o
the world. It was a heavy task even for Heracles. He broke the chair in
pieces, and Theseus stood up, released.

Thereafter the world was before Theseus. He went with Heracles, and in
the deeds that Heracles was afterward to accomplish Theseus shared.

IV. THE LIFE AND LABORS OF HERACLES

I

Heracles was the son of Zeus, but he was born into the family of a
mortal king. When he was still a youth, being overwhelmed by a madness
sent upon him by one of the goddesses, he slew the children of his
brother Iphicles. Then, coming to know what he had done, sleep and rest
went from him: he went to Delphi, to the shrine of Apollo, to be
purified of his crime.

At Delphi, at the shrine of Apollo, the priestess purified him, and
when she had purified him she uttered this prophecy: "From this day
forth thy name shall be, not Alcides, but Heracles. Thou shalt go to
Eurystheus, thy cousin, in Mycenae, and serve him in all things. When
the labors he shall lay upon thee are accomplished, and when the rest
of thy life is lived out, thou shalt become one of the immortals."
Heracles, on hearing these words, set out for Mycenae.

He stood before his cousin who hated him; he, a towering man, stood
before a king who sat there weak and trembling. And Heracles said, "I
have come to take up the labors that you will lay upon me; speak now,
Eurystheus, and tell me what you would have me do."

Eurystheus, that weak king, looking on the young man who stood as tall
and as firm as one of the immortals, had a heart that was filled with
hatred. He lifted up his head and he said with a frown:

"There is a lion in Nemea that is stronger and more fierce than any
lion known before. Kill that lion, and bring the lion's skin to me that
I may know that you have truly performed your task." So Eurystheus
said, and Heracles, with neither shield nor arms, went forth from the
king's palace to seek and to combat the dread lion of Nemea.

He went on until he came into a country where the fences were
overthrown and the fields wasted and the houses empty and fallen. He
went on until he came to the waste around that land: there he came on
the trail of the lion; it led up the side of a mountain, and Heracles,
without shield or arms, followed the trail.

He heard the roar of the lion. Looking up he saw the beast standing at
the mouth of a cavern, huge and dark against the sunset. The lion
roared three times, and then it went within the cavern.

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