Twelve Labours of Heracles
The twelve impossible tasks imposed upon Heracles as penance for killing his family in a divine madness
The Meaning of Twelve Labours of Heracles
The Twelve Labours are the defining cycle of Heracles's mythology, imposed as penance after Hera drove him mad and he killed his own wife Megara and their children. The Delphic Oracle commanded him to serve King Eurystheus of Tiryns for twelve years, performing whatever tasks the king assigned. Eurystheus, a weak and cowardly ruler, devised labours of escalating danger. Heracles first slew the Nemean Lion, whose hide was impervious to weapons, strangling it and thereafter wearing its skin as armour. He killed the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra with the help of his nephew Iolaus, who cauterised each neck-stump to prevent regeneration. He captured the Ceryneian Hind sacred to Artemis, the Erymanthian Boar, and cleansed the Augean Stables by diverting two rivers. He drove away the Stymphalian Birds with bronze castanets forged by Hephaestus, captured the Cretan Bull, and tamed the man-eating Mares of Diomedes. He obtained the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, and herded the Cattle of Geryon from the far west. His eleventh labour sent him to the Garden of the Hesperides to steal the golden apples of immortality, and the twelfth — the most terrible — required him to descend to the underworld and bring back Cerberus, the three-headed hound of Hades, alive. Heracles wrestled Cerberus into submission with bare hands and carried him to the surface. Each labour pushed Heracles to the boundary between mortal and divine, and upon completing them he was purified of his crime and eventually achieved apotheosis — rising to Olympus as a god.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Eurystheus was so terrified of Heracles that he hid in a bronze jar buried in the ground whenever the hero returned from a labour
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
The Twelve Labours
💭 conceptHeroism, endurance, redemption
Twelve impossible tasks imposed on Heracles by King Eurystheus as penance for killing his own family in a madness sent by Hera.
Herculean Task
💭 conceptExtreme difficulty, superhuman effort
A task requiring enormous strength or effort, from the twelve labours imposed on Heracles by King Eurystheus.
House of Atreus
💭 conceptNarrative
The cursed royal dynasty of Mycenae whose generations of bloodshed and vengeance form the darkest saga in Greek mythology
Heracles
🗡 heroThe twelve labours
Heracles performed twelve seemingly impossible labours as penance for killing his family in a madness sent by Hera — the most famous cycle of heroic tasks in mythology.
Niobe's Punishment
💭 conceptNarrative
The destruction of a queen's fourteen children by Apollo and Artemis for her boast of superiority to the goddess Leto
Oedipus Cycle
💭 conceptNarrative
The interconnected myths tracing the cursed lineage of Oedipus from prophecy to tragic fulfilment
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptwar, curse
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the seven gates of Thebes, organised by Polynices to reclaim the throne from his brother Eteocles.
Sisyphean Task
💭 conceptFutility, endless repetition, pointless labour
An endlessly repetitive and futile task, from King Sisyphus who must roll a boulder uphill for eternity.
Theban Cycle
💭 conceptepic, dynasty
The cycle of myths surrounding the cursed royal house of Thebes, from Cadmus's founding through Oedipus's tragedy to the war of the Seven and their sons.
Perseus and Medusa
💭 conceptNarrative
The hero's quest to slay the mortal Gorgon and his ingenious use of divine gifts to accomplish the impossible
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptNarrative
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the city of Thebes in the generation before the Trojan War
Niobe's Children
💭 concepthubris, grief
The fourteen children of Niobe, killed by Apollo and Artemis after their mother boasted of being superior to Leto, the divine twins' mother.