How Is That Possible? Trivia Quiz

Heracles' first task was to kill a monstrous lion from Nemea, a city in the Peloponnese. He was unable to kill it with his arrows because of its tough hide, so he knocked it out with his club and strangled it to death with his bare hands. After killing the lion, he wore its skin for protection; he could not skin it with a knife or a sharpened stone, but Athena told him to use one of the lion's claws instead. When King Eurystheus saw Heracles approaching with the dead lion, he hid in a wine jar out of fear. Copreus, a herald, was tasked with informing Heracles about the later tasks.

In some versions of the myth, Heracles meets a boy who says that if Heracles slays the Nemean Lion within 30 days, the town will sacrifice a lion; if he does not, they will sacrifice the boy instead. The constellation of Leo represents the Nemean Lion.

Heracles' second task was to kill the Lernaean Hydra, a snake-like monster from the lake of Lerna with multiple heads (the number varies depending on the version of the myth, with the most commonly cited one being nine). Whenever Heracles chopped one of the hydra's heads, it would regrow, or two heads would grow in its place. He was also repeatedly bitten by a giant crab sent by Hera (represented by the constellation of Cancer, which is near the constellation of Hydra).

Although Heracles killed the crab, he had more trouble with the hydra, and had to enlist the help of his nephew Iolaus. Whenever Heracles cut off a head, Iolaus cauterised the stump with a burning torch to stop it regrowing. Heracles cut the final head off with a golden sword given to him by Athena, and dipped his arrows in the hydra's poisonous blood.

The Ceryneian Hind was an extremely fast doe from the city of Cerynea, bigger than a bull, with gold antlers and bronze hooves. It was sacred to Artemis and one myth says that Artemis caught a herd of these magical hinds, but left one behind. Heracles had to catch it for his third task. It took him a whole year to track the hind across Greece before eventually catching it in a net, as he was reluctant to harm a sacred animal.

In some versions of the myth, Heracles kills the hind and brings it to Artemis as an offering, while in others, he captures it and takes it to Eurystheus alive after promising Artemis and Apollo that he will give it back.

For his fourth task, Heracles had to capture the Erymanthian Boar, an enormous boar that foamed at the mouth and lived on Mount Erymanthos. Heracles was not allowed to kill the boar, so he chased it into a thicket and then into a deep snowdrift, where it became trapped. He bound the boar with chains and carried it to Eurystheus, who hid in a jar again out of fear.

As goddess of the hunt, Artemis was associated with wild animals and sicced boars on countries that had displeased her. A similar boar was the Calydonian Boar, hunted by Meleager and his comrades, and shot by the huntress Atalante.

Heracles' fifth task did not involve hunting or killing anything; instead, it involved cleaning. The stables of King Augeas, home to some 3000 cattle, had never been cleaned and were subsequently full of dung. Heracles not only had to clean the disgusting stables, but he had to do it in a single day. He solved the problem by diverting the course of the rivers Alpheios and Pineios, so that the water flushed the dung out of the stables and cleaned them.

Augeas had promised Heracles a tenth of his cattle if he managed to complete the task, not believing Heracles would actually pull it off. He reneged on the agreement and Heracles killed him, before giving his kingdom to Augeas' son Phyleus as a thanks for Phyleus' support of him. Some versions of the myth say that Heracles then founded the Olympic Games.

It was back to slaying monsters for the sixth task. This time, Heracles had to kill the Stymphalian birds, a flock of monstrous man-eating birds with bronze wings, claws and beaks who lived in a swamp in Stymphalia, in Arcadia. They migrated there to escape from a wolf pack and became a menace to the local people as they bred quickly. The Stymphalian birds were said to be the size of a crane, fired their feathers at people, and had poisonous dung.

Heracles could not go into the swamp, but Athena helped him by giving him a rattle made by Hephaestus, which Heracles used to frighten the birds and make them scatter. As the birds flew into the air, he shot several of them down with his poisoned arrows, though some escaped and flew away to the island of Aretias. The Argonauts would then encounter them there.

Heracles' seventh task was to capture the Cretan Bull, the father of another famous Cretan beast, the Minotaur. King Minos prayed for Poseidon to send him a white bull as a sign of his right to rule Crete, and Poseidon sent the bull to him on condition that Minos sacrifice it to the sea god. Minos sacrificed another bull as he felt the one he got from Poseidon was too valuable to kill. Poseidon was angry and got revenge on Minos by cursing his wife, Pasiphae, to fall in love with the bull and mate with it. The Minotaur was the result.

Minos was only too happy for Heracles to capture the bull, as it had been wreaking havoc all over the island and trampling crops. Heracles wrestled the bull to the ground and took it to Eurystheus by boat. The bull later escaped and wandered off to Marathon.

Heracles' eighth task was to round up and capture a herd of man-eating mares belonging to Diomedes (the King of Thrace, not the hero who fought alongside Odysseus in the Trojan War). The mares were wild and savage, which was attributed to their consumption of human flesh. In some versions of the myth, they also breathed fire. Bucephalus, Alexander the Great's mighty steed, was said to be descended from them.

The mares were chained up in a manger and Heracles broke their chains. He fed Diomedes to them, although the reason differs depending on the version - in one version, the mares ate Heracles' friend Abderus and Heracles, not knowing that they were man-eaters until it was too late, killed Diomedes in revenge. Eating Diomedes pacified the mares and Heracles was able to round them up. Eurystheus wanted to sacrifice them to Zeus, but Zeus rejected the beasts and sent predators to kill them.

Heracles' ninth task was to get the girdle of Hippolyta, a daughter of Ares and queen of the Amazons, a tribe of warrior women. Eurystheus wanted Heracles to get the girdle for his daughter Admete. Hippolyta was willing to give Heracles her girdle, but unfortunately for Heracles, Hera decided to interfere. Disguising herself as an Amazon, she manipulated the other Amazons into thinking that Heracles was attacking their queen. The Amazon army attacked Heracles and he was forced to kill Hippolyta before taking her girdle and fighting his way through the attackers.

In some myths, Theseus was the one who killed Hippolyta instead. She either fell in love with him and eloped with him, or Heracles kidnapped her and handed her over to Theseus.

Geryon was a giant herdsman with three bodies above the waist, or three heads, depending on the version of the myth. He lived on the island of Erytheia and kept a herd of red cattle, which was guarded by Orthrus, a two-headed dog who was the brother of Cerberus (more about him later). Heracles' tenth task was to take Geryon's cattle.

On his way to Erytheia, Heracles crossed the Libyan desert and was so frustrated with the heat that he shot an arrow at the Sun. Helios, the god of the Sun, was impressed and gave him a golden cup to sail in. When Heracles got to Erytheia, he clubbed Orthrus to death, then did the same to Geryon's assistant Eurytion. Geryon went after Heracles with three spears and three shields, and Heracles shot him in the forehead with a poisoned arrow. On the way back, Hera sent a gadfly to irritate the cattle and make them scatter, and Heracles took a year to round them up. She then flooded a river to prevent Heracles crossing with the cattle, but he filled the river with stones to make it shallower. When the cattle were brought to Eurystheus, they were sacrificed to Hera.

Heracles' penultimate task was to steal three golden apples from the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas, the Titan who held up the sky. First, Heracles had to ask the Old Man of the Sea where the garden of the Hesperides was. In some versions of the myth, he ran into the Titan Prometheus, who was chained to a rock as punishment for stealing fire, and set him free.

When Heracles got to the garden, he offered to hold up the sky while Atlas went to get the apples. Atlas fetched the apples, but tried to trick Heracles into taking his place by offering to deliver the apples to Eurystheus himself. Heracles pretended to agree to swap places, but asked Atlas to hold up the clouds while Heracles adjusted his cloak to make himself more comfortable. Atlas fell for it and Heracles escaped with the apples.

Heracles' twelfth and final task was to capture Cerberus, the hellhound who guarded the gates of the Underworld to stop the dead leaving, and bring him to Eurystheus. Cerberus had three heads and a snake for a tail, and was the brother of the Lernaean Hydra, Orthrus the two-headed herding dog, and the Chimera, a lion with a goat's head protruding from its back and a snake for a tail.

Hades, the god of the Underworld, allowed Heracles to take the monstrous dog with him on condition that he did not use any weapons to capture Cerberus, and that he gave Cerberus back afterwards. How Heracles managed to subdue Cerberus depends on the myth; in some versions, he squeezes the dog's heads, while in others, he clubs him. Some versions also have Hermes and Athena helping Heracles. Cerberus did not go quietly and struggled all the way to Eurystheus' court. Naturally, the frightened king hid in his jar again and begged Heracles to let Cerberus go.