[THEME MUSIC] Zeus put together a devilish plan. He ordered the god of the sun, Helios, to put out his fires. Then he commanded his son, the god Hermes, to slow down the course of the moon, and asked the god of sleep to send all of mankind to sleep so that no one could see what was about to happen. Everything was ready. Zeus disguised himself as a mere mortal, a certain Amphitryon. Then visited Alcmene, Amphitryon's wife, in her bedroom that night. Not only was Alcmene very beautiful, she was also the granddaughter of the great Perseus. Amphitryon, he's here. The moment she saw him, she flung herself at him. Not for an instant did she suspect that the man she was showering with kisses was not her husband, but the King of the Gods. She listened to the imposter tell of his exploits and of how he had killed her brothers' murderers. The revenge she had craved for was finally hers. So as she had promised on the day of their marriage, the young woman gave herself to her husband. All night. A night to which Zeus attributed the length of three nights. Dawn finally came. Helios had reignited his fires. The King of Olympus returned to his palace high up in the clouds. It was time, for the true Amphitryon had returned home. Flushed with victory, he was impatient to taste the rewards of his wife's promise. He entered her bedroom. He found her drowsy, as if she were exhausted. She barely reacted when he slipped into the bed beside her. Once their lovemaking was over, Alcmene gently pushed him aside. She asked him where he had suddenly found this new energy and begged him to tell her once more of his warrior feats. Amphitryon was confused. What was she talking about? His mind was overcome with doubts. He wanted to know the truth. He hurried to see the famed diviner, Tiresias. Tiresias listened. A smile suddenly lit up the old blind man's face, and he declared, you have been cheated on, my friend. Amphitryon felt his knees begin to buckle. Yes, added Tiresias, and the guilty party is Zeus himself. Nine months went by. Alcmene was ready to give birth. On Olympus, Zeus was finding it hard to disguise his impatience. He had already found a name for the child, a descendant of the great Perseus. He would be called Heracles, meaning "glory of Hera." Hera was the name of Zeus' legitimate wife. By choosing to name the newborn after her, Zeus, who knew how irascible and jealous his wife could be, hoped to please her and receive her good grace. Curiously, Hera's reaction wasn't the one Zeus had expected. Unmoved, she declared to her husband, swear to me that the first child to be born a direct descendant of the great Perseus will one day be king. Zeus frowned. He feared trickery. He knew his wife well and knew how vengeful she could be. Hadn't she one day tried to kindle a revolt against him? And yet, so excited was he by the forthcoming birth of his son, whom he knew would possess extraordinary strengths, he made the oath to his wife. So Hera left Mount Olympus and hurried to Argos. There, Alcmene's cousin was also with child. With one of her secret spells, Hera provoked a premature birth. She had trapped Zeus. If he kept his word and upheld his oath to take as his rightful heir the first descendant of Perseus to be born, then it wouldn't be Heracles, but his cousin Eurystheus, who had just been born. Zeus was distraught and furious. His head became filled with the blackest thoughts. Hera, though, howled with laughter at the dirty trick she had played on her husband. But still, she wanted further revenge. Barely had Heracles come into the world when she sent two evil snakes to the infant's bed chamber. She counted on doing away with the child during his sleep. That day, Heracles would discover his incredible strength. Woken by the hissing of the two snakes, he leaped from his cradle, grabbed the two reptiles with his bare hands, and strangled them to death. It was the first of a long line of extraordinary feats. Heracles grew up. He was exceptionally tall. He was doted with a muscular strength the likes of which had never been seen on Earth. Zeus had given him one of the best tutors, but the pupil was far from compliant. One day, his music teacher decided to punish him for being insolent. Heracles lost his temper. He grabbed his lyre and hit his teacher so hard with it, he killed him. This quick tempered nature concerned Alcmene and Amphitryon, to whom Zeus had finally revealed the truth about the child's origins and who agreed to raise him as their own son. Fearing that Heracles might give in to other bouts of violence, Amphitryon sent him into the countryside to tend his flocks. From the wood of an old olive tree, Heracles fashioned himself a club. It would become his favorite weapon. Apollo, the protector of shepherds and goat herds, was also a warrior god, and he presented Heracles with a bow and a quiver of arrows. On the day that Heracles turned 18, he left the countryside and Amphitryon's flocks, and set off to discover the world. Soon, Heracles would also discover love in the shape of the daughter of the King of Thebes. Her name was Megara. To win her heart, he rid the city of all the bandits and brigands, and restored the authority of the king. Heracles and Megara married. She gave him no fewer than eight children. Heracles felt fulfilled and settled. Here he was, a father, the husband of a princess, and heir to the throne of Thebes. Not for an instant did he imagine that on high, up in the clouds, Hera had not abandoned her plan. The whole time, she had waited for the perfect moment to take her revenge on Zeus. She saw Heracles playing tenderly with his sons. It was on these unfortunate innocents that she would unleash her wrath. Hera inflicted madness on Heracles. The effect was terrifying. In a fit of madness, his head filled with dreadful hallucinations, the hero then committed the worst of all crimes-- infanticide. Confusing his children with wild beasts, he leaped on them and killed them all, one after the other. When he came to his senses, Heracles realized the full horror of his deed. He fell into deep despair. He had to pay for his crime. He had no choice. Now a pale phantom amongst mortals, he went in penitence to Delphi to consult the Oracle. Your crime is the worst crime of all. You are not worthy to be called the son of Zeus, nor even to be called a man. There is only one way for you to be purified. Go to he who, by an oath sworn by Zeus, has become the uncontested ruler of Greece, your cousin Eurystheus, who was born but a few hours before you. Obey him in all things, whatever his orders may be. Only then can you hope to earn your pardon. Heracles was a broken man. The prospect of entering into the service of a man as tyrannical as Eurystheus was terrible. But he had no choice. When he came before his cousin, Eurystheus looked him up and down, eyes full of contempt. Overjoyed at having Heracles kneel before him like a slave, he told him the price he must pay to obtain purification. He was to carry out 12 labors, all of them deemed impossible. And when he spelled out the list, inspired by the unyielding Hera, even the old stones of the palace shook with fear. And thus, the curtain was raised for the most fabulous feats ever accomplished by mortal man. The first of the 12 labors could be fatal for Heracles. It consisted in slaying a monstrous beast, the fruit of love between infernal creatures-- a lion with a magic hide similar to a carapace, the lion of Nemea. When Heracles saw that not even the arrows gifted to him by Apollo could slay the beast, he decided to wrestle it. He grabbed the creature by the neck and broke it. Then he carefully skinned it, and with leather harder than iron, made himself a helmet and impenetrable armor. Attired in this, he returned to the court of Eurystheus. Eurystheus then dispatched him to slay another monstrous beast-- the Hydra of Lerna, a gigantic serpent with nine heads. Heracles attacked with his sword. But every time he chopped off a head, two others grew back. Each blow brought to the Hydra regenerated it. Heracles, attacked from all sides, thought his days were over. But just then, an idea came to him, inspired by the goddess Athena. Every time he chopped off a head, he cauterized the wound with a flaming torch, thus preventing two heads from growing back. When there was only one head remaining, Heracles raised his golden sword and decapitated the monster before burning it. Then he dipped each of his arrows in the Hydra's black blood, impregnating them with a poison lethal to any living being. Heracles' labors were far from over. Having tracked down the Golden Hind, a deer with horns of gold, on Mount Ceryneia, captured a wild boar which had been terrorizing the region of Erymanthia, and cleaning the Augean stables, he was sent off to perform his sixth labor on the shores of Lake Stymphalia. There, a huge flock of birds haunted the swamps. Their heads, beaks, and wings were made of bronze. And they could shoot their feathers like arrows to kill humans, which they would then devour. Once again, Athena came to the rescue of the mortal she had made her protege. She gave him a musical instrument, until then unknown. A crotala, which, when rattled, produced a strange sound which terrified the birds, causing them to fly off, and allowing our giant hero to pick them off one by one with his poisoned arrows. Barely had he returned then Eurystheus sent him on a new mission-- to capture the cattle of Geryon. Geryon was a giant with three bodies and considered to be the strongest man on earth. He dealt at the far end of the world, where two islands faced each other, separated only by a narrow strait. After a fierce combat, Heracles brought down the giant and made off with his cattle. In this place, now become legendary, Heracles built on either side of the strait two stone columns. These would later be named by the Romans the Pillars of Hercules. But the most astonishing of his labors was undoubtedly the cleaning of the Augean stables. Augeas was a king as rich as he was idle. He owned a huge herd of white bulls. These sacred animals lived in stables up to their knees in the foulest smelling dung. Their stables hadn't been cleaned for 30 years. To make the task even harder, Eurystheus ordered Heracles to accomplish it in a single day. However would he manage? The hero made a vast breach in the stable walls. Then he rerouted the two rivers which flowed nearby. Their waters rushed through the breach in the walls, washing out the filth and sweeping it away to the sea. There was also the capture of the Cretan Bull and stealing the Mares of Diomedes. After which, he had gone to the land of the Amazons, where he obtained the girdle of Hippolyta, their queen. And a long quest which took him to the fabulous garden of the Hesperides, from where he returned with the golden apples which the earth goddess Gaia had given to Hera as a wedding gift. But the most terrifying labor was undoubtedly the last. Heracles now had to venture into the kingdom of the dead, to the depths of the underworld, to capture and bring back Cerberus, the three-headed hound that guarded the gates of hell. Having received advice from Athena and then Hermes, Heracles penetrated the darkness. He crossed the River Styx and arrived before Hades, ruler of the underworld. Heracles demanded that he hand over Cerberus. Hades agreed, but on one condition-- that Heracles manage to overcome the animal without using his club or his poisoned arrows. No one knows the exact outcome of that day on the banks of the River Styx. No soul has ever returned to tell the tale, and the two opponents themselves kept their silence. Was Cerberus tamed by Heracles' strength? Or did he simply bow down before the bravery and abnegation with which this mere mortal had paid for his terrible crime? The cousin of Heracles, the perfidious Eurystheus, who, since the beginning, had orchestrated the 12 labors, was terrified by the sight before his eyes. There, still alive, stood the valiant Heracles, and at his feet, the three-headed dog, Cerberus, the nightmare of mortals, his neck leashed, and with searing eyes. Thus, Heracles had triumphed by accomplishing his 12 labors. He was, at last, purified. But then came the day that Hera would finally apply the fatal blow to her enemy. Heracles had just wed the beautiful Deianira. As the couple were crossing a river, a sudden flood blocked their way. Heracles was a good swimmer. But even he could not defy the swirling waters and carry his bride on his shoulders. Just then, a creature plunged into the river-- the centaur, Nessus. He offered to ferry the young woman to the riverbank on his back while Heracles should make it on his own to the other bank. Heracles agreed. The centaur was first to reach safety. When Heracles set foot on the opposite bank, he heard the screams of Deianira. Nessus was attempting to rape the young woman. Heracles grabbed his bow and fired one of his poisoned arrows. It flew towards the creature and hit it full on. Realizing he was dying, Nessus took off his tunic, gave it to Deianira, and with his dying breath, said, I have been punished. Now let my death profit you. Accept my tunic, soak it in my blood, and give it to your husband. It will forever keep his love for you alight. Deianira did exactly what the centaur had told her. Then she presented Heracles with the tunic. At first, Heracles merely felt a slight tingling, then unbearable itching, and finally, a burning fire devouring him from the inside. Struck down by the pain, he tried to rip off the tunic, but it was his skin, stuck fast to the cloth which was ripped to shreds. He realized that Deianira had been tricked. Up on Mount Olympus, Zeus was unable to intervene. Such are the laws of fate, Hera told him. As a powerless witness, all the almighty King of the Gods could do was look on, waiting for death to finish its work. When Heracles finally let out his death rattle, Zeus sent down a thunderbolt. A cloud appeared, and amid thunder and lightning, lifted the hero into the sky to the gates of Olympus. He had finally entered his father's realm. Immortality awaited him. Heracles had joined the gods. [THEME MUSIC]
