Heracles, better known as Hercules, is an ancient hero in Greek mythology. He is the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the descendant of Perseus. He was born a mortal and was later a god after his death. Despite not being a god at first, Hercules was the strongest of all living mortals. He was not born a god because his mother was a mortal princess. He was even stronger than many gods. He is well known for completing 12 labors and his superhuman strength. Before his birth, Zeus descended upon the city of Thebes and disguised himself as Alcmene’s husband, Amphytrion and made love to her. Later that day, the real husband had arrived and like Zeus, he also made love to his wife. The outcome was that Alcmene became pregnant with two twins, Hercules …show more content…
Athena, the goddess of wisdom, had taken the newborn to Hera. The goddess had nursed the infant, not knowing that it was really Hercules. He then received his superhuman strength under her care. Because of this, Alcmene decided to change her son’s name to Heracles, which means The Glory of Hera, in order to satisfy the goddess. However, Hera soon realized that the infant was indeed Hercules and still wanted him killed. One day, while baby Hercules was asleep in his crib, Hera sent two snakes to kill him but fail as the infant was able to wake up and strangle the serpents with his given …show more content…
This lion was impervious to any kind of weapon. Hercules had easily defeated and killed the lion by strangling it with his bare hands and afterwards made a cloak out of its skin. His second labor was to slay the nine headed Larnean Hydra, whose heads regenerate if cut off. The demigod succeeded by cutting the heads and burned the wound, preventing the heads to regenerate. His next labor, Hercules needed to capture the Golden Hind of Artemis which took him a year to accomplish. The labors were becoming more difficult as the demigod was completing one after