In the Twelve Labors of Hercules, what happened to the Cretan Bull after Eurystheus released it?
Answer
Theseus killed it
In the Twelve Labors of Hercules, Theseus killed the Cretan Bull after Eurystheus released it.
Hercules had captured the bull in Crete and brought it back as his seventh labor. Eurystheus, unwilling to keep the dangerous animal, set it free. The bull then crossed into mainland Greece and caused trouble in the region around Marathon.
Theseus later confronted and killed it, making the animal part of both heroes’ stories. The Cretan Bull is sometimes confused with the bull connected to Pasiphae and the Minotaur, because the myths overlap in Crete. Ancient sources vary in how closely they identify those animals, so the most stable point is the sequence: Hercules captured it, Eurystheus released it, and Theseus killed it.