Nemean Lion

Nemean Lion




















Nemean Lion


Nemean Lion was a large lion, whose hide was impervious to weapons, which plagued the district of Nemea in the Argolis. King Eurystheus commanded Herakles to destroy the beast as the first of his twelve Labours. The hero cornered the lion in its cave and seizing it by the neck wrestled it to death. He then skinned its hide to make a lion-skin cape, one of his most distinctive attributes. Hera afterwards placed the lion amongst the stars as the constellation Leo.

Nemean Lion The mountain valley of Nemea, between Cleonae and Phlius, was inhabited by a lion, the offspring of Typhon (or Orthrus) and Echidna. (Hes. Theog. 327; Apollod. ii. 5. § 1; comp. Aelian, H. A. xii. 7, Serv. ad Aen. viii. 295.) Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring him the skin of this monster. When Heracles arrived at Cleonae, he was hospitably received by a poor man called Molorchus. This man was on the point of offering up a sacrifice, but Heracles persuaded him to delay it for thirty days until he should return from his fight with the lion, in order that then they might together offer sacrifices to Zeus Soter; but Heracles added, that if he himself should not return, the man should offer a sacrifice to him as a hero. The thirty days passed away, and as Heracles did not return, Molorchus made preparations for the heroic sacrifice; but at that moment Heracles arrived in triumph over the monster, which was slain, and both sacrificed to Zeus Soter. Heracles, after having in vain used his club and arrows against the lion, had blocked up one of the entrances to the den, and entering by the other, he strangled the animal with his own hands. According to Theocritus (xxv. 251, &c.), the contest did not take place in the den, but in the open air, and Heracles is said to have lost a finger in the struggle. (Ptolem. Heph. 2.) He returned to Eurystheus carrying the dead lion on his shoulders; and Eurystheus, frightened at tile gigantic strength of the hero, took to flight, and ordered him in future to deliver the account of his exploits outside the gates of the town.

Hercules's 1st Labor was to kill the Nemean Lion and bring it back its pelt to the king. Arrows didn't work to kill the lion. It didn't work because the pelt was made of thick fur. Hercules threw an arrow in the lion's throat to kill it. He strangled the lion with a rope.
After Hercules killed the lion, he brought it to the king. The king gave the pelt to Hercules to use as armor so he could get through the rest of the 11 other Labors.

Nemean Lion As The Constellation Leo
Various Greek and Roman writers associate the Nemeian Lion with the constellation Leo. there are:

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 24 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"[Constellation] Leo. He is said to have been put among the stars because he is considered the king of beasts. Some writers add that Hercules’ first Labour was with him and that he killed him unarmed. Pisandrus and many other writers have written about this."

Seneca, Oedipus 38 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :
"[A land plaued with drought :] Titan [Helios the sun] augments the scorching dog-stars’s [Seirios'] fires, close-pressing upon the Nemean Lion’s [i.e. Leo, zodiac of mid-summer] back. Water has fled the streams, and from the herbage verdure."

Seneca, Hercules Furens 942 ff :
"[Herakles driven mad by Hera believes the constellations are attacking him :] Whence do so many stars fill the sky though it is day [i.e. there is a solar eclipse]? See where the [Nemean] lion, my first toil, glows in no small part of heaven [constellation Leo], is all hot with rage, and makes ready his fangs. Forthwith he will seize some star; threatening he stands with gaping jaws, and breathes forth fires, and shakes the mane upon his flaming neck; whatever stars sickly autumn and cold winter with its frozen tracts bring back, with one bound will he o’erleap, and attack and crush the neck of the vernal Bull [Taurus]."


sources:
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
http://mrdfourth90.com/all_class_sites/2010/Greek_Myths/data/labor1.htm
http://www.theoi.com/Ther/LeonNemeios.html