-
Hercules was a child of the Greek God Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmena, born in Thebes. Hercules was born when Zeus came into her bedroom in the shape of her husband while he was out fighting.
-
Hera was very jealous of Zeus with Alcmena, so she punished Hercules by sending two snakes into his crib where he killed the snakes by strangling them with his bare hands.
-
After Hercules got married to Princess Megara and had three sons, he was sent madness by Hera. In this madness, Hercules went into a blind rage and killed his family. Afterwards he felt so bad and went into a depression and to Athens with Theseus. He also went to the oracle of Delphi who told him that he needed to cleanse his soul of his wrongdoing by going to his cousin, King Eurystheus.
-
The first of the twelve labors of cleansing that Hercules did was to kill the Nemean Lion, a lion with unpiercable skin which he used the skin as a cloak. The second labor was to kill the Hydra, a nine headed snake that regenerated two heads after one was cut off. The third of the twelve labors was to capture alive the golden antlered stag of Artemis, which took him an entire year.
-
The fourth labor of Hercules was to capture the great boar of Mount Erymanthus. The fifth was to clean out the great Augean Stables, which he did by diverting two great rivers. The half-way point of the twelve labors was for Hercules to kill the Stymphalian birds which drove the people of Stymphalus mad with their great numbers.
-
The seventh labor of Hercules was for him to capture the Creten Bull that was given to King Minos by Poseidon and plagued the people of Crete. The eighth labor of Hercules was to get the man-eating mares of King Diomedes, who he killed to get them. The ninth labor of Hercules was to get the Girdle of the Amazons from Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons.
-
The tenth labor of Hercules was to get Geryon's cattle, who was a monster with three bodies. The eleventh labor was to get the golden apples of Hesperides. Hercules chose Atlas to help him because he was Hesperides father. He then tricked Atlas into getting the apples for him. The final labor was the most difficult of all, he had to go to the Underworld and capture Cerberus...alive.
-
One of Hercules post labor deeds was killing the wrestling giant, Antaeus. This was more difficult because every time he touched the Earth he jumped up with renewed strength. Hercules solved this problem by strangling Antaeus in the air.
-
For this deed Hercules wa fighting the river god, Achelous because he was in love with the woman he wanted to marry. To solve this problem, Hercules fought him while he was in the form of a bull. When he died he told Deianira to save the blood in case Hercules were to ever fall in love with anyone else.
-
Hercules saved the maiden of Troy who was in the same scenario as Theseus and Andromeda. She was offered to a sea-monster who was then killed by Hercules. He then gave her to his friend, Telamon of Salamis, who helped him.
-
One of the last deeds that Hercules performed was killing the eagle that plagued Prometheus. Prometheus created the first man and woman using the fire of the gods, which was forbidden. He was then punished by being chained to a rock and having and eagle swoop down and eat his liver every day.
-
The story of Admetus' wife is very long but basically Hercules felt bad for being drunk in Admetus' house when his wife had died. He then went to the Underworld and brought her back so that Admetus would forgive him.
-
When Hercules got to the point when he could bear his life no longer due to the suffering he endured from Hera he made the most important choice of his life. He set up a great funeral pyre and burnt himself alive. In return for his great deeds and endurance during life, Zeus made him a god after death.
