~Mythology~
Heracles
(Hercules) & Dionysos
~ Dionysos,
god of wine ~
He was the great
Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure and festivity.
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~ Heracles
~
Son of Zeus (Jupiter)
Heracles was not
a god, but the most popular of all Greek heroes!
Heracles' weapons
(with the exception on his club which he made himself) were made
by various gods of Mt. Olympus.
*Apollo (Phoebus);
the God of Prophecy, Healing
and Music, provided his bow and arrows.
*Athena, (Minerva)
The Goddess of Wisdom and 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 and 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). (*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
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 Nemean 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 Asian
cities copied the Macedonian coinage. 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(*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.
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