From now on, he wore the lion's invulnerable pelt as armor. It was resistant against all weapons, but Heracles strangled it. Heracles' first task was to kill the lion of nearby Nemea, a terrible beast. When he had recovered, he consulted the oracle of Delphi, which ordered him to serve his relative Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns, who would order him to perform 'the twelve labors'. Heracles became a strong warrior, but Hera struck him with madness, and he killed his own children. However, the young boy killed the animals. Zeus' lawful wife Hera hated the child born out of wedlock, and sent two snakes to kill the baby. Youth Heracles and the snakesĪccording to the ancient Greeks, the demigod Heracles (or Hercules, as the Romans called him) was the son of a mortal woman named Alcmene and the supreme god Zeus. Several dynasties, like the twin royal houses of Sparta and the Argeads of Macedonia, claimed to descend from this son of Zeus. Heracles (Latin: Hercules): most important of the Greek demigods.