The Nemean Lion (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. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own cult and ritual practices. ... Nemea (Gr. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... Chalcidian black-figure hydria of Typhon fighting Zeus, c. ... In the most ancient layers of Greek mythology Echidna (ekhis, meaning she viper) was called the Mother of All Monsters. Echidna was described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate Typhoeus or Typhon every major monster in the Greek myths, (Theogony, 295... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... Roman sculpture of the torch-bearing moon goddess Luna, or Diana Lucifera (Diana Bringer of Light), who was equated with the Greek Selene (Vatican Museums) In Greek mythology, Selene (Σελήνη, moon; Modern Greek pronunciation IPA: ) was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the titans Hyperion and Theia. ... Chimera from Arezzo. ...

The First Labour of Heracles

Heracles slaying the Nemean Lion. Detail of a Roman mosaic from Llíria (Spain).

The first of Heracles' twelve labours was to slay the Nemean Lion and bring back its skin. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2928x1798, 869 KB) Description / Descripción (en) Hercules fighting with the Nemean Lion. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2928x1798, 869 KB) Description / Descripción (en) Hercules fighting with the Nemean Lion. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... Llíria (Valencian, pronounced Yeeria or Lyeeria) or Liria (Spanish) is a medium sized town off the CV35 motorway to the north of Valencia City, Spain. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... Hercules and the Hydra by Antonio Pollaiuolo The Twelve Labours (Greek: dodekathlos) of Heracles (Latin: Hercules) are a series of archaic episodes connected by a later continuous narrative, concerning a penance carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes. ...

The 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.)

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 realise 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. Helmeted Athena, of the Velletri type. ...

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. In Greek mythology, Eurystheus was king of Tiryns, one of three Mycenaean strongholds in the Argolid: Sthenelus was his father and the horsewoman Nykippe his mother, and he was a grandson of the hero Perseus, as was his opponent Heracles. ... Henry Edgar Paston-Bedingfeld, Her Majestys York Herald of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms. ...

External link

• http://www.pantheon.org/articles/n/nemean_lion.html

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Nemean Lion