How Many Labours of Hercules Are There?
Twelve. But the famous round number is the result of an argument. Eurystheus set ten, refused to count two of them on technicalities, and added two more to replace them — so Heracles actually performed twelve.
The Labour Tracker
Filter the twelve and watch the disputed accounting appear.
Filter to "Disqualified" and "Added" and the whole dispute is visible at a glance: two struck off, two tacked on, and a famous round number that was never the plan.
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Why it isn't ten
Eurystheus, the cousin Heracles was sentenced to serve, originally set ten labours. Heracles completed all ten — but Eurystheus, who wanted him to fail, found grounds to throw two out.
The Hydra was disqualified because Heracles hadn't done it alone — his nephew Iolaus had cauterised the necks. The Augean stables were disqualified on two counts: Heracles had asked King Augeas for payment (making it a paid job, not a labour), and he had cheated the effort by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus instead of mucking them out by hand.
Two labours struck off meant two still owed. Eurystheus added the Apples of the Hesperides and the capture of Cerberus — and those two replacements turned a list of ten into the twelve we remember. The clean number is an accident of a dispute.
Why he had to do them at all
The labours were a punishment, not an adventure. The goddess Hera had hated Heracles from birth — his very name means "glory of Hera," a bitter irony — and she struck him with a fit of madness in which he killed his own wife, Megara, and their children.
Seeking to be purified of the bloodshed, Heracles went to the oracle at Delphi. The Pythia told him to place himself in the service of King Eurystheus of Tiryns and perform whatever tasks were set. The twelve labours were the sentence — penance for a crime a goddess had forced on him.
The order isn't fixed either
The numbered sequence everyone learns — Lion first, Cerberus last — comes mainly from the Bibliotheca attributed to Apollodorus, written centuries after the myths first circulated. Earlier sources and ancient artists arranged the labours differently.
The clearest early fixing of twelve is in stone: the twelve metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, carved around 460 BC, show one labour each — among the first places the canon of twelve was set in a single program. The number stuck; the order kept drifting.
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Frequently asked
Were there originally ten or twelve?
Ten were assigned. Two were disqualified by Eurystheus and two replacements added, so twelve were performed in total. Twelve is the number that became canonical.
Which Labours were added as replacements?
The Apples of the Hesperides (the eleventh) and the capture of Cerberus from the underworld (the twelfth). Both were added after the Hydra and the Augean stables were thrown out.
Did Hercules do any of them with help?
Yes — and it cost him. His nephew Iolaus helped against the Hydra by cauterising the necks, which is precisely why Eurystheus refused to count that labour.
What was the hardest Labour?
Tradition treats the twelfth, fetching Cerberus from the land of the dead, as the climactic and most dangerous task — a living man sent to subdue the guardian of the underworld and return.
Sources
- Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.5 — the fullest ancient account of the twelve labours, their order, and the two disqualifications.
- Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.11–26 — a parallel narrative of the labours.
- The Temple of Zeus at Olympia (c. 470–456 BC) — its twelve metopes depict one labour each, an early fixing of the canon of twelve.
- The name "Heracles" ("glory of Hera") and the madness sent by Hera — Apollodorus 2.4; Euripides, Heracles.
- Theoi Project (theoi.com) — sourced compilation of the primary texts on Heracles and his labours.
More from Mythology & Religion
Ten labours, honestly done, would have been the truth. Twelve is what you get when the man setting the tasks is hoping you fail.