vanity of the
daughter of Eurystheus was gratified.

To capture the oxen of Geryon was the tenth labor of Hercules. In the
person of Geryon we meet another of those strange beings in which
the makers of myths and fairy tales seem to revel. Geryon was
a three-bodied monster whose cattle were kept by a giant and a
two-headed dog!

It is said that Hercules, on his way to the performance of this tenth
labor, formed the Pillars of Hercules--those two rocky steeps
that guard the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar, i.e., Calpa
(Gibraltar) and Abyla (Ceuta)--by rending asunder the one mountain
these two rocks are said to have formed, although now they are
eighteen miles apart.

Hercules slew the giant, the two-headed dog and Geryon himself, and in
due course brought the oxen to Eurystheus.

Sometime afterwards, Eurystheus, having heard rumors of a wonderful
tree which, in some unknown land, yielded golden apples, was moved
with great greed to have some of this remarkable fruit. Hence he
commanded Hercules to make the quest of this tree his eleventh labor.
The hero had no notion where the tree grew, but he was bound by his
bond to obey the King, so he set out and after a time reached the
kingdom of Atlas, King of Africa. He had been told that Atlas could
give him news of the tree.

I must tell you that King Atlas, having in the olden time helped the
Titans in their wars against the gods, was undergoing punishment for
this offence, his penance being to hold up the starry vault of heaven
upon his shoulders. This means, perhaps, that in the kingdom of Atlas
there were some mountains so high that their summits seemed to touch
the sky.

Hercules offered to relieve Atlas of his load for a time, if he would
but tell him where the famous tree was, upon which grew the golden
fruit. Atlas consented, and for some days Hercules supported the earth
and the starry vault of heaven upon his shoulders.

Then Atlas opened the gate of the Garden of the Hesperides to
Hercules. These Hesperides were none other than the three daughters of
Atlas, and it was their duty, in which they were helped by a dragon,
to guard the golden apples.

Hercules killed the dragon and carried off the apples, but they were
afterwards restored to their place by Minerva.

Cerberus, as perhaps you know, was the triple-headed dog that guarded
the entrance to the nether world. To bring up this three-headed
monster from the land of the dead was the last of the