Well it’s been nearly a week since my first post and the progress against my goals has been, erm, well, zero. Not the best of starts I think you’ll agree? I have had more of a chance to speak to a few people about the list, reaction has been mixed, both in the merit of taking on these tasks and in my ability to complete the all within the year (further bets have been suggested/offered but the prospect of having to wear that Sunderland football shirt is bad enough without contemplating anything else for the moment).
Whilst I haven’t actually achieved any of the things on the list (save for this blog, and it only has two entries on it so far) there has been lots of planning and discussion. Some suggestions have been made about trying to complete several challenges in one go – for example playing Lady Godiva (sp?) with the Sao Paulo amateur dramatics in Brazil would achieve challenges 1, 3, 9 and 11, though this might be a bit tricky to achieve (since this would probably also mean adding learning Portuguese and having a sex change to the list). I’ve received some baking and music advice from Jen and Des (the subject of making cupcakes has been raised and dismissed – I will post a rant about the evils of cupcakes in a later blog). So, apart from blogging about my lack of progress, there isn’t much for me to write. That being the case, I’m left with explaining the title of the blog.
Al suggested the title as a parody of the 12 labours of Hercules. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this myth (or myths) and can’t be bothered to look it up on Wikipedia (that’s where I’ve done my research/copy and pasteing/ for this blog – my students would be horrified) Hercules is the Roman name/adaptation of the Greek hero Heracles who performed 12 labours for King Eurestheus (it was originally supposed to be 10 but he was disqualified for two as he cheated) in penance for killing his own 6 sons.
Mass children murdering being a rather serious offence the labours were a touch more difficult than my list (since my “penance” is for having a few too many beers with my friends on NYE and he had 12 years to do them all this only seems fair).
The full list (or one version of it in the Bibleotheca – shamelessly copied and pasted from wikipedia) is………….
- Slay the Nemean Lion.
- Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.
- Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis.
- Capture the Erymanthian Boar.
- Clean the Augean stables in a single day.
- Slay the Stymphalian Birds.
- Capture the Cretan Bull.
- Steal the Mares of Diomedes.
- Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.
- Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon.
- Steal the apples of the Hesperides.
- Capture and bring back Cerberus.
Once he’d completed the challenges, and threatened to set Cerberus on King Eurestheus, he was released from his labours. Being a sensible type rather than going into retirement he joined Jason and the Argonauts and went looking for the golden fleece. He had a few more adventures but expired eventually when he persuaded one of his friends to set fire to him after his wife had accidentally poisoned him with some blood given to her by a centaur that had tried to sexually assault her (the centaur told her it was a love potion - some people are far too trusting). As a demi god he went straight up to Olympus where he ended up marrying Hebe the daughter of the Goddess Hera (the one who’d driven him mad and made him kill his sons) – I think this would count as challenge 2 (pull in a strange place), apart from probably riding the odd horse (11), maybe dressing up as a women to trick someone - this always seems to happen in these myths (9), and getting out and about in the nude (1) to do some Hydra slaying (see picture above) that’s as close to my list of challenges as he got.
So a long (and heavily simplified) explanation of why my challenges are not really like his, but it has helped me keep going with challenge 6 - so i guess thats ok!?
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