Six times Hercules has already returned to Mycenae and, by order of Ephrisfeus, set off on a journey full of dangers. He did six glorious deeds: he killed the Nemean lion, destroyed the Lernaean hydra, caught the Kerinean doe, defeated the Erymanthian boar, drove the Stimphalian birds out of Hellas, and cleaned the stables of King Augean in one day.

Days dragged on for days, and Eurystheus seemed to have forgotten about the existence of Hercules. Once a messenger came to Hercules from Jason, the son of the Iolkian king, from whom his relative Pelius took away the power over the city of Iolcus.

“My lord Jason,” the messenger said, “is gathering the most brave heroes of Hellas to go with them by sea to the end of the world, to Colchis, for the skin of a golden-fleece ram. The king of Colchis, Eet, does not rightfully own this rune. To return the Golden Fleece to Hellas is a matter of valor and honor. Do you accept Jason's invitation? "

“Damn this service to the cowardly Eurystheus! - Hercules cried. - I'm not a slave to him! I am going with you!"

So Hercules came to the Thessalian Iolk. The best sons of Hellas have already gathered there to set off on a sturdy high-speed ship called "Argo" to the kingdom of Eeta.

When the "Argo" passed the middle of the way to distant Colchis, a misfortune happened: Gilas, the youngest among the Argonauts and a great friend of Hercules, disappeared.

For a long time Hercules was looking for his favorite on the inhospitable shore, where the Argonauts landed in order to replenish the supply of fresh water, but he never found him. Saddened by the loss of a friend, Hercules refused to sail further with the Argonauts and returned to Mycenae.

And there a new order from Eurystheus awaited him: to tame the Cretan bull and deliver it to Argolis. This bull once sailed to the island of Crete, and the Cretan king Minos promised the god of the seas Poseidon to sacrifice the bull to him24. But Minos liked the snow-white bull with golden horns so much that the king kept him for himself, and sacrificed another bull to Poseidon. The god of the sea was angry and sent fury to the golden-horned handsome man. A mad bull escaped from the stall, fled from the royal court and became a thunderstorm for the entire island.

Having received the order of Eurystheus, Hercules went to the seashore and boarded a Phoenician ship heading for Crete.

It was the intrigues of Hera or the dictates of fate, but as soon as the ship went out into the open sea, a fierce storm flew in. For a long time the ship rushed among the raging waves, until it crashed on the shore of a strange unfamiliar country.

Here trees grew that looked like bunches of large feathers: thick stems emerged right from the trunk, on which leaves swayed, so large that a person could hide under everyone.

Hercules and his surviving companions walked along the coast along the hot yellow sand and came to Big city by the sea. "You are in Egypt," said the inhabitants of the city, "and Egypt is ruled by the great Busiris, a mighty and formidable king."

Hercules asked to take him to the king. But as soon as he entered the palace, he was seized and chained.

"You came on time, stranger," the ruler of Egypt told him. "Today is a holiday in my country, and I will sacrifice you and your companions to our gods."

"The gods do not accept human sacrifice," Hercules objected to him.

Busiris laughed: “Not one hundred years in Egypt they sacrifice all foreigners, and the gods have not yet become angry with us. We, the Egyptians, have surpassed all nations in piety, and it is not for you to teach us. "

When Hercules was brought to the altar and a priest in a long white robe raised a sacrificial knife over him, the mighty son of Zeus easily broke the chains with which he was chained. With a piece of chain, he hit the priest, threw the royal guard, then took away the sword from Busiris and stabbed the cruel king.

Struck by the strength of the hero, the Egyptians did not dare to touch him. Hercules freed his companions and hurried with them to the harbor. There they found a ship that took them to Crete for a modest fee.

The very feat for which he was sent was not difficult for Hercules. Having met with a mad Cretan bull, Hercules jumped on his back, wrapped a chain around his horns and pulled it tight. The bull tried in vain to throw off an unexpected burden from his back - Hercules was sitting firmly, squeezing his ribs more and more with his legs. Lowing pitifully, the bull ran to the sea, rushed into the waves and swam. At sea, the rage left him, and he became as meek as a working ox on the field. Guided by the hand of Hercules, the bull swam across the sea to the Peloponnese.

Hercules himself took the bull to the barnyard of Eurystheus. But the shepherds could not keep him in the stable. The bull broke free and went for a walk throughout the Peloponnese, not giving in to anyone, until he was caught by young Theseus, the son of the Athenian king Aegeus.

Rejoicing that a son would soon be born to him, the aegis Zeus said to the gods: Hear, gods and goddesses, what I will tell you: my heart commands me to say this! A great hero will be born today; he will rule over all his relatives, who trace their lineage from my son, the great Perseus ...



Having matured, Hercules defeated the king of Orchomenus Ergin, to whom Thebes paid a large tribute every year. He killed Ergin during the battle, and imposed a tribute on the Minyan Orchomenes, which was twice as much as that paid by Thebes. For this feat, the king of Thebes, Creon, gave Hercules his daughter Megara to wife, and the gods sent him three beautiful sons ...



For a long time Hercules searched for on the wooded slopes of the mountains and in the gorges of the lion's lair, finally, when the sun began to lean to the west, Hercules found a lair in a gloomy gorge; it was in a huge cave that had two exits. Hercules filled one of the willows with huge stones and waited for the lion, hiding behind the stones ...



After the first feat, Eurystheus sent Hercules to kill the Lernean hydra. It was a monster with the body of a snake and nine dragon heads. Like the Nemean lion, the hydra was born of Typhon and the Echidna. The hydra lived in a swamp near the city of Lerna and, crawling out of their lair, destroyed whole herds and devastated all the surroundings ...



Eurystheus instructed Hercules to kill the Stymphalian birds. Almost all the surroundings of the Arcadian city of Stymphala turned these birds into the desert. They attacked both animals and people and tore them apart with their copper claws and beaks. But the most terrible thing was that the feathers of these birds were of solid bronze, and the birds, flying up, could drop them, like arrows, at the one who would decide to attack them ...



Eurystheus knew that a wonderful Kerinean doe, sent by the goddess Artemis to punish people, lived in Arcadia. This fallow deer devastated the fields. Eurystheus sent Hercules to catch her and ordered him to deliver the deer alive to Mycenae. This doe was extraordinarily beautiful, her horns were golden, and her legs were copper ...



Eurystheus again gave him an assignment: Hercules was to kill the Erymanthian boar. This boar, possessing monstrous strength, lived on Mount Erimanth and devastated the surroundings of the city of Psophis. He did not give people mercy and killed them with his huge fangs. Hercules went to Mount Erimanth. On the way, he visited the wise centaur Fall ...



Soon Eurystheus gave a new assignment to Hercules. He had to cleanse the entire cattle yard of Augeus, the king of Elis, the son of the radiant Helios, from the manure. The sun god gave his son innumerable riches. The herds of Avgius were especially numerous. Among his herds were three hundred bulls with legs as white as snow ...

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  To fulfill the seventh order of Eurystheus, Hercules had to leave Greece and go to the island of Crete. Eurystheus instructed him to bring a Cretan bull to Mycenae. This bull was sent by the earth-shaker Poseidon to the king of Crete Minos, the son of Europe; Minos had to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon ...



After taming the Cretan bull, Hercules, on behalf of Eurystheus, had to go to Thrace to the king of the Bistones, Diomedes. This king had horses of wondrous beauty and strength. They were chained in stalls with iron chains, as no bonds could hold them. King Diomedes fed these horses with human meat. He threw them to be devoured by all foreigners ...



Hercules chose a difficult time for Admet. Great sorrow reigned in the house of King Fer. His wife Alkestida was about to die. Once the goddesses of fate, the great moiraes, at the request of Apollo, determined that Admet could get rid of death if last hour of his life, someone will agree to voluntarily descend instead of him into the dark kingdom of Hades ...



The fame of the exploits of the son of Zeus has long reached the country of the Amazons. Therefore, when the ship of Hercules docked at Themiscira, the Amazons came out with the queen to meet the hero. They looked in amazement at the great son of Zeus, who stood out, like an immortal god, among his companions-heroes. Queen Hippolyta asked the great hero Hercules ...



On the way back to Tiryns from the country of the Amazons, Hercules arrived on ships with his army to Troy. A grievous spectacle appeared before the eyes of the heroes when they moored to the shore not far from Troy. They saw the beautiful daughter of the King of Troy Laomedont, Hesiona, chained to a rock near the very shore of the sea. She was doomed, like Andromeda, to be torn apart by a monster emerging from the sea ...



Soon after returning from a campaign in the country of the Amazons, Hercules set out on a new feat. Eurystheus instructed him to drive to Mycenae the cows of the great Geryon, the son of Chrysaor and the oceanis Calliroi. The path to Geryon was far away. Hercules had to reach the westernmost end of the earth, those places where the radiant sun god Helios descends from the sky at sunset ...



As soon as Hercules returned to Tiryns, he again sent him to the feat of Eurystheus. This was already the eleventh feat that Hercules had to accomplish in the service of Eurystheus. Hercules had to overcome incredible difficulties during this feat. He was supposed to descend into the gloomy, horror-filled underworld of Hades and bring to Eurystheus the guardian of the underworld, the terrible hellhound Cerberus ...



The most difficult feat of Hercules in the service of Eurystheus was his last, twelfth feat. He had to go to the great titan Atlas, who holds the firmament on his shoulders, and get three golden apples from his gardens, which were watched by the Atlas daughters of the Hesperis ...



On the island of Euboea, in the city of Oikhalia, the king of Euryth ruled. The fame of Evryta, as the most skillful archer, went far throughout Greece. The arrowhead Apollo himself was his teacher, he even gave him a bow and arrows. Once, in his youth, he studied archery from Evryta and Hercules ...



After Euryth drove Hercules out of Oikhalia, the great hero came to Calydon, the city of Aetolia. Oineus ruled there. Hercules came to Oiney to ask for the hand of his daughter Deianira, as he promised Meleager to marry her in the kingdom of shadows ...



On the island of Kos, Father Zeus sent his beloved daughter Athena-Pallas to Hercules to call on the great hero to help in their fight against the giants. The giants were spawned by the goddess Gaia from drops of blood overthrown by Cronus Uranus. They were monstrous giants with snakes instead of legs, with shaggy long hair on their heads and beards ...



There they made a huge bonfire and laid on it the greatest of heroes. The sufferings of Hercules are becoming stronger, the poison of the Lernaean hydra penetrates deeper into his body. Hercules tears off his poisoned cloak, he stuck tightly to his body; Together with the cloak, Hercules tears off pieces of skin, and the terrible torments become even more intolerable. Only one salvation from these superhuman torments is death ...



After the death of Hercules, his children and his mother Alcmene lived in Tiryns with the eldest son of Hercules, Gill. They did not live long there. Out of hatred for Hercules, Eurystheus drove the children of the greatest hero out of their father's possessions and pursued them wherever they tried to hide. The children of Hercules wandered all over Greece for a long time: at last, they were sheltered by the aged Iolaus, the nephew and friend of Hercules ...

Hearing such words, Hera asked with a sly smile: - And if on this day two boys are born at once, who will then be the king? “The one who is born first,” Zeus answered. After all, he was sure that Hercules would be born first. He knew nothing about Eurystheus, the future son of Sfenel. But Hera smiled even more sly ...

As soon as it got dark, Hera went into a poisonous swamp, chose two of the strongest and most terrible snakes there and slowly brought them to the house of Amphitryon. To avoid any mistake, Hera decided to kill both boys. One snake was supposed to sting Hercules, and the other - Iphicles ...

Hercules was willingly engaged in sciences, but playing the cithara was not given to him, because he tore the strings every time he touched them with his finger. This angered the old teacher Lin, and once he painfully beat Hercules. Hercules was offended ...

Hercules raised his head in surprise: he thought that someone had entered. But he saw no one. And this is the goddess Athe, unnoticed by anyone, crept into the house. Slowly approaching Hercules from behind, she threw a magic invisible bandage over his eyes, intoxicated his mind and drove the hero crazy ...

Hearing the will of the gods, Hercules shuddered with anger and resentment. He knew that Eurystheus was an insignificant, trashy person and all people laughed at his amazing cowardice. They said that Eurystheus was afraid even of his own shadow. But, remembering that it was the gods who were sending him punishment for the murdered children, Hercules resigned himself ...

The Nemean lion was not a simple beast, but a terrible magical animal of enormous growth. He was the son of the fire-breathing dragon Typhon and the giant snake Echidna. He lived in the Nemean Valley, not far from the village of Cleona, and caused fear in all the surroundings with his raids ...

Hercules' sword shone like lightning. One after another, he chopped off seven more heads, but the ninth, the most vicious and largest, he could not chop off, because she was immortal. The sharp blade of the sword passed through this head, as if through soft jelly, leaving no traces on it ...

Hearing the voice, the centaur reared up, turned on its hind legs and galloped to Hercules with a gentle neigh. Thinking that the centaur would not understand his speech, Hercules showed with signs that he was hungry and thirsty. But the centaur spoke in correct and beautiful Greek ...

Having listened to the new order of Eurystheus, Hercules thought deeply. He knew that the Kerinean fallow deer had tireless copper legs, that she was cunning and careful. He also knew that the doe was the favorite of the goddess Artemis the hunter. Artemis, on the other hand, did not allow anyone to touch her beloved animals ...

Even before he reached the forest, he saw whole clouds of huge Stimphalian birds. They circled in the air, jumped on the ground, sat in the trees and screamed so loudly that Hercules' ears rang. When they rose in flocks into the air, there was such a clang and ringing that Hercules thought: Are these birds copper feathers? ..

All the bulls were so large and ferocious that no man could enter their stalls. From this, the animals were overgrown with manure and mud to the very ridges. A heavy smell of rotten straw rose over the stables, and people in the vicinity groaned, gasping for breath from these noxious fumes ...

On a light ship he sailed to the island of Crete, and the oarsmen of the ship marveled at the good nature and strength of the great hero. It was empty and deserted in those days in Crete. The roads were overgrown with thistles and prickly acanthus, the fields died out: everyone was afraid of the terrible bull. The mighty hero boldly set out to meet the monster ...

How dare you demand anything from me? - Thanatos was indignant. - I am a god, and you are a mere mortal. - I know that you are a god, - Hercules answered calmly. - But you are an ordinary god, and I am not an ordinary mortal. I am Hercules! Haven't you heard of me?

Having said goodbye to Admet and his beautiful wife, Hercules boarded a ship and sailed to Thrace, where the palace of Diomedes towered over the depths of the sea, on black rocks, and the terrible mares whinnied viciously. At the hour when he approached the stable, Diomedes was hunting in the forests of his country ...

For a long time, Hercules' light rooks churned the waves with their sharp noses. For a long time he sailed from sweet Greece to the side where the sun rises in summer. Finally, the capital of the Amazons, Themiskira, rose before him on the seashore. The companions of Hercules pulled their light ships ashore, lit fires around them and camped under the walls of the great city. The sound of trumpets was soon heard. Queen Hippolyta herself came to the camp to find out what strangers need in her land ... Hercules' Journey for the Golden Apples of the Hesperides

At the end of the world, above a dark and terrible abyss, legs wide apart, stands a giant bending over, huge as a mountain. With his mighty hands, he rested against the sky and supports the heavenly vault above us. As soon as he lets go of his heavy burden even for a minute, the sky will collapse down to earth, the clouds will fall from him, the moon and the sun will fall, fall down bright stars... Everything will end. This giant, the holder of the sky, is Atlas ...

There is no way out for human shadows from Tartarus to the earth: all exits from it are guarded by the sleepless dog Kerber. This watchful guard has three heads, three heads on long necks, and a thick mane falls down from each neck - not from hair, but from terrible poisonous snakes. The evil Kerber has a long tail, but look closely: this is not a tail. This fierce dragon grew on his back. It coils and develops, sticks out a sharp sting and hisses ...

Cretan bull (Seventh feat)

To fulfill the seventh order of Eurystheus, Hercules had to leave Greece and go to the island of Crete. Eurystheus instructed him to bring a Cretan bull to Mycenae. This bull was sent by the earth-shaker Poseidon to the king of Crete Minos, the son of Europe; Minos had to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon. But Minos is sorry to sacrifice such a beautiful bull - he left it in his flock, and sacrificed one of his bulls to Poseidon. Poseidon was angry with Minos and sent rabies on the bull that came out of the sea. A bull ran all over the island and destroyed everything in its path. Great hero Hercules caught the bull and tamed it. He sat on the broad back of a bull and swam on it across the sea from Crete to the Peloponnese. Hercules brought the bull to Mycenae, but Eurystheus was afraid to leave Poseidon's bull in his herd and set him free. Feeling freedom again, the mad bull rushed through the entire Peloponnese to the north and finally came running to Attica on the Marathon field. There he was killed by the great Athenian hero Theseus.

Seventh feat. "Cretan bull"

To fulfill the seventh order of Eurystheus, Hercules had to leave Greece and go to the island of Crete. Eurystheus instructed him to bring a Cretan bull to Mycenae. This bull was sent by the earth-shaker Poseidon to the king of Crete Minos, the son of Europe; Minos had to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon. But Minos is sorry to sacrifice such a beautiful bull - he left him in his flock, and sacrificed one of his bulls to Poseidon. Poseidon was angry with Minos and sent rabies on the bull that came out of the sea. A bull ran all over the island and destroyed everything in its path. The great hero Hercules caught the bull and tamed it. He sat on the broad back of a bull and swam on it across the sea from Crete to the Peloponnese. Hercules brought the bull to Mycenae, but Eurystheus was afraid to leave Poseidon's bull in his herd and set him free. Sensing freedom again, the mad bull rushed through the entire Peloponnese to the north and finally came running to Attica on the Marathon field. There he was killed by the great Athenian hero Theseus.

Eighth feat. "Horses of Diomedes"

After taming the Cretan bull, Hercules, on behalf of Eurystheus, had to go to Thrace to the king of the Bistones, Diomedes. This king had horses of wondrous beauty and strength. They were chained in stalls with iron chains, as no bonds could hold them. King Diomedes fed these horses with human meat. He threw them to be devoured by all the strangers who, driven by the storm, pestered his city. It was to this Thracian king that Hercules came with his companions. He took possession of the horses of Diomedes and took them to his ship. On the shore, Diomedes himself overtook Hercules with his warlike beastones. Having entrusted the protection of the horses to his beloved Abder, the son of Hermes, Hercules fought with Diomedes. Hercules had few companions, but still Diomedes was defeated and fell in battle. Hercules returned to the ship. How great was his despair when he saw that wild horses had torn apart his favorite Abder. Hercules arranged a magnificent funeral for his pet, made a high hill on his grave, and next to the grave he founded a city and named it after his pet Abdera. Hercules brought the horses of Diomedes to Eurystheus, who ordered them to be released. Wild horses fled to the mountains of Lyceion, covered with dense forest, and were torn to pieces by wild beasts there.