~
Mythology ~
HERACLES
(Hercules) & ZEUS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heracles
*Son of Zeus (Jupiter)
*Heracles was
not a god, but the most popular of all Greek heroes.
His weapons, except
for his club which he made himself, were made by various gods
of Mt. Olympus.
*Apollo (Phoebus),
the God of Prophecy, Healing and Music,
made his bow & arrows.
*Athena, (Minerva)
The Goddess of Wisdom in war, made his robe.
*Hephaestus (Vulcan),
God of Fire, forged his golden breastplate.
*Hermes (Mercury),
the Messenger of the gods, made his sword.
*Poseidon (Neptune),
God of the Sea, who gave the first horse to mankind,
provided horses for Heracles.
Heracles was given
the duty of defending the Gates of Olympia after his death.
Heracles' mother
was the last mortal Zeus loved. Hera, Zeus' revengeful wife, tricked
Zeus into promising that the next baby born in the royal house
of Thebes would be king. Zeus agreed because he knew that the
Theban princess, Alcmene, would be having his baby soon. Jealous
Hera then delayed the birth of Heracles until after another prince,
Eurystheus, was born. King Eurystheus later condemned Heracles
to serve him until he had accomplished 12 great tasks in 12 years.
(*1)
These were called
the 12 labors of Heracles and each one was extraordinarily difficult
(if not impossible) to accomplish. (*2)
The 12 labors of
Heracles were:
1. killing the Nemean
Lion (*3), a gigantic lion which raided the area around the city
of Nemea; its hide was so tough that no weapon could wound it
and its hide could not be pierced by sword or arrow; finally,
Heracles strangled the lion with his bare hands; he wore the hide
of the Nemean Lion for the rest of his life as protection against
weapons.
2. slaying the Lernean
Hydra, a 9-headed snake-like monster with 1 head that was immortal
and 8 others that regenerated two heads in the place of one;
3. capturing the
golden-horned Cerynean stag, which was sacred to Artemis (Diana),
Goddess of the Hunt;
4. capturing the
Erymanthian boar, which like the Nemean Lion could not be injured
or killed by any weapon;
5. cleaning the
Augeian stables, which housed thousands of cattle and was the
filthiest place in the world since it had never been cleaned;
6. killing the Stymphalian
birds, which had caused the local villagers to flee because the
birds slaughtered their cattle and carried away their children;
7. bringing back
the man-eating mares of King Diomedes, who fed his captives to
his horses;
8. capturing the
Cretan bull that Poseidon had given to King Minos;
9. capturing the
girdle of the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyte;
10. finding and
bringing back the cattle of Geryon, a 3-headed king whose 3 bodies
were joined at the waist and who was believed to be the strongest
man in the world;
11. fetching 3 Golden
Apples, which belonged to Hera, from the Garden of the Hesperides,
the daughters of Atlas who guarded the garden; and
12. abducting Cerberus,
the 3-headed dog who guarded the gates of Hades.
~ Stories about
Heracles are plentiful ~
Heracles was famous
for eight famous deeds, including killing the powerful giant Antaeus,
rescuing Alcestis from Hades; accompanying Jason on his quest
to find the golden fleece; rescuing Hesione from the belly of
a whale; serving as a slave to the Queen of Lydia, Omphale, who
forced him to dress as a woman; stealing the sacred tripod of
the Oracle of Delphi when the priestess did not respond to the
question he asked; the capture of Troy (long before the Trojan
War); and his 12 labors.
Without mass communication
media, coins were a means of spreading local news and circulating
official announcements. Around 400 B.C., a small gold coin was
struck at Syracuse during the Carthaginian occupation of Sicily.
The reverse of the coin pictured Heracles strangling the Nemean
Lion. Although the reference was somewhat cryptic, the lion symbolized
Africa.
The top international
coins of all time featured Heracles wearing a lion-skin headdress
(the Nimean lion). The coins, issued under Alexander the Great
(336-323 B.C.), showed young Heracles (though some think it was
a portrait of Alexander himself) wearing a lion-skin headdress
and on the reverse, Zeus sits on the throne holding his sacred
eagle and a scepter. Long after Alexander's death, many cities
copied the Macedonian coinage in his name. These coins were issued
from untold mints, represented by certain letters or symbols under
and/or to the front of Zeus' throne. From that time until the
18th century, there was no such thing as a true international
money.
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(*1) Another
story is that Heracles was punishing himself for killing his wife
and children in a fit of madness (caused by the wicked Hera).
Heracles visited the Oracle at Delphi, who agreed that he should
pay a penance for his dreadful acts. She sent him to his cousin,
King Eurystheus of Mycenae, for punishment. Rather than having
Heracles tortured and killed, Eurystheus decided to use Heracles
powers to remove some world dangers. Either way, Eurystheus set
Heracles on a dangerous path.
(*2) The term
"herculean" has come to mean a task requiring superhuman
strength or one of superhuman difficulty.
(*3)
The sign of the Zodiac, Leo (latin for lion), is the Nemean lion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zeus
(Jupiter)
*god of all gods
*He was god of
the sky; rain, snow, thunder, lighting & clear blue sky
*His weapon was
the Thunderbolt
*His sarced bird
was the Eagle
*His sacred tree
was the Oak
Greatest
of the gods on Mount Olympus, Zeus was lord of the sky, rain-god
and cloud-gatherer. He was the god of rain, snow, thunder, lightning
and the clear blue sky. His weapon was the thunderbolt; his sacred
bird, the eagle; his sacred tree, the oak. His power was greater
than all the other gods together. As supreme god, Zeus was the
god of morality and social virtues as well as the god of good
faith and of victory. Being the god of moral law did not impede
Zeus' outrageous behavior with women, however.
Father of
men and gods alike, Zeus could turn himself into various things
and often tricked the women he wanted to seduce. He married his
sister, Hera, after disguising himself as a cuckoo and seducing
her. With Hera, he sired Mars (Ares, God of War), Hephaestus (Vulcan,
god of fire) and Hebe, (goddess of youth.) Zeus loved women and
the Greeks loved Zeus all the more for his bumbling husband role.
Falling in love with one woman after another, Zeus was constantly
concocting some hoax to conceal his affairs from Hera. Among Zeus'
many famous children, was ATHENA, GODDESS of WISDOM,
and CREATIVITY among her many other attributes.
On a Greek
coin of Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.), Zeus is depicted enthroned
holding his sacred bird, the eagle. Philip II of Macedonia, father
of Alexander the Great, also featured the laureate bust of Zeus.
Zeus and his Roman counterpart, Jupiter, along with their various
symbols, are some of the most prominent features, in whole or
in part, on coins of the Greek and Roman Empires.
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guran
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