Labours of hercules

[Caburus]

In order to atone for killing his wife and children in a fit of madness, Hercules was commanded to serve King Eurytheus and perform ten labours for him. Two of these tasks were disqualified because Hercules had help in fulfilling them, so he therefore had to perform two more, which brought them up to the more famous twelve.

The two labours that were disqualified were killing the Lernean Hydra (because Iolaus helped him) and cleaning the Augean Stables (because he used a river to wash the stables rather than clean them himself). However, in another labour he was commanded to steal the Apples of the Hesperides, and during this task it was not Hercules, but Atlas, who takes the apples from the garden. Why is this labour not discounted?

 

[Myrddin]

In order to atone for killing his wife and children in a fit of madness, Hercules was commanded to serve King Eurytheus and perform ten labours for him. Two of these tasks were disqualified because Hercules had help in fulfilling them, so he therefore had to perform two more, which brought them up to the more famous twelve.

The two labours that were disqualified were killing the Lernean Hydra (because Iolaus helped him) and cleaning the Augean Stables (because he used a river to wash the stables rather than clean them himself). However, in another labour he was commanded to steal the Apples of the Hesperides, and during this task it was not Hercules, but Atlas, who takes the apples from the garden. Why is this labour not discounted?

Hard to say. It doesn't make sense. Especially if you consider that for the cleaning of the Augean Stables he did not get help, but rather used his brilliant mind to come up with using a river rather than get down on his hands and knees (what on would consider the "proper way"). Otherwise I'd say that it was because Atlas was not a mortal, rather a Titan, and on that particular quest, there was no way for King Eurytheus to know of his asssitance; it was between only Hercules and Atlas. There would be no way for the king to know. Also, Hercules got help from some the gods for other labours as well, did he not? The only that makes any sense is the taming of the Lernean Hydra, as Hercules' helper was a mortal man - and the king was right there? Or Iolaus couldn't help but brag?

E. M.

 

[Helen from Paris]

Heracles

1/ hold up the heavens for a while - actually, he 'worked'

2/ or he slew Ladon, the serpent/dragon guardian of the golden apples - he worked pretty tough.

Another possible interpretation is that Eurystheus was no more willing to argue because of 12 years passed.

 

[Alejandro]

It does seem quite arbitrary that Eurystheus decided that those two specific athloi (labours) didn't count, because Herakles [Hercules] had an entire army to help him fight off the Bistones who were ruled by Diomedes when he needed to capture Diomedes' horses (Athlos #8); an army also to acquire the girdle of Queen Hippolyta (it is even said that Eurystheus' own daughter Admete accompanied Herakles to Themiskyra during this expedition, which was Athlos #9); and the same band of men, it seems, to herd the oxen of Geryones from Erytheia to Argolis, which oxen he apparently wouldn't have succeeded in stealing if not for some assistance from Geryones' sister Ekhidna (Athlos #10). I'm not sure that any such thing is mentioned but perhaps Eurystheus sanctioned the accompaniment of an army for these missions? Just my guess at why that shouldn't have counted against him when the help of his little nephew in killing the Hydra was evidently unacceptable.

The reason that Eurystheus discounted the stable-cleaning athlos is that Herakles, before he performed the task, made a deal with Augeias that he would get paid for it if he accomplished the feat within one day. Augeias, not believing this achievable, readily agreed. In the course of Cleaning Day, however, Augeias found out that Herakles was a slave working under orders, so after the hero had completed the work he refused to pay him and deported him (and even his own son Phyleus who argued in court in Herakles' favour) from the country. So on the one hand Herakles lost out with the owner of the stables because he was a slave, and on the other hand he lost out with his slave-master because he had done the work as a hired hand (never mind that he didn't actually get paid afterwards).

There's also another version of the story of the theft of the apples of Hesperides, in which Atlas was still holding up the Sky but he was no longer a Titan. A few generations before the time of Herakles, shortly after Herakles' great-great-grandfather Perseus had killed Medusa, Perseus flew through Morocco, where he met the Titan Atlas (who was also an ancestor of his) holding up the Sky. Perseus showed the Titan the head of Medusa, and Atlas collapsed into blocks of stone which formed the Atlas Mountains, which the western edge of the Sky now rests upon. In the neigbourhood of these mountains or, according to some versions, on the slopes of the same mountains, Atlas' daughters the Hesperides made their home in a garden, which they guarded with the help of the sleepless, hundred-headed dragon Ladon (who was a brother of the Gorgon Medusa). It was to this garden that Herakles passed violently through, slaying Ladon and terrorising the nymph guardians of the place. And then he made off with the apples. Perhaps the logic of Eurystheus not having a problem with Atlas' help in this athlos follows the version in which Atlas was not available at all to lend any assistance in the first place(?)...

 

[Alejandro]

Robert Fowler’s Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary says that only one ancient mythographer ever mentions the thought of Eurystheus refusing a couple of labours and consequently adding others to make up for them.

"Apollodoros claims that because Iolaos helped Herakles kill the Hydra, Eurystheus refused to accept the Labour; he also refused to accept the Augeian stables, because Herakles had done the job for a fee (Bibl. 2.80, 91). Accordingly, there were twelve Labours instead of ten. Apollodoros is alone in this odd idea, which obviously postdates the establishment of twelve as the canonical number. We don’t know exactly when this occurred."​

 

[Misa]

My understanding of the labors/athlos was that there were always supposed to be twelve and that they weren't to purify him from the murder of his family, but to atone and earn his place as a immortal on Olympus (hence, I thought, why there were twelve labors because of twelve Olympians):

Nemeian Lion- Dionysus (lions were sacred both to Rhea and Hera, but also to Dionysus - as well as leopards, this one was "king" and apparently reared by Hera the offspring of Selene or else of her son Typhon or grandchildren Orthus/Khimaira; also you'd have to be kind of mad to strangle a lion invulnerable to weapons, Herakles lost a finger from this one too)

Hydra Lernaia- Ares (although reared by Hera, serpents were a animal Ares favored, he mated with Demeter/Tilphousia to create the Ismenian Drakon, serpent of Thebes - and it was by the teeth of this drakon that Spartoi warriors were sown and grown from the earth)

Elaphos Kerynitis- Artemis (the golden hinds were sacred to her, four of them drew her chariot, the fifth was the one captured)

Erymanthian Boar - Zeus (before this labor, Herakles was a guest of a centaur Pholus - hospitality to strangers was one of the better things Zeus was god of, who told him how to capture the boar, but died as a result of the arrows Herakles used to kill the centaurs who became maddened by the wine Dionysus gave as a gift- the boar came off a mountain, pigs were sacred to Demeter, Hestia, it was either sacred or offensive to Aphrodite, Apollo used the blood of a pig to purify those at the Delphi oracle, boars also had something to do with Ares - he is said to have turned into one to kill Adonis, but also with Artemis - she sent the Calydonian Boar, they are also mentioned being scarified to Hera and Hermes; most likely it was a animal that all the gods had as sacrifice.)

(in one day clean) Augeias' stables- Athena (he rerouted the rivers Alpheus and Peneus - how? Well, Herakles doesn't seem to have had anything to do with their daughters so maybe by vowing that he'd not touch them)

(Drive off the) Stymphalian Birds- Hephaestus (although they are identified with the Birds of Ares encountered by the Argo crew near a shine of the Amazons and said to be raised by Ares, Athena got from Hephaestus some 'bronze noise-makers' which was the only thing to drive them off)

Cretan bull - Poseidon (Poseidon gave the bull to Minos and the Minotaur resulted in it's union with Pasiphae)

The mares of Diomedes Thrakios (the Thrakian) - Demeter (as "Tilphousia" mother of the horses of Ares by Boreas; mother by Poseidon of the immortal horse Arion)

Belt of Hippolyte (Amazon Queen) - Aphrodite (it is called the girdle of Ares, but Aphrodite is more famous for her belt and Admete is sometimes said to be a priestess of Hera who sometimes borrows the belt of Aphrodite too; also Hippolyte would go on to marry Theseus)

(Red Coated) Cattle of Geryon - Helios/Apollo (the help of Helios was absolutely necessary in getting to Geryon's isle, Herakles got Helios's attention by archery I think, and killed just about everyone on the isle other than the cattle and Geryon's daughter and when Herakles encountered Geryon's sister Echidna he had three sons by her: Agathyrsos and Gelonos and Skythes - the only one to have Herakles bows and belt, the other two being cast out; Apollo was the protector of boys/men, and was the one that killed them too - as Artemis did for women/girls)

Apples of the Hesperides - Hera (the garden that the Hesperides guarded was hers, a marriage gift of Gaia)

Fetch Kerberos - Hermes (Herakles had help by both Hermes and Athena - and Persephone/Hades in this task, but as Hermes was the god that guided the dead)