Nemea

Nemea

Nemea is an ancient site in the Peloponnese in Greece, which provided the setting for one of the Labours of Heracles, in ancient Greek mythology. The ruler of the area was King Lycurgus and his wife was Queen Eurydice. The first labour that King Eurystheus asked Heracles to perform was to kill the Nemean lion, a creature that roamed in the area. Its skin was impenetrable by normal weapons, and it had golden fur. Heracles did not know this, and when he tried to confront it, he shot arrows against it with no success. So, he devised a plan; he cornered the lion in its den and eventually managed to capture it and strangle it with his bare hands. He tried to take its skin with his knife but failed; the goddess Athena saw how frustrated he was, and advised him to skin it using one of the lion's claws. Thus, he managed to take the skin and use it as a body armour.

See Also: Labours of Heracles, Lycurgus, Eurydice, Eurystheus, Nemean lion, Athena

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