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Hercules
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During Reading Strategy
Tackle Words As You Read
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Walker Brents. "The Twelve Labors of Hercules" retold
by Walker Brents. Copyright © 2000 Walker Brents. Reprinted/recorded
by permission of the author. |
The
goddess Hera hated Hercules from the moment of his birth. In his infancy
she sent two giant serpents to kill him as he slept, but Hercules strangled
them instead. His parents rushed into the room to find the baby shaking
the dead bodies of the snakes as if they were rattles. This was an early
indication of his great strength, but this strength was not always used
well.
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Once Hera sent madness and insanity
into the consciousness of Hercules. His thoughts became scrambled. Under
the delusion1 that
he was at war, he mistook his nephews and nieces for enemies, and killed
them. When the madness passed and he saw what he had done he was overwhelmed
with grief and guilt. Terrible remorse drove
him to the oracle2 of
the god Apollo at Delphi, and he asked the priestesses there what he
could do to expiate his
terrible deed. They told him, “Go to King Eurystheus, and undertake
the labors he will put upon you.”
Hercules went to Tiryns, the land ruled by King Eurystheus. He stood
before the throne. Eurystheus said to him, “Go to Nemea, where
a fierce lion terrorizes the people. No weapon can pierce through its
terrible skin. Kill this lion, remove its skin, carry it here and show
it to me.” Eurystheus was shrewd, calculating, cunning, and cowardly.
Each task he was to set before Hercules was designed to be impossible,
but the determination of Hercules was to overcome the impossible. He
followed the lion’s tracks to a deep dark cave hidden in a hillside.
He saw the bones strewn at the cave’s entrance, and entered in.
In such a darkness he could not see his hand before his face, the dank air
was filled with the smell of blood. The lion had just killed, and had
carried its prey to this place which was its very den. Hercules leapt
upon the lion and wrestled with it. His tremendous club and sharp knife
were of no use, for the lion’s hide was too thick. Hercules grasped
the lion’s neck with his hands, and held it against the cave wall
until the lion’s thrashings ceased, and it was dead. Then he dragged
the lion into the light of day, skinning it with one of its own claws.
He draped the skin over his shoulders, its head over his head like a
helmet, and hurried back to the palace of King Eurystheus, who saw him
approach from a distance and was so frightened at the sight that he hid
in a giant olive jar. He sent his servants to Hercules to tell him of
the next task. “Go to the swamp of Lerna and defeat the hydra,3 who
lives at the confluence of
the three springs.” |
Guided Reading Question 1
How does Hera try to kill baby Hercules?
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to answer
Guided Reading Question 2
What drives Hercules to the oracle of Apollo?
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to answer
Guided Reading Question 3
How does King Eurystheus design the tasks for Hercules?
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to answer
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Hercules and one
of his surviving nephews, Iolaus, found the monster in the depths of
the swamp, at the confluence of three springs. Hercules shot his arrows
as the monster so as to anger it enough to attack, and come close enough
for him to fight it with his oaken club. The monster had nine heads,
and came toward them screaming with rage, belching great gouts4 of
poison bloody mud. Hercules began to knock off the creature’s heads,
but saw that three heads grew back from where one was knocked off! Iolaus
lit the branch of a tree with fire, and held this torch against the neck-stubs
where Hercules knocked the heads off. The burnt blood prevented the heads
from growing back. With this the tide of the battle turned. The creature
was weakening. Finally, Hercules tore off the central head, the primary
one. He carried it away and buried it in the ground with a great rock
over it, so that it could not rejoin the body and come alive again. Then
Hercules dipped his arrow points in the poison blood of the hydra, which
lay in pools all around, so as to make them deadly.
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Guided Reading Question 4
How does Hercules make poisonous arrows?
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to answer |
Other labors followed, and they took Hercules far and
wide. In the forest of Ceryneia he chased a deer with golden antlers
for an entire year, caught it and carried it alive to King Eurystheus,
then returned to Ceryneia and let the deer go. Earlier, he had gone
to the land of King Augeias, who kept a stable filled with thousands
upon thousands of cattle, which had never been cleaned. Eurystheus,
gleefully imagining Hercules carrying baskets and baskets of dung,
had ordered him to clean those stables. But Hercules diverted the
course of two rivers and sent them through the stables so that they
were entirely cleaned in one day.
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Guided Reading Question 5
How does Hercules clean the stables?
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to answer
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On Mount Erymanthus
there lived a great boar. Searching amid the lower slopes of this mountain
Hercules met an old friend of his, Pholos the centaur,5 who
lived in a village of centaurs. Hercules shared a meal with his friend,
but accidentally spilled a drop or two of wine upon the ground. The smell
of the wine drove the centaurs insane, and they attacked Hercules, who
responded with a volley of arrows tipped with the hydra’s poison
blood. Many were killed. Pholos was burying their bodies when an arrow
came loose from one of them, fell down and pierced the flesh near his
hoof. The poison entered his veins and killed him. By this time, Hercules
was on the upper part of the mountain hunting for the boar but when he
heard of his friend’s death he returned to the centaur village
and in great sadness helped with the funeral. But he had made enemies
with some of the centaurs, and one of them, Nessus, swore revenge. Hercules
returned to the hunt for the boar and chased it into deep snowdrifts,
where he caught it. After that he went to the land of Thrace and fought
against Diomedes, killing him and his man-eating horses. |
Guided Reading Question 6
What kills Pholos?
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to answer |
Another labor brought
Hercules to the marshes of Stymphalus. Somewhere in these vast marshes
there lived grotesque vicious birds that shot their feathers like arrows
into people. Then they tore the people into pieces and carried their
chunks of flesh away into the marshes where they devoured them. No one
could get to the place from which they came. Hercules came very close
to their lair, but not close enough. The foliage was so thick not even
he could hack through it with his sword, so that his forward motion was
stopped, and he sat upon the ground in despair. Here an ally came to
him, the goddess Athena. She helped him. She caused a set of brazen cymbals
to appear upon the ground next to his feet, and spoke these words into
his consciousness: “Strike the cymbals together. The sound of their
brassy clashing will startle the birds from their branches and nests.
They will fly into the air and become targets for your arrows.” Hercules
followed her instructions. As fast as the birds flew up his arrows pierced
them. Most were killed and those who lived flew away and never returned. |
Guided Reading
Question 7
How does Athena help Hercules?
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to answer |
He came to Themiscyra,
where the river Thermodon flowed into the sea, in a place of many cliffs
and rocky hiding places. This was the land of the Amazons, woman-warriors,
whose queen, Hippolyte, had a sword-belt made of bronze and iridescent glass, given to her by the god of war, Ares. Hercules was to take this
belt from them. Expecting a battle, he was surprised when Hippolyte gave
it to him freely, but outside their meeting place, the goddess Hera filled
the minds of the Amazons with rumors of war, so that as Hercules left
he was suddenly attacked by battalions of Amazons. Once more his poison
arrows did their deadly work, and, with the belt, he made his escape. |
Guided Reading
Question 8
With what does Hera fill the minds of the Amazons?
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to answer |
In Crete he carried
away the bull Poseidon gave to King Minos. On the island of Erytheia,
he killed Geyron, a giant man-monster with one head and three bodies,
and his two-headed dog, Orthrus. He took the herd of cattle they guarded—cattle
whose hides were red as the rays of the setting sun. Helios the sun-god
caused a floating golden cup to appear in the sea, and Hercules drove
the bull of Crete and the red cattle onto this cup and floated back to
Tiryns. |
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“Your next to last task requires
that you find the garden beyond the world. There, in the Garden of the
Hesperides, grow the golden apples upon the branches of a tree guarded
by the serpent that never sleeps. Bring back those apples.” Hercules
had no sooner heard these orders than he was off. At the world’s
edge he met Atlas, the giant who holds up the sky. “The three sisters
who live there are my own daughters. Let me bring back the apples. I am
the only one they will let have them. But you must hold up the sky while
I am gone.” So Atlas said as he waited for Hercules to climb atop
the high mountain preparatory to taking upon himself the burden of the
sky. Once the load was transferred, Hercules stood with the sky upon his
back, watching Atlas stride away, already waist-deep in the ocean that
encircles the world. Some few moments, hours, days, or months later Atlas
returned, holding a branch with three golden apples. “Let me take
the apples back to Eurystheus. You go on holding up the sky, for I am tired
of it.” Atlas was getting ready to go when Hercules said, “Friend,
let me do just one thing before you’re off. That lion’s skin
lying there—I carry it with me wherever I go. It would make a good
pad to cushion my shoulders against this mighty burden. Kindly take up
the sky again for a moment as I gather it up. Then you can return the load
to me.” Atlas agreed to do so, but once the sky was returned to his
keeping Hercules took the branch and walked away, ignoring Atlas’ angry
cries for him to return. |
Guided Reading
Question 9
Who does Hercules meet at the edge of the world? What does this person say?
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to answer
Guided Reading
Question 10
How does Hercules trick Atlas?
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to answer |
The final labor required Hercules
to go down to the world of the dead and bring back Cerberus, the fierce
three-headed dog. The gods Hermes and Athena met him at the river between
the two worlds and helped him. He carried Cerberus back to Tiryns and showed
it to King Eurystheus. The three heads barked at him and bared their teeth,
and Eurystheus died of fright. |
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Hercules had many
other adventures besides these twelve labors. He did many terrible things
and many wonderful things. His earthly father was Amphitryon, but his
father in the skies was Zeus. As time went on, the events in his life
brought that to clear realization. Hercules was returning from the land
of Calydonia with his bride Deianeira when they were faced with a rain-swollen
raging river. Hercules was unconcerned about his own ability to swim
across this river, but how Deianeira would cross was another matter.
Just then the centaur Nessus approached them. He spoke to them very courteously: “Ah Hercules,
I congratulate your marriage. Do you remember me? I am Nessus. I was there
in the village at Mount Erymanthos that awful day. It is a wonder your
deadly arrows did not kill me, though I was wounded. I apologize on behalf
of all us centaurs, for our deranged behavior then. Please allow me to
carry Deianeira across this river. I am a most excellent swimmer.” Hercules
assented to this, and as Nessus clattered down into the water, with Deianeira
on his back, he threw his bow and arrows across the water, and vaulted
in. Reaching the other side he was startled by cries. He turned and saw
Nessus farther down the riverbank crossing onto land, attempting to carry
Deianeira away. “Nessus,” he uttered as he placed an arrow
against the bowstring and drew it back, “haven’t you felt enough
of the hydra’s poison?” With that he let the arrow fly. It
pierced Nessus’ back as he fled and the point protruded through his
chest. Coughing up blood he tumbled to the ground as Deianeira, an experienced
rider, rolled free. He staggered up again but lost his footing and fell
down the riverbank into the shallow waters, gasping and choking. With his
dying words he requested that Deianeira take a few drops of his blood spilled
onto the sand and save it. “Let my death keep your love strong. Take
this blood and rub it into anything your husband wears. My blood is charmed.
It will renew his love whenever and wherever he puts such clothes on as
have been touched with this blood.” He died just before Hercules
arrived upon the scene. Deianeira told him nothing about what had been
said. Little did either one know of the actual reasons behind Nessus’ bequest.6 |
Guided Reading
Question 11
Who greets Hercules and Deianeira?
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to answer
Guided Reading
Question 12
What does Nessus say to Deianeira as he is dying?
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to answer |
Years later, Hercules
went to a distant land and conquered it. He sent a message back home
after the final battle was won. “Send me my best robe to wear for the sacrifices I will
make to the gods, in gratitude for our victory here.” Among the
captives that had earlier arrived was a woman, Iole, whose love, once
long before, Hercules had tried to win. When Deianeira saw her she was
reminded of that time, and began to worry. She resolved to put the blood-charm
of Nessus into the robe she would send him. She gave it to the messenger,
who carried it to Hercules, waiting upon a high mountain to begin the
ceremony. |
Guided Reading
Question 13
What does Deianeira decide to do with the robe?
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to answer |
It was just a few moments after Hercules
had donned7 the
robe and begun the sacrifice that the true nature of the charm revealed
itself. A terrible burning began to spread through his limbs all the
way into his heart.
The hydra’s blood had returned to the one who had sent it out
on so many arrows before. He clutched at the robe to pull it off, but
it stuck fast in some places and in others great chunks of skin clung
to it as it was torn free, revealing his bones. He screamed in rage and
pain, stumbling through the forest, farther up the mountain. At the summit,
a semblance of calm came to him, and he began to build his own funeral
pyre.8 When it was finished he commanded someone among those around him
to set it alight. No one would. Hercules offered a shepherd’s son
passing by, Philoctetes, his bow and arrows if he would ignite the pyre.
Philoctetes agreed to, and Hercules climbed to its very top, placed upon
it the skin of the Nemean Lion as a blanket, and the oaken club as a
pillow, and laid himself down there in a state of serene composure. The
torch was lit and handed to Philoctetes, who put it to the bier,9 which
was soon engulfed. As the flames did their work, the earthly form of
Hercules disintegrated, but his godly form became more clear. The skies
opened up and a chariot came down and took him away. In the heavens,
Hera reconciled herself to him, and he took his place amid the company
of the gods.
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Guided Reading
Question 14
What does Philoctetes agree to do?
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to answer |
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