Introduction
Heracles is a son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, and the single most celebrated hero of Greek mythology, renowned for his extraordinary strength and for the Twelve Labours he performed in service to King Eurystheus.
This figure marks the point where the genealogy of the gods gives way to the genealogy of heroes. A fuller account of their adventures belongs to a separate treatment of the Greek Heroic Cycle; this article covers their divine parentage and place in that transition.
Family
- Father: Zeus
- Mother: Alcmene
- Siblings: Persephone, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe, Eileithyia, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, Urania, Perseus, Arcas, Epaphus, Aeacus, Dardanus, Minos, Rhadamanthus, Sarpedon, Pollux (Polydeuces), Helen, Amphion, Zethus
Hera's persecution
Hera's hostility toward Heracles, arising from Zeus's infidelity with his mortal mother, shaped his entire life: she sent serpents to kill him in his cradle (which the infant strangled instead), and, later, drove him temporarily mad, causing him to kill his own wife and children, an act of horror for which the Twelve Labours were imposed as penance.
The Twelve Labours
Sent to serve King Eurystheus, Heracles performed a sequence of seemingly impossible tasks, including killing the Nemean Lion and the Lernaean Hydra, capturing the Erymanthian Boar and the Ceryneian Hind, cleaning the Augean stables in a single day, capturing Cerberus from the underworld, and fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides with Atlas's help; the full account of these labours belongs to the wider Heroic Cycle.
Death and apotheosis
Heracles died after unknowingly being poisoned by a robe treated with the blood of the centaur Nessus, given to him in misplaced jealousy by his wife Deianira. In great agony, he had himself burned on a funeral pyre; his mortal part was consumed, while his immortal part, inherited from Zeus, was taken up to Olympus, where he was reconciled with Hera and married the goddess Hebe.