Herculean task
A task requiring great strength or effort, from Heracles' labours.
A Herculean task refers to a job or challenge requiring immense strength, effort, or endurance, drawing its name from the twelve labours of Heracles (later romanised as Hercules). These labours were a series of difficult feats performed by the hero in service to King Eurystheus, and the phrase has come to symbolize any extraordinarily difficult undertaking.
Quick Facts
- Origin
- Greek mythology
- Hero
- Heracles (romanised as Hercules)
- Number of labours
- 12
- King served
- Eurystheus of Mycenae
- Oracle consulted
- Oracle of Delphi (Pythia)
- First labour
- Slaying the Nemean lion
Facts from the source article.
Background
Heracles was born to the mortal Alcmene after Zeus, king of the gods, raped her while disguised as her husband, Amphitryon. Alcmene, afraid of Hera's jealousy, abandoned her newborn son. Either Zeus or his daughter Athena then brought the baby to Hera, who nursed him out of pity, not realizing who he was. Heracles suckled so forcefully that he hurt Hera; when she shoved him away, her milk sprayed across the sky, creating the Milky Way. This divine milk gave him superhuman strength. His parents originally named him Alcides, but later changed it to Heracles, meaning "glory of Hera," in a failed attempt to appease her. When Heracles and his mortal twin, Iphicles, were eight months old, Hera sent two giant snakes into their room. Iphicles screamed in fear, but Heracles grabbed a snake in each hand and strangled them. His nurse found him playing with them like toys. The seer Tiresias then predicted a remarkable future for the boy. Heracles later married Megara, daughter of King Creon of Thebes, but Hera drove him mad, and he killed Megara and their children. After regaining his sanity, King Thespius purified him. Heracles then went to Delphi, where the Oracle told him to serve his cousin, King Eurystheus of Mycenae, for twelve years, completing any tasks Eurystheus gave him. In exchange, he would gain immortality. Though he hated serving a lesser man, Heracles obeyed.
The twelve labours
Of the twelve labours, six were located in the Peloponnese, culminating with the rededication of Olympia. The other six took Heracles farther afield to places that were all previously strongholds of Hera or entrances to the Netherworld. In each case, Heracles was sent to kill or subdue, or to fetch back for Eurystheus a magical animal or plant. A famous depiction of the labours in Greek sculpture is found on the metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, dating to the 460s BC. According to Apollodorus, the oracle at Delphi told Heracles to perform just ten labours, but after he accomplished these, Eurystheus refused to recognize two: the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra, because Heracles's nephew Iolaus had helped him, and the cleansing of the Augean stables, because Heracles accepted payment. Eurystheus set two more tasks—fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides and capturing Cerberus—bringing the total to twelve. The order given by Apollodorus begins with slaying the Nemean lion and ends with capturing Cerberus. Diodorus Siculus gives a similar sequence, though the orders of the third and fourth, fifth and sixth, and eleventh and twelfth labours are swapped.
Aftermath
After completing the twelve labours, one tradition says Heracles joined Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece, though Herodorus disputed this and denied that Heracles ever sailed with them. According to a separate tradition, Heracles accompanied the Argonauts but did not travel as far as Colchis. In Euripides's play Herakles, it is after the labours are completed and Heracles is returning home that he is driven mad and kills his wife and children, after which he is exiled from Thebes and leaves for Athens. Other versions tell of Hercules becoming a general, conquering cities, and obtaining a princess; his wife, fearing an affair, used centaur's blood as a supposed love potion, which was actually poison, causing Hercules to beg Iolaus to burn him on a funeral pyre.
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