Tales of the Greek Heroes

Heracles begins his journey with nine companions, including two young men named Peleus and Telamon. When he reaches the Black Sea, Queen Hippolyta unexpectedly welcomes them. Hera, however, is still resentful of Heracles, so she disguises herself and warns the Amazons that Heracles’s ship is filled with pirates aiming to enslave the queen. The Amazons quickly attack Heracles and his companions, igniting a battle. Heracles kills many Amazons and captures Melanippe, Hippolyta’s sister, threatening to kill her unless Hippolyta gives him her belt. Heracles emerges victorious and departs for Greece.

On their way, they find Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy, chained to a rock: Laomedon insulted Apollo and Poseidon and now offers Hesione as a sacrifice in recompense. Hesione begs Heracles to rescue her. Laomedon offers to let Heracles marry her if he kills the monster threatening her; he also promises to give Heracles the magic horses granted to Laomedon’s family by Zeus. Heracles encounters the sea-serpent, fires arrows at it, but fails. However, he asks Zeus for help and kills it after leaping into its mouth. Heracles and his companions then leave, asking Laomedon to keep Hesione safe; unbeknownst to Heracles, Laomedon had planned to kill him rather than keep his promise.

Heracles gives Hippolyta’s belt to Eurystheus and begins another labor: to retrieve the cattle of Geryon, a monster with three bodies and heads. Geryon lives in Erythia, an island off the Straits of Gibraltar. There, Heracles erects two pillars, which are later called the Pillars of Hercules. The Titan Helios assists him with his task, and after fighting a large dog and the herdsman, Heracles starts to lead the cattle away. When Geryon charges at Heracles, Heracles kills the monster with his arrows.

While traveling to Greece, Heracles faces several adventures. One time, when he tries to gather the scattered cattle, his horses vanish. A strange creature, resembling a woman with a snake's body, asks him to marry her for a few days in exchange for help finding his horses. Heracles stays with her for three days and prophesies that she will have three sons.

Heracles arrives in Greece, but a band of giants threatens to kill the cattle. They surrender to him after a fight, and Heracles returns to Eurystheus. He declares that he has completed 10 labors and expects his freedom. However, Eurystheus tells him that Hera demands two more labors from Heracles. He thus orders him to bring three golden apples from the Garden of Hesperides.

As Heracles begins his new task, Zeus has a greater deed for him to accomplish. Therefore, when Heracles asks nymphs how to find the golden apples, they tell him that Zeus has ordered Heracles to go to Mount Caucasus to ask Prometheus.

Heracles climbs the mountain and becomes enraged when he sees an eagle devouring Prometheus’s liver—part of Prometheus’s punishment. He kills the bird and introduces himself. Prometheus recognizes Heracles as the hero he foretold who will defeat the giants and save Olympus. Heracles then breaks Prometheus’s chains and gives the Titan a ring that Zeus has decreed he must wear as a symbol of his bondage. Prometheus accepts the ring, saying that humankind will wear rings in his honor from now on.

Prometheus tells Heracles that Atlas will help with his task. Heracles travels west and faces adventures, such as fighting Antaeus, a giant son of Earth. He finds Atlas on a high mountain and asks for help. Atlas agrees to fetch the apples if Heracles first kills Ladon, the dragon guarding the Garden of Hesperides. Moreover, Heracles must take Atlas’s burden of holding up the sky while Atlas is gone. Heracles agrees, but when Atlas returns with the golden apples, he announces that he plans to give them to Eurystheus himself and leave Heracles to hold the sky. Heracles tricks him by asking him to demonstrate the best method of bearing this burden; once Atlas is once again holding up the sky, Heracles leaves.

Heracles returns to Greece for his final, most dangerous labor. Eurystheus commands him to enter the Realm of Hades and bring back Cerberus, a giant dog with three heads that guards the Underworld. Desperate, Heracles prepares for his last feat, and Zeus sends Athena and Hermes to assist him. The two immortals guide him to the Underworld. Charon, the boatman, escorts Heracles across the river that marks the entry to the Underworld: the River Styx, where Heracles observes ghosts and shadows. When he reaches Hades, he is told that he can only take Cerberus if he defeats him without weapons. Heracles finds Cerberus, which has three lion-like heads and a serpent for a tail, grabs the creature, and transports it to Eurystheus with the help of the immortals. Afterward, he returns Cerberus to the River Styx.

Heracles passes by Dionysus’s gorge near Troezen on his way back, where his friend King Pittheus welcomes him. There, he meets Pittheus’s grandson, Theseus, and, recognizing his courage, tells Theseus that he will follow in Heracles’s path.

Theseus is the son of King Aegeus of Athens. However, he grows up unaware of his father until he is old enough to lift a stone and discover the sword and sandals Aegeus left behind. After learning about his royal heritage, he journeys to Athens, risking danger. Along the way, he defeats Periphetes the Clubman; Sinis the Pinebinter; Sciron, a notorious bandit; and the wrestler Cercyon. Eventually, he faces Procrustes, who puts strangers into a deadly bed, and defeats him.

Theseus arrives at King Aegeus’s palace without revealing his identity, but the Witch-wife who rules the king fears that Theseus is a threat to Aegeus. She asks Theseus to bring back the Cretan Bull, which Heracles previously captured. Theseus completes the task and returns victorious, even as the Witch-wife plots to poison Aegeus. However, when Theseus draws his sword during a feast, Aegeus recognizes him as his son and heir. The Witch-wife flees, but the sons of Pallas, Aegeus’s nephews, want the throne and attack Athens. Theseus leads a victorious battle against them only to encounter another problem: Envoys from King Minos of Crete demand that Athens send seven young men and women to be fed to the Minotaur, a monstrous man with the head of a bull, as recompense for the killing of Minos’s son by the Cretan Bull while the latter was rampaging in Marathon. Theseus volunteers to be among these tributes so that he can try to kill the Minotaur.

At Cnossos in Crete, Theseus meets Princess Ariadne, King Minos’s daughter, who falls in love with him and offers to help. Ariadne gives him a ball of thread to navigate the Labyrinth, the maze where the Minotaur lives. Theseus finds the Minotaur and kills it after a battle. He then escapes with Ariadne and the other prisoners.

Sailing toward Athens, they stop at Naxos, where Dionysus and the Satyrs are having a feast. Dionysus falls in love with Ariadne and uses a magic sleep to make her forget Theseus. She eventually becomes his bride. Grieved, Theseus returns to Athens but forgets to raise white sails as a sign to his father that he is alive, leading Aegeus to die by suicide.

Athens mourns Aegeus, and after Theseus becomes king, he makes peace with Crete and marries Phaedra, Ariadne’s sister. Still longing for more adventures, Theseus joins Prince Jason in his expedition for the Golden Fleece.

Jason is the son of the king of Iolcus, but his uncle, Pelias, takes the throne when Jason is still a child. Jason is protected from his uncle’s wrath and is sent to the centaur Chiron, who raises him carefully in a mountain cave. As Jason grows older, he decides to reclaim his inheritance. While struggling to cross the river Anaurus, Jason sees Hera, who seems to encourage him, saying that he will become one of the most famous Greek heroes.

Jason arrives in Iolcus, and Pelias sees him wearing one sandal. An oracle previously predicted that a man with one sandal would be Pelias’s downfall, so Pelias challenges him to bring him the Golden Fleece from Colchis, believing the task will kill him. Jason accepts the challenge and builds a ship, the Argo, with the help of Athena and Argus, a skilled boat-maker. He then gathers a group of heroes, including Heracles, Telamon, Peleus, Laertes, Meleager, Atalanta, and Nestor, to accompany him on the quest.

The Argonauts set sail and first arrive at the land of King Cyzicus, who is friendly; however, a misunderstanding results in the king’s men mistaking the Argonauts for pirates, and in the ensuing battle, the king is killed. The Argonauts then visit King Amycus, who challenges them to a boxing match; Polydeuces dominates. In Thrace, King Phineus welcomes them with a feast. After the Argonauts help the king eliminate the annoying harpies, birdlike monsters who continuously snatched away the king’s food, Phineus advises them on their journey.

The Argonauts sail to the Hellespont and reach the Clashing Rocks, which they pass by releasing a heron that causes the rocks to split open. They then enter the Black Sea and arrive at Colchis, ruled by Aeetes. He agrees to give them the Golden Fleece if they yoke his fire-breathing, brazen-booted bulls and plow a field with dragon’s teeth. Medea, Aeetes’s daughter, gives Jason a magic ointment for protection. Jason captures the bulls and defeats the dragons after a battle.

Medea warns Jason that Aeetes plans to burn the Argo and kill the Argonauts. She helps him steal the Golden Fleece from the mystical garden where it resides, the minstrel Orpheus lulling the dragon that guards the fleece to sleep. The Argonauts, followed by Medea and her young brother, Absyrtus, escape to the Argo, pursued by King Aeetes’s fleet. To stop him, Medea horribly murders her brother, cutting him into pieces and throwing them into the sea. Aeetes stops to mourn his son. Jason feels ashamed and knows that Medea will bring harm to him.