Heracles
Son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, born in Thebes, the strongest of heroes; driven mad by Hera, he served Eurystheus and performed the Labours, freed Prometheus, brought Cerberus up from Hades, died on the pyre of Oeta and was received on Olympus as Hebe's husband. Herodotus counted two of him, a god and a hero.
Why this wins its question: Encyclopaedias give one twelve-labour biography. This object shows which labours Hesiod knew, where the number twelve comes from in Apollodorus, and how Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus each handle his immortality, with the passages.
Key takeaways
- The Labours are ten in the oracle and twelve in the count, because Eurystheus disallowed the Hydra and the Augean stables (Apollod. 2.4.12; 2.5.11).
- Hesiod knows the Hydra, the lion, Geryon and the freeing of Prometheus but never numbers or sequences the Labours; the sequence is Apollodorus's.
- Homer keeps both fates at once, a phantom in Hades and the man himself feasting with Hebe (Od. 11.601–604); Apollodorus supplies the pyre on Oeta and the cloud.
- Herodotus separates an Egyptian god called Heracles from the Greek son of Amphitryon and approves worshipping the Greek one as both god and hero.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Apollodorus makes Heracles the son of Zeus and Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon: Zeus "prolonging the one night threefold" took Amphitryon's likeness, and Alcmena bore twins, Heracles by Zeus "the elder by one night" and Iphicles by Amphitryon; when the babe was eight months old Hera sent two serpents, which he strangled. Apollodorus adds that Pherecydes made Amphitryon plant the serpents himself to learn which child was his (Apollod. 2.4.8). Homer and the short Homeric Hymn agree on Alcmene in Thebes (Il. 14.323–324; HH15 1–3).
His servitude begins with a trick on Zeus. In the Iliad Agamemnon tells how Zeus swore that a man of his blood born that day would rule his neighbours; Hera hastened the birth of Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus son of Perseus, and "stayed Alcmene's bearing", so that Eurystheus, not Heracles, was lord of the Argives (Il. 19.95–124). Apollodorus tells the same story with the Ilithyias delaying the delivery (Apollod. 2.4.5).
The Labours are a penance. Apollodorus says Heracles, "driven mad through the jealousy of Hera", threw his own children by Megara into the fire; the Pythian priestess "then first called him Hercules, for hitherto he was called Alcides", and told him to serve Eurystheus for twelve years and perform ten labours, after which he would be immortal (Apollod. 2.4.12). They became twelve because Eurystheus refused to count the Hydra, killed with Iolaus's help (Apollod. 2.5.2), and the stables of Augeas (Apollod. 2.5.11); the set was done "in eight years and a month" (Apollod. 2.5.11).
Hesiod already knows several labours without numbering them: Heracles with Iolaus destroyed the Hydra of Lerna, which Hera "nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles" (Theog. 313–318), he overcame the Nemean lion that Hera had reared (Theog. 327–332), and he slew three-headed Geryones in Erythea and drove off his oxen to Tiryns (Theog. 287–294).
The twelfth labour was Cerberus. Apollodorus has Heracles initiated at Eleusis, descend at Taenarum, free Theseus from his seat, and receive Pluto's leave to take the hound "provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons"; he seized it at the gates of Acheron, showed it to Eurystheus and carried it back (Apollod. 2.5.12). Homer knows the episode: Heracles' shade tells Odysseus that Eurystheus "sent me hither to fetch the hound of Hades" and that Hermes and Athena guided him (Od. 11.617–626), and Athena complains that she had to rescue him from that task (Il. 8.362–369).
Hesiod says Heracles shot the eagle that ate Prometheus's liver and "delivered the son of Iapetus from the cruel plague", with the consent of Zeus, "that the glory of Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater" (Theog. 526–532); Apollodorus repeats that the torment lasted "until Hercules afterwards released him" (Apollod. 1.7.1).
His death and deification are told in full by Apollodorus: Deianira smeared his tunic with the blood of the centaur Nessus, believing it a love-charm; the Hydra's poison in it corroded his flesh; he built a pyre on Mount Oeta, which Poeas lit and received his bow, and "a cloud passed under Hercules and with a peal of thunder wafted him up to heaven", where he married Hebe (Apollod. 2.7.6–7). Hesiod and the Hymn know only the result: he "lives amongst the undying gods" with Hebe on Olympus (Theog. 950–955; HH15 4–8), and in Homer only his "phantom" is in Hades while "he himself among the immortal gods takes his joy in the feast" (Od. 11.601–604).
Herodotus distinguishes two figures: an ancient Egyptian god Heracles, "one of the twelve gods", and the Greek "son of Amphitryon", born "about nine hundred years" before his own time; he praises the Greeks who keep two cults, "sacrificing to one Heracles as to an immortal, and calling him the Olympian, but to the other bringing offerings as to a dead hero" (Hdt. 2.43–44; 2.145.4). Pindar makes him founder of the Olympic festival by the tomb of Pelops, "the four years' festival with the first Olympic games" (Pind. Ol. 10.24–59; Ol. 2.3–4).
Questions answered
- Who were the parents of Heracles?
- Apollodorus makes Heracles the son of Zeus and Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon: Zeus "prolonging the one night threefold" took Amphitryon's likeness, and Alcmena bore twins, Heracles by Zeus "the elder by one night" and Iphicles by Amphitryon; when the babe was eight months old Hera sent two serpents, which he strangled. Apollodorus adds that Pherecydes made Amphitryon plant the serpents himself to learn which child was his (Apollod. 2.4.8). Homer and the short Homeric Hymn agree on Alcmene in Thebes (Il. 14.323–324; HH15 1–3). source
- Why did Heracles have to serve Eurystheus?
- The Labours are a penance. Apollodorus says Heracles, "driven mad through the jealousy of Hera", threw his own children by Megara into the fire; the Pythian priestess "then first called him Hercules, for hitherto he was called Alcides", and told him to serve Eurystheus for twelve years and perform ten labours, after which he would be immortal (Apollod. 2.4.12). They became twelve because Eurystheus refused to count the Hydra, killed with Iolaus's help (Apollod. 2.5.2), and the stables of Augeas (Apollod. 2.5.11); the set was done "in eight years and a month" (Apollod. 2.5.11). source
- How many labours did Heracles perform, ten or twelve?
- The Labours are a penance. Apollodorus says Heracles, "driven mad through the jealousy of Hera", threw his own children by Megara into the fire; the Pythian priestess "then first called him Hercules, for hitherto he was called Alcides", and told him to serve Eurystheus for twelve years and perform ten labours, after which he would be immortal (Apollod. 2.4.12). They became twelve because Eurystheus refused to count the Hydra, killed with Iolaus's help (Apollod. 2.5.2), and the stables of Augeas (Apollod. 2.5.11); the set was done "in eight years and a month" (Apollod. 2.5.11). source
- How did Heracles capture Cerberus?
- The twelfth labour was Cerberus. Apollodorus has Heracles initiated at Eleusis, descend at Taenarum, free Theseus from his seat, and receive Pluto's leave to take the hound "provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons"; he seized it at the gates of Acheron, showed it to Eurystheus and carried it back (Apollod. 2.5.12). Homer knows the episode: Heracles' shade tells Odysseus that Eurystheus "sent me hither to fetch the hound of Hades" and that Hermes and Athena guided him (Od. 11.617–626), and Athena complains that she had to rescue him from that task (Il. 8.362–369). source
- How did Heracles die and become a god?
- His death and deification are told in full by Apollodorus: Deianira smeared his tunic with the blood of the centaur Nessus, believing it a love-charm; the Hydra's poison in it corroded his flesh; he built a pyre on Mount Oeta, which Poeas lit and received his bow, and "a cloud passed under Hercules and with a peal of thunder wafted him up to heaven", where he married Hebe (Apollod. 2.7.6–7). Hesiod and the Hymn know only the result: he "lives amongst the undying gods" with Hebe on Olympus (Theog. 950–955; HH15 4–8), and in Homer only his "phantom" is in Hades while "he himself among the immortal gods takes his joy in the feast" (Od. 11.601–604). source
- Was Heracles a god or a hero according to Herodotus?
- Herodotus distinguishes two figures: an ancient Egyptian god Heracles, "one of the twelve gods", and the Greek "son of Amphitryon", born "about nine hundred years" before his own time; he praises the Greeks who keep two cults, "sacrificing to one Heracles as to an immortal, and calling him the Olympian, but to the other bringing offerings as to a dead hero" (Hdt. 2.43–44; 2.145.4). Pindar makes him founder of the Olympic festival by the tomb of Pelops, "the four years' festival with the first Olympic games" (Pind. Ol. 10.24–59; Ol. 2.3–4). source