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Description
At last, the final installment in my Greek epic miniseries.

I'll be submitting individual character/ creature drawings to my scrapbook shortly, since there's a lot going on in this picture and it is my wish that appreciators can hone in on particular areas of interest in addition to absorbing the image as a whole.
Heracles is perhaps the most renowned and acclaimed Greek legend (better known by the ROMAN Hercules, in traditional Greek, the name is Heracles, as Heracles is indebted to suffer the wrath of Hera throughout his life, as punishment for (father of Heracles/ husband of Hera) Zeus's constant infedility). Younger audiences would probably identify with Disney's disastrous attempt to turn this story into another one of their fun-filled family sing-a-longs, even though the story of Heracles is, in fact, laden with sex and violence from start to finish, and is in absolutely no way a children's tale.
Featured here is the most popular segment of the Heracles tale, the 10 (later 12) tasks Heracles must perform in effort to absolve himself the foul deed of having murdered his former wife and 2 sons (allegedly in a fit of madness induced by Hera...). The reason this is the most popular segment is because it details Heracles' most impressive feats of valor, virility, and daring. Represented in this image are 9 of the 12 total tasks endowed Heracles by his nemesis, king Eurystheus. They are:
Task 1- Heracles kills the Nemean Lion. After killing it, he wears its pelt as a cloak to forever instill in all would-be assailants that he killed a fucking lion. And with nothing but a club.
Task 2- Heracles and cousin Ioloas kill the Lernaean Hydra. Hydra is either an ancient Greek of Latin word meaning serpant. The Hydra (featured top-left) is a 6 (sometimes 9)-headed serpant/ dragon and the most deadly poisonous creature on the planet. Also, every time one of the Hydra's heads is severed, 2 more grow in its place.
Task 3- Capture the Ceryneian Hind- which is a stag, or dear, sacred to (goddess of the hunt) Artemis. The Hind (featured bottom right) was said to be fast enough to outrun an arrow.
Task 4- Catch the Erymanthian Boar. The Boar (featured bottom left) was vicious and enormous and terrorizing villages. Heracles catches it and later kills it at the request of Eurystheus.
Task 5- (not featured) Clean the Augean Stables. These cows belonging to some god were uber-healthy and so never stopped shitting. Heracles had to re-route 2 rivers through the stables to wash all the feces away. Augeas had promised Heracles 1/10 of the cattle if Heracles could clean the stables in one day. When Augeas refused to honor the agreement, Heracles killed him.
Task 6- Kill the Stymphalian Birds- birds with beaks of copper and feathers of steel which they could fire at enemies like projectiles. After killing the Hydra, Heracles had dipped his arrowns in its blood. He then uses them to penetrate the armor of the Birds.
Task 7- Capture the Cretan Bull- a mighty bull, sometimes said to be the very bull who fathered the Minotaur.
Task 8- Round up the Mares of Diomedes- represented by the horse in this image. Alexander the Great later claimed that several of his own horses were descendants of these Mares.
Task 9- (not featured) Steal the Girdle of Hippolyte, who was an Amazon queen. She starts banging Heracles and offers to give him the girdle, so Hera gets mad and turns the other Amazons against Heracles, so he kisses Hippolyte and then kills her/ steals the girdle.
Task 10- (not featured) Herd the cattle of Geryon, Geryon being a deformed giant said to have multiple heads, limbs, and even bodies. Geryon also possesed a two-headed dog (brother of Cerberus, see below). Heracles kills Geryon and his dog, then takes the cattle.
After completing these 10 tasks, Eurystheus decides 2 of the tasks (killing the Hydra and killing the stables) don't count, so he gives him 2 more that are seemingly impossible.
Task 11- Steal the golden apples of the Hesperides, which are guarded by a HUNDRED-HEADED dragon named Ladon (featured top right). Ladon can not possibly be defeated by any mortal, and all 100 of his heads never sleep at once, so (messenger god) Hermes aids Heracles, putting 50 of Ladon's heads to sleep with a long, awful song, then the other 50 by telling a boring and endless story, enabling Heracles to slip by and fetch the apples. In some accounts, Heracles then kills Ladon, because he's Heracles and killing monsters is what he does. In still other accounts, Heracles never even approaches Ladon, but enlists the help of god Apollo to fetch them for him.
Task 12- lead Cerberus out of hell, Cerberus being Hades's infamous 3-headed hellhound. And I guess this is why Disney went the route of making Hades the main villain, although Hades actually plays absolutely no role in the true Heracles legend whatsoever.
After comlpeting all 12 tasks Heracles is absolved of his sins and later becomes a god, and Hera has to stare at his face every day for the rest of eternity.

Description
At last, the final installment in my Greek epic miniseries.

I'll be submitting individual character/ creature drawings to my scrapbook shortly, since there's a lot going on in this picture and it is my wish that appreciators can hone in on particular areas of interest in addition to absorbing the image as a whole.
Heracles is perhaps the most renowned and acclaimed Greek legend (better known by the ROMAN Hercules, in traditional Greek, the name is Heracles, as Heracles is indebted to suffer the wrath of Hera throughout his life, as punishment for (father of Heracles/ husband of Hera) Zeus's constant infedility). Younger audiences would probably identify with Disney's disastrous attempt to turn this story into another one of their fun-filled family sing-a-longs, even though the story of Heracles is, in fact, laden with sex and violence from start to finish, and is in absolutely no way a children's tale.
Featured here is the most popular segment of the Heracles tale, the 10 (later 12) tasks Heracles must perform in effort to absolve himself the foul deed of having murdered his former wife and 2 sons (allegedly in a fit of madness induced by Hera...). The reason this is the most popular segment is because it details Heracles' most impressive feats of valor, virility, and daring. Represented in this image are 9 of the 12 total tasks endowed Heracles by his nemesis, king Eurystheus. They are:
Task 1- Heracles kills the Nemean Lion. After killing it, he wears its pelt as a cloak to forever instill in all would-be assailants that he killed a fucking lion. And with nothing but a club.
Task 2- Heracles and cousin Ioloas kill the Lernaean Hydra. Hydra is either an ancient Greek of Latin word meaning serpant. The Hydra (featured top-left) is a 6 (sometimes 9)-headed serpant/ dragon and the most deadly poisonous creature on the planet. Also, every time one of the Hydra's heads is severed, 2 more grow in its place.
Task 3- Capture the Ceryneian Hind- which is a stag, or dear, sacred to (goddess of the hunt) Artemis. The Hind (featured bottom right) was said to be fast enough to outrun an arrow.
Task 4- Catch the Erymanthian Boar. The Boar (featured bottom left) was vicious and enormous and terrorizing villages. Heracles catches it and later kills it at the request of Eurystheus.
Task 5- (not featured) Clean the Augean Stables. These cows belonging to some god were uber-healthy and so never stopped shitting. Heracles had to re-route 2 rivers through the stables to wash all the feces away. Augeas had promised Heracles 1/10 of the cattle if Heracles could clean the stables in one day. When Augeas refused to honor the agreement, Heracles killed him.
Task 6- Kill the Stymphalian Birds- birds with beaks of copper and feathers of steel which they could fire at enemies like projectiles. After killing the Hydra, Heracles had dipped his arrowns in its blood. He then uses them to penetrate the armor of the Birds.
Task 7- Capture the Cretan Bull- a mighty bull, sometimes said to be the very bull who fathered the Minotaur.
Task 8- Round up the Mares of Diomedes- represented by the horse in this image. Alexander the Great later claimed that several of his own horses were descendants of these Mares.
Task 9- (not featured) Steal the Girdle of Hippolyte, who was an Amazon queen. She starts banging Heracles and offers to give him the girdle, so Hera gets mad and turns the other Amazons against Heracles, so he kisses Hippolyte and then kills her/ steals the girdle.
Task 10- (not featured) Herd the cattle of Geryon, Geryon being a deformed giant said to have multiple heads, limbs, and even bodies. Geryon also possesed a two-headed dog (brother of Cerberus, see below). Heracles kills Geryon and his dog, then takes the cattle.
After completing these 10 tasks, Eurystheus decides 2 of the tasks (killing the Hydra and killing the stables) don't count, so he gives him 2 more that are seemingly impossible.
Task 11- Steal the golden apples of the Hesperides, which are guarded by a HUNDRED-HEADED dragon named Ladon (featured top right). Ladon can not possibly be defeated by any mortal, and all 100 of his heads never sleep at once, so (messenger god) Hermes aids Heracles, putting 50 of Ladon's heads to sleep with a long, awful song, then the other 50 by telling a boring and endless story, enabling Heracles to slip by and fetch the apples. In some accounts, Heracles then kills Ladon, because he's Heracles and killing monsters is what he does. In still other accounts, Heracles never even approaches Ladon, but enlists the help of god Apollo to fetch them for him.
Task 12- lead Cerberus out of hell, Cerberus being Hades's infamous 3-headed hellhound. And I guess this is why Disney went the route of making Hades the main villain, although Hades actually plays absolutely no role in the true Heracles legend whatsoever.
After comlpeting all 12 tasks Heracles is absolved of his sins and later becomes a god, and Hera has to stare at his face every day for the rest of eternity.