THE LEGEND OF HERCULES

Hercules, whom the Greeks call Heracles, was the most popular of the heroes of ancient Greek legends. Son of Zeus and
from a queen of Thebes, even in the cradle, he showed exceptional strength. One day he was found lying down with two great
snakes, one in each hand: they attacked him and he strangled them.

In his youth, he tended flocks. One day, while driving his animals,
a crossroads encountered two goddesses: one of them beautiful as the day,
promised the young man a life of pleasure if he followed him. Hercules him
asked who she was. "I am the goddess of love." The other deity had a
serious and grave face: she was the goddess of duty. She said to Hercules: "The path
the path I will take you is fraught with difficulties and requires much
you renounce, but in the end you will achieve an immortal glory and a place among
the gods of Olympus." "You will be my guide," replied Hercules.

At that time, Hercules put himself in the service of the slothful king Eurystheus.
of Mycenae, who assigned him twelve tasks of the most difficult nature.
imagine warning him that he would not be freed from slavery until
having completed them. Hercules carried them out successfully and their
The feat became proverbial with the name "the labors of Hercules."
His first feat was to kill the Nemean Lion, with which he became a ...
cloak that protected him from blows. Then he fought against the Hydra of
Lerna. Hercules first cut off some heads of the Hydra, but for each one he cut off, two others immediately sprang up.
heads; then he sent a slave to cauterize the wounds with a burning piece of wood before the new heads
they will begin to grow. When he finally killed the Hydra, he poisoned his arrows in the monster's venom to make them deadly.

Hercules carried out the tasks one after another. One that seemed impossible was the cleaning of the stables of King Augeas, where he...
he had accumulated the dung of thousands of oxen over thirty years. Hercules solved the problem by diverting the river Alpheus
through the blocks and in a few days all the piles of garbage were swept away by the waters. Later Hercules
he arrived at the end of the world where the giant Atlas was, who carried the vault of the sky on his shoulders. Hercules invited him to
steal some golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, the daughters of the Sun; meanwhile, he would replace the giant holding in his
shoulders the celestial vault. But when he returned with the golden apples, Atlas refused to take up the burden again. "Then I
I will be forced to stay in your place - said Hercules -. Well, at least help me to put a cushion under my
backs." Atlas was not going to deny him this small favor. As soon as Hercules felt free from the burden, he fled with the apples.
of gold and left the giant hurling curses.

The last task that Eurystheus had assigned to him was to bring Cerberus out of the underworld. Hercules, although very enthusiastic, was going
with a heavy heart when he departed for the gloomy abode of the specters. And without the help of Hermes, this time there would be no
could have succeeded. Thanks to the messenger of the dead, he was able to get to Hades, who authorized him to bring the dog to Earth.
It took him a lot of effort to tame this furious three-headed monster with snakes instead of hair. Hercules threw himself at the dog and
he pressed the three heads between his hands: thus, almost suffocated, the dog was reduced to impotence. The furious Cerberus
he threw himself trembling at the feet of Hercules and let himself be carried away docilely. When Hercules arrived before Eurystheus and showed him the dog, the
the prince was terrified and begged Hercules to remove the animal from his sight.

Hercules was already free, but he did not enjoy this hard-won tranquility for long: he set off into the world to fight against
other monsters and put their strength at the service of men. He married the beautiful princess Dejanira. One day, they both had to
cross a raging river. Hercules was wondering how his wife could save him when a centaur appeared next to them:
being half man and half horse. His name was Nessus and he offered to carry Deianira on his back and take her to the other shore. But the
the centaur arrived there, fleeing with Dejanira. Hercules shot him with the poisoned arrow dipped in Hydra's blood. While
Death, the centaur plotted revenge. He advised Dejanira to collect his blood: "If Hercules ever wants to abandon you---
He said, 'It will be enough for you to wet your clothes with my blood for love to be reborn.'

Some time later, Hercules captured a beautiful and young princess. Deianira, driven by jealousy, smeared with
Neso's blood a magnificent tunic that he had embroidered for her husband. As soon as the hero put it on, he was seized by a
sharp pain: the blood was poisoned by the arrow of Hercules. The revenge of Nessus had been fulfilled and Hercules died.
His soul was welcomed among the gods of Olympus, and Zeus and Hera gave him their daughter Hebe, goddess of eternity, in marriage.
youth.