#12 labours of hercules skin

On his way back to Tiryns, Heracles encountered Apollo and Artemis hunting. He finally captured it in Arcadia when it had paused for a little rest by creeping up behind it and surprising it. For a year he tracked the deer, which was the fastest deer in the world, around the forests of the Peloponnese. Because the deer was sacred to Artemis, Heracles could not kill it he had to capture it alive. Cerynitian HindĮurystheus then sent Heracles to capture the Cerynitian Hind, a deer with golden horns that was sacred to the goddess Artemis. Heracles fighting the Lernaean Hydra on a lekythos found in the Louvre 3. Heracles would one day regret that the Hydra’s blood was so deadly. The Hydra’s blood was a deadly poison, so Heracles dipped his arrows in the blood to make sure that anyone he hit would die of his wound. This head he buried beneath a giant rock. Heracles and Iolaüs managed to destroy each head and burn the neck for all the Hydra’s heads until just one head, which was immortal, survived. He also realized that he could not kill the Hydra alone, so he called Iolaüs, his charioteer, to bring a burning brand so he could cauterize the neck to prevent new heads from growing back after Heracles cut off each head. At this point, Heracles realized that simply cutting off the Hydra’s heads was not going to work. But as soon as Heracles had cut off the Hydra’s head, two more heads grew in its place. He engaged the Hydra by grabbing at one of the heads and hacking at it with his sword until the head was severed from the body. The Hydra lived in a swampy area near Lerna, and Heracles came to its den. The Hydra was a sea monster (its name comes from hydōr, which means “water” in Greek), that had many snake-like heads. Next, Eurystheus sent Heracles to kill the Hydra. Heracles killing the Nemean Lion while Athena stands near on a lekythos found in the British Museum 2.

#12 labours of hercules skin

The lion’s skin became Heracles’ trademark, and he wore it on all his future endeavors.

Because Eurystheus did not want the lion, Heracles skinned it and used the hide as a cloak, with the lion’s head serving as a sort of helmet. Eurystheus, surprised that Heracles had survived the adventure, became very fearful of Heracles. Undeterred, Heracles used brute force to strangle the beast and brought the lion back to Tiryns for Eurystheus. But the arrows bounced right off the lion’s hide, doing the animal no harm. Heracles tracked the Nemean Lion to its cave, blocked off the entrance, and tried to kill the lion by shooting it with his bow and arrows. This lion was no ordinary lion it was the offspring of Typhoeus.

The Nemean LionĮurystheus first told Heracles to kill the lion that had been terrorizing the area of Nemea. The last six labors take place throughout the Greek world. The first six of Heracles’ labors take place in the Peloponnese. This subordinate relationship to Eurystheus was humiliating for Heracles, and that was no doubt part of the punishment.

Heracles had to perform any twelve tasks that Eurystheus set for him even though Eurystheus had usurped Heracles’ throne and was neither as strong or as brave as Heracles was. Eurystheus had inherited the throne of Mycenae from his father, Sthenelos, who had usurped it from Amphitryon, Heracles’ mortal father, so Heracles should really have been king of Mycenae instead of Eurystheus. As a punishment for the murder of his own children, Heracles was told by the Pythia that he had to perform twelve tasks for Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns.