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also near Mycenae, where it kills livestock. At first, Heracles makes no progress in his fight with the beast, and Hera even sends a giant crab to bite him as he fights. But Heracles’ nephew Iolaüs pitches in. As Heracles cuts off a head, Iolaüs seals each neck with fire to prevent it from growing back. After killing the Hydra, Heracles dips his arrows in the beast’s blood to make them even deadlier. Hera later raises both the Hydra and the crab into the sky, where they are known as the constellations Hydra and Cancer.

3. The Erymanthian Boar

Heracles captures this huge boar who lives in the central Peloponnesus region of Arcadia with little difficulty. But later, when he stops to eat and drink with some centaurs—the half-man, half-horse beasts—they end up in a drunken brawl. During the fight, Heracles kills several of the centaurs with his poison arrows, including his friend, the centaur Pholus, who dies accidentally when an arrow falls on his foot. The centaur Nessus, who escapes this free-for-all, will reappear in Heracles’ story with disastrous consequences.

4. The Ceryneian Deer (also called the Arcadian Stag)

Ordered to capture a deer, famed for its golden antlers and metal hoofs, Heracles succeeds after tracking the animal for a year. But when Heracles meets Apollo, the god claims the deer is sacred to his sister, Artemis. Heracles apologizes and later releases the animal.

5. The Stymphalian Birds

Near a lake in Arcadia lives a flock of vicious birds with wings that fire arrows, beaks that can pierce armor, and whose droppings are lethal to crops. After Heracles startles the birds by banging some metal castanets, they fly into the sky, and he kills them with his poisoned arrows.

6. The Augean Stables

Ordered to clean the enormous stables of King Augeas, Heracles finds himself knee-deep in dung. Heracles cleverly punches holes in the sides of the stable and diverts a river to flow through the stables, cleaning them overnight.

7. The Cretan Bull

Told to capture the sacred bull of King Minos, Heracles goes to the island of Crete. “Seizing the bull by its horns,” he tosses it into the sea and then rides it, rodeo-style, back to Mycenae, where he releases the bull, which is later killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. (This version of the story conflicts with the more famous tale of Theseus and the Minotaur. See below, Was Atlantis ever discussed in Greek myth?)

8. The Horse of Diomede

Heracles captures Diomede, Ares’s son and the barbarous king of Thrace who owns four deadly horses that feed on human flesh. Heracles feeds the wicked king to his horses, whom he tames and sets loose. They are later killed by wolves.

9. The Girdle of Hippolyta

Heracles is asked to obtain the girdle—a sash or belt—of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazon women warriors who, according to myth, severed a breast so that it would not interfere with drawing a bow. Expecting a fierce battle, Heracles gathers a small army. But smitten by the hunky hero, Hippolyta simply agrees to give Heracles the belt. In some interpretations, taking the girdle would have been viewed as a metaphor for rape, while surrendering it was seen as consensual sex.

Infuriated at this turn of events, Hera takes the guise of an Amazon warrior and leads an attack. Heracles strangles Hippolyta in battle, thinking that she has betrayed him.

10. The Cattle of Geryon

Heracles is sent to get a flock of magical cattle belonging to Geryon, a three-headed monster who lives at the western edge of the known world (modern Spain). The great hero trudges across northern Africa until he reaches the spot where the cattle are kept—the point where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. He erects two great columns of stone—the Rock of Ceuta in Tangiers and the Rock of Gibraltar, afterwards known as the Pillars of Heracles. Killing the herders who keep the cattle, he drives them all the way across Europe, to Mycenae, where he sacrifices them to Hera. (This is the first of the labors set outside Greece, and it is