As he drove the cattle towards his ship - which by the way was an enormous golden cup lent to him by the sun god Helius - Geryon tried to stop him. Hercules, however, managed to kill him by shooting a single of his poisonous arrows through all his three bodies. After leaving Spain, Hercules had a long and hard journey back to Tiryns. In Liguria near present-day Marseilles in France , Hercules managed to kill two thieves who tried to steal the cattle. In retaliation, the Ligurians attacked him with such a numerous army, that Hercules ran out of arrows and was wounded.
But, his immortal father Zeus helped him by sending a shower of stones against the attackers, thus allowing Hercules to force them to retreat.
Continuing his trip back home, Hercules arrived at the site that was to become later Rome. While Hercules was sleeping, a three-headed giant named Cacus - a son of Hephaestus and Medusa - stole some of Geryon's cattle.
Not intimidated by the flames spewing from the giant's mouth, Hercules managed the next morning to enter the monster's cave and kill him with his bare hands.
Hercules thanked the gods for his victory, by sacrificing some of his cattle on an altar that the Romans would later call the Ara Maxima "Greatest Altar". In Roman times, this Altar stood in the middle of the great city.
Hercules's misfortunes had no end: When he reached the straits of Messene , Geryon's finest bull escaped from the rest of the herd and swam from Italy to Sicily. Hercules pursued the animal and finally found it mingled among the herds of Eryx, a powerful boxer and wrestler, who was the son of sea god Poseidon and the goddess Aphrodite.
Annoyed by Hercules, Eryx challenged the hero to a wrestling match, betting his island kingdom against the herd of cattle. Mightly Hercules killed his opponent by smashing him to the ground.
Eventually, the greek hero landed at Ambracia where he gathered the Geryon's cattle, actually what remained of it, and guided it to the Hellespont. Arriving at Scythia , he was united with the monster Echidna, with whom he had three sons: Agathyrsus , Gelonus and Scythes , from whom the Scythians descended. From an entire herd of cattle, Hercules managed to bring Eurystheus only one ox, which the Mycenaean king sacrificed to Hera.
For his eleventh labor, Eurystheus sent Hercules to the westernmost part of the then known world, to the Garden of Hesperides. There, he was mandated to obtain three Golden Apples from the tree that Gaia had given her granddaughter Hera , on her wedding day with Zeus. The golden-fruited tree was tended by nymphs known as Hesperides and guarded by a vicious hundred headed dragon named Ladon , the mostrous child of Typhon and Echidna. Over the garden towered the titan Atlas , who bore the heavy burden of holding up the sky.
First of all, Hercules had to find the location of the Garden. When he arrived at the Eridanus river , the nymphs there instructed him to ask the sea god Nereus , who was an oracle. Since the god was reluctant to reveal the information to Hercules, the hero tied him up until he succumbed. Apart from giving Hercules directions to find the Garden, he also advised him to talk Atlas into obtaining the fruit for him.
So, when Hercules finally reached the Garden, he offered Atlas to relieve him of his huge burden in return for the small favor of bringing him the apples. The herdsman Eurythion then came to help only to get smashed and killed by the club as well. Finally, Geryon came into the battle. All this finally being finished, Hercules returned the cattle of Geryon back to Eurystheus. This tenth trial was suppose to be it, Hercules thought he was finished, but no. Eurystheus discounted two of the trials due to the outside help he received.
With that, Hercules was given two final tasks…. Trial number eleven was to retrieve three of the golden apples guarded by the Hesperides. This was an incredibly daunting task as the garden was nearly impossible to find. Hercules then proceeded to find Nereus to ask for directions. Eventually, Nereus gave in and told Hercules the where-abouts of the garden. Along the way, Hercules met Prometheus and freed him from his horid torture of having his liver eaten daily by a giant condor.
In gratitude, Prometheus gave Hercules the advice to seek the help of Atlas to retrieve the golden apples. After a long journey, Hercules finally reached his destination and found Atlas. He made a deal with Atlas saying that if Atlas were to retrieve the three golden apples, Hercules would hold the weight of the earth and heavens until he returned.
Atlas figured this was an easy way out of his punishment perminantly, so he graciously agreed. When Atlas returned with the apples, he refused to take back the weight.
Hercules then pretended to enjoy his new state and asked Atlas if he would take the weight for just a moment while he constructed relief for the weight. Atlas, being the dummy that he is, took back the weight and Hercules proceeded to take the apples and leave Atlas high and dry. Leave it to a titan to be that dumb. To do this, Hercules first gained the help of Athena and Hermes to get into the underworld. Hercules was then confronted my Hades at which time Hercules asked to take Cerberus to the land of the living.
For this task, Hercules had the help of his nephew Iolaus. This way, the pair kept the heads from growing back. The Golden HindNext, Hercules set off to capture the sacred pet of the goddess Diana: a red deer, or hind, with golden antlers and bronze hooves.
Eurystheus had chosen this task for his rival because he believed that Diana would kill anyone she caught trying to steal her pet; however, once Hercules explained his situation to the goddess, she allowed him to go on his way without punishment. The Erymanthean Boar Fourth, Hercules used a giant net to snare the terrifying, man-eating wild boar of Mount Erymanthus. However, Hercules completed the job easily, flooding the barn by diverting two nearby rivers. Hercules used these tools to frighten the birds away.
Hercules drove the bull back to Eurystheus, who released it into the streets of Marathon. He brought them to Eurystheus, who dedicated the horses to Hera and set them free. At first, the queen welcomed Hercules and agreed to give him the belt without a fight.
However, the troublemaking Hera disguised herself as an Amazon warrior and spread a rumor that Hercules intended to kidnap the queen. The Cattle of Geryon For his 10th labor, Hercules was dispatched nearly to Africa to steal the cattle of the three-headed, six-legged monster Geryon.
Once again, Hera did all she could to prevent the hero from succeeding, but eventually he returned to Mycenae with the cows. This task was difficult—Hercules needed the help of the mortal Prometheus and the god Atlas to pull it off—but the hero eventually managed to run away with the apples. Cerberus For his final challenge, Hercules traveled to Hades to kidnap Cerberus, the vicious three-headed dog that guarded its gates. Hercules managed to capture Cerberus by using his superhuman strength to wrestle the monster to the ground.
Afterward, the dog returned unharmed to his post at the entrance to the Underworld. Later in his life, Hercules had a number of other adventures—rescuing the princess of Troy, battling for control of Mount Olympus—but none were as taxing, or as significant, as the labors had been. As a result, Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.
Minos had to shut up this beast in the Labyrinth, a huge maze underneath the palace, and every year he fed it prisoners from Athens. When Hercules got to Crete, he easily wrestled the bull to the ground and drove it back to King Eurystheus.
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