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Nemean lion

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The Nemean lion (Greek: Λέων της Νεμέας (Léōn tēs Neméas); Latin: Leo Nemaeus) was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived in Nemea. It was eventually killed by Heracles. The lion was usually considered the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, but it was also said to have fallen from the moon, offspring of Zeus and Selene. A third origin has it being born of the Chimera.

The first labour of Heracles

The first of Heracles' twelve labours, set by Eurystheus (his cousin) was to slay the Nemean Lion and bring back its skin.

The Nemean lion had been terrorizing the area around Nemea, and had a skin so thick that it was impenetrable to weapons. When Heracles first tackled it, his weapons - bow and arrow, a club made from an olive tree (which he pulled out of the ground himself) and a bronze sword - were all ineffective. At last Heracles threw away his weapons and wrestled the lion to the ground, eventually killing it by thrusting his arm down its throat and choking it to death. (In some variants, Heracles actually strangled the beast, or broke its jaw.)

Heracles spent hours trying unsuccessfully to skin the lion, and gradually growing angrier as it appeared he would be unable to complete his first task. Eventually Athena, in the guise of an old crone, helped Heracles to realize that the best tools to cut the hide were the creature's own claws. Thus, with a little divine intervention, Heracles completed his first task.

Thereafter, he wore the impenetrable hide as armour. King Eurystheus, Heracles' taskmaster for the labours, was so frightened by Heracles' fearsome guise that he hid in a large bronze jar, and from that moment forth communicated all his instructions to Heracles through a herald.

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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 11:44:07 PDT (GMT -0700)
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