liberate Pirithous, whose desire to have the goddess for himself was so insulting he was doomed to stay behind. Heracles found Hades and asked permission to bring Cerberus to the surface, which Hades agreed to if Heracles could subdue the beast without using weapons. Heracles overpowered Cerberus with his bare hands and slung the beast over his back. He carried Cerberus out of the Underworld through a cavern entrance in the Peloponnese and brought it to Eurystheus, who again fled into his pithos. Eurystheus begged Heracles to return Cerberus to the Underworld, offering in return to release him from any further labours when Cerberus disappeared back to his master. Aftermath After completing the twelve labours, one tradition says Heracles joined Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece. However, Herodorus (c. 400 BC) disputed this and denied Heracles ever sailed with the Argonauts. A separate tradition (e.g. Argonautica) has Heracles accompany the Argonauts, but he did not travel with them as far as Colchis. According to Euripides' play Herakles, it is at this point after his labours are completed and he is returning home to meet his wife and family that he is driven mad and kills them, after which he is exiled from Thebes and leaves to Athens. Allegorical interpretation Some ancient Greeks found allegorical meanings of a moral, psychological or philosophical nature in the Labours of Heracles. This trend became more prominent in the Renaissance. For example, Heraclitus the Grammarian wrote in his Homeric Problems: See also Angim Copreus of Elis Rostam's Seven Labours Notes References Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2). Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books. Kerényi, Carl, The Heroes of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1959. External links Heracles at the Livius Picture Archive The Labors of Hercules at the Perseus Digital Library 12 (number) Hercules :es:Mosaico de los trabajos de H%C3%A9rcules