Hercules, Herakles in Greece, was the son of the mighty god Zeus and
the mortal Alcmene. The goddess Hera, wife of Zeus, was hostile to
the youth who had been fathered by her husband out of wedlock. She
sent two serpents to destroy him, but even as an infant in the
craddle Hercules strangled the serpents, demonstrating the power
that was to characterize his life. Hera’s jealousy did not abate.
After his marriage she drove him into an anger that caused him to
kill his own children. For that rush act he was forced to do penance
by serving Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, and performing twelve tasks
of superhuman difficulty. They began with the slaying of the Nemean
lion with his own hands. Ever afterward he wore the lion’s skin which
is his symbol. As further tasks he slew the Hydra and Stymphalian
birds, captured the cyrynean stag, the Erymanthian boar, the Cretan
bull, the oxen of Geryon, and the wild horses of Diomedes, seized
the beautiful girdle of Hippolyta and the golden apples of the
Hesperides and as a final labor brought back the three-headed dog
Cerberus from the underworld.

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