Despite his efforts, Hercules was unable to remove the cloak. Hercules decided that death was preferable to suffering this pain, so he had his friends build a funeral pyre on top of Mount Oeta; however, he was unable to find anybody who was willing to light the pyre. Hercules then asked for help from the gods to end his life, and he received it. The Greek god Jupiter sent lightning to consume Hercules' mortal body and took him to live with the gods on Mount Olympus. This was the apotheosis, the transformation of Hercules into a god.
When Hercules' followers could find no remains in the ashes, they realized that he had undergone an apotheosis, and they began to revere him as a god. As Diodorus , a first-century Greek historian, explained:. Although the queen of the gods, Hera —Hercules' stepmother—had been the bane of his earthly existence, once he was made a god, she was reconciled to her stepson and even gave him her daughter Hebe for his divine wife.
Hercules' deification was complete: He would thenceforth be seen as a superhuman mortal who ascended to the apotheosis, a demigod who would forevermore take his place among the other Greek gods as they ruled from their mountain perch. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.
Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Eurystheus and the 12 Labors When Hercules grew up and had become a great warrior, he married Megara.
They had two children. Hercules and Megara were very happy, but life didn't turn out for them the way it does in the movie. Hera sent a fit of madness to Hercules that put him into so great a rage, he murdered Megara and the children. When Hercules regained his senses and saw the horrible thing that he had done, he asked the god Apollo to rid him of this pollution.
Apollo commanded the hero to do certain tasks as a punishment for his wrongs, so that the evil might be cleansed from his spirit. The god Apollo. As Phoebus, he was the sun god, and every day he drove the chariot of the sun across the sky. He was the god of healing and music. Finally, Apollo was a god of prophecy: the Greeks believed that Apollo knew what would happen in the future, and that he could advise people how to act.
Hercules hurried to the temple where Apollo gave such advice. It was in the town of Delphi and was called the Delphic oracle. Apollo said that in order to purify himself for the spilling of his family's blood, he had to perform 10 heroic labors this number would soon be increased to Delphi, view looking SE across the Temple of Apollo's terrace toward the valley below. The sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi was built on a very steep hillside. Photograph by Pamela Russell Hercules got even more bad news.
Apollo declared that he had to go to the city of Tiryns. Eurystheus had a reputation for being mean, and Hercules knew that the king would give him a tough time.
The hero had to serve Eurystheus for twelve years while he performed the Labors. There was some good news, though. When the tasks were completed, Apollo said, Hercules would become immortal. Unlike other men, instead of dying and going to the Underworld of Hades, he would become a god. Aerial view of the fortress-palace at Tiryns. The citadel's impressively thick fortress walls have stood for over thirty centuries.
Photograph by Raymond V. Schoder, S. Most of the pictures of Hercules shown at this web site were painted by the Greeks on vases around to years ago. His life was not easy—he endured many trials and completed many daunting tasks—but the reward for his suffering was a promise that he would live forever among the gods at Mount Olympus.
Hercules had a complicated family tree. According to legend, his father was Zeus, ruler of all the gods on Mount Olympus and all the mortals on earth, and his mother was Alcmene, the granddaughter of the hero Perseus. Hercules had enemies even before he was born. First, she used her supernatural powers to prevent the baby Hercules from becoming the ruler of Mycenae. Then, after Hercules was born, Hera sent two snakes to kill him in his crib.
The infant Hercules was unusually strong and fearless, however, and he strangled the snakes before they could strangle him. But Hera kept up her dirty tricks. When her stepson was a young adult, she cast a kind of spell on him that drove him temporarily insane and caused him to murder his beloved wife and their two children. Once Hercules completed every one of the labors, Apollo declared, he would be absolved of his guilt and achieve immortality.
The Nemean Lion First, Apollo sent Hercules to the hills of Nemea to kill a lion that was terrorizing the people of the region. Some storytellers say that Zeus had fathered this magical beast as well. Hercules trapped the lion in its cave and strangled it. The Lernaean Hydra Second, Hercules traveled to the city of Lerna to slay the nine-headed Hydra—a poisonous, snake-like creature who lived underwater, guarding the entrance to the Underworld.
For this task, Hercules had the help of his nephew Iolaus. This way, the pair kept the heads from growing back. The Golden HindNext, Hercules set off to capture the sacred pet of the goddess Diana: a red deer, or hind, with golden antlers and bronze hooves. Eurystheus had chosen this task for his rival because he believed that Diana would kill anyone she caught trying to steal her pet; however, once Hercules explained his situation to the goddess, she allowed him to go on his way without punishment.
The Erymanthean Boar Fourth, Hercules used a giant net to snare the terrifying, man-eating wild boar of Mount Erymanthus. However, Hercules completed the job easily, flooding the barn by diverting two nearby rivers. Hercules used these tools to frighten the birds away. Hercules drove the bull back to Eurystheus, who released it into the streets of Marathon.
He brought them to Eurystheus, who dedicated the horses to Hera and set them free.
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