Hercules
Hercules was born to Zeus and Alcmene. Zeus was married to Hera but he had a wondering eye and fell in love with Alcmene, who was the wife of Amphitryon. When Hercules was born, Hera tried to kill Hercules because she was a very jealous wife. Zeus fathered more children with other women. Hercules was named Herakles at birth by his mother, but in roman, Herakles is pronounced Hercules, so this name has stuck since then. Hercules grew up to become a great warrior and earned a place among the gods. After he left the mortal world, he joined the immortal world on Mount Olympus, which was the god’s dwelling place. His father, Zeus was an immortal but he had a weakness for the mortal pleasures. That is when he fell in love with Alcmene, Hercules’ mother. She was a mortal.
Hercules fell in love with Megara, who was very beautiful. Megara was the mother of Hercules’ children. Hera was still trying to ruin Hercules so she irritated him so much that Hercules went into a wild rage and killed his family. This pleased Hera because it was what she wanted. When Hercules came to his senses and realized what he had done he was so ashamed. He prayed to Apollo to get rid of his crime. Hercules had to perform 12 important tasks in order to rid himself of the crime, and to purify his soul. Hercules was sent to Tiryns by the Delphic Oracle. King Eurystheus was the ruler there and Hercules had to serve him as a laborer for 12 years of his life. In return for this, Apollo promised Hercules immortality. He would become a god. Hera continued to make his life difficult but Hercules made it through the twelve years and he became the greatest mortal on earth to become a god.
Some of the tasks which earned Hercules his status of god was, he peeled the skin off of a lion after he captured it. Another task was to kill the Lernean Hydra which was a serpent with nine heads. He had to take a Hind (sacred red deer) from Ceryneia, to the king. His fourth task was to capture a live Erymanthian boar. The boar was very dangerous to humans and other animals. He had to clean the kings stables in one day. Other tasks involved, forcing out a flock of birds near the lake, he had to wrestle a bull, bring the man eating horse to the king, fight a battle against the Amazonian female army to get the belt of Hippolyte (their queen), he had to go around the world to bring the cattle of the monster Geryon (which had 3 heads and 3 sets of legs), he also had to get the Apples of the Hesperides (golden apples given to Zeus by Hera) and the apples were guarded by a dragon with 100 heads, he had to have Atlas retrieve the apples and he was then supposed to hold up the earth for the rest of time. He fooled Atlas into holding the earth and he grabbed the apples and ran. His last task was to abduct the underworld beast called Ceberus. He completed his task and also proved himself many more times and earned his immortal status as a god.
|