The Cattle, The Apples, and Cerberus

Coverpage - Introduction - The Lion, Hydra, & Stag - The Boar, Stables, & Birds - The Bull, Mares, & Girdle - The Cattle, Apples, & Cerberus

Eurystheus sent me on yet another daunting task to regain my honor:  retrieving the herds of Geryon, a monstrous giant with three heads and bodies, all joined at the waist, who lived at the end of the world.  I set off to complete yet another seemingly impossible task to regain my glory.

Hercules battling Geryon
When I arrived at Geryon's cave, he attempted to defend his flocks but I defeated him rather easily.  I then began herding the cattle back toward Mycenae, which proved to be the hardest aspect of this labor.  With the thousands of livestock in tow, I was restricted to land and had to take the long route back to Mycenae, spending over a year on the journey.

When I arrived back at Eurystheus' palace, he seemed surprised to see me.  He immediately told me my next task would be to retrieve golden apples from the Garden of Hesperides.  I began to get a little frustrated at this point, because the Gardens were rumored to be near where I just came from!  I took a deep breath, however, and reminded myself that I owed this work to the gods.
Atlas, the support of the heavens
I traveled all over, asking everyone where I could find the Garden of Hesperides.  Finally, I came upon a group of nymphs who said they might know.  Although this didn't sound promising, it was my only lead.  They directed me to Nereus, the god of the Aegean Sea, for he knew the location. 

When I finally found him, he tried to escape, but I grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground.  He changed into many different creatures until finally, he gave up and said I was the only person to ever defeat all his forms and had earned his trust.  He told me that I must travel further to find Atlas, the giant who holds up the sky.

I thanked him and continued until I found the giant.  Atlas was standing there as he had been for centuries, holding the sky over all the world.  I asked him where the Garden was and he motioned further west, over the ocean, just beyond the horizon.  When I explained why I was asking, he offered to retrieve the apples for me if I would hold the sky while he was gone.  Although I was a little apprehensive, I knew it was the only way to complete my task, so I agreed.  Atlas hoisted the sky onto my shoulders and strode off into the Atlantic. 

While he was gone, I strained under the weight of the moon and stars, the entire universe literally resting on my shoulders.  I became so desperate for relief, I might have given up and dropped the sky had I not realized that all of mankind would perish with me.  That would certainly not regain my honor, so I continued to support the universe's crushing weight.

Atlas finally returned with a bushel of golden apples, but said he wouldn't go back to holding up the sky.  I asked him if I could at least spread my lionskin over my shoulders as padding.  He agreed and eased the universe off of my shoulders; as soon as he took the weight from my body, however, I grabbed the golden apples and ran back to Mycenae without even stopping to take a breath.

When I presented the golden apples to Eurystheus, he angrily shouted that my next task was to retrieve Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the gates of the underworld.  As I crawled out of the palace, exhausted, my master muttered that I would have to die in order to complete such a task.  Of course, hearing him express such doubt in my capabilites only gave me strength.  I climbed to my feet and marched out of the palace to find Cerberus.

Hercules Conquering Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of HadesWhile searching for a path to the underworld, I came upon a large crowd of people.  I loudly introduced myself, asking what was going on, and received lots of dirty looks from the crowd.  A priest informed me that in a display of true love, the Queen, whose name was Alcestis, had sacrificed her own life so her husband the King could continue to live.  Of course, I was ashamed at how I had disrespected such a solemn occasion, so I vowed to return the Queen to her people and grieving husband.  Of course, no one believed me, but all were silenced when I jumped through the open grave and into the underworld. 

I crossed the river of Styx and came face-to-face with the hideous beast Cerberus.  He was bigger than I expected, but I quickly sprang on the beast and we wrestled until I had one hand around all three of his necks.  His tail hung between his legs as I dragged him by the throats to the steps of Hades' palace.  Although I was nervous confronting the god of the underworld, I knew my actions at the funeral had put my honor in double jeopardy.  I held Cerberus by the neck in front of Hades, declaring I had defeated the guard at his gates, and demanded that he release Queen Alcestis.

I suppose Hades was impressed, because he handed over the Queen.  Holding her in one arm, I marched out of Hades, dragging the whimpering Cerberus behind. 

When I emerged from the grave with Queen Alcestis, the people exalted me as a hero.  I continued back to Mycenae, dragging Cerberus all the way until I held him by his throats in front of my master's face.  With a sigh, Eurystheus told me I had completed all he could ask, and I was free to go.  Out of sympathy for the creature, I released Cerberus as I exited the palace walls and he disappeared into a dark cave.

With a deep breath and my head held high, I returned to my home for some much-needed rest.  For the first time in over a decade, I was able to get a good night's sleep, knowing I would be remembered in honor for all eternity.

Coverpage - Introduction - The Lion, Hydra, & Stag - The Boar, Stables, & Birds - The Bull, Mares, & Girdle - The Cattle, Apples, & Cerberus

Author's Note:  This portion of Hercules' journal is more altered than any other included in this storybook for two reasons:  1) the last three labors contain so many great adventures, and 2) I combined stories from two sources with different versions.  The following are the major changes I made to the stories:
First of all, there were so many side-adventures in the last three labors that I simply had to trim some of the fat just to meet the word limit.  When I originally wrote this story, it was about 1500 words, so I had to trim over 500 words to get under the 1000 mark.  There were just so many great stories that go along with these labors.
On the way to retrieve the cattle of Geryon, Hercules is captured by a large group of soldiers in present-day Egypt.  The king there had been executing foreigners and persecuting his citizens, so when he tried to execute Hercules, he broke the chains and slayed the king, freeing the entire country of people.
Hercules also ends up splitting a large mountain on the western shore of the Mediterranean Sea right down the middle, until the ground underneath actually splits and divides.  That split in the ground connected the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, forming the Strait of Gibraltar (the two mountains on each side of the strait are referred to as the Pillars of Hercules).
The last portion about Hercules saving the Queen from Hades is an adaptation I had never heard; I found it in a single source and just loved it -- not only did it give Hercules more motivation to redeem himself, but it made him confront Hades more boldly (most accounts have Hercules asking Hades for Cerberus and Hades saying if he can conquer the dog, he may have him).

The accounts of these labors are adapted from:
R. E. Francillon's book, Gods and Heroes.  Published 1894.
"The Life and Times of Hercules", an article from the Perseus Project, Tufts University.
The images in this story are as follows:
             1)  Image of Hercules battling the Geryon, as depicted on ancient artifacts, from an article on Wikipedia.
            2)  Image of a statue of Atlas, found in the Natural History Museum in London, from Flickr.
            3)  Image of Hercules defeating Cerberus, recovered from the webpage of a French artist, Boris-Valejo.
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