Heracles’ final labour was one of two additional labours that King Eurystheus of Tiryns ordered him to carry out, after his original ten. These labours were a form of penance, as he had killed his wife and children, although this was not his fault – the goddess Hera, furious that her husband Zeus had fathered another demigod, had driven him to madness, which had led him to commit this unforgivable crime. Eurystheus, often characterised as a cruel coward, commanded Heracles, for this final and most dangerous labour, to descend to the Underworld and bring back Cerberus, the terrifying three-headed dog who guarded the entrance to Hades’ realm. No other mortal had made it back alive from the Underworld.
Descriptions of Cerberus, the beast that Heracles was tasked to kidnap, vary. Some ancient writers, including Apollodorus, describe him as a three-headed dog with a snake for a tail, and heads of snakes sprouting from his back, whilst others, such as Hesiod, claim that he had fifty heads! His viciousness, however, is beyond doubt; Eurystheus clearly did not intend for Heracles to survive this labour. Cerberus had many monstrous siblings, some of whom Heracles had encountered – and overpowered – on his previous labours. His parents, Echidna (Mother of All Monsters) and Typhon (a giant who even the gods feared), gave rise to many of the most feared beasts of Greek Mythology.
To prepare himself for his journey into the Underworld, Heracles sought out the priest Eumolpus, and was initiated into the sacred rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries, since knowledge of these was believed to grant one happiness in the Underworld. Following this, Heracles travelled to Taenarum, in Laconia, where, entering through a cave, he made the descent to the land of the dead. As he did not want to incur the wrath of Hades, he did not attempt to steal Cerberus without his knowledge. Instead, he approached the god and asked for his hound. Hades agreed, but only if Heracles was able to overpower the beast using only his own strength, with no weapons. Undeterred, Heracles (whose strength was unparalleled – this was evident even as he was a baby, when he strangled a snake, sent by Hera to kill him, with his bare hands) made his way to Cerberus, and wrestled him, eventually succeeding in subduing the monstrous dog.
Having survived the horrors of the Underworld, and bringing Cerberus with him, Heracles returned to Tiryns, the kingdom of Eurystheus. The cowardly king, according to some versions of the myth, was so terrified that he hid himself in a jar from the hero who he had not intended to come back from the Underworld alive. Heracles then returned the unharmed Cerberus to his master in the Underworld.
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