Heracles: The Most Famous Greek Hero

Heracles, or as the Roman’s called him, Hercules, is possibly the most famous hero in the Greek and Roman history. Alcmene (granddaughter of Perseus) and Zeus were parents to Hercules. Zeus stated that whoever was born next in his family will rule all of Greece, but Zeus’s envious wife, Hera, had played a trick so a different child, the evil Eurystheus, was born first and soon became king; when Heracles got older, he had no other choice but to work for him and also go through the terrible wrath of Hera. The very first challenge Hercules faced, was to kill of two snakes that Hera had sent to murder him in his cradle. Afterwards, Heracles conducted a successful clash versus the empire of Orchomenus which was located in Boeotia and ended up marrying …show more content…
He only had 24 hours to complete this. The sixth labor was to shoot the crazy birds who ate people in the Stymphalian wetlands. Capturing the terrorizing bull that lived on the island of Crete was his seventh task. Eight, to catch man eating mares of King Diomedes at Bistones. Next, Hercules had to take the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyte. (10) the capturing of the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon, who ruled the island Erytheia (meaning Red) in the far west; (11) the bringing back of the golden apples kept at the world’s end by the Hesperides; and (12) the fetching up from the lower world of the triple-headed dog Cerberus, guardian of its gates. Originally, there was only 10 labors to be completed, but Eurystheus considered two of the labors invalid. He said the Hydra was killed but Hercules had some assistance doing it, and he accepted payment for the cleaning of the Augean Stables. So stealing the Hesperidean Apples and capturing Cerebrus were shortly added to the list. After completing the Labors, Heracles undertook further enterprises, including warlike campaigns. He also successfully defeated the river god Achelous for the hand of