The Twelve Labors of Hercules Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Hera, the queen of the Greek gods, hated Hercules because he was the illegitimate son of her husband Zeus; Hercules was a constant reminder of Zeus's infidelity. She saw the prophecy of Hercules' greatness as a threat to her own divine status and family. She would go on to torment Hercules for the rest of his life. Hera afflicted Hercules with temporary insanity at one point, causing him to murder his wife and children. To atone for this, Hercules went to the Oracle of Delphi, and prayed to the god Apollo. The Oracle told Hercules that to purify himself, he must go to Tiryns and serve his cousin, King Eurystheus of Mycenae, for ten years. And so, during this time, he performed a series of difficult feats, called labours.

The first Labour was to slay the Nemean lion, for it had been terrorizing people in the hills of Nemea in the Peloponnesus. Said to be the offspring of Typhon (a colossal storm giant with a hundred dragon heads, fiery eyes, and serpentine lower body) and Echidna ("Mother of Monsters", half-woman, half-serpent), the lion was a best of divine origin. Its fur was impenetrable, and its claws were sharper than weapons. When Hercules tracked the lion to his cave with two entrances, he discovered that his arrows bounced off the lion. So, he blocked off one of the entrances and trapped to lion inside where he went to grapple with it, and wound up strangling it to death.

The second Labour was to slay the 9-headed Learnean Hydra, a monster serpent, also the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which lived in a swamp and guarded the entrance to the Underworld. Its breath and blood were lethally poisonous. Wisely, Hercules covered his mouth and nose when nearing its habitat; he shot flaming arrows to lure it out. Hercules lopped off one of its eight mortal heads (the 9th was immortal), but two new heads immediately grew out from the stump. From that point on, Hercules's nephew Iolaus lent a hand by cauterizing the wounds where Hercules kept cutting off heads, so that new heads couldn't sprout out. Hera sent crabs to mess with Hercules, but he stomped on them and cut off the Hydra's immortal ninth head and buried it.

The third Labour was to capture the Ceryneian Hind, a deer sacred to Artemis, which outran arrows. Hercules chased it down for a year across Greece to Hyperborea, before the deer was exhausted. Hercules did not kill it, lest he incur the wrath of Artemis. He tripped the deer by shooting an arrow between its legs, then bound it and carried it on his shoulders to Mycenae.

The fourth Labour was to capture the Erymanthian Boar...alive. Hercules tracked the boar to a deep snowbank on Mount Erymanthus. He drove the gigantic, ferocious boar into a snow bank, exhausting it where it was stuck. Hercules then tied it up in his net, and carried it back to Mycenae on his shoulders...alive. The myth says that when Hercules presented the boar, King Eurystheus was so scared that he hid in a large bronze storage jar.

The fifth Labour was to clean the Augean Stables. King Eurystheus assigned this task as a humiliation, knowing they hadn't been cleaned in 30 years and were thus filled with mountains of manure from 3,000 oxen. Hercules made a deal with the stable owner Augeas that if he could clean them in one day, he could have a tenth of the oxen. Hercules cleverly diverted the water of the Alpheus and Peneus rivers to flow through the stables, flushing out the filth in just hours. He then very responsibly re-dammed and rediverted the waters back to normal.

The sixth Labour was to drive away the Stymphalian birds, man-eaters that infested the area around Lake Stymphalus in Arcadia. These monster birds had bronze beaks, claws, and feathers, and were darling to the god of war, Ares. They lived in a dense forest around Lake Stymphalus. The goddess Athena gave an assist, providing a pair of bronze krotala (noisemakers), that, when rattled by Hercules, made such a clatter they terrified the birds. As they fled in a panic, Hercules shot many down with his arrows, while the others flew far away, and never to bothered Arcadia again.

The seventh Labour was to capture the Cretan Bull. Before getting into Hercules here, you gotta hear this bull's backstory: King Minos of Crete prayed to Poseidon to give him a sign that he had a right to rule, so Poseidon gave him a fantastic white bull from the sea. But...on the condition that Minos sacrifice it back to Poseidon. Minos agreed but then found the bull so fabulous that he schemed to keep it and instead sacrificed a plain ol' dumb bull. Poseidon was ticked off so he made the white bull go on a mad rampage, and....he made Minos's wife Pasiphaë...fall in love with the bull, and have a "union" with it. Thus, the Minotaur was borne into the world. Back to Hercules. He sailed to Crete, and King Minos offered help to capture the destructive bull, but Hercules poopooed the offer and wrestled the bull, overcoming it with his sheer strength, and rode it across the sea back to Greece.

The eighth Labour was to steal the Mares of Diomedes. These weren't just ordinary mares though, they were man-eating, fire-breathing horses owned by a violent Thracian king named Diomedes, who kept them chained and fed them people. Hercules traveled to Thrace where the mares were, and freed them. He drove them to the sea and left his friend Abderus to watch over them, not knowing they were cannibalistic. You see where this is going. Hercules returned to find his friend was eaten, so naturally, he fed King Diomedes to the horses.

The ninth Labour was to obtain Hippolyta's belt. Hippolyta, the queen of the fearsome Amazon warrior women...now how oh how will Hercules get her belt. In the most common version, Hercules traveled to Themiscyra and was welcomed peacefully by Queen Hippolyta, who was impressed by his renown. She was willing to give him the belt, but Hera sabotaged the meeting by disguising herself as an Amazon, and spreading a rumor that Hercules intended to kidnap their queen. The Amazons attacked, and Hercules, believing he had been betrayed by Hippolyta, killed her and took the belt by force.

The tenth Labour was to steal the giant Geryon's cattle, from the island of Erytheia at the world's western edge. To get there, Hercules had to travel through the Libyan Desert, and he became so angry with the heat he shot an arrow at the Sun god Helios. Impressed, Helios lent Hercules his golden chalice to sail across the ocean to Erytheia. When he got there, he slayed the Geryon giant's guard dog, and then a giant herdsman. Finally, he got to Geryon, the Three-Bodied Giant. Hercules shot him with an arrow that somehow pierced all three of Geryon's bodies. One arrow...three bodies. Can't wait to see the Warren Commission report on that.

The eleventh Labour was to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides; the apples were a wedding gift from Gaia (Earth) to Zeus and Hera, granting their immortality, and tended to by the Hesperides (nymphs of the evening). That might sound easy, but wait... The garden's location was a divine secret, AND the apples were guarded by the hundred-headed dragon Ladon. First order of business, Hercules captured the sea god Nereus, aka "Old Man of the Sea", and made him reveal the garden's location, which was at the western edge of the world. On the journey there, Hercules freed Prometheus who was bound to a rock and tormented by an eagle. In gratitude Prometheus advised Hercules enlist the help of Atlas to acquire the apples. In some versions Hercules slayed Ladon, and in some Atlas did, but with regard to getting the apples, Hercules agreed to hold up the sky while Atlas got the apples, which presumably was easier for him to do since the Hesperides were his daughters. But when Atlas came back with the apples he told Hercules that he would simply bring the apples to King Eurystheus for Hercules. But Hercules sensed this was a trick and that Atlas would leave Hercules to hold up the sky from then on. So, Hercules feigned agreeing, but first asked Atlas to hold up the sky for just a moment so Hercules could adjust his cloak. Atlas obliged, but then Hercules took the apples and left.

The Twelfth Labour was to capture Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards Hades, preventing the Dead from leaving. To prepare for this task, Hercules traveled to Eleusis, where he was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a secret religious rite, to learn how to safely enter and exit the realm of the dead. He then entered the Underworld through a cave at Tainaron. Along the way, he freed Theseus from the "Chair of Forgetfulness". Guided by Hermes and/or Athena, Hercules finally found Hades, and like a well-mannered divine hero, he asked Hades' permission to take Cerberus. Hades agreed on the condition that Hercules could take on Cerberus without the use of weaponry. Hercules wrestled Cerberus, using his legendary strength and a lion skin as protection. He put Cerberus in a choke hold until the vicious dog tapped out, and like he did with the other animals in these Labours, he slung the canine over his back and brought him to King Erytheia, who once again fled in a panic. He begged Hercules to return Cerberus to the Underworld in return for not being assigned any more Labours.

And these were definitely NOT the Labours of Hercules:

Slay the Artesian Tyranid. From the "Warhammer 40,000" novels by various authors, Tyranids are hive-minded alien swarms devouring worlds, bioforms of a vast range of specialized organisms, from swarming gaunts to hulking carnifexes, that overwhelm defenses through sheer numbers, adaptation, and Hive Mind coordination.

Capture the Demogorgon stag. Before the game "Dungeons and Dragons" and the TV show "Stranger Things" reawakened the Demogorgon, it was a two-headed demon prince of chaos, first mentioned in the 4th century A.D.

Capture the Thestral Stallion. From the "Harry Potter" universe, the thestral is a winged horse visible only to those who've witnessed death.

Drive away The Cylon Eagles. From the "Battlestar Galactica" novels and adaptations, cylons are machines that rebel against their creators.

Steal Lycidas Arkenstone. "Lycidas" is the poetic name John Milton gives to his friend Edward King. From J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", the Arkenstone (aka The "Heart of the Mountain) is a brilliant gem symbolizing royal authority and greed, discovered deep inside the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) by the dwarves of Durin's line.

Steal the Grapes of Hamadryads. Hamadryads are tree nymphs from Greek mythology. Unlike other nymphs who could roam freely, a hamadryad's life was inextricably linked to her tree from birth.

Obtain the Shard of Narsil. From "The Lord of the Rings", The Shard of Narsil is a fragment of a broken sword that becomes Andúril, the rebirth of hope, a legendary symbol of kingship and hope.

Clean the Stables at Troy. Though there were prized horses in the Trojan story, there's no solid mention of stables having a role in the legends.