The first labor that Eurystheus assigned to Hercules was to bring him
the skin of the Nemean lion. This monster dwelt on the mountain of
Peloponnesus, in the forest between Kleona and Nemea, and could be
wounded by no weapons made of man. Some said he was the son of the giant
Typhon and the snake Echidna; others that he had dropped down from the
moon to the earth.
Hercules set out on his journey and came to Kleona, where a poor
laborer, Molorchus, received him hospitably. He met the latter just as
he was about to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter.
"Good man," said Hercules, "let the animal live thirty days longer;
then, if I return, offer it to Jupiter, my deliverer, and if I do not
return, offer it as a funeral sacrifice to me, the hero who has attained
immortality."
So Hercules continued on his way, his quiver of arrows over his
shoulder, his bow in one hand, and in the other a club made from the
trunk of a wild olive tree which he had passed on Mount Helicon and
pulled up by the roots. When he at last entered the Nemean wood, he
looked carefully in every direction in order that he might catch sight
of the monster lion before the lion should see him. It was mid-day, and
nowhere could he discover any trace of the lion or any path that seemed
to lead to his lair. He met no man in the field or in the forest: fear
held them all shut up in their distant dwellings. The whole afternoon he
wandered through the thick undergrowth, determined to test his strength
just as soon as he should encounter the lion.
At last, toward evening, the monster came through the forest, returning
from his trap in a deep fissure of the earth.
He was saturated with blood: head, mane and breast were reeking, and his
great tongue was licking his jaws. The hero, who saw him coming long
before he was near, took refuge in a thicket and waited until the lion
approached; then with his arrow he shot him in the side. But the shot
did not pierce his flesh; instead it flew back as if it had struck
stone, and fell on the mossy earth.
Then the animal raised his bloody head; looked around in every
direction, and in fierce anger showed his ugly teeth. Raising his head,
he exposed his heart, and immediately Hercules let fly another arrow,
hoping to pierce him through the lungs. Again the arrow did not enter
the flesh, but fell at the feet of the monster.
Hercules took a third arrow, while the lion, casting his eyes to the
side, watched him. His whole neck swelled with anger; he roared, and his
back was bent like a bow. He sprang toward his enemy; but Hercules threw
the arrow and cast off the lion skin in which he was clothed with the
left hand, while with the right he swung his club over the head of the
beast and gave him such a blow on the neck that, all ready to spring as
the lion was, he fell back, and came to a stand on trembling legs, with
shaking head. Before he could take another breath, Hercules was upon
him.
Throwing down his bow and quiver, that he might be entirely
unencumbered, he approached the animal from behind, threw his arm around
his neck and strangled him. Then for a long time he sought in vain to
strip the fallen animal of his hide. It yielded to no weapon or no
stone. At last the idea occurred to him of tearing it with the animal's
own claws, and this method immediately succeeded.
Later he prepared for himself a coat of mail out of the lion's skin, and
from the neck, a new helmet; but for the present he was content to don
his own costume and weapons, and with the lion's skin over his arm took
his way back to Tirynth.