Top 3 Greek Myths

Another famous myth is the 12 Labors of Heracles. Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene. He found out about this and became a great hero and had a family. But Hera, Zeus’s wife, was angered so she made Heracles murder his whole family. He went to the Oracle and she told him that he had to do 10 labors for Eurystheus the king of Mycenae. The first labor was to kill the Nemean Lion which was terrorizing an area called Nemea which he did and the second labor was to to kill the Lerna Hydra in the swamp it called home. Heracles had asked his nephew to help with this labor and had to do another because of it. The third labor was to catch the elusive Ceryneian Hind (deer), in the end, he caught it, but it took him a year, his fourth labor was to capture the boar of Mount Erymanthus which he also completed. The fifth labor was to clean the filthy stables of Augeas in a single day. He went to the stables and dug a trench to carry water from the river to clean the stables out. He then demanded pay from Augeas. Afterward, he had to complete yet another task for demanding pay. Heracles’s 6th labor was to kill the Stymphalian birds who had feathers of bronze. In one version of the story, he scared them with loud banging noises from his shield and chased them off. In another version, he shot the birds with a bow and arrow. In his 7th labor had to capture another animal, the Cretan Bull, so he sailed to Crete and baited the bull to charge at him, which it did but at the last moment grabbed its horns and then threw it to the ground and captured it. His eighth labor was to capture the cannibalistic mares of Diomedes and his ninth was to take the belt of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons. His tenth labor was to take the cattle of Geryon, a 3-bodied giant. He had to do 2 other labors firstly he had to take the golden apples from Hesperides, and his twelfth labor was to fetch Cerberus from the underworld which he promptly did. Thus, Heracles’s labors were finished.

The story of Theseus is another one of the most famous Greek myths. It is the story of a young man who discovered that his father was the king of Athens, or so he thought! His true father, unbeknownst to anyone, was Poseidon! Theseus then traveled from Troezen to Athens and discovered that every nine years, fourteen youths were sent off to Crete to satisfy the hunger of the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull. Theseus decided to be one of the 14 youths sent to Crete. So he traveled across the sea to the island. There, the youths were sent into the labyrinth, a perilous maze, home to the Minotaur. But before the youths went into the labyrinth, the princess Ariadne saw Theseus and fell in love with him. She told him that she could help him, but only if he promised to take her back to Athens and marry her. Theseus agreed, and Ariadne gave him a ball of thread that never ended, crafted by Daedelus, so that he could retrace his steps and find his way out of the labyrinth. Theseus and the others then went into the labyrinth, and Theseus unraveled the string. After walking for a long time, the Athenians came upon the sleeping Minotaur. When Theseus saw the beast, he attacked him with his bare fists, and the Minotaur was dead before he woke. Theseus then led the way back to the entrance to the labyrinth. Once outside, he got Ariadne, who was waiting close by, and took a ship back to Athens. Now, he had arranged with his father that, on his return, he would change the black sails to white. But..he forgot. His father saw the sails were black and imagined his son dead, and jumped off the balcony. His son then became king of Athens, and ruled wisely.