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| Hercules and the Hydra |
Hercules (or Heracles), in classical mythology, was the most famous and strongest of heroes, the son of Zeus and Alcmena, the wisest and most beautiful of all mortal women; he was constantly plagued by Hera, the wife of Zeus, in revenge for the god's love for Alcmena. His story is mainly taken up with the 'Twelve Labors of Hercules: (i) the slaying of the Nemean Lion; (ii) the slaying of the Lernean Hydra; (iii) the capture of the Arcadian Stag; (iv) the slayíng of the Erymanthean
Boar; (y) the cleaning of the Augean Stables; (vi) the destruction of
the Stymphalian birds; (vii) the capture of the Cretan Bull; (viii) the
capture of the Mares of Diomedes; (ix) the capture of the Girdle of
Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons; (x) the capture of the Oxen of
Geryon; (xi) the gathering of the Apples of the Hesperides, and (xii)
the capture of Cerberus.
Hercules married Deianeira, and when he left her for Iole, his wife sent him the shirt which, she had been told by Nessus the
Centaur, would restore him to her. The shirt, however, was poisoned; and
after suffering incredible torments, he built a funeral pyre and,
laying himself upon it, set light to it. He was taken up to Olympus. On
the site of his ascension a temple was built, and later his worship
became general throughout the ancient world.
