Long long ago, in the age before television, there was a man named Hercules. Hercules was the son of Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. However because he had a human mother he wasn’t a god himself but was a mortal. Desptire this he was the strongest and most powerful human in the world. Because he was his son, Zeus wanted Hercules to live on Mount Olympos with rest of the gods. However Hera, the queen of the goddesses refused. Olympos was for the gods and she didn’t want a human to join them because even the strongest human in the world was no match for even the weakest of the gods. Eventually Zeus and Hera reached a compromise, if Hercules could prove that he was as powerful as the gods then Hera would allow Zeus to make Hercules immortal. A man that was immortal and as powerful as a god would be considered a god and could then live on Olympos. To prove himself Hercules had to perform 10 tasks for kind Eurystheus. King Eurystheus was a faithful worshipper of Hera and poosed to Hercules living on Olympos. He was also jealous of of Hercules’ fame and secretly wanted Hercules to die so he chose to give Hercules the most dangerous tasks ever in the hopes he would be killed. The first task Eurystheus gave Hercules was to slay the Nemean lion. The Nemean lion was a dreadful beast that had been terrorizing the town of Cleonae. He traveled to Cleonae and spoke to the villagers there. He found that unlike other lions when it raided the flocks it wouldn’t just eat the sheep but the shepherds as well. Many hunters had gone out to slay it before but none had ever been successful. On hearing this Hercules laughed, he had hunted many beasts before including lions and figured this would be an easy task. The villagers showed Hercules the lions footprints from it’s most recent attack. He was surprised at the size of them, they were over twice as large as any other lion print he had ever seen before. Confident in his strength Hercules started tracking the lion out into the plains. He spent hours in the hot sun carefully following the tracks, trying to make certain it didn’t see him. Eventually he came across it sunning itself. It was bigger then he even thought it was from the prints but Hercules wasn’t afraid. He pulled out his bow, drew an arrow and fired at it. The arrow just bounced off the lions golden hide. The lion noticing Hercules rushed up and attacked. Hercules drew his sword and attempted to fight it but the lions hide was impenetrable and his sword strokes just bounced off of it. Hercules then realized he might actually be in trouble. The lions hide couldn’t be cut but it’s teeth and claws could certainly harm Hercules. Eventually in desperation he punched the lion in the head. The punch did hurt the lion a little bit. It jumped away from Hercules, considered him for a minute, and then ran off. Hercules thought about the situation a bit and came up with a plan to deal with the lion. He followed the lions tracks until he came to a cave in a hill. He knew from the villagers that the lion had a lair and he was certain this was it. He didn’t want any surprises like last time so he went around the hill to scout first. He then found there was a back entrance which he covered so the lion couldn’t escape. He then set his sword aside and made himself a club. He carefully snuck back into the cave but the lion was waiting and attacked him. He swung the club as hard as he could. He hit the lion right on the head. The lion was dazed by the blow but it wasn’t killed. Seeing it dizzy and unable to fight Hercules grabbed the lion by the throat and strangled it until he killed it. Not wanting to carry the entire lion back to King Eurystheus to prove he had slain it Hercules tried to skin it but he was still unable to cut the hide. He tried sharpening a stone but nothing he did could cut the hide of the lion. Eventually he used the lions own claws to skin it. Realizing that a lion hide that couldn’t be cut would be useful he made it into a suit of armor which he wore to protect himself. Upon returning back to Eurystheus wearing his new armor as proof he had slain the lion the king was angry that Hercules had returned alive. He warned Hercules that the remaining tasks would be even more difficult.
Continued in The Lernaen Hydra