The twelve
labours of Heracles or Hercules (,
hoi Herakleous athloi) are a series of episodes concerning a
penance carried out by
Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, whose name was later
Romanised as
Hercules. They were accomplished over 12 years at the service of King
Eurystheus. The episodes were later connected by a continuous narrative. The establishment of a fixed cycle of twelve labours was attributed by the Greeks to an
epic poem, now lost, written by
Peisander, dated about 600 BC.