for him various difficult tasks. But the proud spirit of the hero
rebelled against this humiliation, and he was about to refuse compliance,
when Zeus appeared to him and desired him not to rebel against the Fates.
Heracles now repaired to Delphi in order to consult the oracle, and
received the answer that after performing ten tasks for his cousin
Eurystheus his servitude would be at an end.

Soon afterwards Heracles fell into a state of the deepest melancholy, and
through the influence of his inveterate enemy, the goddess Hera, this
despondency developed into raving madness, in which condition he killed his
own children. When he at length regained his reason he was so horrified and
grieved at what he had done, that he shut himself up in his chamber and
avoided all intercourse with men. But in his loneliness and seclusion the
conviction that work would be the best means of procuring oblivion of the
past decided him to enter, without delay, upon the tasks appointed him by
Eurystheus.

1. THE NEMEAN LION.--His first task was to bring to Eurystheus the skin of
the much-dreaded Nemean lion, which ravaged the territory between Cleone
and Nemea, and whose hide was invulnerable against any mortal weapon.

Heracles proceeded to the forest of Nemea, where, having discovered the
lion's lair, he attempted to pierce him with his arrows; but finding these
of no avail he felled him to the ground with his club, and before the
animal had time to recover from the terrible blow, {239} Heracles seized
him by the neck and, with a mighty effort, succeeded in strangling him. He
then made himself a coat of mail of the skin, and a new helmet of the head
of the animal. Thus attired, he so alarmed Eurystheus by appearing suddenly
before him, that the king concealed himself in his palace, and henceforth
forbade Heracles to enter his presence, but commanded him to receive his
behests, for the future, through his messenger Copreus.

2. THE HYDRA.--His second task was to slay the Hydra, a monster serpent
(the offspring of Typhon and Echidna), bristling with nine heads, one of
which was immortal. This monster infested the neighbourhood of Lerna, where
she committed great depredations among the herds.

[Illustration]

Heracles, accompanied by his nephew Iolaus, set out in a chariot for the
marsh of Lerna, in the slimy waters of which he found her. He commenced the
attack by assailing her with his fierce arrows, in order to force her to
leave her l