Heracles is known for being the mortal hero with god-like strength that completed the 12 arduous labors with his brains and brawn, but did you know about his haunting past?
Heracles was the product of an affair between a mortal women, Alcmene, and Zeus. Heracles was a constant reminder to Hera, Zeus’s wife, of her husband’s affair. Hera caused him to have fits of anger where he could not control himself. The result of one of these fits was Heracles killing his wife, Megara, and children.
Hera had Heracles birth delayed so that he would be delivered after Zeus’s great-grandson, Eurystheus, and not be heir to Zeus’s spoils. Although her plan was spoiled, Heracles was still born after Eurystheus and would later perform the 12 labors for him. Shortly after birth Hera sent two snakes to kill the infant Heracles but he ended up strangling them before they could hurt him.
The 12 labors include 1. Retrieving the skin of the Nemean lion 2. Killing the Hydra 3. Retrieving Artemis's sacred deer 4. Retrieving the Ermanthian boar 5. Cleaning enormous horse stables 6.Driving away the Stymphalian bird 7. Delivering the bull to Eurystheus 8.Delivering man eating mares of Diomedes to Eurystheus 9.Bringing back the belt of Hippolyta 10.Getting the cattle of Geryon 11. Getting apples of the Hesperides, and finally. 12. Dragging Cerberus from Hades. He also had to defeat a river god that was trying to rape his wife, hold the sky for Atlas, and battle the god of death. He is often portrayed wearing the skin of the Nemean lion and holding either a bow and arrow or a club.