Heracles
Heracles EuropeOr the Roman Hercules. The greatest of the heroes in Greek mythology. Son of the Theban Alcmene and Zeus. Heracles' life was shaped by the animosity of Hera, who pursued him with relentless hostility. She drove him mad so that he killed his own family. To expiate this dreadful crime he undertook the famous twelve labours. They were: the killing of the Nemean lion, a feat he achieved with his bare hands; the killing of the Hydra, a nine-headed dragon sacred to Hera; the capture of the Arcadian stag; the killing of the Erymanthian boar; the cleansing of the Augean stables, which contained 3,000 oxen; the killing of the Stymphalian birds, vicious creations of the war god Ares; the capture of the bull which Poseidon had sent to King Minos of Crete; the capture of the flesh-eating horses of Thrace; the seizure of the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons, the nation of female warriors; the capture of the oxen of Geryon, a Spanish king with three heads,...
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