The great Thracian bard, and accomplished poet and musician, he could charm the animals with his lyre. But when he married Eurydice she died shortly after the ceremony.
myth
Heracles unwittingly sets up his later death when he thinks the centaur Nessus is trying to abduct his wife Deianira, and shoots him in the back with one of his arrows poisoned with the blood of the Lernean hydra.
After rescuing Hesione from a sea monster, he wrestled with Achelous for the hand of Deianira in marriage, and created the cornucopia.
Heracles pays the penalty for multiple murders, as he is subjugated, stripped of his lion-skin and club, dressed in women’s clothing, and forced to serve Queen Omphale.
He has to steal the belt of the Queen of the Amazons, then steal the cattle of the monster Geryon. As a bonus, he gets two extra tasks, to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides, and finally to fetch Cerberus, guardian of the gates to the underworld.
Capturing a boar and taking it back to the king, who promptly hid in a bronze jar. Cleaning the Augean Stables in a single day. Killing poisonous birds with his arrows. Capturing the Cretan Bull. Stealing horses that liked to eat people.
Paintings by John Martin, Gustave Courbet, Jules LeFebvre, Georges Lacombe, Gérôme, Edward Poynter, Georg Janny and others.
Paintings by Bosch, Giorgione, Velázquez, Jordaens, Benjamin West, Joseph Wright, Ingres, Ecksersberg, Ary Scheffer and others.
1. Kill the Nemean Lion, by stunning it with his club then strangling it with his bare hands. 2. Kill the Lernean Hydra, by cutting off its heads and searing the wounds, then removing its remaining immortal head. 3. Capture the Ceryneian Hind.
The son of Zeus when he raped Alcmene, Hera delayed his birth to trap Heracles into being forced to undertake his 12 labours, then tried to kill the infant by putting serpents into his cradle.
