Hercules

The Great Hero By: Dillan [|watch hercules]

Would you like to become a god? Hercules was the most popular one of the Greek Heroes because of the many arduous tasks that he was able to accomplish during his lifetime. During his lifetime he defeated many different monsters and creatures. He is famous for his amazing courage and strength (Hercules).

Hercules is the son of Zeus and of a mortal woman named Alcmene. Since Zeus was an unfaithful husband, he disguised himself as Alcmene’s husband, and in a short time they produced a kid in which they named Hercules (Heracles). Zeus had a weakness for some worldly pleasures, so when he fell in love with Alcmene, he just couldn’t resist having a baby with her (Wilson). When @Hera (Zeus’s wife) heard about what had happened, she was furious, and sent two snakes to the child’s cradle to murder him. Strangely, even though Hercules was a baby, he ended up strangling each snake (one in each hand). When Hercules was a young man, he helped to defend Thebes from the armies of a neighboring city called Orchomenus, and in return he was rewarded Megara, which was the daughter of King Creon (Heracles). Hera still hated him, and later made him become insane for a short time, which eventually led to him killing his family (Wilson).

The twelve labors that Hercules accomplished is what he was most famous for in his life. Hercules did these twelve labors because after he killed his sons, he was going to commit suicide, but the oracle in Delphi told him not to do so, and to instead, purify himself by doing and serving anything that his cousin, King of Eurystheus of Mycenae, told him to do. The first labor that the King asked Hercules to do was to kill the Nemean Lion, whose hide was resistant to weapons. Hercules killed this lion with his bare hands by cornering it and then clutching it by the neck. After he killed the lion he skinned it so that he could create a lion-skin cape. His second task was to find and destroy the humungous nine headed hydra, but every time he decapitated one of the heads, two more would grow back in its place. Hercules accomplished this task with the help of his friend Iolaus. Every time Hercules would cut off a head his friend would burn the neck with fire so that no more heads could grow back. After they cut all the heads off they buried the monster under a huge pile of rocks. Then Hercules decided to dip his arrows in the Hydra’s blood to make them fatal. The third labor was to capture the Cerynitian Hind, which he did so after chasing it for about a year. The fourth labor was to capture the Erymanthian Boar, which lived on the mountain of Erymanthos, inside of North Arcadia. Hercules captured the boar by catching it in a net. When he brought it back to show the king, the king was so frightened that he jumped and hid himself inside of a buried pithos jar for safety. The fifth labor was to clean Augeia’s stables, which was covered in dung from his massive cattle herd. Hercules accomplished this task by leading two rivers into the stables. The sixth labor was to kill the Stymphalian birds, which was a flock of man eating birds. Only with the help of Athena is why Hercules was able to finish this labor. The seventh labor was to catch the Cretan Bull, which was either the father of the bull that had taken Europa on its back or of the Minotaur. After Hercules captured and brought it back to Mycenae, he decided to let it go, so it went to Attica, where Theseus had to later fight it. The eighth labor was to capture Diomedes, which was a person that owned and fed his horse’s human flesh. After Hercules caught the horses, he left them with his young squire Abderos, while he went to go and get Diomedes. When he returned, the boy had been devoured, so Hercules decided to feed the horses their master, Diomedes (Atsma). The ninth labor was to obtain the girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyte. He finished this task by either defeating her, or she gave it to him willingly (Heracles). The tenth labor was to capture the fantastic cattle herd of Geryon which were located on the island of Erytheia. Hercules did this by sailing to the island, slaying the cattle herder Eurytion, the two headed guard dog whose name was Orthros, and finaly the three bodied Geryon himself. After that he just had to herd the cattle into his ship and lead them back to the Greek Peloponnese. The eleventh labor was to bring back the Golden apples of Hesperides. One of the legends says that Hercules killed the dragon that guarded it, then just took the apples. The twelfth and final labor was to bring back Cerberus, which was a three headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. Hercules was able to finish this task through the grace of Persephone. Although Hercules was busy doing all of these labors, he still had time to obtain a gigantic family (Atsma).

Hercules first wife was Megara, in whom he loved dearly, and they were living a great life together (Regula). They even bore three great sons in which they named Thersimachus, Creontidas, and Deicoon. The thing is was that @Hera didn’t like Hercules, so she made him insane for a while, which lead to him killing his family (Hercules)(Nardo). Hercules also had many children with many other different women. This is because he had one child with all of the fifty daughters of Thespius. One legend says that this all occurred in one night, while another legend says that he got one daughter per night, for fifty straight nights in a row (Regula). His second wife was Deianira, which was the daughter of King Oneus, was captured by the centaur Nessus. Hercules killed the centaur by using the arrows that he had dipped in the hydra’s blood, but before the centaur died, he told Deianira that his blood from his wounds would restore her and Hercules’s love back together if they ever separated. His last wife was Hebe, in which he married on Mount Olympus. Since the centaur told Deianira about his blood, this would actually eventually lead to Hercules’s death (Heracles).

Even though Hercules was this great and powerful person, he had to die eventually. He died because after he killed the centaur Nessus, the centaur told his wife that his blood would make Hercules fall back in love with her if they ever separated, and his wife listened. This is because she actually did collect some of the centaur’s blood by dipping a tunic in it. When Hercules eventually wore the tunic, the blood turned out to be poison, and started to slowly burn his skin. Not being able to endure this much pain, he asked his friends to create a fire, in which he placed himself onto, and was burned alive. So even though Hercules was this gigantic powerful person that killed many creatures, in the end he was killed by a small mortal woman (Heracles).

After Hercules died, his father Zeusfelt so bad for him, that he told Herato end her angriness toward his son, which she did. Then he requested that Hercules was to be brought up to Mount Olympus by Athena’s chariot. When he got up there, he ended up marrying Hebe, which was the Goddess of youth, and the cupbearer of the gods. In the end, Hercules became a god because of all the many great things that he accomplished in his life (Wilson).

Although Hercules was worshipped as a god, he was only a hero, but was the greatest hero in the history of all Greek Mythology. He had many great accomplishments in his lifetime, and was requested many times for protection from various evils (Hercules). He was loved dearly, and is still considered the perfect mythical character (Wilson).

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"Heracles, Hercules, Greece, Greek Mythology." //In2Greece.com - Travel Guide to Greece Greek Islands History Mythology and Maps//. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. [].

"Hercules, Greek Hero — Infoplease.com." //Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online Reference, Research & Homework Help. — Infoplease.com//. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. [].

Nardo, Don. //Heroes//. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2002. Print.

Regula, By DeTraci. "Hercules - Fast Facts on Hercules, the Semi-divine Hero of Greece - Myths of Hercules." //Greece Travel - Travel to Greece and the Greek Islands//. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. [].

Wilson, Randy. "Greek Mythology Hercules - The Mortal Who Became a God." //EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints//. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. [God&id=37435].