Hercules (Heracles), Fifth Labor : Cleaning the Augean Stables.

Labor number 5 was to clean the Augean stables. This was a particularly disgusting task given to Hercules by his cousin, King Eurystheus, to make good his sins. Hercules had succeeded in all his previous tasks and was beginning to earn the respect and loyalty of the ordinary people. This task was most probably set to humiliate or degrade him.
King Augeias was a very wealthy landowner, and had a massive stable with a very large number of stalls. He had a herd of cattle of about 3,000 head that he received as a divine gift. These cattle were immune to diseases, so cleaning out the stables for hygienic purposes was not on the list of things to do on any given day. Legend has it that the stables had not been cleaned for 30 years. A messy set up by all accounts.
Hercules duly arrived to do what had to be done, and negotiated a deal with Augeias that he would clean the stables within a day, for a 10th payment. He accepted, obviously thinking this could not be done.
So, Hercules went off and diverted the rivers Alpheius and Poneus through an opening he made in the stable wall. The water rushed through and all the accumulated waste drained out of a hole in the wall he had made on the other side. At the end of the day, the task was completed and the stables were cleaned.
At this point Augeias refused to pay, on account that this task had to be done without payment, as part of his debt to Eurystheus.
Other sources say that he refused to pay and Hercules summoned his son Phyleus to bear witness to his promise. He confirmed the deal was made and Phyleus was banished from the kingdom, and settled in Dulchium. Another version tells of a court case when his son testified against Augeias. In any event, Phyleus was banished and Hercules was a very angry man. He promised to return and exact vengeance at a later stage, which he did, and gave the Kingdom to his banished son.
The original labors were increased by one more, total 12, as this one, according to Eurystheus, did not count, as it had to be undertaken at no cost.
Image : Wikipedia

Hercules’ First Labor, the killing of the Nemean Lion

Hercules’ first labor was to kill the Nemean Lion and present the skin to his cousin King Eurystheus. Where did this lion come from? Most quoted sources say that this beast was the offspring of the monsters Typhon and Echidna. Hera, Zeus’ wife, had the lion sent to the valley of Nemea. This monster terrorized the local population and made their lives miserable. Killing livestock and causing havoc in general.
The lion was enormous and the skin was so strong that spears or arrows could not penetrate it.
When he was 18 years old Hercules was sent to kill the lion and return the skin to King Eurystheus. This was the first of the original 10 labors that were later increased to 12.
So, off went Hercules to Nemea to find the lion. When he arrived at the town of Cleonae he made friends with a poor farm boy, one Molorchus. The arrangement was made that should Hercules succeed in his task they would both make a sacrifice to Zeus on his return. Should he not be successful then Molorchus would sacrifice himself to Hercules, the Hero. (Hercules had to return within 30 days)
There are different versions as to how the confrontation between Hercules and the lion took place. There is consensus in that he was unaware that the lion could not be killed by club or arrow, and had to find out the hard way.
The most popular version of the confrontation is that the lion lived in a cave with two entrances. Hercules sealed one entrance off and then confronted the lion in the cave, strangling it to death with is enormous strength. Little detail is given.
The other version, and the one I like, originated from the translations of Theocritus (300 BC). According to this source Hercules found and confronted the lion on open land. Two arrows bounced off the animal’s thick skin and fell to the ground. While he was setting up for his third attempt, and most probably wondering what was going on here, the lion attacked him. He managed to give the lion a good whacking over the head. The blow was so hard that it split his olive club, and dazed the animal for a moment. Hercules took the advantage and grabbed the lion from behind and lifted him up. He stood on the lion’s hind paws and used his knees to secure the middle part. From behind he put his arms around the neck and strangled him to death.
The next step was to skin the lion. This was impossible as no knife or stone could cut the skin. So what he did was to use the claws of the animal as a knife. Having skinned the animal he returned to Molorchus on the 30th day. Together they made a sacrifice to Zeus.
Then off he went to present the skin to his cousin. When Eurystheus saw him return he became very afraid. He was so scared by Hercules strength that he had a bronze jar made that was buried in the ground. And he used this as a hiding place from Hercules. Hercules kept the skin, and it became on of his trademarks. The skin as a cloak and the head as a helmet.
From then on Hercules was not allowed to enter the city gates and communicated with is cousin via an envoy.
The legend is that after the lion was slain,” Hera placed the lion amongst the stars as the constellation Leo”
Good place to start looking up on the Internet is Wikipedia. Use Hercules and Heracles for search purposes. Lots of interesting stuff to read, and form your own impressions.
Image from Wikipedia

Hercules (Heracles) and the Hydra: Mythology, Second labor

This was the second task that Hercules had to undertake to atone for his sins. The Hydra was a terrible nine-headed water serpent that lived in the swamps of Lerna and guarded the gates of the underworld.
The Hydra had nine heads. Eight of the heads were mortal, and the ninth head, surrounded, by the other eight, was immortal. However should one of the mortal heads be removed, two would grow in its place. The Hydra also had an obnoxious and poisonous breath.
The Hydra would devour cattle and other livestock in the surrounding areas, and in general, terrorize the locals. To solve this problem Hercules was sent off to kill the monster.
Hercules took his nephew along with him, Iolous, who was an expert charioteer and Olympian.
Before Hercules could kill the Hydra, he had to kill a giant crab, sent by Hera to make things more difficult. He killed the crab with his club. The crab was rewarded with a place in the constellation, Cancer, by Hera for services rendered.
To flush the Hydra from hiding, he shot a number of flaming arrows into its lair.
Hercules soon found out that it was impossible to kill the beast with a club, his preferred weapon, and took a sword, (some sources say sickle), covered his mouth with a cloth, and chopped the heads off one at a time. His nephew then cauterized the neck wound with a flaming torch, so that no further heads could grow.
After a long struggle the eight mortal heads were removed, leaving the immortal head. This was chopped off and buried under a large and heavy stone. (If the head was immortal, why would this help? Just to keep it out of the way? Somewhere I read that this head came back later to cause problems..will find out in due course)
Hercules then dipped the points if his arrows in the poisonous blood of the hydra, (some sources say gall), for future use.
The interesting part about this story is that it was seen as incomplete, as he had help from his nephew, and did not undertake the task on his own.
Some sources maintain that the original tasks set were increased, to make up for the slip-up.
Image from Wikipedia.:
(Hercules from Roman Mythology and Heracles from Greek. If you do a net search use both, different range of hits)
First Labor, the Nemean lion