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Greek Mythology

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nusrat-diu:
Labors of Hercules Nr. 6: The Stymphalian Birds
The fifth of the labors of Hercules was to rid Lake Stymphalus in Arcadia of its vast flocks of man-eating birds. These Stymphalian birds had claws, beaks and wings of bronze and they were fed on both humans and beasts.

With the assistance of Athena, who lent him a pair of bronze castanets forged by Hephaestus, Hercules drove the birds far away from Arcadia: The noise of the clattering castanets frightened the birds, who flew as one into the air. Hercules shot with his arrows a great many of them, while the others quickly fled the scene. They were said to find shelter in a faraway island which belonged to Ares, the god of war. There, they were later to be encountered by Jason and the Argonauts.

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Labors of Hercules Nr. 7: The Cretan Bull
The eighth of the labors of Hercules sent him to Crete to capture the Cretan bull,which was said to be the father of the Minotaur by Pasiphae, wife of the Cretan king Minos.

By one account, the Cretan bull was the beast that had carried Europa from Phoenicia to Crete for Zeus. In other myths, the bull was sent by Poseidon to Minos,to be sacrificed following the king's promise that he would sacrifice to the god anything that rose from the sea. But Minos, struck by the animal's beauty, sacrificed in its place another bull, thus provoking the god's rage. The sea god then in revenge drove the animal wild, ravaging the crops and orchards of Crete.

Hercules captured the beast after a lengthy struggle. He brought it all the way back across the sea to Tiryns, to present it to Eurystheus. He then set the beast free. It then roamed around Laconia and Arcadia, crossed the Corinth Isthmus and ended up in Marathon, to be later captured and killed by Theseus.

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Labors of Hercules Nr. 8: The Mares Of Diomedes
Eurystheus next sent Hercules to Thrace, to capture the four man-eating mares of king Diomedes. The son of Ares, god of war, Diomedes fed his savage mares on the flesh of his innocent guests.

On his way to Thrace, Hercules enjoyed the hospitality of Admetus, king of Thessaly in northeastern Greece. Admetus was cursed by one of the gods to die at a young age. He could only be saved, if one of his parents or his wife, accepted to take his position. When he was seriously ill, his beautiful wife, Alcestis, offered herself to take his place. When Hercules reached their palace, Alcestis was dying. Touched by her sacrifice, Hercules decided to rescue her. He entered her room and when he saw Thanatos (Death) by her bed side, he wrestled with him and beat him.

After rescuing Alcestis, Hercules continued on to Thrace. There, he stole the king's horses and drove them to the sea. When Diomedes and his subjects pursued him, Hercules managed to kill the subjects, wrestle with Diomedes and feed him to his own mares. Hercules then harnessed the untamed mares to Diomedes's chariot and drove them all the way back to Tiryns. Eurystheus released the horses into the wild. They finally ascended into the Mount Olympus, where they became the prey of wild animals.

According to another version of the myth, the mares were in reality the extremely ugly daughters of Diomedes, who forced strangers to lay with them and then he killed them.

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Labors of Hercules Nr. 9: The Belt of Hippolyte
Admete, the daughter of Eurystheus, asked her father to have Hercules bring her the exquisite belt of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons. The belt was a gift of Ares, the god of war.

The hero thus was off to the land of the Amazons, the famous tribe of female warriors who lived near the Thermodon river, which flowed through northeastern Asia Minor and emptied into the Black Sea. The Amazon were daughters of Ares and the Naiad Harmonia. They spent two months of the year with the Gargareis of Ida in order to perpetuate their tribe.

Some say that to keep their men devoted to household chores, the Amazons broke the arms and legs of male infants, making them unsuitable for war. Others say that Amazons killed all male infants. Their left breast was either uncovered, or cut off, so as not to obstruct the use of the bow, or hurling of a spear.

Hippolyte, after meeting with Hercules, at first agreed to offer her belt to him. But Hera, who continued to track the hero, changed into an Amazon and spread the rumor among the Amazons that Hercules wanted to abduct their queen. The Amazons thus rushed to attack their enemy. In the battle that followed, Hercules killed Hippolyte and obtained the belt. He and his companions then defeated the Amazons and returned to Tiryns with the prize.

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Labors of Hercules Nr. 10: The Cattle of Geryon
For his next labor, Eurystheus sent Hercules to a faraway place in present-day Spain, with the order to fetch the cattle of Geryon.
Geryon was a monstrous giant with three upper bodies and was the son of Chrysaor and the oceanid Calliroe . He owned a herd of beautiful red cattle, kept under the watchful eye of Eurytion , a son of god Ares , and the two-headed dog Orthus , another monstrous child of Typhon and Echidna .

When Hercules reached the Strait of Gibraltar , he erected pillars on both sides (one in Europe, one in Africa) to mark the great distance he had traveled. Those pillars, still standing today, are called the Rock of Gibraltar (or Mount Calpe ) and Morocco's Jebel Musa (or Mount Abyla ).

Although both Orthus and Eurytion attacked him as he approached the cattle, Hercules killed both of them with a single blow of his mighty club. 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.

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