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Heracles: Hero
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Heracles was the son of the sky god Zeus and the queen of Tiryns, Alcmene. When Hera discovered Zeus' infidelity, she decided to kill the child born from the Zeus' relationship with Alcmene. That child was Heracles. Hera placed two serpents in Heracles' cradle, but the child strangled the snakes with his bare hands, clearly revealing his divine nature. This and many other heroics made Heracles famous throughout the ancient world.
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Heracles' second labor was to kill the hydra (water snake) from Lerna, another town near Tiryns. This was difficult, because it had nine heads; every time Heracles cut off one of these, three new heads grew in its place. However, Heracles' friend Iolaus burned down a tree, and the hero used the blazing branches to sear the roots of the new heads. Finally, he cut off the last, immortal head, which he buried alive. After the battle, Heracles dipped his arrowheads in the monster's poisonous gall. As an archer, he was now invincible.
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Like other mythological heroes Heracles had a god as one of his parents, being the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene. Zeus's wife Hera was jealous of Heracles, and when he was still an infant she sent two snakes to kill him in his crib. Heracles was found prattling delighted baby talk, a strangled serpent in each hand.
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After this labor, Heracles had to perform many other tasks, which were haphazardly described by many ancient poets. There was no distinction between Heracles and other heroes (Theseus, the Argonauts), so that many episodes have duplicates. The first to write a systematic account of the twelve labors was probably Diodorus of Sicily (c. 25 BCE). Until then, the number of works had varied; nor was there agreement about the tasks. Several now almost forgotten labors were still well-known in the fifth century.
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Heracles makes a number of appearances in the fragments of Hecataeus of Miletus, the logopoios, who in many ways blazed the trail for Herodotus, the canonical first historian. Hecataeus hyperbolically calls Heracles "the army of Eurystheus" (fr. 23) and discusses Heracles' slaying of the Lernaean Hydra (fr. 24) and his defeat of Augeas and sack of Elis (fr. 25). He rationalizes his cattle raid against Geryon(fr. 26) and his quest for the dog of Hades (fr. 27a), discusses his child by Auge (fr.
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Heracles had been told that he would never get the apples without the aid of Atlas. The Titan was only too happy to oblige, since it meant being relieved of his burden. He told the hero to hold the pillar while he went into the garden of the Hesperides to retrieve the fruit. But first, Heracles would have to do something about the noisily vigilant dragon, Ladon.
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