The story of why Heracles initially had done the 12 labours was that he had killed his first wife and had wanted to repay for his sins. So he had prayed to the gods and was told that him to bind himself for eight years as servant to king Eurystheus and perform ten tasks for him. The ten tasks had turned in to 12 for the reasons of Heracles had help in on and gained from another. King Eurystheus decided Heracles first task would be to bring him the skin of the invulnerable Nemean lion which terrorized the hills around Nemea. All the he took to catch kill and skin the lion was a club and a bow that nobody but he could bend. He saw that his arrows were useless against the beast. Heracles picked up his club and went after the lion. Heracles jumps on the lion then. Grasping the lion in his mighty arms, he held it tightly until he'd choked it to death. He then skins the lion and goes back to find the 2nd labour.
The second labour of Heracles was to kill the Lernean Hydra. Heracles set off to hunt the nine-headed menace, but he did not go alone. His trusty nephew, Iolaus, was by his side. First, Heracles lured the creature from the safety of its den by shooting flaming arrows at it. Once the hydra emerged, Heracles seized it. The monster was not so easily overcome, though, for it wound one of its coils around Heracles' foot and made it impossible for the hero to escape. With his club, Heracles attacked the many heads of the hydra, but as soon as he smashed one head, two more would burst forth in its place. Heracles called on Iolaus to help him out of this tricky situation. Each time Heracles bashed one of the hydra's heads, Iolaus held a torch to the headless tendons of the neck. The flames prevented the growth of replacement heads, and finally, Heracles had the better of the beast. Once he had removed and destroyed the eight mortal heads, Heracles chopped off the ninth, immortal head. The king was not happy for he had