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The Twelve Labours (Greek: ''dodekathlos'') of carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes. The establishment of a fixed cycle of twelve labours was attributed by the Greeks to an epic poem (now lost) written by a certain '''Peisandros of Rhodes''', perhaps to be dated about 600 BCE (Burkert). As they survive, the Labours of Heracles are not told in any single place, but must be reassembled from many sources. Ruck and Staples (pp 169–170) assert that there is no one way to interpret the labours, but that six were located in the a magical animal or plant. "The sites selected were all previously strongholds of Hera or the 'Goddess' and were Entrances to the Netherworld" (p 169). A famous depiction of the labours in Greek sculpture is found on the Metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia , which date to the 450s BCE. THE FRAMING NARRATIVE Zeus , having made Alcmene pregnant with Heracles, proclaimed that the next son born of the house of Perseus would become king. Hera , Zeus' wife, hearing this, caused Eurystheus to be born two months early as he was of the house of Perseus, while Heracles, also of the house, was three months overdue. When he found out what had been done, Zeus was furious; however, his rash proclamation still stood. In a fit of madness, induced by Hera , Heracles slew his wife and children; the fit then passed. Realizing what he had done, he isolated himself, going into the wilderness and living alone. He was found (by his brother Iphicles ) and convinced to visit the Oracle at Delphi . The Oracle told him that as a penance he would have to perform a series of ten tasks set by King Eurystheus , the man who had taken Heracles' birthright and the man he hated the most. THE LABOURS In his labours, Heracles was often accompanied by a male companion (an '' Eromenos ''), according to some, Licymnius , or by others Iolaus , his nephew. Although he was only supposed to perform ten labours, this assistance led to him suffering two more. Eurystheus didn't count the Hydra, because Iolaus helped him, or the Augean stables, as he received payment for his work (in other versions it is because the rivers did the work). A traditional order of the labours found in Apollodorus (2.5.1-2.5.12) is: # Slay The Nemean Lion And Bring Back Its Fur . # Slay The Lernaean Hydra . # Capture The Ceryneian Hind . # Capture The Erymanthian Boar . # Clean The Augean Stables . # Slay The Stymphalian Birds . # Capture The Cretan Bull . # Steal The Mares Of Diomedes . # Obtain The Girdle Of Hippolyte . # Obtain The Cows Of Geryon . # Steal The Apples Of The Hesperides . # Capture Cerberus, The Guardian Dog Of Hades . INNER MEANING Behind their outer, literal meaning, Greek myths always hid an inner mystical tradition, and thus the labours could be interpreted as a symbolization of the spiritual path. This is particularly evident in an analysis of the eleventh, in which Heracles travels to the garden in which grows an apple tree with magical fruit, the tree of life, guarded by a dragon and a sisterhood—a parallel to the biblical legend of the Garden Of Eden where a serpent encourages the eating of the fruit from The Tree of Knowledge, granting the knowledge of good and evil. The last three labours (10-12) of Heracles are generally considered metaphors about death. ORIGIN OF THE STORIES Geographic locations Pointing to a possible location for their origin, or at least their formalisation, is the fact that most of the geographic locations, are all located in, or on the borders of Arcadia , or connected with it significantly.
MODERN POPULAR CULTURE The Twelve Labours have been spoofed a number of times in Comic Book s:
Howard Waldrop also reset the Twelve Labours to the Depression -era American South in his novella A Dozen Tough Jobs . Agatha Christie used the twelve labours as allegories for the last twelve cases that her detective Hercule Poirot would solve before his retirement in the 1947 short story collection The Labours Of Hercules . (He didn't retire until Curtain in 1975 .) SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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