Archive for the ‘Myths and Legends’ Category

The 12 Trials of Hercules

1. The first trial was to kill the Lion of Nemea, son of Typhon and Echidna. With his club and bow & arrows armed and ready, Hercules hunted down the creature in the land of Argolis. Eventually, Hercules found the creature in the Nemean forest. He first tried to shoot it with arrows, but to no avail. Everything Hercules dished out was simply refracted off the lion. He then used his mighty club and smashed the lion in the head, stunning the beast. Realizing this creature couldn’t be killed by weapons, Hercules fought the beast hand to hand and strangled it to death. After the lion was killed, Hercules skinned the beast and used it as armor.

2. The second trial for Hercules was to kill yet another child of Typhon and Echidna…the Hydra living in the swamps near Lerna in Argolis. This creature was serpent like with nine heads, eight of which grew two more in place of each one that was cut off and one of which was immortal and impervious to attack. It’s also said that it’s breath alone was enough to kill a man.

Hercules hunted down the beast in the swamp near Lerna along with his nephew, Iolaus. While in battle, Hercules quickly found out that each head he cut was replaced by two, so he then had Iolaus scorch the base of the necks of each head that Hercules cut off to stop this growth. In the midst of this battle, Hera became angry at the progress made by Hercules, so she sent down a giant crab which attacked Hercules’ feet. It was more of a nuisance than anything as Hercules simply squashed the pest. Finally, he set his sights on the final head which was immortal. Hercules made quick work of this as he smashed the head with his mighty club, tore the head off of it’s body, buried it, and placed a large rock over it’s burial. Hercules’ prize this time was the poison blood of the Hydra which he dipped his arrows into to make them deadly.

3. The third trial was to hunt and bring back to Eurystheus, the great boar living on Mount Erymanthus in Arcadia. Along the way, Hercules took a break from his quest to stay with the centaurs. To make a long story short, one of the centaurs opened a sacred bottle of wine which prompted the other centaurs to attack. Hercules scared them all off with his deadly arrows and in that whole melee, he shot his friend Chiron in the leg (ouch!). More on this on the zodiac page.

Anyway, Hercules went on with his mission. He found the boar and chased all over the mountain region until the beast tired out. He then tied it up while it was fatigued and brought it back to Eurystheus.

4. The fourth task was to capture the Cerynitis, a sacred animal of Artemis living on Mount Cerynaea (in the Arcadia area). This creature had Golden horns, bronze hoofs, and was large as a bull. Hercules chased the creature all over the place, but unlike the boar in the previous trial, the Cerynitis didn’t tire. Finally when the stag stopped to drink, Hercules disabled the animal by shooting it in the leg. He them treated the wound and brought the animal back to the Palace of Eurystheus. Upon reaching the palace, he was greeted by Artemis and Apollo who charged Hercules with sacrilege. Hercules then simply explained that it was necessary to complete his trial and was forgiven.

5. Trial number five was yet another trial given to Hercules by Eurystheus. He had to get rid of the ravinous birds living around Lake Stymphalus. These birds had metallic-like feathers so any who went to close, were skewered to death. Hercules set off to do the deed but when he got to the bird’s hiding place, he couldn’t think of any way to drive them out. Athena then came down and instructed Hercules to take two bronze plates made by Hephaestus and slam them together. Hercules did just that and the birds all flew out of their dank hiding place. Hercules then shot each of them down with his poison tipped arrows.

6. The next trial was to clean the Augean stables in one day which had years of built up filth which would take the average man ages to clean. Luckily, Hercules was not an average man. He began his task by breaking the wall near the stable down. He then diverted two rivers using a canal into the stables. This washed all the filth out and not only cleaned the stable, but also cultivated the land.

7. The seventh trial was to capture a mad bull who was terrorizing Crete. Hercules chased the bull all over until it was fatigued. He then roped the bull by the horns and brought it back to Eurystheus.

8. The eighth trial was to bring back to Eurystheus the savage mares of Diomedes. Diomedes was an evil man who threw unsuspecting strangers in with the savage mares to feed the mares. When Hercules made his arrival at the Palace of Diomedes, he threw Diomedes in with the savage mares as retrobution for all the evil he had done. After eating Diomedes, the mares became calm which allowed Hercules to easily bring the mares back to Eurystheus.

9. Trial nine was to retrieve the girdle of Hippolyte of the Amazons. This trial came about as a cause of Eurystheus’ daughter, Admete, begging for the sacred girdle. Hercules secured the help of Telamon and Theseus for this journey as he knew it would be trouble. Upon reaching the land of the Amazons however, they were very well received much to their surprise. Hippolyte was a little infatuated with Hercules and offered to give the girdle as a gift…no strings attached. Hera didn’t like this and wouldn’t allow Hercules to win this trial that easily. So with that, Hera disguised herself as an Amazon and spread rumors among the Amazons that Hercules was only there to take their queen.

Soon after, the Amazons started fighting Hercules, Telamon and Theseus. Hercules then proceeded to kill Hippolyte thinking she was behind this attack. Eventually, the greek trio beat back the Amazons and made their way back.

10. The tenth trial was to bring back to Eurystheus the cattle of Geryon. Geryon was really quite a site to see. This creature had three bodies, three heads, six arms, six legs, and the body of a great warrior.

Before getting to Erytheia where Geryon lived, Hercules had to make his way through the Lybian Desert. When the heat go to be too much, Hercules began shooting arrows at the sun which prompted Helios to aid Hercules by lending him the Golden Goblet to ride across the sea to Erytheia. En route to Erytheia, Hercules set two landmarks which still stand today that flank the straight of Gibralter.

When Hercules finally landed on Erytheia, he immediately killed the watch dog of Geryon, Orthrus, with his mighty club. The herdsman Eurythion then came to help only to get smashed and killed by the club as well. Finally, Geryon came into the battle. Despite his power, Geryon was taken care of fairly easily by Hercules’ poison arrows. All this finally being finished, Hercules returned the cattle of Geryon back to Eurystheus. This tenth trial was suppose to be it, Hercules thought he was finished, but no. Eurystheus discounted two of the trials due to the outside help he received. With that, Hercules was given two final tasks…

11. Trial number eleven was to retrieve three of the golden apples guarded by the Hesperides. This was an incredibly daunting task as the garden was nearly impossible to find. Hercules then proceeded to find Nereus to ask for directions. Nereus wouldn’t tell, so Hercules jumped the sea god and tried fighting the directions out of him. Eventually, Nereus gave in and told Hercules the where-abouts of the garden.

Along the way, Hercules met Prometheus and freed him from his horid torture of having his liver eaten daily by a giant condor. In gratitude, Prometheus gave Hercules the advice to seek the help of Atlas to retrieve the golden apples.

After a long journey, Hercules finally reached his destination and found Atlas. He made a deal with Atlas saying that if Atlas were to retrieve the three golden apples, Hercules would hold the weight of the earth and heavens until he returned. Atlas figured this was an easy way out of his punishment perminantly, so he graciously agreed. When Atlas returned with the apples, he refused to take back the weight. Hercules then pretended to enjoy his new state and asked Atlas if he would take the weight for just a moment while he constructed relief for the weight. Atlas, being the dummy that he is, took back the weight and Hercules proceeded to take the apples and leave Atlas high and dry. Leave it to a titan to be that dumb.

12. Finally, Hercules’ final trial was to capture alive the guard dog of the Underworld, Cerberus. To do this, Hercules first gained the help of Athena and Hermes to get into the underworld. Hercules was then confronted my Hades at which time Hercules asked to take Cerberus to the land of the living. Hades agreed on the premise that Hercules not use any weapons in the capture. Hercules agreed to these terms and began his fight with Cerberus. He wrestled and faught until finally he wore the beast out. Hercules then brought the creature back to the court of Eurystheus. Eurystheus was so shocked and frightened by the presence of Cerberus that he agreed to releave Hercules of his labors if he would only take Cerberus back to the underworld. Hercules obliged and so ended his labors.

Pandora's Box

At one time the only mortals on the earth were men. Prometheus had made them, Athene had breathed life into them. The chief god Zeus did not like them.

One day Prometheus was trying to solve a quarrel that was raging between the gods and the men. At a festival the men were going to sacrifice a bull for the first time. They asked him which parts of the bull should be offered to the gods and which should be eaten by men. Prometheus decided to play a trick on Zeus. He killed the bull, skinned it and butchered it. He split it into two portions, in one he put the best, lean meat. In the second he put bones followed by a thick layer of fat. Prometheus offered both to Zeus to take his choice. Zeus looked at both portions, one looked good but was rather on the small side, the other was much larger and covered in a layer of fat which Zeus felt must cover the best, tastiest portion of meat. He chose that one. When Zeus realised that he had been tricked he was furious. He took fire away from man so that they could never cook their meat or feel warm again.

Prometheus reacted immediately flying to the Isle of Lemnos where he knew the smith Hephaestus had fire. He carried a burning torch back to man. Zeus was enraged. He swore vengeance and started making an evil plan.

Zeus, set Hephaestos the task of creating a clay woman with a human voice. Hephaestos worked and worked and created a masterpiece. Athene, goddess of wisdom and Zeus’ daughter liked the clay figure and she breathed life into it. She taught the woman how to weave and clothed her. Aphrodite the goddess of love made her beautiful. The god Hermes taught her to charm and deceive.

Zeus was pleased with what he saw, but he had made her as a trap. He named the woman Pandora and sent her as a gift to Epimetheus. Epimetheus had been warned by his brother Prometheus that he should never accept gifts from Zeus because there would always be a catch. Epimetheus ignored his brother’s warning, fell in love with Pandora and married her. Zeus, pleased that his trap was working gave Pandora a wedding gift of a beautiful box. There was one condition however…that was that she never opened the box.

For a while they were very happy. Pandora often wondered what was in the box but she was never left alone so she never opened it. Gradually over a while she began to wonder more and more what was in the box. She could not understand why someone would send her a box if she could not see what was in it. It got very important to find out what was hidden there.

Finally she could stand it no longer. One day when everyone was out she crept up to the box, took the huge key, fitted it carefully into the lock and turned it. She lifted the lid to peep in but before she realised it the room was filled with terrible things: disease, despair, malice, greed, old age, death, hatred, violence, cruelty and war. She slammed the lid down and turned the key again…keeping only the spirit of hope inside.

To this day sometimes when things are really bad the only thing we have left is hope. Even then some people will say hope deceives us.