00:34Clearly, over the 12 years, poor Eurystheus had grown tired of Heracles and his incessant victories. He was out of
00:42ideas on how to get rid of him. Almost, except one, to send him to the damned depths of Hades,
00:49the realm of the dead. No one who entered Hades, ever returned. Therefore, he was certain that even the son
00:56of Zeus would not return.
00:59So the 12th and most dangerous labor of Heracles was to travel to the underworld and bring back Cerberus. Cerberus
01:07was the famed three-headed, fire-breathing, serpent-tailed offspring of Echidna and Typhon that guarded the realm of Hades,
01:14preventing the souls of the dead and visitors who dared enter while still alive from ever leaving.
01:20Prior to his journey, Athena and Hermes guided Heracles on how to travel to the underworld while still alive, by
01:28preparing and versing him in the Eleusinian Mysteries, while Hestia implored the undead ferryman, Charon, to ferry him across the
01:36Acheron River.
01:37When Heracles got to the underworld, he met Theseus and his friend, Pyrithaus, both of whom had been enslaved by
01:45Hades, for attempting to abduct Persephone.
01:48He freed Theseus from the chair of forgetfulness he was bound, but when he tried to free Pyrithaus, the earth
01:55trembled so violently, that Heracles was forced to leave him behind.
02:00Pyrithaus desired Persephone for himself, so he was doomed by the king of the dead, to remain in the underworld,
02:06for eternity.
02:08Thereafter, Heracles reached the throne of Hades, where he humbly asked the grim god, to allow him temporarily take Cerberus
02:16to the surface world.
02:18Hades calmly responded, that he could do as he wished, only if he could overpower the giant hound, with his
02:24raw strength, doing no harm to it in the process.
02:28When Heracles found Cerberus, the two engaged in a terrible fight, and after quite a while of struggling, and grunting,
02:36and growling, the hero managed to subdue the hound.
02:40Lifting the massive Cerberus on his shoulders, Heracles headed out of the underworld, into the land of the living, straight
02:47to the palace of Eurystheus.
02:50Now, when Eurystheus saw the hound of Hades, he fled into his large jar, terrified to death, crying and begging
02:57Heracles to take it away, promising to release him from any other labors.
03:02Thus, Cerberus returned to Hades, and Heracles was released by Eurystheus. He had served his penance, free to start a
03:10new life.
03:11It is claimed, that he joined the Argonauts for a short while, in their quest for the golden fleece, thereafter.
03:19Heracles would go on to have many other great adventures, and by the time of his death, he would be
03:25rewarded with immortality, as promised, and reside on Olympus, where Hera would forgive him, granting him the hand of her
03:32daughter, Hebe, in marriage.
03:48He can die!
03:52next time in time!
03:55mutation
