonous fumes and fired flaming arrows into its lair, the spring of Amymone, to draw it out. The chthonic creature's reaction was botanical: upon cutting off each of its heads he found that two grew back.
Realising that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way, Heracles called on his nephew Iolaus for help. His nephew then came upon the idea of using a burning firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after decapitation, and handed him the blazing brand. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus burned the open stump leaving the hydra dead; its one immortal head Heracles placed under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius , and dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood, and so his second task was complete.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra
When Artemis was a child, she found five gigantic hinds grazing in Thessaly and captured four of them to draw her chariot. The fifth had escaped across a river to Mt. Cerynaea, on the border of Achaea and Arcadia (exact place is not known).
The hind was so fast it could outrun an arrow. When Heracles awoke from sleeping, he could see the hind from the glint on its antlers. Heracles chased the hind on foot for a full year through Greece, Thrace, Istria and the land of the Hyperboreans. In some versions, he captured the hind when it stopped to drink, rendering it lame by shooting it with an arrow that had not been poisoned with centaur/hydra blood, as most of his arrows were, in other versions he captured it when it was unable to run any further.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceryneian_Hind
the Erymanthian Boar was a vicious creature that lived on Mount Erymanthos.
Heracles had visited Chiron (a centaur) to gain advice on how to catch the boar, and Chiron had told him to drive it into thick snow, which sets this Labour in mid-winter. Having successfully caught the Boar, Heracles bound it and carried it back to Eurystheus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erymanthian_Boar
The fifth task set to Herakles was to clean the Augean stables in a single day. The reasoning behind this being set was twofold: firstly, all the previous labours only exalted Herakles in eyes of the people so this one would surely degrade him; secondly, the amount of dirt amassed in the uncleaned stable made the task surely impossible. However, Herakles succeeded by rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash the filth out.
Augeas (or Augeias) was King of Elis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augeas
The forest around Lake Stymphalus was very dense and too dark to see much. Athena and Hephaestus helped Heracles kill the birds as the sixth of his Twelve Labours. Hephaestus made huge bronze clappers to drive the birds into flight, and Heracles shot them with his arrows or a catapult. The birds that survived never returned to Greece.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stymphalian_Birds
Herakles was compelled to capture the bull as his seventh task. He sailed to Crete, whereupon the King of Crete, Minos, gave Herakles permission to take the bull away, as it had been wreaking havoc on Crete. Herakles used a lasso and rode it back to his cousin, Eurystheus. Eurystheus wanted to sacrifice the bull to Hera, who hated Herakles. She refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on Herakles, and the bull was released to be captured by Theseus later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretan_Bull
The Mares of Diomedes were four, magnificent, wild, uncontrollable, man-eating horses. They belonged to the giant Diomedes, King of Thrace,
This labour of Herakles was to steal them. In one version of the story, Herakles brought Abderus, one of his many male beloveds (eromenos), and some other youths to help him. They took the mares and were chased by Diomedes and his men.
Herakles was not aware that the horses were kept tethered to a bronze manger because they were wild, man-eating and uncontrollable, and Herakles left Abderus in charge of the horses while he fought Diomedes, but Abderus was eaten. In revenge, Herakles fed Diomedes to his own horses, then founded Abdera next to the boy's tomb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mares_of_Diomedes
Herakles' ninth labour was to obtain the girdle, at the request of Admete, Eurystheus' daughter. In one version of the story, Hippolyte fell in love with Heracles and freely gave him the belt. According to another the girdle is obtained by Herakles kidnapping Hippolyte's sister, Melanippe, and demanding the girdle as the ransom, succeeding and thus releasing the sister.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte