Hercules: The First Three Labors Of Hercules

Heracles is the greatest of the Greek heroes for his courage, strength, and skill to fight against the evil. Although Hercules himself committed one of the most evil deeds by killing his own wife and children, Goddess Hera made him pay for his deeds. Goddess Hera led Hercules sentence to twelve years of penance – a period of hard labor. Unlike the punishment a criminal would get today of either imprisonment or execution, Heracles had to endure the imaginable suffering of the twelve impossible tasks even after regaining his senses. His first labor was to battle a Nemean lion and bring in the skin of the lion. The lion was so huge that his strength and powerful bows were dull compared. He, nonetheless, did not lose his strength and fought the
lies, because if Hercules had lied to Diana and not told her about his labors, he would have been guilty. The position Hercules was in reminded me of situations that we might face when we have to choose between telling the truth, which may or may not be bitter, or finding our- self guilty of a crime. Just like the first three labors, Hercules fought against the evil and got rid of all the evil to pay of what he had done. One of the labor that sparked me while reading was the eleventh labor which asked Hercules to fetch golden apples from the Hesperides. Unaware of where the garden itself is located and knowing that the garden was guarded by dragons and by the daughters of Atlas, Hercules went on a quest to search for a golden apple. The tree with the magical fruit guarded by the dragons and the daughters of Atlas made a parallel to the Bible where the garden was Eden gives the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, in general one of the important message that we get from the Labor of Heracles is that no matter how difficult the task it, we can never loose courage and strength. We all, at some time or another, are going to come across impossible task and obstacles however we have to face the challenges and go with what is given to