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102-407: The area where the glacier flows is remote and uninhabited. This glacier was named Nunatak glacieren in 1899 by Swedish Arctic explorer and geologist A.G. Nathorst during the expedition he led to Greenland in search of survivors of S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 . The name was chosen owing to the tops of nunataks appearing to overhang it. The Nunatak Glacier originates at

204-640: A map of their journeys to that region, which were published by their descendants in 1558. The Northwest Passage connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Arctic Ocean. Since the discovery of the American continent was the product of the search for a route to Asia, exploration around the northern edge of North America continued for the Northwest Passage. John Cabot 's initial failure in 1497 to find

306-699: A Northwest Passage across the Atlantic led the British to seek an alternative route to the east. Interest re-kindled in 1564 after Jacques Cartier 's discovery of the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River . Martin Frobisher had formed a resolution to undertake the challenge of forging a trade route from England westward to India. From 1576 to 1578, he took three trips to what is now the Canadian Arctic in order to find

408-519: A bear hug. Herodotus claims that Heracles stopped in Egypt , where King Busiris decided to make him the yearly sacrifice, but Heracles burst out of his chains. Heracles finally made his way to the garden of the Hesperides, where he encountered Atlas holding up the heavens on his shoulders. Heracles persuaded Atlas to get the three golden apples for him by offering to hold up the heavens in his place for

510-514: A feast, inviting them to sit; they unknowingly sat in chairs of forgetfulness and were permanently ensnared. When Heracles had pulled Theseus first from his chair, some of his thigh stuck to it (this explains the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians), but the Earth shook at his attempt to liberate Pirithous, whose desire to have the goddess for himself was so insulting he was doomed to stay behind. Heracles found Hades and asked permission to bring Cerberus to

612-513: A fit of madness induced by Hera, Heracles killed Megara and their children. According to Euripides 's play Herakles , however, it was not until after Heracles had completed his labours and on his return from the Underworld that he murdered Megara and his children. After recovering his sanity, Heracles deeply regretted his actions; he was purified by King Thespius , then traveled to Delphi to inquire how he could atone for his actions. Pythia ,

714-569: A fixed cycle of twelve labours was attributed by the Greeks to an epic poem , now lost, written by Peisander (7th to 6th centuries BC). Having tried to kill Heracles ever since he was born, Hera induced a madness in him that made him kill his wife and children. Afterwards, Heracles went to the Oracle of Delphi to atone, where he prayed to the god Apollo for guidance. Heracles was told to serve Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, for ten years. During this time, he

816-463: A little while. Atlas could get the apples because, in this version, he was the father or otherwise related to the Hesperides. When Atlas returned, he decided that he did not want to take the heavens back and instead offered to deliver the apples himself, but Heracles tricked him by agreeing to remain in place of Atlas on the condition that Atlas relieve him temporarily while Heracles adjusted his cloak. Atlas agreed, but Heracles reneged and walked away with

918-565: A magical animal or plant. A famous depiction of the labours in Greek sculpture is found on the metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia , which date to the 460s BC. Eurystheus originally ordered Heracles to perform ten labours. Heracles accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus refused to recognize two: the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra , as Heracles' nephew and charioteer Iolaus had helped him; and

1020-483: A northern Urals Arctic homeland of the Indo-Aryan and Slavic people. Hindu nationalist Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar also supported and was inspired by Tilak's idea. In his famous 1939 publication We or Our Nationhood Defined , he stated that "Undoubtedly [...] we – Hindus – have been in undisputed and undisturbed possession of this land for over eight or even ten thousand years before

1122-507: A passage westward. Though he was unable to pass through the icy Arctic waters, he reported to his sponsors that the passage they sought is "a matter nothing doubtfull [ sic ]," and secured support for two additional expeditions, reaching as far as Hudson Bay . Though England's efforts were interrupted in 1587 because of the Anglo-Spanish War , Davis's favorable reports on the region and its people would inspire explorers in

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1224-468: A pragmatic approach of traveling by land on foot and dog sled , and typically employed less than ten people in his exploration parties. The Northwest Passage was not completely conquered by sea until 1906, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen , who had sailed just in time to escape creditors seeking to stop the expedition, completed a three-year voyage in the converted 47-ton herring boat Gjøa . At

1326-554: A second time on May 24, 1928. Nobile's second trip was in the airship Italia that ran into a storm on the return trip and crashed on the ice. Survivors were eventually recovered. Amundsen disappeared, with the crew of his sea plane, during the rescue operations. The first people to have without doubt walked on the North Pole were the Soviet party of 1948 under the command of Alexander Kuznetsov, who landed their aircraft nearby and walked to

1428-439: A shepherd who had lost his son to the lion, saying that if he came back within 30 days, a ram would be sacrificed to Zeus. If he did not return within 30 days, it would be sacrificed to the dead Heracles as a mourning offering. While searching for the lion, Heracles fletched some arrows to use against it, not knowing that its golden fur was impenetrable. When he found and shot the lion, firing at it with his bow, Heracles discovered

1530-616: A similar voyage in reverse, starting in Kamchatka and going north to the passage that now bears his name (Bering Strait). It was Bering who gave their current names to Diomede Islands , discovered and first described by Dezhnev. It was not until in 1878 that Finnish-Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld made the first complete passage of the North East Passage from west to east, in the Vega expedition . The ship's captain on this expedition

1632-592: A single ship, while Herodotus states that there were three, and in a late account there were nine. Apollodorus relates that on the way to Themiscyra , where the Amazons lived, he and his crew stopped at the island of Paros , where several of the sons of Minos lived; when these sons killed two of Heracles' companions, he retaliated by murdering them. When he began threatening others, he was offered two of Minos' grandchildren, Alcaeus and Sthenelus , whom he took into his crew. Continuing on their voyage, they next arrived at

1734-461: A way Heracles was able to kill the hydra, after which he dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood. According to Apollodorus, one of the Hydra's (here nine) heads—the middle one—was immortal, so when Heracles cut off this head, Heracles buried it and placed a great rock on top of it. Later, Heracles used one of his poisonous arrows to kill the centaur Nessus ; and Nessus's tainted blood

1836-519: The Black Sea . Sources vary on who came with him: Hellanicus states that he was accompanied by all of the Argonauts , while Pindar mentions that Peleus came on the voyage, Philochorus considered Theseus to have been his companion, and an early Corinthian vase shows Iolaus and another figure named Pasimelon by his side. The number of ships they leave in also varies: Apollodorus says they went in

1938-606: The British Isles . From the local population, he heard news of the mysterious land of Thule , even farther to the north. After six days of sailing, he reached land at the edge of a frozen sea (described by him as " curdled "), and described what is believed to be the aurora and the midnight sun . Some historians claim that this new land of Thule was either the Norwegian coast or the Shetland Islands based on his descriptions and

2040-525: The Cold War context. On April 19, 1968, Ralph Plaisted reached the North Pole via snowmobile , the first surface traveler known with certainty to have done so. His position was verified independently by a US Air Force meteorological overflight. In 1969 Wally Herbert , on foot and by dog sled, became the first man to reach the North Pole on muscle power alone, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's famous but disputed expedition. The first persons to reach

2142-551: The Mares of Diomedes from their owner . The mares' madness was attributed to their unnatural diet which consisted of the flesh of unsuspecting guests or strangers to the island. Some versions of the myth say that the mares also expelled fire when they breathed. The Mares, which were the terror of Thrace, were kept tethered by iron chains to a bronze manger in the now vanished city of Tirida and were named Podargos (the swift), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the yellow) and Deinos (or Deinus,

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2244-664: The 1996 position of the magnetic north pole ( 78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W  /  78.5950°N 104.1983°W  / 78.5950; -104.1983  ( Magnetic North Pole 1996 ) ) in a modified Toyota Hilux . On 2 August 2007, during Arktika 2007 Russian crewed submersibles were the first to descend to the seabed below the pole. On April 26, 2009, Vassily Elagin , Afanassi Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Sergey Larin, Alexey Ushakov, Alexey Shkrabkin and Nikolay Nikulshin after 38 days and over 2,000 km (1,200 mi) (starting from Sredniy Island , Severnaya Zemlya ) drove two Russian built cars "Yemelya-1" and "Yemelya-2" to

2346-449: The 30th day carrying the carcass of the lion on his shoulders, King Eurystheus was amazed and terrified. Eurystheus forbade him to ever again to enter the city; from then on he was to display the fruits of his labours outside the city gates. Eurystheus would then tell Heracles his tasks through a herald, not personally. Eurystheus even had a large bronze jar made for him in which to hide from Heracles if need be. Eurystheus then warned him that

2448-768: The 860's. In the 10th century, Gunnbjörn Ulfsson got lost in a storm and ended up within sight of the Greenland coast. His report spurred Erik the Red , an outlawed chieftain, to establish a settlement there in 985. While they flourished initially, these settlements eventually petered out until about 1450. Initially this abandonment of the colony was credited to the Little Ice Age but that has been disputed by recent studies which suggest there were more complex factors at play. Greenland's early settlers sailed westward, in search of better pasturage and hunting grounds. Modern scholars debate

2550-514: The Amazons sowing seeds of distrust. She claimed the strangers were plotting to carry off the queen of the Amazons. Alarmed, the warrior women set off on horseback to confront Heracles. According to Diodorus Siculus , Aella was the first Amazon to charge Heracles. Her name, meaning "stormswift," signified her remarkable speed and agility, but even she could not withstand Heracles and was ultimately defeated. Believing that Hippolyta had betrayed him, Heracles, now convinced of treachery, killed her, took

2652-767: The Eurasian continent and stretching between the waters north of the Norwegian Sea to the Bering Strait. The "Northern Sea Route" is defined as a specific portion of such routes. The Northern Sea Route (capitalized) as currently officially defined by Russian Federation law includes shipping lanes falling within Russia's EEZ and extending from the Kara Sea to the Bering Strait along the Russian northern coast. The idea to explore this region

2754-676: The Kola Peninsula, where they eventually died of scurvy . Chancellor and his crew made it to the mouth of the Dvina River and the town of Arkhangelsk, where they were met by a delegation from the Tsar , Ivan the Terrible . Brought back to Moscow , he launched the Muscovy Company , promoting trade between England and Russia. This diplomatic course allowed British Ambassadors such as Sir Francis Cherry

2856-562: The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, looking for an alternative seaway to China and India. Most notable is the 1596 expedition led by Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz who discovered Spitsbergen and Bear Island . Fearing English and Dutch penetration into Siberia, Russia closed the Mangazeya seaway in 1619. Pomor activity in Northern Asia declined and the bulk of exploration in the 17th century

2958-565: The North Pole in a Fokker F.VIIa/3m Tri-motor monoplane. However, their claim to have reached the Pole is disputed. The crew of the airship Norge (including Roald Amundsen and the American sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth ) flew over the Pole on May 12, 1926. This is the first undisputed sighting of the Pole. Norge was designed and piloted by the Italian Umberto Nobile , who overflew the Pole

3060-442: The North Pole on foot (or skis) and return with no outside help, no dogs, airplanes, or re-supplies were Richard Weber (Canada) and Misha Malakhov (Russia) in 1995. No one has completed this journey since. U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict landed a plane at the Pole on May 3, 1952, accompanied by the scientist Albert P. Crary . On 2 May 2007, BBC's Top Gear reached

3162-436: The North Pole. Labours of Hercules The Labours of Hercules or Labours of Heracles ( Ancient Greek : ἆθλοι , âthloi Latin : Labores ) are a series of tasks carried out by Heracles , the greatest of the Greek heroes, whose name was later romanised as Hercules . They were accomplished in the service of King Eurystheus . The episodes were later connected by a continuous narrative. The establishment of

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3264-641: The Nunatak Glacier, to the west of Jakob Kjøde Bjerg. This Greenland location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Arctic explorer Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth . It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle . Historical records suggest that humankind have explored

3366-478: The Oracle of Delphi, advised him to go to Tiryns and serve his cousin, King Eurystheus of Mycenae, for twelve years, performing whatever labours Eurystheus might set him; in return, he would be rewarded with immortality. Heracles despaired at this, loathing to serve a man whom he knew to be far inferior to himself, yet fearing to oppose his father, Zeus. Eventually, Heracles placed himself at Eurystheus's disposal. Of

3468-487: The Pole is disputed). He traveled with the aid of dogsleds and three separate support crews who turned back at successive intervals before reaching the Pole. Many modern explorers, including Olympic skiers using modern equipment, contend that Peary could not have reached the pole on foot in the time he claimed. A number of previous expeditions set out with the intention of reaching the North Pole but did not succeed; that of British naval officer William Edward Parry in 1827,

3570-528: The River Anthemus, but was slain by one of Heracles' poisoned arrows. Heracles shot so forcefully that the arrow pierced Geryon's forehead, "and Geryon bent his neck over to one side, like a poppy that spoils its delicate shapes, shedding its petals all at once." Heracles then had to herd the cattle back to Eurystheus. In Roman versions of the narrative, Heracles drove the cattle over the Aventine Hill on

3672-520: The Underworld, Heracles went to Eleusis to be initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries . He entered the Underworld with Hermes and Athena as his guides. While in the Underworld, Heracles met Theseus and Pirithous . The two companions had been imprisoned by Hades for attempting to kidnap his wife, Persephone . One tradition tells of snakes coiling around their legs, then turning into stone. Another says that Hades feigned hospitality and prepared

3774-549: The Vedas (1903), which was dedicated to philologist and indologist Max Müller , with whom Tilak had shared ideas before the book was completed. Austro-Hungarian ethnologist Karl Penka also discussed the same idea in his Origins of the Aryans (1883). Tilak's theory was popularized by Russian nationalists, due to the work of Soviet historian and ethnographer Natalya Romanovna Guseva and Soviet ethnographer S.V Zharnikova, who argued for

3876-454: The apples. According to an alternative version, Heracles slew Ladon , the dragon who guarded the apples, instead. Eurystheus was furious that Heracles had accomplished something that Eurystheus thought could not possibly be done. The twelfth and final labour was the capture of Cerberus , the multi-headed dog that was the guardian of the gates of the Underworld . To prepare for his descent into

3978-444: The belt, and returned to Eurystheus. The tenth labour was to obtain the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon . In Apollodorus' account, Heracles had to go to the island of Erytheia in the far west. On the way he became so frustrated at the heat that he aimed an arrow at the Sun . The sun-god Helios , impressed by his audacity, gave Heracles the golden cup that Helios used to sail across

4080-401: The centaur devoured his meat raw) and asked for wine. Pholus had only one jar of wine, a gift from Dionysus to all the centaurs on Mount Erymanthos. Heracles convinced him to open it, and the smell attracted the other centaurs. They did not understand that wine needs to be tempered with water, became drunk, and attacked Heracles. Heracles shot at them with his poisonous arrows, killing many, and

4182-429: The centaurs retreated all the way to Chiron 's cave. Pholus was curious why the arrows caused so much death. He picked one up but dropped it, and the arrow stabbed his hoof, poisoning him. One version states that a stray arrow hit Chiron as well. He was immortal, but he still felt the pain. Chiron's pain was so great that he volunteered to give up his immortality and take the place of Prometheus , who had been chained to

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4284-404: The charge of his favored companion, Abderus , while he left to fight Diomedes. Upon his return, Heracles found that the boy was eaten. As revenge, Heracles fed Diomedes to his own horses and then founded Abdera next to the boy's tomb. In another version, Heracles, who was visiting the island, stayed awake so that he didn't have his throat cut by Diomedes in the night, and cut the chains binding

4386-421: The children's chamber. Iphicles cried from fear, but his twin brother grabbed a snake in each hand and strangled them. He was found by his nurse playing with them on his cot as if they were toys. Astonished, Amphitryon sent for the seer Tiresias , who prophesied an unusual future for the boy, saying he would vanquish numerous monsters. Heracles married Megara, eldest daughter of King Creon of Thebes . However, in

4488-668: The cleansing of the Augean stables , because Heracles accepted payment for the labour (in other versions it was the Stymphalian Birds that were discounted instead of the Augean stables, for the help of Athena giving Heracles bronze rattles). Eurystheus thus set two more tasks (fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides and capturing Cerberus ), which Heracles also performed, bringing the total number of tasks to twelve. In his labours, Heracles

4590-675: The coming century. In 1609, while in the service of the Dutch East India Company , the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed up what is now called the Hudson River in search of the Passage; he reached present-day Albany, New York , before giving up. He later explored further north into the Arctic and Hudson Bay for the Passage. The Northeast Passage is a broad term for any route lying above

4692-451: The condition that Eurystheus himself come out and take it from him. The King came forth, but the moment that Heracles let the hind go, it sprinted back to its mistress with unparalleled swiftness. Before taking his leave, Heracles commented that Eurystheus had not been quick enough, outraging the King. Eurystheus was disappointed that Heracles had overcome yet another creature and was humiliated by

4794-578: The court had ruled. Heracles returned, slew Augeas, and gave his kingdom to Phyleus. The success of this labour was ultimately discounted as the rushing waters had done the work of cleaning the stables, and because Heracles was paid for doing the labour; Eurystheus determined that Heracles still had seven labours to perform. The sixth labour was to defeat the Stymphalian birds , man-eating birds with beaks made of bronze and sharp metallic feathers they could launch at their victims. They were sacred to Ares ,

4896-520: The court of Lycus in Mysia ; in a battle between Lycus and King Mygdon of Bebryces , Heracles killed the rival king and gained land from the Bebryces , and gifted it to Lycus, who named it Heraclea. All would have gone well for Heracles had it not been for Hera. Hippolyta, impressed with Heracles and his exploits, agreed to give him the belt and would have done so had Hera not disguised herself and walked among

4998-472: The court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera. After Heracles completed the first ten labours, Eurystheus gave him two more, claiming that slaying the Hydra did not count (because Iolaus helped Heracles) and neither did cleaning the Augean Stables (either because he was paid for the job or because the rivers did the work). The first additional labour was to steal three of the golden apples from

5100-640: The early 16th century. In 1648 the Cossack Semyon Dezhnyov opened the now famous Bering Strait between America and Asia. Russian settlers and traders on the coasts of the White Sea, the Pomors, had been exploring parts of the northeast passage as early as the 11th century. By the 17th century they established a continuous sea route from Arkhangelsk as far east as the mouth of Yenisey . This route, known as Mangazeya seaway , after its eastern terminus,

5202-575: The eastern end of the Adolf Hoel Glacier , south of the area of the Jakob Kjøde Bjerg nunatak. Strindberg Land lies to the east and the northeastern end of Andrée Land on its western side. It flows in a roughly northwest to southeast direction for about 20 km (12 mi) until its terminus at the head of the Geologfjord . The Eyvind Fjeld Glacier flows beyond the northwestern end of

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5304-409: The end of this trip, he walked into the city of Eagle, Alaska , and sent a telegram announcing his success. His route was not commercially practical; in addition to the time taken, some of the waterways were extremely shallow. Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) led several Arctic expeditions. He grew up in Greenland speaking Greenlandic and Danish , and has been called the "father of Eskimology " and

5406-406: The fight, a giant crab came to assist the Hydra by biting Heracles on the foot. Heracles was able to kill the crab, but realizing that he could not defeat the hydra alone, he called on his nephew Iolaus (who had come with Heracles) for help. Working in tandem, once Heracles had removed a head (with his sword or club), Iolaus burned the stumps with a firebrand, preventing them from growing back. In such

5508-408: The filth. Before starting on the task, Heracles had asked Augeas for one-tenth of the cattle if he finished the task in one day, and Augeas agreed, but afterwards Augeas refused to honour the agreement on the grounds that Heracles had been ordered to carry out the task by Eurystheus anyway. Heracles claimed his reward in court and was supported by Augeas' son Phyleus . Augeas banished them both before

5610-647: The first attempts to penetrate the Arctic Circle can be traced to ancient Greece and the sailor Pytheas , a contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander the Great , who, in 325 BC, attempted to find the source of the tin that would sporadically reach the Greek colony of Massilia (now Marseille ) on the Mediterranean coast. Sailing past the Pillars of Hercules , he reached Brittany and then Cornwall , eventually circumnavigating

5712-534: The first of the non- Peloponneisan labours, was to capture the Cretan Bull , father of the Minotaur . According to Apollodorus, Heracles sailed to Crete , asked King Minos for help, but Minos told Heracles to capture the bull himself, which he did. After showing the bull to Eurystheus, Heracles released the bull which ended up at Marathon . As the eighth of his labours Heracles was sent by King Eurystheus to steal

5814-485: The fur's protective property as the arrow bounced harmlessly off the creature's thigh. After some time, Heracles made the lion return to his cave. The cave had two entrances, one of which Heracles blocked; he then entered the other. In those dark and confined quarters, Heracles stunned the beast with his club and, using his immense strength, strangled it to death. During the fight the lion bit off one of his fingers. Others say that he shot arrows at it, eventually shooting it in

5916-498: The future site of Rome . The giant Cacus , who lived there, stole some of the cattle as Heracles slept, making the cattle walk backwards so that they left no trail, a repetition of the trick of the young Hermes . According to some versions, Heracles drove his remaining cattle past the cave, where Cacus had hidden the stolen animals, and they began calling out to each other. In other versions, Cacus' sister Caca told Heracles where he was. Heracles then killed Cacus and set up an altar on

6018-543: The garden of the Hesperides . Heracles first caught the Old Man of the Sea , the shapeshifting sea god, to learn where the Garden of the Hesperides was located. In some variations, Heracles, either at the start or at the end of this task, meets Antaeus , who was invincible as long as he touched his mother, Gaia , the Earth. Heracles killed Antaeus by holding him aloft and crushing him in

6120-453: The god of war. Furthermore, their dung was highly toxic. They had migrated to Lake Stymphalia in Arcadia , where they bred quickly and took over the countryside, destroying local crops, fruit trees, and townspeople. Heracles could not go too far into the swamp, for it would not support his weight. Athena, noticing the hero's plight, gave Heracles a rattle which Hephaestus had made especially for

6222-463: The goddess for forgiveness, explaining that he had snared the hind as part of his penance, but promised to return it to the wild soon thereafter. Convinced by Heracles' earnestness, Artemis forgave him, foiling Eurystheus' plan. After bringing the hind to Eurystheus, Heracles was informed that it was to become part of the King's menagerie . Knowing that he must return the hind to the wild as he had promised Artemis, Heracles agreed to hand it over only on

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6324-571: The heavens, forming the Milky Way . But with divine milk, Heracles had acquired supernatural strength. Either Zeus or Athena brought the infant back to his mother, and he was subsequently raised by his parents. The child was originally given the name Alcides by his parents; it was only later that he became known as Heracles in an unsuccessful attempt to mollify Hera, with Heracles meaning Hera's "pride" or "glory". He and his mortal twin, Iphicles , were just eight months old when Hera sent two giant snakes into

6426-509: The hero, commanding Heracles to capture the Ceryneian Hind , a beast so fast it could outpace an arrow. After a long search, Heracles awoke one night and laid eyes on the elusive hind, which was only visible due to the glint of moonlight on its antlers. He then chased the hind on foot for a full year through Greece , Thrace , Istria , and the land of the Hyperboreans . How Heracles caught

6528-431: The hind differs depending on the telling; in most versions, he captured the hind while it slept, rendering it lame with a trapping net. Eurystheus commanded Heracles to catch the hind in the hope that it would enrage Artemis and lead her to punish the hero for his desecration of the sacred animal. As he was returning with the hind to present it to Eurystheus, Heracles encountered Artemis and her brother Apollo . He begged

6630-415: The hind's escape, so he assigned Heracles another dangerous task. By some accounts, the fourth labour was to bring the fearsome Erymanthian Boar back to Eurystheus alive (there is no single definitive telling of the labours). On the way to Mount Erymanthos where the boar lived, Heracles visited Pholus ("caveman"), a kind and hospitable centaur and old friend. Heracles ate with Pholus in his cavern (though

6732-498: The home of the mythical people Hyperboreans in the Arctic. The scientist and author John G. Bennett talked about it in his research paper "The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture" (1963). The theory was originally put forth by William F. Warren , the first President of Boston University , in his Paradise Found or the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole . Later, Indian independence activist Bal Gangadhar Tilak resurrected Warren's theory in his The Arctic Home in

6834-422: The horses once everyone was asleep. Having scared the horses onto the high ground of a knoll, Heracles quickly dug a trench through the peninsula, filling it with water and thus flooding the low-lying plain. When Diomedes and his men turned to flee, Heracles killed them with an axe (or a club ), and fed Diomedes' body to the horses to calm them. In yet another version, Heracles first captured Diomedes and fed him to

6936-426: The horses to Hera . In some versions, they were allowed to roam freely around Argos , having become permanently calm, but in others, Eurystheus ordered the horses taken to Olympus to be sacrificed to Zeus, but Zeus refused them, and sent wolves, lions, and bears to kill them. Roger Lancelyn Green states in his Tales of the Greek Heroes that the mares' descendants were used in the Trojan War , and survived even to

7038-400: The land was invaded by any foreign race." Ancient Greek historian and geographer Herodotus said that the Hyperboreans lived beyond the Massagetae and Issedones . Since these are both Central Asian peoples, one could speculate that his Hyperboreans lived in Siberia . In his twelve labours , Heracles sought the golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Hyperborea. Since the reindeer is

7140-412: The mares before releasing them. Only after realizing that their King was dead did his men, the Bistonians , attack Heracles. Upon seeing the mares charging at them, led in a chariot by Abderus, the Bistonians turned and fled. In all versions the horses are calmed by eating human flesh, giving Heracles the opportunity to bind their mouths shut and easily take them back to King Eurystheus, who dedicated

7242-410: The northern extremes since 325 BC, when the ancient Greek sailor Pytheas reached a frozen sea while attempting to find a source of the metal tin. Dangerous oceans and poor weather conditions often fetter explorers attempting to reach polar regions , and journeying through these perils by sight, boat, and foot has proven difficult. A controversial hypothesis, often regarded as pseudohistory , sets

7344-402: The occasion. Heracles shook the rattle and frightened the birds into the air. Heracles then shot many of them with his arrows. The rest flew far away, never to return. In some versions of this story instead of the Augean stables being discounted it was the Stymphalian Birds labour for getting the help of Athena. The Argonauts would later encounter them. The seventh labour, also categorised as

7446-707: The only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest an arctic or subarctic region. Scholar James D. P. Bolton instead located the Issedones people on the south-western slopes of the Altay mountains , which led his colleague Carl P. Ruck to place Hyperborea beyond the Dzungarian Gate into the northern part of the Xinjiang region, adding that the Hyperboreans were probably Chinese. Some scholars believe that

7548-457: The opportunity to consolidate geographic information developed by Russian merchants into maps for British exploration of the region. Some years later, Steven Borough , the master of Chancellor's ship, made it as far as the Kara Sea , when he was forced to turn back because of icy conditions. Western parts of the passage were simultaneously being explored by Northern European countries like England,

7650-499: The orders of the third and fourth, fifth and sixth, and eleventh and twelfth labours are swapped. Heracles wandered in the area until he came to the town of Cleonae . There he met a boy who said that if Heracles slew the Nemean lion and returned within 30 days, the town would sacrifice a lion to Zeus, but if he did not return within 30 days or if he died, the boy would sacrifice himself to Zeus. Another version claims that he met Molorchos,

7752-510: The passage. Frobisher Bay is named after him. In July 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert , who had written a treatise on the discovery of the passage and was a backer of Frobisher's, claimed the territory of Newfoundland for the English crown. In 1585, under the employ of Elizabeth I , the English explorer John Davis entered Cumberland Sound , Baffin Island . Davis rounded Greenland before dividing his four ships into separate expeditions to search for

7854-451: The pole. On August 3, 1958, the American submarine USS  Nautilus  (SSN-571) reached the North Pole without surfacing. It then proceeded to travel under the entire Polar ice cap . On March 17, 1959, the USS ; Skate  (SSN-578) surfaced on the North Pole and dispersed the ashes of explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins . These journeys were part of military explorations stimulated by

7956-631: The precise location of the new lands of Vinland , Markland , and Helluland that they discovered. The Scandinavian peoples also pushed farther north into their own peninsula by land and by sea. As early as 880, the Viking Ohthere of Hålogaland rounded the Scandinavian Peninsula and sailed to the Kola Peninsula and the White Sea . The Pechenga Monastery on the north of Kola Peninsula

8058-474: The sea from west to east each night. Heracles took the cup and rode it to Erytheia. When Heracles landed at Erytheia, he was confronted by the two-headed dog Orthrus . With one blow from his olive-wood club, Heracles killed Orthrus. Eurytion the herdsman came to assist Orthrus, but Heracles dealt with him the same way. On hearing the commotion, Geryon sprang into action, carrying three shields and three spears, and wearing three helmets. He attacked Heracles at

8160-402: The spot, later the site of Rome's Forum Boarium (the cattle market). To annoy Heracles, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them, and scatter them. Within a year, Heracles retrieved them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the level of a river so much that Heracles could not cross with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached

8262-404: The task because his daughter Admete wanted to have the belt for herself. In earlier sources, however, the purpose of the labour was seemingly for Heracles to overcome the Amazons, with Eurystheus requiring the belt as evidence of his success. Accompanied by a group of companions, Heracles set sail for the land of Amazons, which was generally believed to be along the shore at the southern end of

8364-404: The tasks would become increasingly difficult. Heracles' second labour was to slay the Lernaean Hydra , a many-headed snake which Hera had raised with the sole purpose of slaying Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna , where the hydra dwelt, Heracles attacked the hydra's several heads, but each time one of its heads was removed, a new head (or two) would grow back. Additionally, during

8466-412: The terrible). Although very similar, there are slight variances in the exact details regarding the mares' capture. In one version, Heracles brought a number of volunteers to help him capture the giant horses. After overpowering Diomedes' men, Heracles broke the chains that tethered the horses and drove the mares down to sea. Unaware that the mares were man-eating and uncontrollable, Heracles left them in

8568-508: The time of Alexander the Great. After the incident, Eurystheus sent Heracles to bring back Hippolyta's Girdle . As his ninth labour, Heracles travelled to the land of the Amazons to bring back the Belt of Hippolyta , the queen of the Amazons . According to Apollodorus, the belt was gifted to Hippolyta by her father Ares , as an emblem of her position as queen. In his account, Eurystheus set Heracles

8670-441: The top of a mountain to have his liver eaten daily by an eagle . Prometheus' torturer, the eagle, continued its torture on Chiron, so Heracles shot it dead with an arrow. It is generally accepted that the tale was meant to show Heracles as being the recipient of Chiron's surrendered immortality. However, this tale contradicts the tradition that Chiron later taught Achilles . The tale of the centaurs sometimes appears in other parts of

8772-647: The trade depot of Mangazeya, was an early precursor to the Northern Sea Route. Exploration to the north of the Arctic Circle in the Renaissance was both driven by the rediscovery of the Classics and the national quests for commercial expansion, and hampered by limits in maritime technology , lack of stable food supplies, and insufficient insulation for the crew against extreme cold. A seminal event in Arctic exploration occurred in 1409, when Ptolemy 's Geographia

8874-456: The trade routes of early British sailors. While no one knows exactly how far Pytheas sailed, he may have crossed the Arctic Circle. Nevertheless, his tales were regarded as fantasy by later Greek and Roman authorities, such as the geographer Strabo . Naddodd is said to have encountered Iceland when he lost his route due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands in

8976-522: The tragic American Polaris expedition under Charles Francis Hall in 1871, the ill-fated Jeannette Expedition commanded by US Navy Lieutenant Commander George W. De Long in 1879, and the Norwegian Fram expedition of Fridtjof Nansen in 1895. American Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1908, but this has not been widely accepted. On May 9, 1926, Americans Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claimed to have flown over

9078-559: The twelve labours performed by Heracles, six were located in the Peloponnese , culminating with the rededication of Olympia . Six others took the hero farther afield, to places that were, according to Ruck and Staples, "all previously strongholds of Hera or the 'Goddess' and were entrances to the Netherworld". In each case, the pattern was the same: Heracles was sent to kill or subdue, or to fetch back for Eurystheus (as Hera's representative)

9180-428: The twelve labours, as does the freeing of Prometheus. Heracles had visited Chiron to gain advice on how to catch the boar, and Chiron had told him to drive it into thick snow, which sets this labour in mid-winter. Heracles caught the boar, bound it, and carried it back to Eurystheus, who was frightened of it and ducked down in his half-buried storage pithos , begging Heracles to get rid of the beast. The fifth labour

9282-454: The unarmored mouth. After slaying the lion, he tried to skin it with a knife from his belt, but failed. He then tried sharpening the knife with a stone and even tried using the stone itself. Finally, Athena, noticing the hero's plight, told Heracles to use one of the lion's own claws to skin the pelt. Others say that Heracles' armor was, in fact, the hide of the Lion of Cithaeron . When he returned on

9384-470: Was Lieutenant Louis Palander of the Swedish Royal Navy. In the first half of the 19th century, parts of the Northwest Passage were explored separately by a number of different expeditions, including those by John Ross , William Edward Parry , James Clark Ross ; and overland expeditions led by John Franklin , George Back , Peter Warren Dease , Thomas Simpson , and John Rae . Sir Robert McClure

9486-613: Was applied to the Tunic of Nessus , by which the centaur had his posthumous revenge. Both Strabo and Pausanias report that the stench of the river Anigrus in Elis , making all the fish of the river inedible, was reputed to be due to the Hydra's venom, washed from the arrows Heracles used on the centaur. Angered by Heracles' success against the Nemean Lion and the Lernaean Hydra , Eurystheus (advised by Hera) devised an altogether different task for

9588-597: Was carried out by Siberian Cossacks, sailing from one river mouth to another in their Arctic-worthy kochs . In 1648 the most famous of these expeditions, led by Fedot Alekseev and Semyon Dezhnev , sailed east from the mouth of Kolyma to the Pacific and doubled the Chukchi Peninsula , thus proving that there was no land connection between Asia and North America. Eighty years after Dezhnev, in 1728, another Russian explorer, Danish-born Vitus Bering on Sviatoy Gavriil made

9690-408: Was credited with the discovery of the Northwest Passage by sea in 1851 when he looked across M'Clure Strait from Banks Island and viewed Melville Island . However, the strait was blocked by young ice at this point in the season, and not navigable to ships. The only usable route, linking the entrances of Lancaster Sound and Dolphin and Union Strait was first used by John Rae in 1851. Rae used

9792-642: Was founded by Russian monks in 1533; from their base at Kola , the Pomors explored the Barents Region , Spitsbergen , and Novaya Zemlya  – all of which are in the Arctic Circle. They also explored north by boat, discovering the Northern Sea Route , as well as penetrating to the trans- Ural areas of northern Siberia . Pomors founded the settlement of Mangazeya east of the Yamal Peninsula in

9894-404: Was initially economic, and was first put forward by Russian diplomat Dmitry Gerasimov in 1525. The entire route laid in Arctic waters and parts and was usually covered in ice, making it a very perilous journey. In the mid-16th century, John Cabot's son Sebastian helped organize just such an expedition, led by Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor . Willoughby's crew was shipwrecked off

9996-570: Was sent to perform a series of difficult feats, called labours. Heracles was the son born by the mortal woman Alcmene after her affair with Zeus , the king of the gods, who had disguised himself as her husband Amphitryon . Alcmene, fearing the jealousy of Zeus's wife Hera , exposed her infant son, who was taken by either Zeus or his daughter Athena (the protectress of heroes) to Hera, who did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity. Heracles sucked so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and when she pushed him away, her milk sprayed across

10098-405: Was sometimes accompanied by a male companion (an eromenos ), according to Licymnius and others, such as Iolaus , his nephew. Several of the labours involved the offspring (by various accounts) of Typhon and his mate Echidna , all overcome by Heracles. The order of the labours given by the mythographer Apollodorus is: Diodorus Siculus gives a similar sequence of the labours, though

10200-483: Was the first Greenlander of Inuit and European descent to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled . Rasmussen and his friend Peter Freuchen participated in seven Thule Expeditions , named after ultima Thule , and wrote numerous books on their Arctic experiences. On April 6, 1909, Robert Peary claimed to be the first person in recorded history to reach the North Pole (although whether he actually reached

10302-413: Was to clean the stables of King Augeas . This assignment was intended to be both humiliating and impossible, since these divine livestock were immortal, and had produced an enormous quantity of dung. The Augean ( / ɔː ˈ dʒ iː ə n / ) stables had not been cleaned in over 30 years, and over 1,000 cattle lived there. However, Heracles succeeded by rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out

10404-464: Was translated into Latin , thereby introducing the concepts of latitude and longitude into Western Europe . As a result navigators were better able to chart their positions. The Inventio Fortunata , a lost book , describes in a summary written by Jacobus Cnoyen but only found in a letter from Gerardus Mercator , voyages as far as the North Pole. One widely disputed claim is that two brothers from Venice , Niccolo and Antonio Zeno , allegedly made

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