Hercules

The tenth labor was when Heracles was required to fetch cattle for Geryon. Geryon was the king of Erytheia in Spain. The cattle were guarded by Geryon's herdsman and a two-headed hound called Orthus. The journey was really boring until he reached the Strait of Gibraltar. Heracles began piling rocks on both sides of the strait. The event of these rocks became known as the Pillars of Hercules.

The work was long and hard, so Heracles became hot from the sun. Heracles pointed his arrow at the sun, threatening to shoot the sun. Helius, the god of the sun, was far from offended by the weak hero. Helius so admired the hero's boldness that the sun-god gave Heracles the Sun-cup made of gold. This gold cup was large enough for Heracles to sail past the Pillars of Hercules and into the Atlantic Ocean.
hercules.jpg

Hercules was the Roman name for the greatest hero of Greek mythology (Heracles). Like most authentic heroes, Heracles had a god as one of his parents, being the son of the supreme deity Zeus and a mortal woman. Zeus's queen Hera was jealous of Heracles, and when he was still an infant she sent two snakes to kill him in his crib. Heracles was found prattling delighted baby talk, a strangled serpent in each hand.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License