Labours of Heracles: Six Tasks in the Peloponnese

Tiryns is the place from which Heracles was said to have performed his twelve labours, and its king, Eurystheus, is the man who sends him out. After the lion, Eurystheus forbids Heracles to enter the city: from then on he must display the fruits of his labours outside the gates, and his orders arrive through a herald. Tradition said Cyclopes built the walls, because only giants could lift such stones; today UNESCO lists the ruins.

Visitor guidance: An archaeological site inside the UNESCO listing it shares with Mycenae, about 20 km to the north.

The first labour leads to Nemea, home of the Nemean Lion. Its golden fur was impervious to projectiles, so Heracles's arrows bounced off. He blocked one of the cave's two entrances, went in by the other and, in the dark, stunned the beast with his club and strangled it. The lion bit off one of his fingers. At the ancient sanctuary of Zeus, the temple had 32 limestone columns and three of them have stood since they were built.

Location precision: The myth sets the lion on the hills of Nemea, not at one spot; the pin marks the ancient sanctuary of Nemea.

Visitor guidance: Finds from the excavations are shown in the museum on site.

At the swamp of Lerna the Hydra sprouted a new head, or two, whenever one was cut off. Heracles covered his mouth and nose against its poisonous fumes, and a giant crab bit his foot. His nephew Iolaus saved the day by burning each stump with a firebrand. The immortal head went under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius. The lake is gone, but Lerna is notable for archaeological sites, such as the Early Bronze Age House of the Tiles.

Location precision: The Hydra's lake has vanished, so the pin marks the Lerna area near the village of Mili.

Visitor guidance: The excavated Bronze Age remains, including the House of the Tiles, are what is left to see.

The third labour is a capture, not a kill: take the Ceryneian Hind, a beast so fast it could outpace an arrow. Heracles first glimpsed it by the glint of moonlight on its antlers, then chased it on foot for a full year, through Greece, Thrace, Istria and the land of the Hyperboreans. In most versions he caught it asleep, laming it with a trapping net. Ancient Ceryneia, whose ruins lie on a height above the right bank of the Cerynites, is the place the myth celebrates.

Location precision: The chase ranges over several lands and the capture varies by telling, so the pin marks only the ancient town of Ceryneia.

To bring back the Erymanthian Boar, Heracles visits his old friend, the centaur Pholus, who has just one jar of wine, a gift from Dionysus to all the centaurs on Mount Erymanthos. Heracles persuades him to open it, the others attack, and Heracles shoots many with poisoned arrows; the survivors retreat to Chiron's cave. He drives the exhausted boar into deep snow, and Eurystheus, seeing it carried on the hero's shoulders, hides in a bronze vessel. The massif's highest peak rises to 2,224 m.

Location precision: The myth names the mountain, not the thicket or the centaurs' cave; the pin marks the Erymanthos massif.

King Augeas of Elis had stables that had not been cleaned in over thirty years. Heracles was to do the job alone, and he did, rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out the filth. Augeas, who had promised a tenth of his cattle if the work was done in a day, refused to honour the deal. Eurystheus discounted the labour anyway, saying seven were still to go. In Pindar's account Heracles then founded the Olympic Games. Elis is a lowland of plains watered by the Peneus and Alpheus.

Location precision: The myth does not place the stables at one spot; the pin marks the ancient city of Elis.

The sixth labour was against man-eating birds with beaks made of bronze and sharp metallic feathers, sacred to Ares. The marsh would not bear Heracles's weight, so Athena gave him a rattle made by Hephaestus. He shook it to frighten the birds into the air and shot many; the rest flew far away, never to return. Today the lake, a closed karst basin, is an important stopover for migratory birds, and its size varies with the season.

Location precision: The myth gives the marsh and a mountain over the lake, not one spot; the pin marks the lake itself.