The Cretan Bull, Herakles' seventh labor, has an interesting mythology of its own. For a little back-story...
Desiring to ascend to the throne, Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a bull as proof of his approval. Poseidon heard his prayer and sent him a magnificent, white bull out of the sea with the understanding that Minos would sacrifice it to him in return. Minos didn't. At the sight of this beautiful bull he decided to sacrifice another one in its place, thinking Poseidon wouldn't mind. He was wrong. Poseidon was angry. Poseidon decided to do something unusual, he made Minos' wife, Queen Pasiphaë, fall madly, passionately in love with the bull. She lusted after it so badly, she had Daidalos construct a wooden cow that Pasiphaë could enter to make copulation with the bull possible. Out of this bestiality came the monstrous Minotaur. After this incident, Minos wanted nothing to do with the bull.
Eurystheus told Herakles to capture the Cretan Bull, who was now causing havoc on Crete. It was wild, and trampled on crops, etc. Herakles set off to Crete and when he finally got there, Minos offered aid to catch the bull. Herakles refused help, but Minos gave him permission to take the bull, which made things easier. He was no doubt glad someone would be taking it off his hands! Herakles managed to catch the bull using a lasso, strength and some sort of bull-whispering that made the bull submit to him. He took the bull to Mycenae either by riding on its back all the way to the palace of Eurystheus or by carrying it over his shoulders, placing it on a boat and sailing there.
Eurystheus, apparently hid in a pithos (large storage jar) at the sight of the bull. I'm not sure why (LOL), though I supposed he hadn't seen the Mares of Diomedes yet (that'd come next), which would have made me freak out! Eurystheus wanted to sacrifice it to Hera, but she didn't want it. The Cretan Bull was let loose and allowed to run free. Eventually it reached the plains of Marathon where it became the Marathonian Bull. It caused trouble there too.
Later, the Cretan/Marathonian Bull would be killed by another hero (Theseus), who would also killed the bull's son, the Minotaur. Mythology also indicates that the bull was raised to the heavens to become a constellation (Taurus). My name (not my real name, but the one I use on the internet) is also a name for a star in the Pleiades, Asterope aka 21 Tauri. :-)
I have no idea how long a boat journey from Tiryns to Crete would have taken, but I was curious and put the places into Google Maps. They're not exact, but it came up with a general start to finish with 317 miles and a estimated time of 9 hours. And that's with a ferry. I'm assuming it'd take a lot longer than that for Herakles! That's one thing that stands out to me with these Labors, how time consuming they are. For some reason I imagined them happening one after the other, banged out and done with, but really, when you think about it there's a lot of time lost in completing them. There's time to travel (by animal, chariot or foot) to the destination, the time it takes to compete the task itself as well as the time to return to Eurystheus to report in and receive the next task. To capture the Hind alone took a year. Some of the others must have taken a long time as well. Most people wouldn't have that sort of focus, patience and determination, but Herakles stuck with it! It's pretty admirable, I think. :-)
Sites of Interest:
Wikipedia: Cretan Bull
Theoi
Encyclopedia Mythica
Timeless Myths: Cretan Bull
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