Heracles tells his own story (""I hope you won't think I'm bragging when I tell you about some of the things I've done"") in a style you might expect from the narration of a TV-cartoon version. Here he is battling the hydra with his nephew-companion Iolaus: ""Desperately I chopped off the ever-increasing heads. The situation looked hopeless. . . . Just then Iolaus. . . quickly seared the neck. . . . 'Good boy, Iolaus, keep it up!' I shouted."" Unlike Newman's Twelve Labors of Hercules (1972), this version uses the hero's more correct Greek name and doesn't cover up his killing of his wife and children; otherwise, the Newman is just as easy, and more gracefully told.