Myths and Legends of All Nations | Page 4

of man. Some said he was the son of the
giant Typhon and the snake Echidna; others that he had dropped down
from the moon to the earth.
Hercules set out on his journey and came to Kleona, where a poor
laborer, Molorchus, received him hospitably. He met the latter just as
he was about to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter.
"Good man," said Hercules, "let the animal live thirty days longer; then,
if I return, offer it to Jupiter, my deliverer, and if I do not return, offer it
as a funeral sacrifice to me, the hero who has attained immortality."
So Hercules continued on his way, his quiver of arrows over his
shoulder, his bow in one hand, and in the other a club made from the
trunk of a wild olive tree which he had passed on Mount Helicon and
pulled up by the roots. When he at last entered the Nemean wood, he
looked carefully in every direction in order that he might catch sight of
the monster lion before the lion should see him. It was mid-day, and
nowhere could he discover any trace of the lion or any path that seemed
to lead to his lair. He met no man in the field or in the forest: fear held
them all shut up in their distant dwellings. The whole afternoon he
wandered through the thick undergrowth, determined to test his
strength just as soon as he should encounter the lion.
At last, toward evening, the monster came through the forest, returning
from his trap in a deep fissure of the earth.
He was saturated with blood: head, mane and breast were reeking, and
his great tongue was licking his jaws. The hero, who saw him coming
long before he was near, took refuge in a thicket and waited until the
lion approached; then with his arrow he shot him in the side. But the
shot did not pierce his flesh; instead it flew back as if it had struck
stone, and fell on the mossy earth.
Then the animal raised his bloody head; looked around in every

direction, and in fierce anger showed his ugly teeth. Raising his head,
he exposed his heart, and immediately Hercules let fly another arrow,
hoping to pierce him through the lungs. Again the arrow did not enter
the flesh, but fell at the feet of the monster.
Hercules took a third arrow, while the lion, casting his eyes to the side,
watched him. His whole neck swelled with anger; he roared, and his
back was bent like a bow. He sprang toward his enemy; but Hercules
threw the arrow and cast off the lion skin in which he was clothed with
the left hand, while with the right he swung his club over the head of
the beast and gave him such a blow on the neck that, all ready to spring
as the lion was, he fell back, and came to a stand on trembling legs,
with shaking head. Before he could take another breath, Hercules was
upon him.
Throwing down his bow and quiver, that he might be entirely
unencumbered, he approached the animal from behind, threw his arm
around his neck and strangled him. Then for a long time he sought in
vain to strip the fallen animal of his hide. It yielded to no weapon or no
stone. At last the idea occurred to him of tearing it with the animal's
own claws, and this method immediately succeeded.
Later he prepared for himself a coat of mail out of the lion's skin, and
from the neck, a new helmet; but for the present he was content to don
his own costume and weapons, and with the lion's skin over his arm
took his way back to Tirynth.
THE SECOND LABOR
The second labor consisted in destroying a hydra. This monster dwelt
in the swamp of Lerna, but came occasionally over the country,
destroying herds and laying waste the fields. The hydra was an
enormous creature--a serpent with nine heads, of which eight were
mortal and one immortal.
Hercules set out with high courage for this fight. He mounted his
chariot, and his beloved nephew Iolaus, the son of his stepbrother
Iphicles, who for a long time had been his inseparable companion, sat

by his side, guiding the horses; and so they sped toward Lerna.
At last the hydra was visible on a hill by the springs of Amymone,
where its lair was found. Here Iolaus left the horses stand. Hercules
leaped from the chariot and sought with burning arrows to drive the
many-headed serpent from its hiding place. It came forth hissing, its
nine heads raised and swaying like the branches of a tree in a storm.
Undismayed, Hercules approached it, seized it, and held it