The Introduction is principally addressed to the development of the canon of Heracles’ Twelve Labors. The canon is set in its Near Eastern context, with particular attention to the figure of Ninurta/Ningirsu, in the Akkadian epics Anzu and The Return of Ninurta to Nippur, and to the figure of Marduk in the Babylonian-Akkadian epic Enuma Eliš. Three chronologies are laid out: first, that of the development of the notion that Heracles had a special set of Labors as opposed to or in addition to a random series of adventures; second, that of the progression toward a more-or-less settled order for the twelve adventures eventually favored with Labor status; and, third, that of the expansion of the zone of the siting of the Labors, both within and beyond the Peloponnese. This discussion is preceded by brief material of a more general introductory nature: justification of the need for the volume and the interest of it, the articulation of its structure, and a review of recent books on Heracles.