

The first creature that some say existed even before Chaos himself.
#12 LABOURS OF HERCULES III GIRL POWER SO CLOSE FULL#
The full list of the Primordial Greek Gods: From Gaia came Ourea, the god of the mountains, Pontus, the god of the sea, and Uranus, the god of the heavens. Erebus, the god of darkness, and Nyx, the goddess of the night, were also born from Chaos. Goddess Gaia then followed, t he personification of Earth. Then Tartarus was born, a dark place like the abyss and the original god of the Underworld. We can see that ancient Greeks considered love as one of the most fundamental powers in the world. Out of Chaos came Eros, the god of love and procreation. Chaos was the personification of the absolute nothingness - an immerse, dark void from which all of the existence sprang. Natural forces are personified and the most basic components of the cosmos are Gods.Īccording to Hesiod, in the beginning there was Chaos. The famous work of Hesiod, called Theogony (meaning “birth of the Gods” in Greek), presents a complete cosmogony. According to legend, he will spend the rest of eternity with the gods.Greek mythology starts at the beginning of the world! The Greek Gods that existed then were the Primordial Gods. Realizing that he has been poisoned, Hercules builds his own funeral pyre and burns himself to death on it.Īfter he died, Athena carried him to Olympus on her chariot. However, the poisoned blood on the tunic burns Hercules’ flesh, causing intense pain. Years later, when Deianira hears a rumor that Hercules is having an affair, she gave him the blood-stained tunic to wear, hoping it will bring him back to her. As he lay dying, the centaur, realizing that his own blood is now also poisonous, gave his blood-stained tunic to Deianira, lying to her that it will forever bind Hercules to her. When a centaur (a half-man, half-horse) attempts to steal her away, Hercules shot him with an arrow that he had soaked in the poison of the Hydra. Later in his life, Hercules married his second wife, Deianira. He brought them to Eurystheus, who dedicated the horses to Hera and set them free.Īfter completing his 12 Labors, Hercules had a number of other adventures-rescuing the princess of Troy, battling for control of Mount Olympus-but none were as taxing, or as significant, as the labors had been. Hercules’ eighth challenge was to capture the four man-eating horses of the Thracian king Diomedes.

(She later gave birth to the Minotaur, a creature with a man’s body and a bull’s head.) Hercules drove the bull back to Eurystheus, who released it into the streets of Marathon. Next, Hercules went to Crete to capture a rampaging bull that had impregnated the wife of the island’s king. Hercules used these tools to frighten the birds away.

This time, it was the goddess Athena who came to the hero’s aid: She gave him a pair of magical bronze krotala, or noisemakers, forged by the god Hephaistos. Hercules’ sixth task was straightforward: Travel to the town of Stymphalos and drive away the huge flock of carnivorous birds that had taken up residence in its trees. However, Hercules completed the job easily, flooding the barn by diverting two nearby rivers. Hercules’ fifth task was supposed to be humiliating as well as impossible: cleaning all the manure out of King Augeas’ enormous stables in a single day. This way, the pair kept the heads from growing back.ĩ Fascinating Artifacts Found in King Tut's Tomb The Augean Stables He cut off each of the monster’s heads while Iolaus burned each wound with a torch. For this task, Hercules had the help of his nephew Iolaus. Second, Hercules traveled to the city of Lerna to slay the nine-headed Hydra-a poisonous, snake-like creature who lived underwater, guarding the entrance to the Underworld. For the rest of his life, he wore the animal’s pelt as a cloak.

(Some storytellers say that Zeus had fathered this magical beast as well.) Hercules trapped the lion in its cave and strangled it. The Nemean Lionįirst, Apollo sent Hercules to the hills of Nemea to kill a lion that was terrorizing the people of the region. Once Hercules completed every one of the labors, Apollo declared, he would be absolved of his guilt and achieve immortality. He ordered Hercules to perform 12 labors for the Mycenaen king Eurystheus. WATCH: The Greek Gods on HISTORY Vault The 12 Labors of HerculesĪpollo understood that Hercules’ crime had not been his fault-Hera’s vengeful actions were no secret-but still he insisted that the young man make amends.
