SOME coin collectors like to focus ona theme, and a popular theme for

collectors of ancient coins is the twelvelabours of Hercules. He was known tothe ancient Greeks as Heracles, a namewhich means “glory of Hera”. Hera was

the wife of Zeus, the chief of the gods,and she was the implacable enemy ofHeracles because Zeus had spent a nightwith a mortal woman, Alcmene, andHeracles was conceived as a result.Having a divine father gave Heracles

super-human strength, and to the peopleof ancient Greece and Rome he was asuper-hero like Superman and Spidermantoday. The people of the ancient worldloved to hear stories about the super-heroes, and the labours of Heracles are

Ruins of the Temple of Heracles at Agrigento in Sicily. (Wikimedia Commons. Photo by José Luiz)

Figure 2 – Map of the Peloponnese showing the locations of the first six of Heracles’ labours.

Figure 1 – Silver stater from Thebes in Boeotia,425-395 BC. Heracles was born in Thebes.Obverse: Boeotian shield. Reverse: infantHeracles choking snakes. (Freeman & SearAuction Jan. 2011, Lot 40)

mentioned as early as 700 BC by Hesiodand Homer. The Greek myths reflectprofound aspects of the human psycheand involve the supernatural, which isgenerally ignored in our modern secularculture. Moreover, the heroes were a forcefor good in the world and encouragedpeople to oppose what was evil.The ancient writers vary in the details

of the stories about Heracles, but Hera,his step-mother, was always trying to killhim or do nasty things to him. When hewas only an infant she sent two poison-ous snakes into the nursery where he wassleeping, but he awoke and strangledthem with his bare hands. (Figure 1)When he grew up he married the daugh-ter of the king of Thebes in Greece andthey had several children, but Hera soonput a stop to his happy life. She senthim mad, and in his madness he mis-took six of his children for enemies andkilled them, and his wife too. Grief-stricken he went to Delphi to ask thefamous oracle what he should do. Shesaid he should go to the city of Tiryns inArgolis and serve the king, Eurystheus,and do whatever tasks might be set forhim, and if he performed them success-fully the gods would reward him withimmortality.

The First Labour was to kill theNemean lion, which was no ordinary lion.Its skin was so tough that no sword could

penetrate it. When the moon goddessgave birth to it there was a frighteningshudder when it dropped to the earth atNemea in Argolis. (Figure 2 – map) Atfirst Heracles fired arrows at it but theyjust bounced off. Then he whacked it onthe nose with his club, which shattered,but it caused the beast to retreat into itscave. There was no alternative but forHeracles to wrestle with it. Eventuallyhe grabbed it around the neck and chokedit to death. (Figure 3) Then he skinnedit and wore its skin like a cloak with itshead as a helmet, and he made a newclub from a wild olive tree. Stories about heroes killing lions with

their bare hands have been told forthousands of years. In the Bible Samsonwas a strong man like Heracles. “Sudd-enly a young lion came roaring towardshim. The Spirit of the Lord came uponhim in power so that he tore the lionapart with his bare hands.” (Figure 4)On clay tablets found in Mesopotamiathere are stories about Gilgamesh whowas probably the ruler of Uruk in Sumerin the period 3000 to 2500 BC. He wasa hero like Heracles, and a stone imageshows him strangling a lion. (Figure 5)

The Second Labour was to destroythe Lernaean Hydra. It was a monsterthat lived in a swamp at Lerna, whichwas near the sea about 8 kms south-westof Tiryns. It had nine snake-heads, whichwere venomous and could regrow quicklyif crushed. While Heracles was furiouslybattering the heads with his club (Fig-ure 6) a large crab came out of the swampand nipped him on the foot. Hera was sopleased with the crab that she put it inthe sky as one of the signs of the Zodiac.Heracles shouted for help from Iolaus,his assistant. To prevent the Hydrasprouting new heads Iolaus got a burning

branch and seared their roots with thefire. Eurystheus refused to give Heraclesthe credit for this task because of the

Figure 3 – Silver tetradrachm of Lykkeios, king ofPaeonia, 356-335 BC. Obverse: laureate head ofZeus. Reverse: Heracles fighting lion. First Labour.(Ira & Larry Goldberg Auction 72, Lot 4327)

Figure 4 – Samson killing a lion. The incident is recorded in Judges 14: 5-6. (Detail of a wood-engraved picture by Gustave Doré, 1866) Image Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 5 – Gilgamesh and a lion. Stone relieffrom the façade of the throne room in thepalace of Sargon at Khorsabad, 713-706 BC.(Wikimedia Commons)

help that Iolaus gave him. Actually theoriginal number of labours that Hera-cles was required to perform was ten,but because Eurystheus refused to giveHeracles the credit for two of them thelabours are counted as twelve.The name ‘Iolaus’ means ‘the people of

the land’, which suggests that in hisefforts to rid the country of these evilsHeracles was supported by the ordinarypeople. This makes sense if there wasa historical basis to these stories. Forexample, the Hydra represented anunderground river which would burstout and flood the land, and if one of itschannels was blocked it would break

out elsewhere. This would be in keepingwith the name ‘Hydra’ which means‘water creature’.

The Third Labourwas to capture theCeryneian hind. It was a large deer withbronze hooves and gold antlers. Thegoddess Artemis saw five of them graz-ing on the banks of a river in Thessaly.She caught four and harnessed them toher chariot (Figure 7) but the fifth fledto the Ceryneian Hill, which was in thenorth of the Peloponnese. They wereprobably female reindeers because thefemale common deer does not haveantlers and cannot be harnessed. Also

reindeer have large hooves that enablethem to walk on snow, and this mightaccount for the Ceryneian hind havingbronze hooves. Heracles hunted the deerfor a whole year and when it eventu-ally tired he shot an arrow that passedbetween the bone and tendon on herforelegs, pinning them together and noteven drawing blood. He was then able tosubdue her (Figure 8) and carry her onhis shoulders to Mycenae in Argoliswhere Eurystheus resided. Stories aboutreindeers might have come to Greecefrom the Baltic Sea region along withthe amber that was found there andwas highly prized by the Greeks.

The Fourth Labour was to capturethe Erymanthian boar which ravagedthe slopes of Mount Erymanthus inArcadia. This was a difficult task becauseit was a huge ferocious beast. As it wasmidwinter there were snow drifts on themountain and Heracles drove the boarinto deep snow where it could hardlymove. He then jumped on its back andbound it with chains. He carried it aliveon his shoulders to Mycenae (Figure 9)but when he heard that Jason was gath-ering the Argonauts to sail to Colchis tofetch the Golden Fleece he dropped theboar near the market place and went offto join the Argonauts. On an ancientGreek vase he is shown delivering theboar to Eurystheus, who was so afraid of

Figure 6 – Bronze coin of Tarsus. Obverse: bust of Caracalla, 198-217 AD. Reverse: Heracles fightingthe Hydra. The lion skin is over his left arm. Second Labour. (Nomos Auction 6, Lot 177)

Figure 7 – Bronze coin of Lesbos. Obverse: bust of Valerian I, 253-260 AD. Reverse: Artemis in achariot drawn by deer. (Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 88, Lot 905)

Figure 8 – Bronze coin of Perinthus in Thrace. Obverse: bust of Geta, 209-212 AD. Reverse: Heraclessubduing the Ceryneian Hind. Third Labour. (Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 88, Lot 760)

Figure 9 – Gold aureus minted at Siscia. Obverse:bust of Probus, 276-282 AD. Reverse: Heraclescarrying the Erymanthian Boar on his shoulder.The Latin inscription reads, “To the ErymanthianHercules.” Fourth Labour. (Triton III, Lot 1168)

Heracles that whenever he approachedhe jumped into a large jar for protection.(Figure 10) This scene is reproduced ona coin of Perinthus in Thrace. (Figure 11)The time difference between the vaseand the coin is about 750 years, whichtestifies to the popularity and persist-ence of these stories about Heracles.

The Fifth Labour was to clean thestables of Augias, the king of Elis, inone day. Elis was in the far west of thePeloponnese, about 35 kms north-westof Olympia where the Olympic Gameswere held. Heracles had founded theOlympic Games in honour of his father,Zeus, and they had been held regularly

since the 2nd millennium BC. The prob-lem was that Augias had hundreds ofcattle and the dung had not been cleanedaway for many years. The smell was sobad that it made the people who livedin the region sick. Heracles keep a gooddistance away from the poisonous airand what he did was to divert the two

Figure 10 – Detail on an Attic black-figured amphora from Vulci in Italy, c. 550 BC, showing Hera-cles delivering the Erymanthian Boar to Eurystheus, who is inside a large jar. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 11 – Bronze coin of Perinthus. 41 mms diameter. Obverse: bust of Septimius Severus,193-211 AD. Reverse: Heracles delivering the boar to Eurystheus. (Münzen & MedaillenGmbH, Auction 15, Lot 174)

Figure 12 – Bronze drachm of Alexandria.Obverse: head of Antoninus Pius, 138-161 AD.Reverse: Heracles approaching flowing water.Fifth Labour. (UBS Gold & Numismatics,Auction 78. Lot 1662)

Figure 13 – Bronze medallion of Perinthus. Ob-verse: bust of Caracalla, 211-217 AD. Reverse:Heracles shooting arrows at the Stymphalianbirds. Sixth Labour. (Dr Busso Peus Nachfolger,Auction 410, Lot 658)

local rivers so that their waters rushedthrough the cattle yards washing themclean, and all this was accomplished inone day. This feat demonstrates thatwhen faced with an apparently imposs-ible task there might be a simple way ofdoing it. This fifth labour is difficult toshow on a coin but six cities attemptedit: Alexandria, Hadrianopolis, HeracleaPontica, Perinthus, Cologne, and Nicaeain Bithynia. On the coin of Alexandria(Figure 12) it is not clear what Heraclesis doing. Is he about to remove a bolderthat is blocking the flow? The river isrepresented by wavy lines and the banksdirecting its course are clearly shown.Also there is a rake or digging toolpropped up against the bank.The Sixth Labourwas to remove the

Stymphalian birds. They were largewater-birds that inhabited the marshesaround Lake Stymphalos, which stillexists about 40 kms south-west ofCorinth. They were not ordinary birds:their beaks were bronze and so sharpthat they could pierce a man’s metalbreast-plate. Also they could releasebronze feathers that were as sharp asarrows (like a jet fighter releasingmissiles today). They would take to theair in flocks to kill animals and people.Heracles tried shooting arrows at thembut they were too numerous. (Figure 13)While he was sitting forlornly, the god-

dess Athena appeared. She was sympa-thetic to Heracles and always tried tohelp him. She gave him a pair of cas-tanets or a sort of rattle that Hephaes-tus had made in his workshop on MountOlympus. Heracles banged the castanetstogether so strongly that all the birdsflew off in panic and did not stop till theyreached an island in the Black Sea. Muchlater when Heracles landed on the islandwith the Argonauts they were able tokill many more of the birds. Marsheswere associated with fever, no doubtbecause of the malaria-carrying mos-quitos that bred there, and the water-birds were thought to be fever demons.Draining the marshes would have beenmore effective in this regard than driv-ing the birds away. The nearby city ofStymphalus minted coins with Heracleson the obverse and the head of a Stym-phalian bird on the reverse. (Figure 14) In Part II, which will appear in the

next issue of the magazine, the last sixlabours of Heracles will be recounted.Bring a sword and a shield (Figure 15)but put some clothes on.

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Figure 14 – Silver obol of Stymphalus, c. 350-340 BC. Obverse: head of Heracles wearing lion-head helmet. Reverse: head of Stymphalian bird. (Gemini VI, Lot 128)

Figure 15 – Silver stater of Locris Opuntiishowing a soldier with sword and shield, c.360-350 BC. (Gemini VII, Lot 331)

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