Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Eurystheus.
The gallery
Heracles brings the Erymanthian boar to Eurystheus
Oltos, c. 510 BC
On this Attic red-figure kylix attributed to the vase-painter Oltos (Louvre, G 17), the fourth Labour reaches its comic climax: Heracles strides forward hoisting the live Erymanthian boar over his shoulder, while the terrified king Eurystheus has scrambled into a half-buried bronze storage jar (pithos), only his head and arms visible as he begs the hero to keep the beast away. The motif of the cowering taskmaster ducking into a jar became the standard ancient shorthand for Eurystheus, the Mycenaean king whom Hera's contrivance set over Heracles to impose the Twelve Labours.
Herakles, Kerberos and Eurystheus (Caeretan hydria, Louvre E 701)
Eagle Painter, c. 525 BC
This black-figure Caeretan hydria (Louvre E 701), attributed to the Eagle Painter and made by East-Greek emigre potters working at Caere in Etruria around 525 BC, shows the last and most fearsome Labour. Heracles, in his lion-skin, hauls the three-headed hound Cerberus, snakes sprouting from its body, toward Eurystheus, who has flung himself into a sunken pithos with arms thrown up in panic, imploring the hero to take the monster of the underworld away. The lively, almost humorous handling makes Eurystheus the perpetual foil to Heracles' might.
Hercules brings Eurystheus the belt of the Amazon queen
Daniel Sarrabat, early 18th century (artist active 1686–1748)
The French Baroque painter Daniel Sarrabat (1666–1748) reimagines a moment from the Labours in oil: Heracles presents the captured girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyta to King Eurystheus, the prize of the ninth Labour, which Eurystheus had demanded on behalf of his daughter Admete. Where the ancient vases render Eurystheus as a quailing figure in a jar, Sarrabat stages a theatrical court scene in which the hero delivers his trophy before the enthroned, watchful king, casting Eurystheus in his role as the relentless commissioner of Heracles' tasks.