In some accounts, however, Hercules didn’t require Atlas’ help and slew the dragon and made off with the golden apples himself. Atlas, clearly not the brightest of Titans, agreed, whereupon Heracles strolled off with the apples Atlas had retrieved for him. He tricked Atlas by initially agreeing to the request, but asking that Atlas take the heavens back onto his shoulders for just a moment while Heracles adjusted his cloak (or added a cushion behind his head). When Atlas came back, he declined to take back the heavens onto his own shoulders, but Hercules was having none of this. Hercules tricked Atlas into retrieving some of the golden apples for him, while he offered to help shoulder Atlas’ burden (shouldering the heavens). The Garden of the Hesperides belonged to Hera, who put them under guard, the guard being a fearsome dragon with a hundred heads (yet another monster that was one of Echidna’s offspring). The last of Hercules’ twelve labours is also one of the more famous, even though it sounds essentially like the ancient Greek version of scrumping apples (or oranges, as the case may well have been). Stealing the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. After he had shown Cerberus to Eurystheus to prove he had completed the task, he returned the dog to Pluto. Hercules eventually managed this, and brought the dog back up to the land of the living with him. Pluto, the god of the Underworld, agreed to give Cerberus to Hercules, if he could train the dog without using a weapon. For his next labour, Hercules had to travel there to find Cerberus, the three-headed dog. No epic adventure story from classical antiquity would be complete without a descent into the Underworld. On his way back to north Africa, he inspired a further legend, erecting two columns (the rocks of Gibraltar and Ceusa) which became known as the ‘Pillars of Hercules’.įetching the dog Cerberus from the Underworld.

Once there, our hero gathered up the vast herds, slew the shepherd guarding them, and killed Geryon with his arrows. But when the waves threatened to capsize the vessel, Hercules aimed his bow at Oceanus, who, also fearful of being shot at, stopped making the waves rise up around the Cup, allowing Hercules to make it safely to the island.

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