(Greek=‘made famous by (the land of) Hera’) Son of → Zeus, the father of the gods, and the mortal Alkmene. Jealous as usual, the god’s wife → Hera dispatched two snakes to finish the infant Herakles off, but he strangled them in his cradle. The twelve labours (dodekathlos) in the service of King Eurystheus, ending with his conquest of → Kérberos, the hound of hell, and his voluntary death on the pyre on Mount Oite, mark his progress from hero to immortal; finally he is received into Olympus and → Hébe is given to him as his wife. In his aspect as kallinikos, the radiant victor in all forms of contest, he became the national hero of the Greeks.
Among the ordinary people he was very popular as someone one could turn to in need, and a protector against all sorts of unpleasantness (alexikalos). Young people especially saw in him their protector, and they called him Herakles Enagonios. The cult of this demi-god was also widespread in Italy (→ Hércules). Among his attributes is the skin of the Nemean lion.
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