Heracles (Herakles; Glory of Hera) Greek The greatest hero of Greek mythology, he was called Hercules by the Romans.

Heracles (Herakles; Glory of Hera) Greek The greatest hero of Greek mythology, he was called Hercules by the Romans. Heracles was the son of the god Zeus and of a mortal, Alcmene, who was the wife of Amphitryon of Thebes. Both Alcmene and Amphitryon were descendants of the hero Perseus. Heracles was a superman and demigod and a supreme athlete but at the same time a man of many human weaknesses. He performed seemingly impossible tasks, fought in battle, loved many women including Deianira who would eventually cause his death, and was afflicted by murderous madness and sudden rages. Zeus snatched Heracles from his funeral pyre and took him to Olympus, where Heracles was worshiped like a god, became immortal, and married Hebe. Heracles' name, Glory of Hera, suggests an origin among ancient people who worshiped the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus. The myth of Heracles is based perhaps on a historical figure, possibly a lord of tiryns (in Argos) whose military prowess led to the Homeric legend of his having met and conquered death. Later, invaders of the Peloponnesus, the southern peninsula of what is now called Greece, adapted the cycle of the Heracles hero myths to fit their own ancestry. The Childhood of Heracles Heracles' mother, Alcmene, was married to Amphitryon, also a descendant of Perseus. While Amphitryon was at war, Zeus visited Alcmene disguised as her husband. He wished to father a son that would be a champion of both humans and gods. This son was Heracles. When Amphitryon came back the next evening, he, too, fathered a son with Alcmene. His name was iphicles. Hera, the wife of Zeus, was, as usual, jealous and angry at the dalliance of her husband. Using her magic arts, she contrived the premature birth of Eurystheus, another descendant of Perseus. Eurystheus was born a few minutes before Heracles and therefore became ruler of Argos. Heracles was obliged to serve him, and this he did most heroically. One legend has it that Hera sent two serpents to the cradle of the infant Heracles to kill him, but the baby managed to strangle both serpents with his supernormal strength. Another legend holds that Amphitryon sent the serpents, knowing that one of the twins belonged to Zeus. Thus, while his own son, Iphicles, cried pitifully, the son of the god was able to vanquish the serpents. Amphitryon made sure that his godlike stepson was trained in all the arts of fighting, wrestling, and boxing. Heracles became a supreme athlete. Heracles, The Young Hero Heracles was the greatest of the Greek heroes. When Heracles was a boy, his stepfather sent him to tend his cattle in the mountains and to develop athletic skills. A ferocious lion came from Mount Kithaeron to devour Amphitryon's cattle. Heracles killed the lion and ever after wore its pelt (though some say that the pelt worn by Heracles was that of the Nemean lion; see The Twelve Labors of Heracles, right). Heracles then did battle with Erginus, King of Orchomenos, who attacked Thebes. Amphitryon died in this struggle. The victorious Heracles became the idol of Thebes. Creon, the new king of Thebes, gave his daughter Megara (2) to Heracles in marriage. The marriage was not a happy one, and in later years, in a fit of madness sent upon him by the goddess Hera, Heracles killed his children and possibly his wife as well. He went to the oracle at Delphi for advice. As atonement for the dreadful killings, the oracle put Heracles into the servitude of his cousin, King Eurystheus, who would impose upon the young hero the Twelve Labors, seemingly impossible tasks. The Twelve Labors of Heracles Like many a hero in mythologies from all over the world, Heracles, the greatest Greek hero, fought and won battles with extraordinary creatures that represented man's ancient strife with evil and the forces of darkness. Because of a fit of madness, in which he killed his children and his brother's children, Heracles, son of the god Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, was put into the service of King Eurystheus, a descendant of Perseus and ruler of Argos. To atone for his sins, Heracles had to perform 12 almost impossible tasks over the course of 12 years. In all of them, he emerged as a victorious hero against unbelievable odds. The order of the Twelve Labors varies in some sources but they are thought to begin with the killing of the ferocious Nemean lion and end with either the stealing of the apples of the Hesperides or the vanquishing of the dog Cerberus. 1. The Nemean Lion The lion was gigantic, an offspring of Selene. It lived in a cave with two entrances. After many futile battles, Heracles sealed off one mouth of the cave and strangled the trapped lion with his bare hands. Ever afterward, he wore the pelt and head of the lion. The two mouths of the lion's cave perhaps symbolize the entry of Heracles into the battles (the Twelve Labors) from which he would eventually escape, after death, into rebirth and immortality. 2. The Hydra of Lernaea The Hydra was a many-headed monster who grew a new head each time Heracles lopped off the previous one. With the help of his companion iolaus, who burned the stumps of the heads and prevented them from growing again, Heracles vanquished the monster. He dipped his arrows in the blood of the Hydra, which contained a deadly poison. Most mythographers are 68 heracles still puzzled as to the exact meaning of the Lernaean Hydra. 3. The Wild Boar of Erymanthus The boar was a huge beast that Heracles hunted through deep fields of snow. He captured the boar and delivered it to Eurystheus. The king was so terrified at the sight of the beast that he hid himself in his bronze jar. 4. The Hind of Ceryneia This beautiful Arcadian deer had feet of bronze and antlers (surprising for a hind) that shone like gold, and ran so swiftly that it took Heracles a year to capture it. He carried it unharmed to King Eurystheus. 5. The Stymphalian Birds These monstrous birds had wings, beaks, and claws of bronze. They fed on human flesh and were so numerous that when they took flight their hordes blotted out the Sun. Heracles terrified them with the shattering noise from a bronze rattle that the goddess Athene helped him make. The birds flew away and were never seen again. This legend may refer to Heracles' reputation as a healer, expert at getting rid of fever demons. In ancient times, fevers were little understood and often proved fatal. Since they occurred frequently in marshy places, they were identified with marsh birds such as cranes and ibises, large birds on which the Stymphalian birds may have been modeled. 6. The Augean Stables The Sixth Labor of Heracles was to clean, in one day, the pestilent, dung-filled stables of the cattle of King Elis of Augeus. Heracles did this by diverting the courses of two nearby rivers and sending their cleansing waters rushing through the stables. "Cleaning the Augean stables" has come to mean getting rid of noxious rubbish in any area, whether physical, moral, religious, or legal. 7. The Cretan Bull Heracles captured the Bull that had been terrorizing the island of Crete and returned with it to Greece. Theseus later killed the bull. The combat of a man with a bull was one of the ritual tasks imposed on heroes (see the stories of Theseus and Jason). 8. The Horses of Diomedes Heracles captured the horses (some say they were wild mares) of Diomedes (2) of Thrace. It was said that Diomedes fed the horses on human flesh Heracles killed Diomedes and gave his flesh to the horses, after which, it is said, the beasts became quite tame. The taming of wild horses was an important rite in many ancient cultures. 9. The Girdle of the Amazon Eurystheus asked Heracles to obtain the girdle of Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons, for his daughter. Some versions of the legend say that Hippolyta fell in love with Heracles and gave him her girdle. Other versions say that Hippolyta was later abducted by Theseus. 10. The Cattle of Geryon Geryon was a threeheaded monster whose fine red cattle were the envy of everyone, including Eurystheus, who ordered Heracles to capture them. Heracles did this on the way erecting the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar), where Africa and Europe face each other at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Stealing another man's cattle was an ancient custom; a prospective husband bought his bride from the proceeds of a successful cattle raid. 11. The Stealing of Cerberus Cerberus, the fearsome three-headed dog, guarded the gates of the Underworld. Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring him the monster, never expecting the hero to return to the land of the living. However, with the help of the gods Hermes and Athene, Heracles overcame both Hades, god of the underworld, and the monstrous dog. When Eurystheus saw the huge creature, he jumped into his bronze jar in terror. The three heads of Cerberus may have represented the three seasons vanquished by the demigod who became immortal. 12. The Apples of the Hesperides Heracles' final task was to bring some of the golden apples of the Hesperides (daughters of Atlas) to Eurystheus. The apples belonged to Hera who set the dragon Ladon to guard them. Only the Titan Atlas, who carried the sky on his shoulders, knew where the apple orchard was. Heracles took the sky from Atlas and persuaded him to fetch some apples. He then tricked the Titan into taking back the weight of the sky. The explanation for this labor may lie in the primitive ritual in which the candidate for a kingship or immortality (Heracles) had to overcome a monster (Ladon) and rob it of its treasure (the golden apples). The Exploits of Heracles There is no clear chronology for the exploits of Heracles, but rather a patchwork of events, with some confusion about the order in which they took place. For example, it is not clear at what point the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus, angry at the dalliance of her husband with Alcmene, took revenge upon Heracles by sending him fits of murderous madness. Among his crimes were the killing of his own children and, some say, his wife Megara, and the killing of Iphitus, a guest in his house. Such deeds were unforgivable. Even the oracle at Delphi refused to help Heracles after the killing of Iphitus. In another fit of madness, Heracles ravaged the oracle's shrine and attacked his halfbrother, the god Apollo. As a result of this outrage, Heracles became a slave to Omphale, queen of Lydia. Among his exploits for Omphale was the capture of the clever thieves called the Cercopes. Heracles also killed Syleus, the king of Aulis, who had forced strangers to work in his vineyards and then, instead of paying them, cut their throats. Heracles rid the banks of the Sagaris from a gigantic serpent and then killed Lityerses, another evil man who forced people to work for him and then killed them. Omphale so admired Heracles that she set him free. After his servitude to Omphale, Heracles offered his services to Laomedon, king of Troy. Laomedon had incurred the wrath of the sea god, Poseidon, who sent a monster to ravage Troy. The oracle told Laomedon that only the sacrifice of his beautiful daughter, Hesione, would appease the monster and save Troy. Laomedon chained the girl to a rock to await her fate. Heracles agreed to rescue the maiden in return for two magical horses that had been a gift from Zeus to Laomedon. But Laomedon, his daughter now safe, reneged on his agreement and Heracles killed him. Heracles then gave Hesione to his friend Telamon in marriage. Priam, now king of Troy, demanded the return of his sister, Hesione. The Greeks refused to return her. The subsequent ill-feeling between the nations of Troy and Greece was one cause of the Trojan War. Heracles, Deianira, and the Centaur Heracles, the mortal hero, spent his life engaging in one heroic exploit after another. Sometimes Heracles sought adventure, sometimes he sought revenge for injustice, and sometimes he had to flee from the punishment due him for acts committed in madness. After many bold deeds, Heracles came to Calydon, in Aetolia, whose king, Oeneus, had a beautiful daughter, Deianira. Deianira was constantly plagued by the attentions of Achelous, who appeared to her in the form of a river, a dragon, and a bull. After a furious contest, Heracles vanquished Achelous and won the hand of the beautiful Deianira, with whom he bore a son, Hyllus. Heracles, Deianira, and Hyllus fled from Calydon after Heracles, again afflicted by rage, killed an innocent cupbearer, Eunomus. When they came to the river Evenus, a Centaur, Nessus, offered to carry Deianira on his back, while Heracles swam across. When they reached the other side, the centaur tried to carry Deianira off. Heracles shot him with his arrow. As he lay dying, Nessus told Deianira to collect some of his blood and use it as a love potion if she ever thought that her husband was straying. Deianira respected the wishes of the dying beast and took his blood in a vial that she carried. This potion would eventually cause the death of Heracles. The Death of Heracles The last expedition of Heracles was against his old enemy Eurytus. Heracles slew Eurytus and carried off his daughter, iole, with whom he had been in love before he had met his present wife, Deianira. When Deianira heard about the beautiful maiden, she remembered the vial of blood that she had taken from Nessus. Innocently thinking that the potion would bring Heracles back to her, she soaked a shirt in a liquid made from the blood in the vial and sent it to her husband with his messenger, Lichas. As soon as Heracles put on the fateful shirt, he began to writhe with pain, for the potion was a deadly one, and proved fatal to Heracles. He commanded a funeral pyre to be built and laid himself upon it. His son, Hyllus, told him that Deianira had not intended his death and had killed herself in despair. Heracles, in his last throes of agony, gave Iole to his son in marriage. No one wanted to light the funeral pyre, but at last, Philoctetes (or his father, Poeas) set the wood on fire. Immediately, a cloud descended from the sky, and in a display of thunder and lightning, Zeus snatched his son from death and bore him to Olympus, where he would become immortal.