Hercules is the Roman name for this god (who was actually
Greek) & Heracles is his Greek name.
Schwarzenegger is, I believe, an Austrian name, but I don’t really care
because this isn’t about him.
The god Zeus was a player & Hercules’ very existence proved at least one of his many illicit
affairs. Hera (Mrs. Zeus) often conspired against Zeus' mortal offspring
as revenge for her husband's infidelities.
(The mother of Hercules & his fraternal twin brother Iphicles was a human named Alcmene, also known as Amphitryon, but I’ll just call her Amy.
Zeus was Amy's baby daddy.) One day
Mrs. Zeus decided it would be a good idea to sneak a pair of snakes into the
infants’ cradle & kill the boys. (She was a short tempered bitch strong
minded lady & it’s probably safer to refer to her with respect so I’ll
continue to refer to her as Mrs. Zeus.) Little Hercules strangled the snakes &
from that day on, his parents saw no need to hire a babysitter for the twins.
Things went pretty well after that during his younger
years. His troubles, like those of many
other men’s, didn’t really start until he was married. Mrs. Zeus still could not
forgive her husband for having had Hercules as an illicit son, so she tricked
Hercules into a wild rage. In his rage, Hercules killed his three
sons. When he realizes what
he has done, he almost kills himself.
He’s understandably a little upset at what he’s done & because they didn’t have shrinks yet
Hercules visits the Oracle at Delphi for advice. The Oracle tells him to go to Eurystheus,
who sees a chance to get some work done for free. Eurystheus gives
him a “to do” list you wouldn’t believe. Hercules had to kill the lion of
Nemea, kill a creature with nine heads called the Hydra, capture a stag with
horns of gold, kill a boar, clean the thousands of Aegean stables in one day,
exile the Stymphalian birds, go to Crete and retrieve the beautiful savage bull
that Poseidon gave Minos, retrieve the man-eating mares, bring back the
girdle of Hippolyta, return the cattle of Geryon (a monster with three bodies),
bring back the Golden Apples of Hesperides & finally, bring Cerberus the
three-headed dog up from Hades.
After he finished, Eurystheus said he could take the rest of the day off.
In
the way he accepts his fate and seeks purification, Hercules proves himself to
be humble in the way that Greek culture called for. His mother was human
so Hercules was born a half-god but before he retired he was promoted to full god.
I list my occupation as "Domestic Goddess" on my tax return (true) because one should never lie to the IRS----fishducky
