Nemean lion

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"Hercules fighting the Nemean lion" based on a design by Johann Gottfried Schadow

The Nemean lion ( Greek  Λέων τῆς Νεμέας , historical spelling also Nemean) was an invulnerable lion in Greek mythology who, at the instigation of Hera , wreaked havoc in the forests of the Argolis on the Peloponnese between Nemea and Kleonai , by attacking humans and animals. It is not to be confused with the Kitharonic Lion .

The Nemean lion may have been a descendant of Typhon and Echidna , but maybe also from the sky, maybe fallen from the moon or the son of the moon goddess .

The legend goes as follows: Heracles had fallen out of favor with the goddess Hera , whereupon she sent him mad. Going mad, Heracles threw his 12 children into the fire. In order to free himself from his guilt, he was condemned to serve the king Eurystheus for 12 years , who gave him 12 tasks.

Heracles was supposed to be the first of the 12 jobs to be done for Eurystheus to bring the lion's skin to him. The hero noticed that the lion was invulnerable when he shot at him with arrows, which simply ricocheted off. So he hit the monster with his huge club (made from an olive tree ) over the skull when it jumped at him . The lion took refuge in his shelter, a crevice that ran through the Tretos mountain. After Heracles had closed one exit of the gap, he grabbed the lion when it came out at the other end and choked him to death. He wrested the lion with its own claws, because only these were able to cut the animal's skin, took the fur over his arm and made his way back to Tiryns to Eurystheus. Later kürschnerte viewed from the coat a cloak that made him almost invulnerable.

When Eurystheus saw him coming with his skin on, he was so shocked at its strength that he hid himself in a large jug and refused to receive Heracles. Even later the king no longer dared to let him in, but had a certain Kopreus convey his orders to him outside the city walls .

The lion was later transferred to the sky by Hera as the constellation Leo .

literature

Web links

Commons : Nemean Lion  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ^ Hesiod , Theogony 327-329.
  2. Herodoros of Herakleia in Tatian , Oratio ad Graecos 27:29, 12 ff.
  3. Plutarch , De facie in orbe lunae 24; Aelian , De natura animalium 12.7.
  4. Seneca , Hercules Furens 83 ff .; in Hyginus , Fabulae 30: "quem Luna nutrierat" ("which Luna had nourished")
  5. Diodor , Libraries 4,11,3
  6. Theokritos , Idyllen 25, 195-281
  7. Diodor, Libraries 4,11,4. Other authors report a cave with two exits.
  8. Libraries of Apollodorus 2,5,1.
  9. ^ Hyginus , De astronomia 2.24.