Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

Course Six: Spectrum, Part 2 291

Lesson 5: Legendary Journeys

and Adventures

The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2700 BCE)

King Gilgamesh proposed to his friend Enkidu a

journey to the great Cedar Forest in southern Iran to

cut down all the trees. In an epic battle, they killed the

monstrous Guardian, Humbaba the Terrible, who

cursed Enkidu with his dying breath. Gilgamesh and

Enkidu cut down the cedars and made a great gate for

the city of Uruk.

Gilgamesh’s fame attracted the attention of the

goddess Ishtar, who offered to become his lover.

Gilgamesh refused, listing all the mortal lovers that

Ishtar had and their dire fates. Insulted, Ishtar

returned to heaven and begged her father, Anu the

sky-god, to let her have the Bull of Heaven to wreak

vengeance on Gilgamesh and his city. But together,

Gilgamesh and Enkidu slew the mighty bull.

Then Enkidu fell ill after having ominous dreams;

he learned from the priests that he had been singled

out for vengeance by the gods. After suffering terribly

for twelve days, he finally died.

Gilgamesh was grief-stricken by the death of his

friend, realizing that he too must die. Deciding that he

couldn’t live unless granted eternal life, he undertook

the journey to Utnapishtim and his wife, the only

mortals to whom the gods had granted immortality.

Utnapishtim had been a great king before the Flood and

the two of them were the only humans to survive it.

After a long and perilous trip over land and water,

Gilgamesh arrived at a distant shore and found

Utnapishtim, who recounted the story of the Great Flood

and told him of a secret “herb of life” growing at the

bottom of the Underworld sea. Gilgamesh tied stones to

his feet, sank to the bottom, and plucked the plant. On

his way back to Uruk, he stopped to bathe. A snake

slithered up, grabbed the magic plant and crawled away

into a hole. Thus can snakes shed their skins and renew

themselves, but humans must grow old and die.

The Labors of Heracles (c. 1281–1269 BCE)

Here are the 12 heroic tasks that Heracles

performed for his cousin Eurystheus to atone for

accidentally killing his own children in a fit of Hera-

induced madness:

1. The Nemean Lion: The valley of Nemea
   was plagued by a ferocious lion. Eurystheus
   ordered Heracles to bring him its skin.
   After his club and arrows proved useless,
   Heracles strangled the beast with his
   bare hands and carried its body back
   on his shoulders.


2. The Lernean Hydra: The monstrous Hydra (a giant
   squid?) had nine heads, of which the middle one
   was immortal. Each time Heracles struck off one

head, two new ones grew in its place.

Ingeniously, his nephew and com-

panion, Iolaus, burned the severed

stumps with a torch, and they buried

the immortal head under a rock.

3. The Arcadian Stag: With golden
   antlers and bronze hooves, this stag
   was sacred to Artemis, goddess of
   the Moon and hunt. Heracles
   pursued it for a full year
   before finally wounding it
   with his arrow, enabling him to bring
   it back to Eurystheus alive.


4. The Erymanthian Boar: Heracles
   chased this fierce boar through deep snows,
   exhausted it, then caught it in a net to take back
   alive to Eurystheus, who was terrified of it.


5. The Augean stables: King
   Augeas had a herd of 3,000 oxen.
   He stabled them in a large cave,
   which had not been mucked out for 30
   years. Heracles diverted two rivers
   through the caverns and cleansed
   them thoroughly in one day.


6. The Stymphalian Birds: Reared by Ares, god of
   war, these were man-eating
   monsters with brass beaks,
   wings and claws, and feathers
   they could shoot as arrows.
   Heracles frightened them from
   their nests with a brass rattle and
   shot them as they flew off.


7. The Cretan Bull: King Minos had asked Poseidon
   to send him a bull for sacrifice. But the
   snow-white bull that rose from the
   waves was so beautiful that Minos
   decided to keep it for himself.
   Poseidon punished him by
   causing his queen to fall in love
   and mate with the beast, bearing the monstrous
   Minotaur. Heracles bested the bull and took it back
   to Mycenae, where he set it free.


8. The Wild Mares of Diomedes: King Diomedes of
   Thrace had a stable of fierce mares
   he fed on human flesh. Heracles
   captured them, killed Diomedes, and
   fed him to his own horses, after
   which they became docile.
   Eurystheus set them free.


9. Hippolyta’s Girdle: Eurys-
   theus’s daughter wanted the belt of the queen of
   the Amazons, a nation of
   warrior women. Queen
   Hippolyta agreed to give
   it to him. But Hera per-
   suaded the other Amazons
   that the stranger was


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