The eleventh of the Twelve Labours of Hercules
Posted in Ancient History, Heroes and Heroines, Legend, Myth on Saturday, 21 December 2013
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This edited article about Greek mythology first appeared in Look and Learn issue number 500 published on 14 August 1971.
As a punishment for murder, the invincible hero Hercules was forced by the Oracle of Delphi to perform 12 labours. The 11th was to fetch the golden apples of the Hesperides, which grew on Mt. Atlas, where Atlas himself held up the world. Accounts vary, but one has the hero persuading Atlas to fetch the apples while Hercules held up the world! When Atlas brought the three apples back he did not feel like resuming his burden! Hercules managed to trick him into taking the world back and escaped with the apples. Another version has him killing a dragon to get the apples. On the way home he killed a giant. For the record the Greeks called him Heracles, but Hercules is his better known Roman name.