His Labours Trivia Quiz

Answer: as a punishment

The Oracle at Delphi forced Herakles to undertake the tasks as penance for killing his wife, Megara, and the three children that they had together. His rage was caused by Hera; the labours were given to him by King Eurystheus.

Answer: Jason

Since Poseidon and Zeus are both born of Cronos and Rhea they are brothers. Poseidon is the father of Theseus and Zeus is the father of Herakles so they are cousins. Alcmene is the woman that Zeus impregnated to give birth to Herakles. Iphicles is the brother of Herakles who was born of Alcmene and Amphitryon.

Answer: Nemean Lion

Herakles tried to make use of arrows that he had made on the way to Nemea. However, he didn't know that the lion was immortal. After the arrows he used proved ineffective he cornered it in its cave and strangled it to death. Not very immortal if it can be strangled to death, is it?

Answer: none of these

Herakles quickly found out that the air around the lake where the Hydra lived was toxic and that the Lernaean Hydra could regenerate its heads when one of them was cut off. After removing one of the heads of the creature he discovered its toxic blood. To kill the beast he enlisted the help of his nephew Iolaus to cauterize the neck stumps then buried the immortal head under a massive stone.

This was fatal because even though the head was immortal the rest of the Hydra was not, so it most likely suffocated or starved to death.

Answer: one year

The Ceryneian Hind was so fast that it could outrun an arrow. It was sacred to Artemis and part of the plan was to make her punish him for degrading it. In one account of the story, Herakles chased the hind for a year, then when it bent down to drink he hobbled it with an arrow that he had not poisoned and brought it back to Eurystheus.

Another account says that he followed it for a year until he simply captured the creature when it could no longer run.

Answer: Chiron

Chiron told Herakles to drive the boar into the snow. Herakles set up a net under a large pile of snow that he tripped when the boar stepped over it. Chiron, Nessus, and Pholus are all Centaurs. Herakles originally visited Pholus and enjoyed a meal with the beast.

However, the wine that the creature opened attracted other centaurs and they all got drunk and attacked Herakles. In retaliation, Herakles killed most of the centaurs and wounded the immortal Chiron. Chiron gave up his immortality and traded places with Prometheus (the titan who gave man fire).

Herakles then killed the eagle that was made to punish Prometheus and in return Chiron told Herakles how to capture the boar. Nessus was the centaur that was responsible for Herakles' death.

Answer: true

This task was chosen both to degrade Herakles and because it was clearly impossible. The task was decidedly impossible because the cattle were immune to all diseases, so there was no reason to clean the stables before. He completed the task in one day by rerouting two rivers through the stables so they would carry the filth away for him. Augeus offered Herakles one-tenth of all his cattle if he could clean the stables in a day and didn't pay up, so Herakles killed him and passed the farm onto Augeus's son, Phyleus.

Answer: a pair of bronze crotala

The crotala are bronze clappers that were often used like castanets in religious dances in Greece. According to the myth they were forged by Hephaestus and were given to Herakles by Athena. In one account of the tale, after scattering the birds with the crotala Herakles shot some of them down with his bow and poisonous arrows.

Another account of the story says that after scattering the birds he killed some of them with a catapult.

Answer: a bull

Herakles next task was to capture the Cretan Bull. He asked King Minos of Crete for permission to capture the bull and Minos allowed it because the bull had become a nuisance to the town. Herakles captured the bull and brought it back to Eurystheus, who wanted to sacrifice the bull to Hera.

Hera refused the sacrifice because Herakles captured the bull and Eurystheus freed the bull. Another account of the story says that Herakles helped Theseus kill the Minotaur, instead of capturing the bull, but either way it involves a bull.

Answer: Diomedes

There are a couple of different accounts of what happened here. One story says that a boy whom Herakles brought along to watch the horses was eaten by them. In retaliation Herakles fed Diomedes to his own horses. The other story says that Herakles scared the horses to a peninsula then dug a trench around them creating an island.

When Diomedes approached the horses Herakles sprung a surprise attack and killed Diomedes, then fed him to his own horses. When the horses finished devouring Diomedes, Herakles bound the horses' mouths shut so he could safely bring them back to Eurystheus.

It was also said that Alexander the Great's horse Bucephalus was descended from the Mares of Diomedes.

Answer: Hera

The story states that Hera disguised herself as one of the Amazons and spread the rumor that Herakles was going to kill Hippolyta. There are three versions of the story. However, each version stems from the same idea that Hera tricked the Amazons. The first states that Herakles killed Hippolyta because the Amazons attacked him when they heard the rumor.

In a fit of rage Herakles killed Hippolyta because he thought she betrayed him. Another account says that she survived the attack and later wed Theseus.

The final version says that Hippolyta was killed by a spear from one of the other Amazons.

Answer: false

Herakles's next task was to capture the cattle from Geryon. Geryon was a giant that did have three heads but he had six arms and legs, not three. In the myth, he armed himself when he heard his dog and herdsman be killed by Herakles. In one of two different tales, Geryon was killed by a poisoned arrow from Herakles.

In the other version of the story he was torn into three separate parts by Herakles. Hera also intervened in this one by sending a gadfly to bite the cattle and scatter them. According to the myth, it took Herakles a full year to heard them back together.

As if that wasn't enough Hera then sent a flood to overflow the rivers so much that the cows couldn't cross. Herakles solved that problem by filling the bottom of the river with so many stones that the cattle could wade in the river to cross.

Answer: Atlas

Herakles told Atlas that he would hold up the heavens if Atlas went to get the apples for him. Atlas returned with the apples and told Herakles that he didn't want to take the heavens back yet and he would take the apples to Eurystheus for him then return to take the heavens back.

Herakles agreed but only if Atlas would take the heavens for a moment so Herakles could fix his robe. After Atlas took the heavens back Herakles took the apples and ran back to Eurystheus.

Answer: true

Hades agreed not to stop Herakles as long as Herakles used nothing but his own strength to control the dog. Herakles wrestled Kerberos (or Cerberus if you prefer) until it stopped slobbering and became too weak to resist. After he returned the dog to Eurystheus, he sent it back to hell and all of his labours were complete.

Answer: 10

He completed twelve because Eurystheus discounted two of his labours when he didn't complete the task with no help. One of the labours that didn't count was the Hydra, because he was helped by his nephew Iolaus and didn't complete the task alone. The other task that didn't count was the Augean Stables because the rivers actually did the work and Herakles was paid for his labour.

The Stymphalian Birds did count because even though the crotala were given to him by Athena he still did the task alone.

The apples also counted because even though the apples were retrieved by Atlas he really couldn't protest to the task being done by Herakles because he was busy holding up the heavens.