Chapter 4 The Tale of Hercules-4

After the two women finished speaking, they disappeared immediately, leaving Hercules alone, determined to choose the path of "virtue".Before long, he found an opportunity to do good deeds.As we all know, at that time, Greece was densely covered with forests and swamps, full of ferocious lions, boars and other vicious beasts.It was, therefore, one of the great aims of the heroes of antiquity to clear away these evils, and to free Greece from such menacing beasts.Hercules was destined to face this daunting task.When he heard that there was a terrible lion in the pasture of King Phetryon at the foot of Mount Kiteron, the voice of "Virtue" sounded in the young hero's ears, and he immediately made a decision, and armed himself, Climbing up a barren mountain, he killed a lion, skinned the lion's skin, put it on his shoulders, and cut off the lion's head to make a helmet.

When he was hunting triumphantly, he met envoys sent by King Erginos of Mingye, who charged the Thebes with annual tribute, which was a heavy burden that was both unreasonable and humiliating.Hercules, presenting himself as the savior of all oppressed peoples, quickly overthrew these corrupt messengers to the ground, then bound them up, and sent them back to their king.Elginus savagely demanded that the king of Thebes hand over the murderer.King Creon of Thebes was afraid of the opponent's power and was ready to meet the opponent's request.Hercules mobilized a group of brave young men to resist the enemy with him.However, the people did not have any weapons, because the Mingye people confiscated all the weapons to prevent the Thebes from rebelling.Seeing this, the goddess Athena called Hercules into the temple and armed him with her own armor. There were still many weapons in the temple, which were captured by their ancestors in the war, as spoils of war to sacrifice to the gods.The youths who came with Hercules took up arms one after another and set off with Hercules.They only have a small team, while the Mingye people are a huge army with powerful troops.The two armies met on a narrow road. In this small area, although Mingye had many soldiers, they couldn't use them at all. Erginos' army was completely defeated, and he himself died in battle.However, Hercules' stepfather Amphitryon was also killed by an arrow in the battle.After the war, Hercules quickly advanced into Orkomenos, the capital of Mingye. He rushed into the city and burned the palace and destroyed the city.

All the Greeks praised his great achievements. King Creon of Thebes rewarded him by betrotting his daughter Megara, who later bore him three sons. The gods also gave this demigod hero many gifts: Hermes gave him a sword, Apollo gave him a bow, Hephaestus gave him a golden quiver, Athena Give him a new bronze shield.His mother, Alcmene, remarried, to the judge Radamantis.