Hercules is one of the most popular characters in Greek mythology. His great strength and courage inspired the Western world. Yet he was a complex figure whose actions did not always make sense. In this series “Our Herculean Tasks,” we will explore Hercules’s 12 labors in search of wisdom for our modern times.
Happy New Year! Many of us are hopeful about this new year and the good things it might bring. Some of us spend the new year thinking about our New Year’s resolutions. We seek to get rid of the bad habits from previous years so that we can live happier and healthier lives.
As many of us know, New Year’s resolutions are not easy to stick to. We may start with determination and single-minded focus, but we soon find ourselves distracted. The ups and downs of life carry us away from our goals to better ourselves. Bettering ourselves can sometimes seem like a Herculean task.
Hercules, having accomplished impossible tasks himself, just might offer us some wisdom as we move throughout 2024. In this series, we will spend the next 12 months exploring the 12 labors of the hero.
Framing Hercules’s Fate
As the story goes, Hercules goes to the Oracle to seek guidance after the jealous goddess Hera makes him go mad and kill his children. Hera, jealous that Zeus, her husband, fathered Hercules, goes out of her way to make trouble for Hercules, even going so far as to trick Zeus into fating that Eurystheus becomes a king instead of Hercules. It is from Hera that Hercules (Heracles) gets his name meaning “glory of Hera,” alluding to her dominance over the nature of his story.The Oracle tells him that he is fated by the gods to serve King Eurystheus in completing 10 tasks. The king will not accept two of these tasks, stating that Hercules received help to complete them, and Hercules will have to do two extra for 12 total. By forbearing his tasks, he would pay off his sins and achieve apotheosis: ascension into Mount Olympus (heaven) as an immortal.
The First Task: Nemean Lion
The first task is to kill the Nemean lion. This giant beast was born of monsters and the moon. Having impenetrable skin, it terrorized the people and their herds, and everyone stayed away from it lest they found themselves its next victim.On his way to defeat the lion, Hercules stayed with a man named Molorchos. He asked Molorchos to wait 30 days and make a sacrifice to Zeus, if he returned. If Hercules failed, however, he asked that the sacrifice be made to him as a hero.
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Hercules continued his journey and when he finally found the lion, he tried shooting it with his arrows. His arrows were unable to harm the beast, and he knew that he would have to slay it with his bare hands. With unabashed courage, he chased the lion into a cave that had two entrances. He walled up one entrance and entered through the open entrance to confront it. There, he was able to catch the lion and strangle it as shown in the painting by Flemish Baroque artist and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens.
Having won the battle with the lion, Hercules hoisted it upon his shoulder and carried it back to show King Eurystheus. On the way, he saw Molorchos who was about to make a sacrifice to him as a hero. He took the sacrifice and made it to Zeus instead.
When he finally made it back to King Eurystheus, the king was frightened by the courage and bravery of Hercules and refused to let him into the city anymore. From then on, Hercules had to show that he completed the task from outside of the city walls, and King Eurystheus had a bronze jar made to hide in whenever Hercules appeared.
Hercules wanted to use the lion’s skin as an impenetrable cloak to protect himself. However, none of the knives would penetrate it. Hercules decided to use the claws from the lion’s paw to cut through the skin. This worked, and Hercules draped the lion cloak over his shoulders to accompany him in the rest of his labors as seen in the sculpture by 17th-century Flemish sculptor Lucas Faydherbe.
The Foundation of Our First Goal
“Hercules,” 1640–1650, by Lucas Faydherbe. Terracotta, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK. Public Domain
What wisdom might we extract from these details?
First, I think it is necessary to remember that Hercules was fated to begin this journey as a way of atoning for his sins and ascend to Heaven. How are we orienting our goals at the beginning of the year? Are we focusing on the right goals—on correcting those things that may be destructive and harmful in our lives?
Perhaps how King Eurystheus responds to Hercules when he returns reiterates the above point. The king’s worldly power means little in the presence of one who attempts and succeeds in paying for his sins. The king even runs away and hides when Hercules shows up as if Hercules is the real king. Does this suggest that true royalty comes from the courage necessary to confront our own sinful natures?
Second, the sacrifice is an interesting detail. Hercules asks to be personally honored—not if he succeeds—but if he fails. If he succeeds, the honor goes to his father on Mount Olympus, but if he fails, he himself receives the honor. To me, this suggests the importance and the difficulty of trying to atone for our sins. The task is a difficult but honorable one, so honorable, in fact, that our attempts alone, even when we fail, warrant praise. The success of our attempts, however, belongs to God.
Third is the idea that the lion could not be defeated with any weapons but had to be chased into a cave and strangled. So often we turn to outside resources to help us when what we wish to change is within our own minds and hearts, an inner cave if you will. It’s been said that the kingdom of heaven is within.
Which sins muddle this goal toward heaven? And when we find sins in our “inner cave,” can we cut off their source of life?
Fourth is the fact that the lion’s skin could only be cut open with the lion’s claw, and when it was cut open, Hercules wore it as a protective cloak. Here, cutting into the animal can only be done with the animal itself. Cutting into something can suggest peering beyond its surface to expose deeper layers of meaning. Could this suggest that we must understand the sin itself; that is, its nature and its consequences, to gain deeper insight into how it comes to possess us? And can this insight prove to protect us in our future journey?
All in all, there’s plenty here to start a new year in the hopes of becoming better versions of ourselves. How might Hercules’s first labor inspire a start to your new year?
To assist with this daunting task throughout this series, I will mostly refer to Apollodorus’s “Library of Greek Mythology,” unless otherwise stated, and use the “Oxford Handbook of Hercules” as a secondary source.
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