Zeus disguised himself as Alcmene's husband Amphitryon to conceive Heracles, the greatest of Greek heroes.
Heracles seduced the priestess Auge in Athena's temple at Tegea. Their son Telephus was exposed as an infant but survived, suckled by a deer, and eventually became king of Mysia.
Heracles married Deianira after winning her hand by wrestling the river god Achelous. Their son Hyllus led the Heraclidae after Heracles' death and apotheosis.
Heracles married Hebe, goddess of youth, upon his apotheosis to Olympus, a gift from the reconciled Hera.
Heracles captured Iole after sacking Oechalia and killing her father Eurytus. His desire for Iole provoked Deianira's fatal jealousy.
Heracles married Megara, daughter of King Creon of Thebes, as a reward for defending the city. He later killed their children in a fit of madness sent by Hera.
Heracles served Omphale, queen of Lydia, as a slave for three years as penance for killing Iphitus. During his servitude they became lovers.
Athena aided Heracles in several of his labors, including guiding him to the Stymphalian birds with bronze castanets and helping him support the sky while Atlas fetched the golden apples.
Hermes guided Heracles into the underworld for his twelfth labor to capture Cerberus, serving as divine escort through Hades' realm.
Iolaus served as Heracles' charioteer and closest companion throughout the Twelve Labors. He assisted directly in slaying the Lernaean Hydra and accompanied Heracles on numerous campaigns across Greece.
Iphicles fought alongside his divine twin Heracles in multiple campaigns, including wars against Laomedon and the sons of Hippocoon. Despite being fully mortal, he served loyally as a warrior companion.
Heracles sailed with Jason as the mightiest of the Argonauts. He departed the quest early when his companion Hylas was abducted by water nymphs on the coast of Mysia.
A prophecy declared the Olympians could only defeat the Gigantes with a mortal's aid. Heracles fought alongside the gods in the Gigantomachy, delivering the killing blows that the immortals alone could not.
Telamon was Heracles's close companion and fought beside him in the first sack of Troy against King Laomedon. Heracles rewarded Telamon with Laomedon's daughter Hesione as a war prize for being the first to breach the walls.
Heracles and Theseus were bound by mutual aid; Heracles freed Theseus from the Chair of Forgetfulness in the underworld.
Heracles' ninth labor required him to obtain the war girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. When Hera incited the Amazons to attack, Heracles killed Hippolyta and defeated her army at Themiscyra.
Heracles fought Apollo for possession of the Delphic tripod after the Pythia refused to purify him, until Zeus separated his two sons with a thunderbolt.
Heracles defeated Ares in combat when the war god tried to protect his son Cycnus, a brigand who murdered travelers. Even a god of war could not overcome Heracles in battle.
Heracles fought the Centaurs at Pholus's cave when they were driven mad by the scent of opened wine. He drove them off with arrows poisoned by Hydra blood, accidentally wounding Chiron in the process.
Eurystheus assigned Heracles the Twelve Labors as penance, each designed to be fatal. He hid in a bronze jar whenever Heracles returned, and later persecuted the Heraclidae.
Eurytus refused to give Iole to Heracles despite losing the archery contest, fearing Heracles' madness. This insult led Heracles to eventually raise an army and destroy Oechalia.
A prophecy declared the Gigantes could only be defeated with the aid of a mortal hero. Heracles fulfilled this role in the Gigantomachy, finishing off each giant with his arrows after the gods wounded them.
Hera persecuted Heracles from birth, driving him mad and engineering the labors that defined his legend.
Heracles killed Antaeus by lifting him off the ground and crushing him in a bear hug, severing the giant's contact with his mother Gaia, who had been renewing his strength.
Heracles slew Diomedes of Thrace as his eighth labor, feeding the cruel king to his own man-eating mares, which then became tame.
Heracles sacked Oechalia and killed King Eurytus to claim Iole after Eurytus refused to honor the archery contest he had won.
Heracles slew Geryon, the three-bodied giant, as his tenth labor to seize the cattle of Erytheia.
Heracles killed Hippolyta during his ninth labor after Hera incited the Amazons to attack, turning the quest for her golden girdle into battle.
Heracles hurled Iphitus from the walls of Tiryns in a fit of madness, and this murder required expiation through three years of slavery to Queen Omphale of Lydia.
Heracles crushed the giant crab Carcinus underfoot during his battle with the Lernaean Hydra. Hera had sent Carcinus to distract Heracles by clamping onto his foot.
Heracles slew Ladon, the hundred-headed dragon guarding the golden apples, with a poisoned arrow shot over the garden wall during his eleventh labor.
⚠ Apollodorus 2.5.11 has Heracles slay Ladon; other versions (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.1396) have the Argonauts find Ladon already dead. Diodorus 4.26 has Atlas fetch the apples instead.
Heracles sacked Troy and killed Laomedon after the king refused to surrender the divine horses promised as reward for rescuing his daughter Hesione from a sea monster sent by the wronged Poseidon.
Heracles slew the Lernaean Hydra as his Second Labor, with his nephew Iolaus cauterizing each severed neck stump with fire to prevent the heads from regrowing.
In his agony from the poisoned robe, Heracles seized Lichas — the herald who had innocently delivered Deianira's gift — and hurled him from the cliffs into the Euboean Sea.
Heracles strangled the Nemean Lion with his bare hands as his first labor, thereafter wearing its impenetrable hide.
Heracles shot Nessus with a Hydra-poisoned arrow after the centaur tried to abduct Deianira at the river Evenus.
Heracles slew Orthrus with his club upon arriving at Erytheia during his tenth labor, killing the two-headed guard dog before confronting the herdsman Eurytion and the giant Geryon.
Heracles slew Scylla when she devoured some of the cattle of Geryon as he drove them through the Strait of Messina during his tenth labor.
Heracles flushed the Stymphalian Birds from their roost using a bronze rattle forged by Hephaestus, then shot them down with his poisoned arrows as his sixth labor.
Heracles sailed with the Argonauts as the crew's mightiest warrior but was left behind in Mysia when he refused to abandon his search for Hylas, who had been pulled into a spring by nymphs.
Heracles was syncretized with Roman Hercules through direct cultural transmission, and with Phoenician Melqart through interpretatio graeca at Tyre and other trading centers.
Heracles wrestled the river god Achelous for the hand of Deianira, breaking off his horn to win the contest.
In Euripides's Alcestis, Heracles arrived at Pherae as a guest of Admetus, who concealed his wife's death out of hospitality. Learning the truth, Heracles wrestled Thanatos at Alcestis's tomb and restored her to life.
In Pindar's Isthmian 6, Heracles visited Telamon and prayed to Zeus for a brave son. When an eagle appeared as omen, Heracles named the unborn child Ajax (Aias) after the eagle (aietos) and wrapped him in his lion-skin.
⚠ Apollodorus attributes the naming and eagle-omen to Telamon's own prayer to Zeus, without Heracles's involvement.
For his third labor, Heracles was tasked with capturing the Ceryneian Hind, a golden-antlered deer sacred to Artemis. After a year-long pursuit, he caught it and Artemis allowed him to borrow it, provided he returned it unharmed.
Heracles offered to hold the sky while Atlas fetched the golden apples of the Hesperides. Atlas, tasting freedom, tried to leave Heracles beneath the heavens forever, but the hero tricked him into taking the burden back by asking him to hold it for just a moment while he adjusted his cloak.
Heracles wrestled Cerberus into submission with bare hands as his twelfth and final labour, dragging the three-headed hound to the surface before returning him to the underworld.
During Heracles' battle with centaurs at Pholus's cave, a Hydra-poisoned arrow struck Chiron. The wound was incurable but Chiron, being immortal, could not die from the agony.
Heracles captured the Cretan Bull as his seventh labor, wrestling the fire-breathing beast into submission and bringing it back alive to Eurystheus.
Heracles, enraged when the Pythia refused him a prophecy, seized Apollo's sacred tripod from Delphi and wrestled the god himself until Zeus hurled a thunderbolt between them to restore peace.
Eileithyia delayed the birth of Heracles for seven days on Hera's orders, sitting cross-legged outside Alcmene's chamber. She was tricked into uncrossing her limbs by a servant's false announcement that the child had already been born.
Heracles descended to Hades' underworld as his twelfth labor and, with Hades' permission, subdued Cerberus by wrestling to bring him to the surface.
In the Iliad, Hera first had Hypnos put Zeus to sleep when Heracles was returning from Troy, allowing her to send storms against him. Zeus's rage at this deception forced Hypnos to flee to Nyx.
Heracles dipped his arrows in the Lernaean Hydra's venomous blood after slaying her, creating the poisoned weapons that ultimately caused his own agonizing death when the venom reached him through the robe of Nessus.
In Bacchylides's Ode 5, Heracles encountered the shade of Meleager in the Underworld. Meleager's tale of his tragic death moved Heracles to tears, and he agreed to marry Meleager's sister Deianira.
After Heracles burned on the funeral pyre at Mount Oeta, his mortal part perished and his divine nature ascended to Mount Olympus, where Zeus received him among the gods and Hera gave him her daughter Hebe as bride.
Heracles wrestled the shapeshifting Nereus to force him to reveal the location of the Garden of the Hesperides. Despite Nereus transforming into many forms, Heracles held fast until the sea god yielded the information.
Heracles sacked Pylos and killed Nestor's father Neleus and all eleven of his brothers. Nestor alone survived, either by absence or youth, and inherited the ruined kingdom.
Heracles descended to the underworld for his twelfth labor and asked Persephone's permission to borrow Cerberus. She granted it, allowing him to take the hound to the surface and return it.
Philoctetes lit Heracles's funeral pyre on Mount Oeta when no other Greek would do so. In gratitude, the dying Heracles bequeathed him his bow and the arrows poisoned with Hydra's blood.
Pholus hosted Heracles in his cave on Mount Pholoe during the hero's hunt for the Erymanthian Boar, offering roasted meat while Heracles demanded wine. The opening of the communal wine jar triggered a battle with the other centaurs.
When Heracles descended to the underworld to capture Cerberus, he found Pirithous and Theseus trapped in the Chairs of Forgetfulness. He freed Theseus but could not rescue Pirithous, as the earth shook in protest.
Heracles freed Prometheus from his chains on Mount Caucasus, shooting the eagle that daily devoured his liver.
The Pythia told Heracles to serve Eurystheus to expiate his guilt for killing his family. Heracles later attempted to steal the Delphic tripod when the Pythia refused to purify him for the murder of Iphitus.
Heracles wrestled Thanatos at the tomb of Alcestis, overpowering Death himself to bring the queen back to the living, as told in Euripides' Alcestis.
Heracles defended Thebes against the tribute demands of Erginus and the Minyans of Orchomenos, leading the Thebans to victory. King Creon rewarded him with his daughter Megara in marriage.
Heracles killed Hippocoon and his sons to restore Tyndareus to the throne of Sparta, from which he had been expelled. Tyndareus rewarded Heracles with alliance and friendship.
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