Hercules,+greek+mythology+hero


 * HERCULES, POWERFUL HERO **

Hercules, son of Zeus, the king of a god and a mortal, was loved by his father but hated by Hera, The king´s wife. Sometimes Hera would let herself be taken by her impulses and try to get rid of this baby that wasn´t hers, once, she sent two snakes to the baby´s crib to devour him once and for all. But her tries were never enough, she found herself hearing the baby´s delight when prattling with a strangle serpent in the end of each hand. Once he was a young man he had already proven the town to be a marvelous marksman with his bow and arrow, an undefeatable wrestler and possessor of an unnatural strength. His actions and popularity would drive Hera mad, and so would she drive Hercules mad with her envy. In a frenzy of desperation he killed his own children, but to atone his unforgivable crime he was sentenced to perform several tasks to earn half his honor back. These labors were meant to be done for Hercules cousin, Eurystheus, the king of tiryns and Mycenae. By his own right Hercules was the heir to the throne, but with Hera´s intrusiveness and persuation she tricked Zeus into crowning Eurystheus instead. For his first task, Hercules was dared to kill the Nemean lion, a beast with a supernatural power, he was indeed a monster. An impenetrable skin the monster had, the doors of the cave Hercules blocked and crawled silently into the deepest insides of the cave where the big fight he´d have to face. With his bare hands he was to kill the beast and afterwards the animal´s skin he fancied as a cloak and it´s grasping claws as a helmet he wore.

People feared the great Hercules as they saw him wearing the beast, and influenced by the rest as afraid as a rat in a storage jar King Eurystheus hid. From his hiding place he thought and contemplated the image of how his cousin to defeat, after a while illumination came to him. His next task was to destroy Hydra, a monster worst than the one before, many heads Hercules would have to kill, and nobody knows how many he will, for people have tried to count her heads and at the end they found them dead. A difficult task Eurystheus laid upon Hercules, if one head was chopped off two more would grow in its place.

The breath of the beast no human could sniff, it´s breath was lethal and even the smell of its footprints would be enough to kill any. got to the beats´ lair and in the blink of an eye Hydra had wrapped her many heads around the hero. In the monster´s favor the fight was going and a dearest friend came to help, a giant crab that lived in the dark of the swamp and hit Hercules right on the heel. To Hercules´ luck Iolus, his nephew came to his rescue when he heard his cry. Together they worked, one cut a head and the other would seal the wound with a burning torch. To the last immortal head they cut and cauterize and the monster they buried deep beneath the rocks in swamp. As a third labor, Hercules had to capture a Cerytinian hind, the animal was not just any ordinary deer, this one had golden horns. Hercules shall not hurt the animal though; it was sacred to Artemis, goddess of hunt. The animal he hunted for an entire year until running it down on the banks of the River Ladon. With a soft arrow he aimed and between the tendons and bones of the forelegs he shot without drawing a single drop of blood. Artemis was madly displeased, but his taskmaster Hercules blame it on.

Nine other tasks Hercules had to face and within them very skillful had to be. He stole and defeated according to his cousin. As much as Eurystheus tried no humiliation would fall on his opponent for every single task he laid upon his feet every single one with merits he´d achieve. But one more change he had to defeat Hercules, twelve tasks they were one more shot he had.

As his final task, Heracles shall from Hades, god of the kingdom of the dead his own hellhound, Cerberus. The first step Hercules faced, the river of the Underworld he had to cross, here the newly dead had to congregate with their sorrow, mere shadows of their former selves awaiting for their ride in the ferryboat with Charon, the boatman. Two conditions Charon had for everyone who a ride with him wanted. The first one implied that a bribe in form of coins they´d have to pay under the corpse´s tongue that in the Underworld lay. And the second one involved no life at all, for everyone that went through had to be dead to the core. Neither condition Hercules met which even more difficult his last task made. Loud and fierce Hercules growled and weekly Charon gave it up and across the Styx he went. Much greater enemy Cerberus was, razor teeth, numerous heads, the tail of a snake and another bunch of snakes growing out of the beasts´ back. Invincible, covered with his trusty lion´s skin he grabbed Cerberus by the throat and with one more grip the animal he choked.

His eternal doom Hercules defeated and many other adventures he was able to face. No animal he killed ever hurt him, but one. It was Hydra´s poisonous that eventually got to his death. Little did he know his own wife, Deianara was the only one who finally defeat him.

Hercules had let a centaur once ferry his wife and when this animal came to impulsively attack her Hercules with an arrow killed him at once. One thing had the centaur asked a drop of blood would Deianara save as a love potion from the dying victim. Deianara herself didn´t want her husband to be unfaithful and some of the potion she slip into his tunic. Little did she know the blood was poisoned with the venom in the arrow that the centaur killed and in very agony did her husband die. His mortal life was gone but remember his other half which immortal was. His spectacular achievements the gods had in mind in Mount Olympus he was given a home and a goddess for wife. Half of his self would eternally celebrate with the rest of the gods, but his human self had died and as a phantom in the darkness of the Underworld he was doomed to roam.