In Greek mythology, Eurystheus was a king in the Argolid, ruling Tiryns (and named as king of Mycenae, while Homer and Euripides cast him as ruler of Argos). A grandson of Perseus, he was the son of Sthenelus and Nicippe. Through Hera's contrivance he was born before his kinsman Heracles and so gained the kingship Zeus had promised to the Perseid born that day, making him the taskmaster who imposed the Twelve Labours. After Heracles' death he persecuted the hero's children, the Heracleidae, and was killed when they and the Athenians defeated him in war.
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I.Family
Eurystheus was the son of King Sthenelus and Nicippe (also called Antibia or Archippe), and a grandson of the hero Perseus. His sisters were Alcyone and Medusa (Astymedusa).
He married Antimache, daughter of Amphidamas of Arcadia. Their children were Admete, Alexander, Eurybius, Mentor, Perimedes, Iphimedon, and Eurypylus.
II.Labours of Heracles
Eurystheus stood as Hera's candidate in a contest with Zeus over which hero would reshape the mythological order. Heracles, Zeus's candidate, was compelled to perform a cycle of labours as penance after, driven mad by Hera, he killed his own family. Eurystheus served as the king who set and judged these tasks.
When Heracles returned wearing the skin of the Nemean Lion, Eurystheus was so terrified that he hid in a great bronze storage jar (pithos), and thereafter relayed his commands to the hero through a herald named Copreus. He took refuge in the jar again at the sight of the Erymanthian Boar and once more when Heracles brought back Cerberus from the underworld.
Eurystheus refused to count two of the labours. He rejected the killing of the Lernaean Hydra because Heracles' nephew Iolaus had helped him, declaring that the deed had not been accomplished alone. He likewise refused to credit the cleansing of the Augean stables because Heracles had performed it for payment. He also failed to keep the Ceryneian Hind when Heracles released it. To preserve the canonical count, the rejected labours were replaced so that the cycle reached twelve.
III.Death
After Heracles' death, Eurystheus pursued the hero's children, the Heracleidae, led by Hyllus, who fled and took refuge in Athens. Eurystheus attacked the city but was defeated, and he and his sons were killed; Hyllus is widely named as his slayer, though accounts of his death vary.
The Athenians held that Eurystheus' tomb remained in their territory and served as a protection against the descendants of Heracles, who included the Spartans and Argives. After his death, Atreus and Thyestes, whom he had left in charge, took power; Atreus exiled Thyestes and became king, and Tiryns reverted to the rule of Argos.
IV.Eurystheus in Euripides
Eurystheus appears in Euripides' play Heracleidae. The children of Heracles, among them his daughter Macaria, took refuge in Athens under King Demophon. An oracle declared that Athens could defeat Eurystheus only if a noble woman were sacrificed to Persephone; Macaria volunteered to die, and the Macarian spring was named in her honor.
In the play, the defeated Eurystheus prophesies that he will become a protective figure buried in Attica, guarding the land against future enemies.
V.In popular culture
Eurystheus has appeared in several film adaptations of the Heracles myth. In the 1958 film Hercules he was played by Arturo Dominici as a criminal hired to kill King Aeson and strangled by Hercules, and in the 1960 film Goliath and the Dragon he was played by Broderick Crawford as a warlord attacking Thebes.
In the 2014 film Hercules he was portrayed by Joseph Fiennes as King of Athens, depicted as responsible for the death of Hercules' family and ultimately stabbed by the hero.