Alcmene

Alcmene was the wife of Amphitryon in Greek mythology and, by Zeus, the mother of Heracles. She was a granddaughter of Perseus and a woman of such beauty and wisdom that Hesiod says she surpassed all other mortal women (Hesiod, Shield 1–8). Zeus came to her in the likeness of her husband, and the twin sons she bore were Heracles, the son of Zeus, and Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.8). Homer already names her among the famous women of old (Odyssey 2.118–122), and in the underworld Odysseus sees her as the wife of Amphitryon who lay with Zeus and bore Heracles (Odyssey 11.266–268).

Family

Alcmene was the daughter of Electryon, a son of Perseus and Andromeda and king of Mycenae (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.5; Hesiod, Shield 1–3). Her mother is given differently. Apollodorus says that Electryon married Anaxo, the daughter of his brother Alcaeus (Library 2.4.5); Diodorus says that his wife was Eurydice, a daughter of Pelops (Diodorus 4.9.1); and Plutarch calls Alcmene a daughter of Lysidice (Plutarch, Theseus 7.1). She had many brothers, the sons of Electryon, who were killed in a fight with the Taphians over the cattle of Electryon (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.6).

Amphitryon

Electryon intended to avenge his sons on the Teleboans and left the kingdom and Alcmene to Amphitryon, who swore to keep her a virgin until his return. While they were recovering the stolen cattle, Amphitryon threw a club at a cow that charged; it rebounded from her horns and killed Electryon. In Hesiod the two men quarrelled over the cattle and Amphitryon killed Electryon in anger (Hesiod, Shield 11–13). Sthenelus banished Amphitryon, who went with Alcmene and Licymnius to Thebes, and was purified there by Creon (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.6). Alcmene said that she would marry him when he had avenged her brothers, and Amphitryon set out against the Teleboans (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.6; Hesiod, Shield 14–19).

Zeus and Alcmene

While Amphitryon was away, Zeus came in the night in the likeness of Amphitryon and lay with Alcmene, making the one night three times its length, and told her of the victory over the Teleboans (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.8; Diodorus 4.9.2). Diodorus says that Zeus took this shape because Alcmene was so chaste that he could not hope to persuade her (Diodorus 4.9.3). Hesiod says that Zeus lay with her on the same night that Amphitryon, returning, went to her bed (Hesiod, Shield 27–47). When the real Amphitryon returned and found that Alcmene did not welcome him, she told him that he had come the night before; he learned from the seer Tiresias what Zeus had done (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.8).

Alcmene bore twin sons, Heracles by Zeus and Iphicles by Amphitryon; Heracles was older by one night (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.8; Hesiod, Shield 49–56).

The Birth of Heracles

On the day Alcmene was to give birth in Thebes, Zeus announced among the gods that a man of his own blood born that day would rule all who dwelt around him. Hera made him swear an oath to it, then went to Argos, where the wife of Sthenelus, a son of Perseus, was in the seventh month, and brought Eurystheus into the world early, while she stopped Alcmene’s labour and held back the Eileithyiae, the goddesses of childbirth (Homer, Iliad 19.95–124). So Eurystheus became the king and Heracles his servant (Iliad 19.132–133). In Apollodorus, Zeus declares that the descendant of Perseus then about to be born would reign over Mycenae, and Hera persuades the Ilithyias to delay Alcmene’s delivery (Library 2.4.5).

How the delay was broken is told in two ways. In Ovid, Alcmene tells Iole that she suffered seven days and nights, calling on Lucina, who sat before the door with her legs crossed and her fingers locked together to hold back the birth. A servant of Alcmene named Galanthis, a girl with yellow hair, saw this and cried that Alcmene had given birth; the goddess leapt up in surprise, loosing her hands, and the child was born. Lucina then dragged Galanthis by the hair and changed her into a weasel (Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.273–323). At Thebes, Pausanias heard that Hera had sent “Witches” to stop the birth, and that Historis, daughter of Tiresias, tricked them by crying aloud that Alcmene had been delivered (Pausanias 9.11.3).

Diodorus tells that after the birth Alcmene, fearing Hera’s jealousy, exposed the baby at a place later called the Field of Heracles. Athena, passing by with Hera, persuaded Hera to give the child the breast, but he sucked so hard that Hera flung him away, and Athena took him back to his mother and told her to rear him (Diodorus 4.9.6). When the child was eight months old, Hera sent two huge snakes to the bed, and Alcmene called for Amphitryon; Heracles had already strangled them with his hands (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.8).

Alcmene After Heracles

After Heracles became a god, his children fled from Eurystheus and came to Athens, where the Athenians defended them. Eurystheus was killed by Hyllus, who gave his head to Alcmene, and she gouged out his eyes with weaving-pins (Apollodorus, Library 2.8.1). Diodorus says that after the failed return of the Heracleidae, Alcmene went back to Thebes (Diodorus 4.58.6).

Death

The sources disagree about her death. According to the Megarians, as she was walking from Argos to Thebes she died on the way at Megara; the Heracleidae quarrelled over whether to take her body to Argos or to Thebes, where Amphitryon and the children of Heracles by Megara were buried, and the oracle at Delphi told them to bury her in Megara (Pausanias 1.41.1). The Thebans said that on her death she was turned into a stone, and that she had no tomb (Pausanias 9.16.7). Diodorus says that when she disappeared from sight at Thebes she received divine honours from the Thebans (Diodorus 4.58.6).

Alcmene Sources

Homer, Iliad 19.95–133; Odyssey 2.118–122, 11.266–268. Hesiod, Shield 1–56. Diodorus Siculus 4.9.1–6, 4.58.6. Apollodorus, Library 2.4.5–8, 2.8.1. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.273–323. Plutarch, Theseus 7.1. Pausanias 1.41.1, 9.11.3, 9.16.7.

See Also: Amphitryon, Heracles, Zeus, Creon, Tiresias, Eurystheus, Hera, Iphicles