In Homer's Iliad, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child, descended from Zeus himself, would be born who would rule all those around him.

It is said that after Heracles was apotheosised, Hyllus, having pursued and killed Eurystheus, cut off Eurystheus ' head and gave it to Alcmene, who gouged out the eyes with weaving pins.

Diodorus Siculus enlists nine Amazons who challenged Heracles to single combat during his quest for Hippolyta's girdle and died against him one by one: Aella, Philippis, Prothoe, Eriboea, Celaeno, Eurybia, Phoebe, Deianeira, Asteria, Marpe, Tecmessa, Alcippe.

* Ainippe, an Amazon who confronted Telamon in the battle against Heracles ' troops

* Andromache, an Amazon who fought Heracles and was defeated ; only known from vase paintings.

* Pantariste, who killed Timiades in the battle between the Amazons and Heracles ' troops.

According to the Roman poet Ovid ( Fasti v. 379 ), the constellation honors the centaur Chiron, who was tutor to many of the earlier Greek heroes including Heracles ( Hercules ), Theseus, and Jason, the leader of the Argonauts.

The immediate necessity for the Labours of Heracles is as penance for Heracles ' murder of his own family, in a fit of madness, which had been sent by Hera ; however, further human rather than mythic motivation is supplied by mythographers who note that their respective families had been rivals for the throne of Mycenae.

Eurystheus wanted to sacrifice the bull to Hera his patron, who hated Heracles.

After Heracles died, Eurystheus attempted to destroy his many children ( the Heracleidae, led by Hyllus ), who fled to Athens.

The stories about the killer of Eurystheus and the fate of his corpse vary, but the Athenians believed the burial site of Eurystheus remained on their soil and served to protect the country against the descendants of Heracles, who traditionally included the Spartans and Argives.

In the myth of the birth of Heracles, it is Hera herself who sits at the door instead, delaying the birth of Heracles until her protégé, Eurystheus, had been born first.

Hera was the stepmother and enemy of Heracles, who was named " Hera-famous " in her honor ; Heracles is the hero who, more than even Perseus, Cadmus or Theseus, introduced the Olympian ways in Greece.

One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day.

Some myths state that in the end, Hera befriended Heracles for saving her from Porphyrion, a giant who tried to rape her during the Gigantomachy, and that she even gave her daughter Hebe as his bride.

Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek demigod Heracles, who was the son of Zeus ( Roman equivalent Jupiter ) and the mortal Alcmene.

She would have permanently delayed Heracles ' birth had she not been fooled by Galanthis, Alcmene's servant, who lied to Ilithyia, saying that Alcmene had already delivered the baby.

Fear of Hera's revenge led Alcmene to expose the infant Heracles, but he was taken up and brought to Hera by his half-sister Athena, who played an important role as protectress of heroes.

Here, according to an allegorical parable, " The Choice of Heracles ", invented by the sophist Prodicus ( c. 400 BC ) and reported in Xenophon's Memorabilia 2. 1. 21-34, he was visited by two nymphs — Pleasure and Virtue — who offered him a choice between a pleasant and easy life or a severe but glorious life: he chose the latter.

To expiate the crime, Heracles was required to carry out ten labors set by his archenemy, Eurystheus, who had become king in Heracles ' place.

Pausanias indicated that an altar to Alcmene had been built in the Cynosarges in Athens, alongside altars to Heracles, Hebe, and Iolaus.

When Heracles had pulled Theseus first from his chair, some of his thigh stuck to it ( this explains the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians ), but the earth shook at the attempt to liberate Pirithous, whose desire to have the wife of a god for himself was so insulting he was doomed to stay behind.

In the contest of wills between Hera and Zeus over whose candidate would be hero, fated to defeat the remaining creatures representing an old order and bring about the reign of the Twelve Olympians, Eurystheus was Hera's candidate and Heracles — though his name implies that at one archaic stage of myth-making he had carried " Hera's fame " — was the candidate of Zeus.

Details of the individual episodes may be found in the article on the Labours of Heracles, but Hera was connected with all of the opponents Heracles had to overcome.

Heracles ' human stepfather Amphitryon was also a grandson of Perseus, and since Amphitryon's father ( Alcaeus ) was older than Eurystheus ' father ( Sthenelus ), he might have received the kingdom, but Sthenelus had banished Amphitryon for accidentally killing ( a familiar mytheme ) the eldest son in the family ( Electryon ).

When Eurystheus found out that Heracles ' nephew had helped him he declared that the labour had not been completed alone and as a result did not count towards the ten labours set for him.

Heracles knew that he had to return the hind, as he had promised, to Artemis, so he agreed to hand it over on the condition that Eurystheus himself come out and take it from him.

Eurystheus did come out, but the moment Heracles let the hind go, she sprinted back to her mistress, and Heracles departed, saying that Eurystheus had not been quick enough.

Enraged, Augeias banished both Phyleus and Heracles from the land before the court had cast their vote.

However, Eurystheus refused to credit the labour to Heracles, as he had performed it for payment.

For the eleventh labour Heracles had to steal the Apples of the Hesperides ; his final labour was to capture Cerberus, the three-headed hound that guarded the entrance to Hades.

A major factor in the well-known tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus, had for him.

Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene.

In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son born by a mortal woman, the infant Heracles, on Hera's breast while she is asleep so that the baby will drink her divine milk and will thus become immortal.

On the night the twins Heracles and Iphicles were to be born, Hera, knowing of her husband Zeus ' adultery, persuaded Zeus to swear an oath that the child born that night to a member of the House of Perseus would become High King.

Despite his agony, he comforted Io with the information that she would be restored to human form and become the ancestress of the greatest of all heroes, Heracles ( Hercules ).

So, according to varying myths, he forced Auge to become a virginal priestess of Athena Alea, in which condition she was violated by Heracles.

The irony is Eurytus years earlier had taught Heracles to become an archer.

She is to become the concubine of Heracles.

In the genealogy given by Herodotus, someone may have grafted the tradition of a Lydian son of Heracles at the top end of it, so that Ninus and Belus in the list now become descendants of Heracles, who just happen to bear the same names as the more famous Ninus and Belus.

The mythical theme of the suckling of the adult Heracles by Hera, though being of Greek origin, is considered by scholars as having received its full acknowledgement and development in Etruria: Heracles has become a bearded adult on the mirrors of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.

In Audit / Poetry IV. 3, issue featuring Robert Duncan, in his long polemic with Robin Blaser's translation of The Chimeres of Gerard de Nerval, which Duncan believes deliberately and fatally omit the mystical and gnostic overtones of the original, Duncan writes: " The mystical doctrine of neo-Pythagorean naturalism has become like a Nessus shirt to the translator, and in the translation we hear Heracles ' tortured cry from Pound's version of the Women of Trachis from Sophokles: ' it all coheres.