The Lion Of Neme The Murder Of Hercules

Task #1 was to murder the lion of Nemea, a lion that couldn't be hurt by any form of weapon. Hercules knocked out the lion with his bat 1st , then he choked it to death. He wore the skin of the lion as a cloak and the head of the lion as a helmet, a trophy of his heroic adventure.

The 2nd task was to murder the Hydra that lived in a swampy area in Lerna. The Hydra had 9 heads. One head was immortal and when one of the others was chopped off, two grew back in its place. Cancer, one of the Hydra's guards, bit Hercules on the foot when he came close, and was smashed by Hercules, but she was rescued by Hera. Hercules torched each mortal neck with a burning torch to prevent it from growing two heads and he buried the immortal head under a rock.

He then dipped his arrows in the Hydra's blood to make them poisonous.

Hercules' next labor is to capture alive a stag with golden horns and bronze hoofs that was sacred to Artemis, queen of the hunt.

The 4th task was to capture a mighty boar on Mount Erymanthus. Hercules used the poisoned arrows with the Hydra's blood on them to shoot at the Erymanthian boar. One of the poison arrows wounded Hercules" friend Cheiron, an immortal centaur, half-horse and half-man. Cheiron feared the poison arrow would hurt him for eternity, but Zeus rewarded him for his service to the gods by changing him to Sagittarius the Archer. The boar got killed by the arrows.

In the 5th task, Hercules had to cleanup in one day the 30 years of filth left by thousands of cattle in the stables of King Augeas. He turns the streams of 2 rivers, making them flow through the stablesto clean them.

For the next labor, Hercules has to drive off huge flocks of man-eating birds with bronze beaks, claws, and wings that lived near Lake Stymphalus. He shot them with poisonous arrows and ended their lives.

The 7th task was to capture the man eating mares of Diomedes, King of Thrace. To bring back the man-eating mares, Hercules murdered king Diomedes, then drove the mares to Mycenae.

For the 9th task, Hercules needed the girdle of Queen Hippolyta.

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, was willing to help Hercules with the 9th task. When she was about to give Hercules her girdle, which Eurystheus wanted for his daughter, Hera convinced Hippolyta's forces to believe that Hercules was trying to abduct the Queen. Hercules murdered Hippolyta, thinking that she ordered the attack, and escaped the Amazon with the girdle.

On his way to the island of Erythia to capture the oxen of the 3 headed monster Geryon, Hercules set up 2 great rocks, the mountains Gibraltar and Ceuta, which now flank the Straight of Gibraltar, as a memorial of his journey of capturing the oxen.

The 11th task was to steal the golden apples of Hesperides, the daughter of Atlas and husband of Hesperus. The apples grew in the garden of Hesperides, which is in the western edge of the world, beyond the Island of Hyperborea and on the border of Ocean. The garden is guarded by Ladon, the dragon with hundred heads. The apples were very important because they were grown by Mother Earth as a wedding present for Hera and Zeus. Hercules reached Ocean and found Atlas holding up the sky. Hercules offered to hold the sky while Atlas murdered Ladon and got the apples. But Atlas was tired of holding the sky and told Hercules that he might continue holding it. Hercules pretended to agree but said the weight of the sky was hurting his shoulders and asked Atlas to take over for a while so he could make pads to protect his shoulders. When Atlas took over, he took the golden apples. Later he gave the apples to Athena, who returned the apples to

Hesperides.