Wednesday 5 October 2011

The first labor: The Nemean Lion


characters:

Heracles: Heracles was one of the Greatest Heroes in Greek Mythology . His parents were Zeus and Alcmene. (The Greek Gods of Mythology n.d)  It was said that as an act of hatred in which Hera had for Heracles , she drove him mad, and caused him to slaughter his wife and kids. (The Greek Gods of Mythology n.d)  As a result, his punishment was to complete the 12 labors given to the Greek Hero by his cousin Eurystheus.  (The Greek Gods of Mythology n.d) 

Nemean Lion:  The Nemean Lion was a huge vicious lion who was also the son of Echidna and Typhon. (  Gods and Monsters 2011) The lion’s skin was known to be impenetrable. (Gods and Monsters 2011) It dwells in a cave in the land of Nemea . (Gods and Monsters 2011)

Hera:  Hera  was known as the greatest goddess compared to the rest of the Olympian goddess. (Grimal 1996) Her parents were Cronus and Rhea.  (Grimal 1996) Her husband was the mighty Zeus.  (Grimal 1996) It was stated after having being swallowed by her father , she was then revived by the help of Metis and Zeus.( Grimal 1996)

Molorchus: He was said to be the mythical founder of Molorchia , which is situated near Nemea.  (Smith, n.d ) He is also a peasant who lost his son to the Nemean Lion.  (Smith, n.d )

Eurystheus: Eurystheus was the cousin of Hercacles, as well as  the person responsible for assigning the 12 labors for the Greek Hero.  (Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology n.d) Although Heracles is suppose to be older than Eurystheus, because of the knowledge that the first child born would eventually rule the kingdoms in the future.  .  (Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology n.d) Hera decided to delay the birth of Heracles and sped up the birth of Eurystheus.  (Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology n.d)  Thus making Heracles younger than Eurystheus.  (Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology n.d)

Echidna:  Echidna was a Greek monster, it’s body consist of half woman and half serpent. (Britannnica n.d ) The monsters parents were  Phorcys and Ceto(according to Hesoid’s Theogony) (Britannnica n.d )  Her husband was the creature Typhon.  (Britannnica n.d ) Her offsprings included Ladon, Hydra, Chimera, Orthus ,Sphinx ,Cerberus and lastly the Nemean lion.  (Britannnica n.d )

Typhon:  Typhon was a monster that had one hundred heads, each head touching the stars.  (Tuccinardi  1998) He was the husband of Echidna and the father of  Ladon, Hydra, Chimera, Orthus ,Sphinx ,Cerberus and lastly the Nemean lion.  (Tuccinardi  1998) The creature’s parents were Gaia and Tartarus.   (Tuccinardi  1998)



(Labor)
The first labor that Heracles had to complete was to kill the monstrous and invulnerable Nemean lion. (Grimal 1996)  It was said that Nemean lion was brought to the region Nemea  by the goddess Hera (Grimal 1996)  As a result the lion was responsible for ravaging the land and devouring its inhabitant and herds. (Grimal 1996) While looking for the beast , Heracles stumbled upon Molorchus, whose son had fallen victim to the lion (Grimal 1996) Molorchus offered to sacrifice his only ram , as an act of good luck for Heracles. However Heracles persuaded Molorchus to delay the sacrifice. (Grimal 1996) The reason was because after 30 thirty days, if Heracles does not return, the ram would be sacrificed in the hero's  memory however if he did return it would be sacrificed in honor of the mighty Zeus. (Grimal 1996) After having encountered the beast, Heracles tried to kill it with his arrows, however his arrows were proven useless as the skin of the beast was sustainable to both steel and fire.  (Grimal 1996) As a result the mighty hero decided to use his club to stun the beast, and after having done that immediately strangled the monster with his bear hands until it was dead. (Grimal 1996)  Lastly as the skin of the Lion was very tough Heracles used the claw of the lion to skin the beast and wore the skin as a cloak. (Leadbetter, R 2001) The lion cloak soon became one of  the noticeable attributes of Heracles  (Leadbetter, R 2001) 









Reference 





Britannnica n.d,  Echidna , Available from: < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/177879/Echidna > . [ 22 September 2011] 






Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology n.d , Eurystheus,  Available from: < http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/eurystheus.html >. [ 22 September 2011] 






Grimal, P 1996,  The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, ,  Blackwell Publishing ,  Oxford

Leadbetter, R 2001,  Nemean Lion, Available from: < http://www.pantheon.org/articles/n/nemean_lion.html > [ 22  September 2011]

Nemean lion:   Gods and Monsters 2011,  The Nemean Lion, Available from: < http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/nemean-lion.html >. [ 20 September 2011] 

Smith, W ED, Molorchus, Available from: < http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=molorchus-bio-1 >. [ 20 September 2011] 

The Greek Gods of Mythology n.d , Heracles,  Available from:  < http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~baheintz/heroes.html >.  [ 22 september 2011]

Tuccinardi , R 1998, Typhon , Available  from : http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/typhon.html>. [ 22 September 2011] 



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