Heracles
52:27 Share

Thanks for listening to The Ancients. You can get all History Hit podcasts ad-free, early access and bonus episodes, along with hundreds of original history documentaries by subscribing. Head over to historyhit.com slash subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by eHarmony, the dating app to find someone you can be yourself with. Why doesn't eHarmony allow copy and paste in first messages? Because you are unique and your conversations should reflect that.

eHarmony wants you to find someone who will get you. How are you going to know who gets you? If people send you the same generic conversation starters, they message everyone else. Conversations that actually help you get to know each other. Imagine that. Get who gets you on eHarmony. Sign up today. Sing, muses. Sing to me a story of heroes and the deathless gods who govern earth, sea, and sky. But King Eurystheus' words are no invocation. They are mockery.

His audience of courtiers cackle and crow. They are drunk. They have been for hours. Since Eurystheus demanded they gather on the battlements of Tyrus, he wants all the city to see it when night falls and Heracles does not return. He wants all the city to see the man's failure. Kill the lion that stalks Nemea and return to the palace before the new moon. That was the task King Eurystheus set Heracles.

A delayed execution, its courtiers have come to regard it. But no man could best such a creature, this lion offspring of Echidna, the mother of monsters. Whole armies have tried. Whole armies have failed. But Eurystheus has his reasons. He has heard the whispers, the rumors of Heracles' heredity, a son of Zeus.

True or false, to execute such a man might be to incur the wrath of the gods themselves. No, Eurystheus thinks as he stands upon the battlements. Better to let Heracles fail. Better to let Heracles die by nature's hand. Better to let... And then the blast of a horn from the witch tower wrenches Eurystheus back to the moment. There are people on the road below fleeing, falling, shrieking.

Something is moving up on the hillside, something monstrous. A great black mane, a hide like beaten gold catching the dusking light. The lion has left Nemea. It has come to stalk Tyrans. Do you wish to hear a story now, King Eurystheus? Asks the sister of the Muses, her voice close and contemptuous. Do you wish to hear of Heracles and his great labor?

It's the Entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And in today's episode, well, it's the penultimate one in our Greek Gods and Goddesses miniseries. A miniseries that has been going on for almost two years now, and we're right at the end. Today's deity, well, he's quite the figure. The most popular mythical hero of them all. Heracles, or Hercules. Different name, same hero.

Now, Heracles' story, it's never faded. Reimagined in various formats throughout history, from Hollywood and Dwayne the Rock Johnson, to beautiful paintings, to the Ancients podcast. We're all in the same league here, absolutely. So who was Heracles? What are some of the many myths surrounding this hero? And what were his 12 labours? Well, we're going to cover all of this and much more.

Now, as with all the episodes in our Greek Gods and Goddesses mini-series, we're kicking off this one with a story, with the retelling of a myth associated with Heracles, and the myth we've chosen today is that of Heracles battling the Nemean Lion, his first labour. Following this, we have an interview all about Heracles with an ancient's favourite and a former professor of mine, Professor Alistair Blanchard from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

Alistair, he is one of the best teachers in the business. He's a great guest and an expert on many things ancient Greece. He's been on the podcast in the past to talk about topics ranging from the plague of Athens to Achilles. Now he's back to talk all the things Heracles. Sometimes we interchange between Heracles and the Latin form for this hero, Hercules. But it is the same hero, as Alistair explains early on. I really do hope you enjoy it.

The Musa story starts with a low growl, bass all body and bruising, the kind of noise you feel not hear. It rolls about the valleys of Namir like distant thunder before the deluge, when it draws closer and closer. Louder and louder it shakes dust from timber roofs, sets roosting birds to flight, and then finally it pitches into a roar, a herald of destruction.

Fences ripped to shreds, whole flocks butchered, shepherds never to be heard from again. No one has seen the mountain lion, or at least no one who has survived it. But all have seen the grooves it leaves in the stony outcrops, four claw marks, rock ragged as torn flesh. These are the tracks Heracles follows.

Across his back is slung bow and quiver. At his side, a sword. But he wears no armor. He has never had need of it. He clambers between crags and scrambles down scree until he finds a cave high in the Nemean hills. It is a meager palace for this king of lions. A stone shelf for a den. Bleached skeletons for courtiers. The howling wind for a herald. And now Heracles for a regicide. He moves cautiously.

allows his eyes to adjust to the dark of this vacant throne. He has not seen the beast once, all these days tracking it. He has not smelt or heard it, but he has felt a prickle at the back of his neck. This novel sensation he cannot explain. And how could he? For Heracles has only ever been the hunter. He has never been the hunted till now. It comes like a summer squall, sudden and silent.

Two great paws that land upon his shoulders and rake his flesh. Sharp pain. Heracles has never known pain of the body. Of the heart, yes. The memory of his madness, the memory of fragile bodies clenched in his fists. But he has never known the sting of the breeze against a gash. He has never felt the beat of his heart answered by the throb of a wound.

It is his first taste of that mortality that claimed his wife and children. It slows him. He is sluggish to bring his sword to bear, and when he finally does, another novelty. His blade shatters against the lion like a rotten branch. The golden hide is impenetrable. Heracles rolls. He swerves and slides. He escapes further blows, further blossoms of pain with movements like the slosh of water in a pail.

But he cannot trade, dodge and riposte. Forever. With each failed attempt to pierce the lion's hide, its savage paws grow nearer. He sees only one solution: embrace the pain. He throws himself at the beast and roars through the agony that its claws scribble into his shoulders, his thighs, his back. Reflex kicks in. Holds, locks, grips, grapples.

How many hours has Heracles spent wrestling with men in the Pankration, and now slick with blood? His arms snake about the lion's throat. The golden hide might be impenetrable, but the bones it robes are not unbreakable. Heracles presses. He clamps and crushes. He squeezes the life from the Nemean lion, and it passes like the passing of a storm.

and further. Quieter and quieter, roars succumbing to a low growl, like distant thunder after the deluge. Then silence. Heracles' blood decorated the cave like a thousand skeins of red thread unspoiled. And soon, the lions did too. No blade could pierce the hide, but its own claws could.

Heracles worried when free from the poor and set to work, skinning the pelt, removing the head. That is what the sister of the Muses sings to King Eurystheus and his court. She points once more at that shape on the horizon. It is no beast on four legs. It is a man on two, the hide of the Nemean lion slung across his shoulders, its great yawning maw, his hood.

You may set more monsters for Heracles to slay, O King, more labors, but he will always be armored now.

Alistair, what a pleasure. Great to have you back on the podcast. Always glad to chat to you. You are the star of the first ever episode we released on the ancients so many years ago, The Plague of Athens. And you've been back on since then to talk things like homosexuality in ancient Greece and Achilles. And now the story of Heracles. Alistair, this is quite a big one. First off, the big question, who was Heracles?

Right. So Heracles is probably the most famous of the Greek heroes. So we have numerous heroes from antiquity, but of all the heroes, probably the most famous and the most universally regarded as the most famous and important was Heracles. We have numerous stories about Heracles, and we have celebrations of his life and achievements, and they seem to occur throughout the entire Greek world. So we have

temples and shrines to Heracles in the far west, in places like Spain and southern France. And we have him celebrated in North Africa. We have stories about him in the Far East. So he's absolutely everywhere. We have, in fact, more stories about Heracles than any other hero in the Greek world. And indeed, the ancients knew this. In fact, quite often we have a number of the mythographers, the people who write up myths,

say, what a kind of enormous achievement it is to try and capture all the stories of Heracles. There are more stories about Heracles than is possible to write down. So he's the most famous of our heroes. I mean, it's a Herculean task in itself, if you pardon the pun, but that also leads on to something quite interesting. I just said Herculean and Hercules, arguably the more famous pronunciation of this hero. So what's the difference between Hercules and Heracles?

Well, essentially, it's just to do with whether you're using the title that the Greeks would have been more familiar with, which is Heracles, or the one the Romans would have used, which is Hercules. It's the same hero, and it's the same set of stories, but just a different pronunciation, different dialectal difference, according to whether you're Greek or Roman. Very interesting. And one last thing on that kind of the great legacy, the importance of Heracles or Hercules.

to the ancient Greeks and Romans, I know that there are a few cities around the ancient Mediterranean world called Heraclea. So I'm guessing the origins for that name is the figure of Heracles. Yes, exactly. In fact, there are lots of places that are named after Heracles. And normally it's to do with either the fact that Heracles passed through there and that some of his achievements and labours and activities

activities were associated there. Or it's to do with, in fact, perhaps a descendant of Hercules. So Heracles, Hercules had numerous offspring, and sometimes they end up founding cities, and sometimes those cities are named after Heracles. So that tends to be the reason as to why we have all these places named Heraclea, Herculaneum, of course. Right.

So many different places. I mean, Hercules gets all over the Mediterranean. His activities take him from the far west to the far east. So there's lots of places that have a local Hercules story. Indeed, probably in the ancient world, if you turned up to any kind of small town or city, they would have had probably their own Hercules stories. Rome has their own Hercules stories. The cities of Libya have their own Hercules stories. So he's a kind of hero which everyone has a bit of investment in.

Alistair, you mentioned stories. Let's go back to the beginning. What is the origin story of Heracles? Let's start at the very beginning. As always, these stories start with a woman. In this case, it is the beautiful princess from Argos, Alcmene. Alcmene is an extraordinary, young, attractive woman. She catches the eye of Zeus, the king of the gods, and he decides to seduce her. But

In doing so, he decides to seduce her not in his guise as king of the gods, but comes in disguise as, in fact, her lover Amphitryon. And Zeus waits until Amphitryon is away. In fact, Amphitryon is off away trying to win the heart of Alchemyne. He's discovered that

Her brothers were killed by some local bandits. He's gone out to avenge the brothers, and while he's out doing that, hoping to win the heart of Alcmene, into the scene slides Zeus, in the form of Amphitryon, announces to Alcmene that he's destroyed these evil bandits, these people who've killed her brothers, and of course she runs to his arms and

they instantly make passionate love. Indeed, Zeus is enjoying making love with Alcmene so much that he in fact extends the length of the night by three times. He stops the moon in its tracks and the sun is prevented from rising. And so for three nights, they make a passionate love, at which point then Zeus leaves the scene having had this extended one night stand. And

Onto the scene then arrives Amphitron, who's rather confused because Alcmene seems not at all surprised to see him return. He can't understand why when he announces that he's killed the bandits, she says, yes, yes, I know you told me that. Stop going on about it. Anyway, the confusion reigns for a bit, but eventually they are just so glad to see each other that Amphitron ends up sleeping with Alcmene, and as a result, she becomes pregnant with Trollhund.

twins. One is the offspring of Zeus, that will be Heracles, and the other is the mortal offspring of Amphitron, Zeus's twin brother, Iphicles.

That's interesting. So Heracles, he does have a twin brother. So it's a stepbrother almost. Yes, exactly. Well, yes, I guess they're both born on the same day at the same time. But yes, genetically, I suppose they'd be stepbrothers. Do we start hearing stories about Heracles when he is a baby? Because initially, you really think of Heracles as being a very strong figure. And does that come to light very, very quickly?

Yes, yeah. In fact, actually, the stories about Heracles are even told even before he's born. So his birth is quite miraculous, right? So Zeus is very excited that he's got this son that's about to come forth. And so he promises, and he knows the day that it's going to happen, when Alcmenia is due to give birth to Heracles. So he promises that any offspring of Perseus who's born on that day will be the king of Argos. Well, Hera,

Zeus's wife is very cross about this. She's very cross that Zeus has seduced this woman. She's very cross that this child is going to inherit the kingdom of Argos. And so what she does is she speaks to the goddess of childbirth, a goddess by the name of Eleothea,

and tells Eleothea, look, you need to stop the birth of Heracles, at least on this day, so that he isn't going to inherit the kingdom of Argos. So Eleothea goes down and sits outside the chamber where Alcmenia is about to give birth, and she sits there with her fingers crossed. And while Eleothea's fingers are crossed, it is impossible for Alcmenia to give birth. And in fact, she goes into these extraordinary birth pains,

In fact, almost is going to lose her life. Meanwhile, Hera has gone off and found another descendant of Perseus and accelerates that child's birth. So that child is born on the day and in fact becomes the king of Argos. So Heracles misses out of doing that. But in

It is almost, in fact, Heracles almost dies, in fact, in childbirth because Elephia won't release her hands. As long as her hands are clasped together, he can't enter the world. Well, fortunately, a maidservant realizes who the woman sitting outside of Alcmene's chamber is. She recognizes it's the goddess of childbirth, and she recognizes that with her hands clasped, Alcmene is never going to give birth.

And so what she does is she rushes out and says, oh, fantastic, Alcmeda's finally given birth. Well, the goddess of birth can't believe this. How could it be possible? Well, her hands are clasped, and in her surprise, she releases her hands. And as a result, Heracles enters into the world. So he almost died in childbirth.

And that hatred of Hera throughout Heracles' life is one of the defining features that comes through time and time again in all the myths. And indeed, I mean, not only did she try and kill him in childbirth, very soon afterwards, of course, she famously sends some serpents to try and kill him. And this is the first time that we see Heracles exhibiting that extraordinary strength for which he becomes so famous because although Hera sends these serpents

Heracles is able to crush them with his tiny baby hands and save both himself and his twin brother from death.

Very interesting. And one other thing to highlight there is the setting that all of this is taking place, Alistair. So this is like the palace of Argos, and they say, oh, kind of prophecy of who will become a future king of Argos. So the time that this is set, Argos, this city in the Peloponnese, on the Argalid, this very fertile part of Greece, this is a prominent city in Greece at that time too.

Yes, that's right. In fact, the families by this stage moved from Argos. They're in fact now in Corinth and very close by to this part of the Peloponnese. And indeed, most of Heracles' activities, mythic activities, are centered around both, as you say, the Argyllid plain and also Corinth and most of the Peloponnese. He largely starts off as a Peloponnesian hero, and then his adventures take him further and further afield.

Well, you mentioned adventures, so let's get towards the labours and then go through these labours because this is where it gets really, really exciting. Although I know there's even more to Heracles' story as we will get into. Do we know much about his early years and his education and this quite infamous time in his life?

Yeah, look, he's not a model student, it has to be said. Famously, a poor music teacher by the name of Linus tries to teach him how to play the lyre. Well, anyway, Hercules, very strong, but not at all dexterous and has quite kind of thick fingers, which don't seem to play well the lyre. And of course, Linus berates him for being such a thick fingered fool.

Anyway, Heracles, Hercules rises up and beats Linus to death with his lyre. And Aserol has to go into kind of semi-exile. He's sent off to Mount Cithaeron to look after the sheep. But that was, you know, Heracles' education is not a great story. But he's still very, very strong at this young stage during his early years. I must ask one other question before we get to the labours, is we always picture him quite young, muscly, a warrior-like figure. Yeah.

But of all weapons, he's always pictured with the club. Now, I mean, Alistair, why the club of all weapons? Because this seems quite a mundane weapon for him. Yes, well, the club and the arrows, actually. I mean, in antiquity, he's also equally famous as an archer. What's striking about it is what's absent, which, of course, is the spear. And in some ways, Heracles is always a kind of slightly brigandish figure. And indeed, we imagine him in his kind of lion-skin cloak, right?

And that was also regarded as a slightly kind of bandity, slightly brigandish kind of outfit. So he's not your noble hero with their sword and their spear, which are the kind of the sort of noble weapons. He

He's the kind of brute. He's the brute with the club. And also his arrows, which again, he was very famous for, were always regarded as slightly suspicious because arrows are really the kind of weapons of cowards in some ways. The spear is where you're looking your opponent eye to eye as you administer the deadly blow. Whereas arrows, of course, you're fighting from great distance. So Heracles gets some flack actually in antiquity.

for his fondness of the arrow. He's a slightly kind of unchivalrous kind of fighter. Well, thank you for that quick tangent, Alistair. Let's continue with the story. So we talked a bit about his early years. How does his life progress in the mythology from him growing up, his education, from this quite infamous education, to him having to do, and I stress having to, do these 12 labours? What is the story?

Well, so there are two origin accounts for why he has to do his labours. And it should be said that the labours themselves, the stories about the labours of Heracles, seem to be a later edition. So, for example, Homer and Hesiod, our two earliest Greek poets, don't talk about the labours.

They talk about Heracles as a figure who performs amazing deeds and suffers terrible pains, but they don't talk about the labours. And indeed, we tend to think that really it's not until the classical period, so around the 5th century BC, that we start to see the canonical list of the labours

put together. Now, our sources can't agree about what is the cause of the labors. So one is essentially a straightforward account which says that basically Zeus says to Hera, look, if he can perform 12 amazing things, will you acknowledge him as my son and as a divine figure?

That account, which seems to be relatively early, seems to fall away in favor of a much more emotionally charged kind of account, which has Hera sending a madness upon Heracles. And Heracles, by this time, is married to a woman by the name of Megara.

He has children. And in his madness, he kills his wife and children and as a result has to do penance. And so the 12 labours are a kind of penance for this murder for which he has to kind of atone. And who is the figure who is to give him these 12 labours? Because this is

who actually became the king of Argos, if I'm not mistaken. So this is Eurystheus. Now, this is the guy who, in fact, had his birth accelerated. Ah.

So he's the person who is in fact actually charging Heracles to do all these labours. He's not at that time. He is the king of Argos. And as he portrayed as very much being in cahoots with Hera almost. Well, yes. I mean, I think he is no fan of Heracles. He realises in some ways that he's a challenge to the throne. He's also a wicked sort of comic book villain, fair enough.

figure. He's cowardly compared to the sort of vibrant masculinity that is Hercules. He's a pale kind of weak man, and as a result, I think hates Hercules. And when he devises these tasks, are they meant to be impossible tasks or just meant to be very, very challenging? They're supposed to be impossible. I mean, they're supposed to actually, in fact, result in Hercules's death.

But just when he thinks he's got rid of Hercules, Hercules bounces back always triumphant. So they're tasked, they're supposed to kind of take him out. And yeah, I think Eurystheus gets more and more exasperated. The texts kind of give the sense he gets more and more exasperated as time goes on. Well, Alistair, I hope you don't mind. Let's go through these 12 labours. Let's whiz through them because they are a key part, although they may well be added later to Heracles' story. They are still a key part of his story. And 12 in total.

Alistair, this is the easy part for me.

Labour number one, go. The Nemean lion. And the order of the labours varies. There's a huge amount of debate about them, but they always start with a Nemean lion. So this is the second lion, in fact, that Heracles has killed. While he was looking after the sheep, having murdered his music teacher, he manages to kill a lion on Mount Cithaeron. So he's a practiced lion killer by this stage. But what makes the Nemean lion different from the lion on Mount Cithaeron is that it has an impenetrable coat.

So it's impossible to puncture or cut the skin of the Nemean lion. And so Heracles wrestles it and crushes its ribcage. And in doing so, manages to kill it. And then what he does is he skins the lion using the lion's own claws. And so the lion can cut itself. And so the lion cuts up, he uses the lion's claws to cut up the skin and then wears the pelt. And that gives us our famous Herculean lion skin.

But as I say, this is the second lion he's killed. And indeed, it's the second lion skin he wears. So people have often wondered, for example, you see these images of Hercules in a lion skin wrestling with the Nemean lion. And so the question is, well, what's the lion skin he's wearing if he's doing...

It may be the case that Heracles always just wears a lion skin, but the official line is that he's wearing the skin of the lion of Mount Cithaeron while he's killing the Nemean lion. Why is it called the Nemean lion? It comes from a place of the Peloponnese called Nemea, a lovely wine-growing region these days. So if you can see a Greek red from Nemea, you're doing quite well, an important city in its own right, and it's nearby there.

Why do you think it is always the Nemean lion which is always labour number one? Is it because of that association with the lion skin? Or is it that because Heracles is his great strength and him not using any kind of weapon and it's just his brute strength to wrestle this lion? Is there any reason why it's always labour number one? I think you've put your finger on it. I think it's the lion skin. We need the lion skin. And also, he gets no help in this one as well. So it's just him alone versus the lion.

Well, let's go on. I've got the Linnaean Hydra as number two. Alistair, if you have a different one, go feel free. No, no, that's absolutely right. So we're now at the marshes of Linnaea near Argos, and we have the Linnaean Hydra, this extraordinary serpent with multiple heads. Every time you cut off a head, it grows back a new one. So this is the impossibility of how do you destroy this kind of serpent.

Heracles has a go, bashes numbers of heads in. They keep coming back. And eventually he realizes that the way forward is to cauterize the neck. And so he has an assistant here,

Iphicles in some accounts, the twin brother comes and assists, cauterizing the head. So Heracles knocks a head off and then his assistant comes in and with a torch cauterizes the neck and then a new head can't grow back. Is there another version where there's one particular head which means that the rest don't grow back?

There's a primary head, and indeed there's one account where in fact there's an immortal head, which Heracles then has to bury because it can't be killed. But Heracles keeps on knocking off the heads. And importantly for him, he also, at the end, there's obviously a whole lot of heads lying around, he's able to gather up the venom.

from the Linnaean Hydra, and he dips his arrows in it. And so the arrows of Heracles have this extraordinary, powerful, toxic venom from the Linnaean Hydra. And this venom will, in fact, play an important role later towards the end of Heracles' life. It's also quite interesting, Alistair, we've only covered two labours, but already

Being a king or living on the Peloponnese in this mythical world, it doesn't seem like the greatest place to be because there are all of these terrifying mythical monsters about that need to be dealt with. Yes, well, in fact, that is basically Heracles' role is to kind of sort of get rid of these monsters. And so he's the great defender of mankind, the Alexandros, in fact, in Greek, the defender of man, which is where we get the words like Alexander from.

All right, moving on to labour number three, I've got in my notes a less big monster, but very interesting nonetheless, the golden hind.

That's right, yes. This takes us to the northeast of the Peloponnese. So we're in Arcadia now, and this is the famous Hind of Artemis. This one is an interesting one because it shows Heracles being fleet of foot. So normally we think of Heracles as being extraordinarily strong, but here the trick is that he needs to chase down this extraordinary fleet-footed hind, which has, in some accounts, silver hooves, in other accounts it has golden horns. But

In any case, it's a deer that he needs to chase down. Now, interestingly, it's a deer with antlers, and that's actually rather rare. In fact, as far as we know, the only deer with antlers are, in fact, reindeer. There's a lot of questions about, well, did the Greeks know about reindeer then, to account for this very strange deer that's beloved of the goddess Artemis that Heracles captures? And apparently he captures but doesn't kill. So this is one where he doesn't actually murder the animal, but...

but just captures it, brings it back to Eurystheus, and then releases it. Releases it so Eurystheus doesn't decide, I'm going to keep it as my pet kind of thing. I don't think they'd allow that either. Artemis wouldn't be happy. Exactly. Absolutely. That's precisely the thing. Yeah. Okay. And Artemis, of course, goddess of the hunt and all of that, so it makes sense. Labour number four, Alistair, which one would you like to talk about next? The Erymanthian boar. I mean, while we're on a kind of hunting phase, we might as well do that. Now here, again, I think what we need to think about is the way in which

Heracles is kind of working his way through all the kinds of typical kind of hunting monsters that real men take out, right? So, you know, you take out lions, you take out boars. The boar is, of course, an extraordinarily dangerous animal. And this is, again, you know, an amazingly dangerous boar. Heracles takes out the Aramanthian boar as well, and again, shows his virility, his strength and ability to tackle these kind of monstrous creatures.

Those early labours, isn't it? It always seems to be that virility about hunting and chasing and overcoming these wild creatures, this nature, isn't it? Which is really interesting when we get to the next one on my list, which is

going from hunting wild animals to cleaning out lots of poo. That's right. It's degrading, isn't it? The next one. That's right. Well, so this is cleaning out Orgeus' stables, the cleansing of the stables. Now, this one's very interesting because what we suspect has happened here is that a local town of the Peloponnese by the name of Elis has managed to smuggle one of their Heracles stories into the Big Twelve. So,

Augeas is the king of Elis. He has this amazing stable, impossible it would seem to clean in a day. But Heracles, with the assistance of the goddess Athena, who gives him advice on how to do this, gets him to re-divert one of the rivers through the stables and essentially cleanses out the Augean stables, the stables of King Augeas. Now, it's not a particularly heroic task, but it's a task that the people of Elis are

were very proud of. They were very proud of the fact that Heracles had come and done this amazing thing in their city. Now, this is an interesting town because one of its main claims to flames is that it's the town that organizes the Olympic Games. Importantly, they're also the town that gets to decide what the Temple of Zeus at Olympia will look like.

And so what they do is they put up as decoration a series of sculptured panels all around the temple. And they choose 12 stories from Heracles' life to decorate this temple.

And one of them is, of course, their local story about Heracles cleansing the stables of Algiers. And we think that actually it's in fact from these 12 sculptured panels that were on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia that our 12 labours emerge. So that's as far as we can see the earliest time that there are 12 stories kind of canonically put together is on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. And of course, this is the place that every Greek comes to. It's the big palaces.

games where Greeks from all around the world. And so we think that, you know, as it were, the 12 stories on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia are how we get our 12 labours. Hey folks, since you're a fan of history, you clearly want to understand how we've ended up with the world that we have. Well, I'd like to tell you about my show. It's called Dan Snow's History Hit. And on that show, you get a daily dose of history and the stories that really explain just about everything that's ever happened.

If you want to know the origin stories of the cities we inhabit, what's in our kitchen cupboards, why we've always been drawn to dictators, the deep history that explains what's going on, for example, in the Middle East, well, we've got you covered. And if you'd rather be regaled with dramatic tales of powerful empires, we do that too. Get a little bit smarter every day with Dan Snow's History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts.

This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid.

Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. Hi.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com slash switch whenever you're ready. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details.

Let's go on. Labour number six, the bronze birds. Yes, the Stymphalian birds. Here is where we see those poisoned, tipped arrows coming into their own. Because the Stymphalian birds are sacred to the god Ares, the god of war, Mars as he's known by the Romans. And these birds are vicious. They attack people. They can fire off their bronze arrows.

feathers as if they were arrows and so they're dangerous to get near and so uh what heracles does is he gets a bronze rattle rattles it to scare them they fly up into the air and then he shoots them down with his poison tipped arrows and these arrows that are tipped with the poison of the hydra are able to take out these very very dangerous birds

There you go, back to birds and onto another animal, beginning with B, and feels like a bit of a Minoan link here as well, because we're going to the island of Crete and the Cretan bull.

Yes, so we're finally leaving the Peloponnese and starting to go a bit further afield. And indeed, the Cretan bull starts a sequence of labours which takes Heracles onto, eventually, the very edges of the Greek world. So again, a wild bull, a bull that in fact has a bit of a backstory. So this was a bull that had been given to the king of Crete, a man by the name of

of Minos, King Minos. I'll give you a bit of a backstory. So Minos is given this wonderful bull by the god Poseidon. He's supposed to sacrifice it. He doesn't do that. He, in fact, substitutes a kind of second-rate bull. Poseidon, furious about this, sends the bull mad. It kind of causes quite havoc. But before that he'd done that, he also makes Minos' wife, Pacify, fall in love with this bull.

She then manages to get Daedalus to help her copulate with the bull, and she then gives birth to the Minotaur. So this bull has a backstory, right? And so anyway, so this is the bull that Heracles has been driven mad, causing all sorts of problems on Crete.

And what does Heracles do? So he's sent over to Crete and it is his task to slay that bull, the father of the Minotaur. Yes, I suppose the father. I'd never thought about the father of the Minotaur, but he's absolutely right. Yes, so yes, he does capture the bull. In some accounts, he actually tames it and brings it back to Eurystheus. All right, well, fair enough. Oh, poor Eurystheus. He's getting this kind of...

These things brought back to him. I'm not sure he's going to be very happy about it, given his portrayal. But he certainly would not want the next group of animals to be brought to him. And I must admit, Alistair, this is my favourite labour of them all, because it goes to a part of the world which I find extraordinary, the region of Thrace.

and these man-eating mares. Yes, the man-eating mares of Diomedes. So Diomedes is an evil king of Thrace. Thrace is regarded as a barbaric land by the Greeks, and Diomedes kind of... It's Bulgaria area, isn't it? That's right, exactly, yes. And he lives up to the kind of stereotypes of viciousness of the region, and in particular has these horses, which he's trained to eat human flesh.

And anyway, Heracles is supposed to try and get these mares, these man-eating mares. And again, it's kind of interesting that they're mares, right? It's not stallions or kind of... It's always the female of the species in kind of Greek myth, which is the most vicious. And so anyway...

And Heracles realizes that, in fact, the way to tame these mares is to, in fact, feed Diomedes to them. And so they're wild, they're man-eating. But actually, once they've eaten their master, they become remarkably tame. So Heracles feeds Diomedes to his own man-eating horses. And as a result, they become tame and he's able to take them back with him to Eurystheus. All right. Very nice. Well, nice ending there, I guess. Maybe not so nice for Diomedes, but it looks like he had it coming for him.

Okay, well, keep going on. Limited time, but we're smashing through these really nicely, Alistair. This is the next one. It's Tassidia. This is his interaction with the Amazons, which it feels like so many heroes, they must have this interaction.

Yes, everyone needs an Amazon encounter. And Theseus, Jason the Argonauts, everyone has an Amazon encounter. And so here he is supposed to... Achilles, of course, has an encounter with Amazon. So yes, you're not a hero unless you've had an encounter with an Amazon. Here he's supposed to...

take the girdle from the Amazon queen. And he does this, actually. And for once, this seems to be one where, in fact, brute force is not, in fact, necessary. He turns up amongst the Amazons and manages to seduce the Amazonian queen, who is very happy to hand over her girdle. And so as a result, he's able to take that back. So for once, it's not Hercules being a brute.

And this is Queen Hippolyta, if I'm not mistaken. That's right. Exactly. Yes, yes. And indeed, she will eventually go back to Greece with him. Ah, well, there you go. Well, from Scythia or that area of the world, so kind of Eastern Europe, Russia today, the Great Steppe,

to Spain, if I'm not mistaken. This is a huge distance he's covering just for these tasks. Yes. And as I say, there's a kind of way in which Heracles is the person who kind of stomps the borders of the known Greek world. And so we've seen him in the far east, and now we're seeing him in the far west. And this is where he is supposed to get the

the cattle of Geryon, the double-bodied giant whose cattle are particularly prized. And again, Heracles defeats the monster and then has to drive these cattle back all the way from Spain to mainland Greece. And in fact,

The driving of the cattle is almost as much an achievement as, in fact, killing Geryon, the monster. And he has numerous adventures on the way. Importantly, he goes all the way through Italy driving these cattle back. And that's where, in fact, most of the Roman stories are.

relating to Heracles come about. So all the sort of activities of Hercules in Rome and around Rome, and in fact, in mainland Italy, are supposedly when he's driving back the kettle from Geryon. I mean, Alistair, that's a very interesting one. A quick tangent there, because I remember doing something on Hannibal Barker and his route to Italy and his famous march across the Alps, that how initially he not wanted to go across the Alps, but around the coast of Liguria on

And I think it said, following in the footsteps of Heracles driving the cattle. So like kind of Nice and Genoa way today, but he couldn't do that because the Romans had blocked it. But that's an interesting example of how this mythical route of Heracles driving the cattle is then summarized.

said again but in this case in the story of Hannibal Barca and crossing the Alps it's really interesting yes and all these figures see themselves going in the footsteps literally of Heracles and again you know lots of distinguished Roman families for example and

claimed descent from Heracles during his time in Italy. So a lot of old Roman institutions claimed, in fact, they were founded by Heracles while he was in Italy. So this story of Geryon is a very useful one because it allows all these various communities all the way from Spain to Greece to kind of claim that Heracles passed through and have their own kind of Heracles story.

There you go. Well, I mean, Heracles has done a pretty good job so far, Alistair. Done the Peloponnese, cleansed the Peloponnese, literally with the Orgean stables, and now he's completed 10. But there are still two more to go, and these feel like when it goes to almost the next level for Heracles in its own right. Well, that's right. So he's actually done the borders of the known world, and now he's going to go beyond the borders of the known world.

And so the final two labours, one of them will see him going off to the very far west to the Hesperides, to the islands of the far west where he's supposed to get the magical golden apples from Hesperides. And he does that, not himself personally, but in fact sending the giant apples

Atlas to go and retrieve the apples for him. He gets into a deal with Atlas where he says, look, Atlas has been punished by the gods for having to carry the sky on his shoulders. Heracles says, well, look, why don't I...

carry the sky for you if you go retrieve the apples and so he does that and so heracles is there holding up the sky atlas comes back with the apples but atlas is rather liking the fact that he's not carrying the sky on his back anymore and he says to heracles look i think you why don't you stay holding the sky and i'll just take these apples off with me and uh

Heracles says, yeah, sure, absolutely. Look, that's fine. I'm very happy to carry the sky. But look, I've just got a bit of it on each of my shoulders. If you could just hold the sky for a moment, for a second, I can then scratch it. Then you can put it back on my shoulders. And of course, Atlas puts the sky on his shoulders again. And then Heracles, of course, runs away with the apples and leaves Atlas cursing himself for trusting Heracles. Yes, that's where we get the word Atlas from, I'm guessing, as well. Yes, absolutely. Yes, yes, yeah. And then the final one, the hellhound himself.

That's right. Yes, the triple-headed hound Cerberus. And so, you know, Heracles has gone to the far west and now he's going into the underground and into the underworld. And so, again, his job is to retrieve the guardian dog that...

guards the underworld, vicious dog by the name of Cerberus. He does this. He wrestles the dog into the sunlight. This is the first time that Cerberus has seen, in fact, ever the sun. And so there's a wonderful story that Cerberus, on emerging from the underworld, is so terrified by the bright lights that he throws up.

and he throws up on a poor, innocent plant. Well, that innocent plant then becomes a very poisonous plant known as anchorite. And it was poisoned, in fact, by Cerberus's vomit, which gave anchorite its poisonous nature. So up until then, it had been a rather happy, little, pleasant, pretty flower. But thanks to Cerberus's chunder, it kind of

becomes a poisonous weed. I'm feeling a bit sorry for Eurystheus now because if Heracles has completed this task but he's brought with him literally the hellhound of the underworld, Hades' pet, and he's got all these other animals as well, it's always become this weird kind of zoo. What happens? That's right, it's exactly it.

Well, I mean, interestingly, I mean, Eurystheus by this stage has kind of retreated to, in fact, he's built himself a kind of large sort of pot in the ground, a pithos. He's kind of retreated to one of the large storage vessels. In fact, we have a number of very nice images of Eurystheus kind of hiding in his storage vessel as Heracles turns up with yet another monster to kind of terrify him.

But I'm guessing he hands Cerberus back to Hades at the end of the day. Yes, yes, yes. Cerberus definitely goes back. All right. So what happens? So he's completed the 12 labours, seemingly impossible labours. I mean, I'm guessing Eurystheus, he has to let him go and Heracles goes on his merry way. Yes, yes. So he's atoned for the murder of his wife and children and then he goes off and has...

numerous adventures. I mean, we would be here for days if I've told you all the kinds of adventures that Heracles has. Essentially, there's basically a pattern to them. Heracles arrives at somewhere, he gets drunk, he murders people, he then has to atone for murdering people, he then goes and does some sort of amazing act of atonement, he then moves on to the next place, gets drunk, murders a few people, has to do atonement, does something amazing and

and so forth and so forth. So basically, that's the pattern, is Hercules getting drunk, murdering people, and then doing something amazing to compensate for all the carnage and murder that he lived in. Hercules is the guy who can't live with others. I think that's the important thing to know. In fact, one of his epithets was Hercules monoikos. Hercules, the person who lives alone.

And indeed, it was a sanctuary to Hercules Monoikos in southern France, which we get the name Monaco from. So the name Monaco actually comes from a shrine to Hercules Monoikos, Hercules, the man who lives alone. Well, there you go. I mean, Alistair, I wish I could ask you about all these different stories, because they said the 12 labours are only really part of Hercules' story. And there is so much to a very, very complicated character, whether it's him rescuing Prometheus in

has his liver pecked out by an eagle when he becomes a slave heracles and on farley or challenging dionysus to a drinking contest which seems absolutely mad but adds up to that heracles the drunk portrayal that you were mentioning to venturing to india and well okay let's go to the story of his death because we should cover this and it kind of brings up something that you were talking about earlier if i as well if i'm not mistaken with the whole poison thing i mean

Take it away, Alistair. What's the story of his death? It's not a nice one. Yes, so the story begins that Heracles has hooked up with a woman called Deonira, and he and Deonira are heading out. Heracles has murdered the whole lot of people. They have to get out of town quickly, basically. They come to a river, and there they meet a centaur by the name of Nessus.

who says to Heracles, well, put Deonira on my back and I'll swim her across and then I'll come back and get you and I'll swim you across the river too. Well, Heracles puts Deonira on Nessus' back and of course Nessus just heads off with her.

He's abducting the woman. I mean, never trust a centaur with a woman. He's heading off with Deonira. Well, Heracles then cocks his bow and shoots it and kills Nessus. And as Nessus is dying, he says to Deonira, look,

don't trust this man. He's not going to be faithful to you. The only way you can be faithful to him is if you gather up some of my blood, because the blood of a centaur is a magic love potion. And if you put it on his clothes, he will love you. Well, by this time, the Hydra's venom has entered into Nessus' blood. And Nessus knows that his blood is now fatal. And so he's engineering this kind of trap for Heracles. Well,

Deonira falls for it. She hears that Heracles has fallen in love with another person by the name of Aeoli, and his eyes have moved on. And so she puts some of Nessus' blood on a garment, gives it to Heracles, and unfortunately, the hydrovenom that is in Nessus' blood turns this garment into a poison garment.

And so when Heracles puts on this robe, it suddenly clings to him and starts burning his flesh. And so Heracles is in absolute agony. This garment is burning away his body. And so finally, in absolute desperation, he asks that, in fact, he be put out of his misery and that a pyre be built for him and that he be put on the fire and then his body is burnt.

And that is the death of, as it were, the mortal Heracles.

But at this point, it seems like that death of a mortal Heracles is the trigger for what we call the apotheosis, the becoming of a god of Heracles. And so Heracles leaves, as it were, the mortal world and enters the world of the divine and becomes a god where he is, in fact, given to the goddess Hebe in marriage. And it seems, in fact, to be a rather happy ending. Now, that story...

of the death of the mortal, semi-mortal Heracles and the way in which Heracles becomes divine becomes very important later on because it seems to be a kind of precedent

for, for example, Roman emperors who leave mortals and become divine, and of course also Christianity as well. When it comes around and offers a story about a man who died on a cross but then became a god, well, they're speaking to a world which has already heard a similar story about a man who died on a

and became a god. So it's, as it were, a kind of Christianity speaking to a world that's very receptive to ideas of people who die and become gods. And so there's a way in which that death of Heracles story is a very important story for kind of laying a theological framework

for stories about divine emperors becoming gods and indeed also infect Christianity as well. It's part of that great legacy of Hercules that you can see down to the present day. And I think a podcast episode on the legacy of Hercules is one in its own right, to be fair.

Well, Alistair, I'm really grateful for your time. It's always a pleasure having you on the podcast. Last but certainly not least, you have written a book in the past all about the story of Hercules, the story of his life and his legacy, it is called. That's right. Yes, indeed. In fact, my very first book was on Hercules. So it's nice to be able to revisit him after all these years. Well, Alistair, it just goes to me to say thank you so much for taking the time to come back on the podcast. Wonderful to chat as always. Thank you.

Well, there you go. There was Professor Alistair Blanchard talking all the things Heracles, making a good stab at the many, many myths about this popular ancient Greek hero, including his well-known 12 labours. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, the latest episode.

in our Greek gods and goddesses mini-series. If you would like to listen to similar episodes, then why not have a look through our ancients archive? Go listen on Spotify and you can search for all of the gods and goddesses, the major deities of the Greek pantheon, except Hestia. We're still to do Hestia, but you can type in their name, whether it's Dionysus or Aphrodite or Hera, and we have an episode for you. So if you like similar episodes, do check those ones out

You could also search for Achilles, which was when Alistair was last on the podcast talking through the story of this mythical hero too. Last thing from me, wherever you are listening to The Ancients, make sure that you are subscribed, that you are following the podcast so that you don't miss out when we release new episodes twice every week. That's enough from me and I will see you in the next episode.