The creation of the constellation is explained in Greek mythology by the short-lived association of the crab Karkinos with one of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, in which Hercules battled the multi-headed Lernaean Hydra. Hera had sent Karkinos to distract Hercules and put him at a disadvantage during the battle, but Hercules quickly dispatched the crab by kicking it with such force that it was propelled into the sky. Other accounts had Karkinos grabbing onto Hercules’ toe with its claws, but Hercules simply crushed the crab under his foot. Hera, grateful for Karkinos’s effort, gave it a place in the sky. Some scholars have suggested that Karkinos was a late addition to the myth of Hercules in order to make the Twelve Labors correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.