Heraclitus argued that each of the labours represents some aspect of man: the Erymanthian boar is man’s ‘incontinence’ or intemperance, the Nemean lion represents man’s determination to rush towards the wrong goals in the pursuit of something, the hind of Ceryneia represents cowardice, and so on. At many points in the twelve labours, he looks set to fail, be thwarted, or even be killed, but – like Odysseus making his way home from the Trojan Wars – he always manages to succeed, despite the problems he faces in a particular quest.īut did the Labours of Hercules hold a deeper symbolism? They have been subjected to allegorical interpretation and analysis, perhaps most famously by Heraclitus the Grammarian, a first-century thinker who wrote a commentary on Homer, among other things. Heracles is a classic example of the hero who triumphs against the odds. Some of the voyages take him months to undertake, and it’s only the main details which we remember from the labours but the early compilers of the myths describe the specific details of Hercules’ numerous journeys across land and sea as well as the apple-stealing and lion-slaying. Hercules (or Heracles in the original) is the consummate Greek hero: strong, fearless, cunning (perhaps it’s only Odysseus who outdoes him for wit and wiles), and a man of action who manages to complete every single one of his twelve labours, despite the various hardships and setbacks he faces. In some accounts, however, Hercules didn’t require Atlas’ help and slew the dragon and made off with the golden apples himself. Atlas, clearly not the brightest of Titans, agreed, whereupon Heracles strolled off with the apples Atlas had retrieved for him. He tricked Atlas by initially agreeing to the request, but asking that Atlas take the heavens back onto his shoulders for just a moment while Heracles adjusted his cloak (or added a cushion behind his head). When Atlas came back, he declined to take back the heavens onto his own shoulders, but Hercules was having none of this. Hercules tricked Atlas into retrieving some of the golden apples for him, while he offered to help shoulder Atlas’ burden (shouldering the heavens). The Garden of the Hesperides belonged to Hera, who put them under guard, the guard being a fearsome dragon with a hundred heads (yet another monster that was one of Echidna’s offspring). The last of Hercules’ twelve labours is also one of the more famous, even though it sounds essentially like the ancient Greek version of scrumping apples (or oranges, as the case may well have been). Stealing the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. After he had shown Cerberus to Eurystheus to prove he had completed the task, he returned the dog to Pluto. Hercules eventually managed this, and brought the dog back up to the land of the living with him. Pluto, the god of the Underworld, agreed to give Cerberus to Hercules, if he could train the dog without using a weapon. For his next labour, Hercules had to travel there to find Cerberus, the three-headed dog. No epic adventure story from classical antiquity would be complete without a descent into the Underworld. Fetching the dog Cerberus from the Underworld.