The Labors of Hercules Through the Ages > Archaic Period | Classical Period | Roman Period
Extant literature from earlier periods of Greco-Roman history does not provide us with records of the 12 canonical labors of Hercules. By the Roman period, the labors themselves had been standardized, but not their order.
In his Bibliotheca, the historian Diodorus Siculus (fl. 49 B.C.) provides the earliest preserved literary account containing all 12 of the labors of Hercules.
Diodorus calls the labors a means to Hercules' apotheosis (deification). In the Library of Apollodorus, a probably second century A.D. compendium of mythology ascribed to a 2nd century B.C. Greek scholar, the twelve labors are a means of expiation for the crime of murdering his wife, children, and the children of Iphicles. In contrast, for Euripides, a dramatist of the Classical period, the labors are much less important. Hercules' motive for performing them is to gain permission from Eurystheus to return to Tiryns. In the story behind Euripides' Hercules, the labors are performed much earlier in the hero's life.
Diodorus Siculus and the Library of Apollodorus also vary in the order of the labors, switching the third and fourth, fifth and sixth, and eleventh and twelfth. Since the first six labors are linked together as labors performed in the Peloponnese, the switching makes little difference. The switching of the last two labors, however, is frustrating because the last labor is presumed to have been the most difficult, and without consensus, we do not know which labor the ancients considered the most dangerous, the fetching of the three-headed dog Cerberus or the apples of the Hesperides.
Hercules - Labors - Table of Contents | Why 12 Canonical Labors of Hercules?
Order of the 12 Labors of Hercules
Diodorus
| Apollodorus
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| Table comparing the order of labors in Diodorus and Apollodorus |
Who Was Hercules?