The Lion of Nemea

Eurystheus had always hated Hercules. He was a weak king, and was very jealous of Hercules' strength, courage, and fame, even though the two were cousins. When Hercules met with him and explained the gods' order, King Eurystheus gave Hercules an evil smile. He was very pleased.

"You are my slave now, Hercules," began the king,

"and you may not leave here until you have completed all twelve tasks that I assign you."

Because of his hatred for Hercules, Eurystheus decided that he would find tasks that were impossible to complete. In this way, Hercules would have to spend his whole life as Eurystheus' slave. With this in his mind, the king gave his first order:

"I have decided on my first task. In the forest of Nemea lives a terrible lion, which has been attacking people in the towns nearby. The lion has magical skin that no weapon can break. I want you to kill this lion and bring me his skin."

Hercules traveled to the forest of Nemea in search of the troublesome lion. He eventually found the animal sleeping in its cave and walked up quietly so that the lion would not hear him. Pulling out his sword, Hercules struck the lion with all of his great strength. His sword broke into a hundred small pieces when it hit the lion's magic skin.

The lion awoke when he felt the attack and jumped at Hercules. Still, Hercules was the stronger of the two and used his great hands to crush the lion's neck. The lion could not breathe and it fell down dead on the ground.

Hercules still faced another problem though: He needed to get the lion's skin off of its body. "But how?" he wondered. His knife would not go through the skin. Then Hercules had an idea. He grasped one of the lion's hands and tried using its own claws to cut through the magic skin. Using this method, the lion's skin came off easily.

Hercules had another idea as well. Since the lion's skin could not be hurt by swords or arrows, he would make it into a coat of armor to protect him on other adventures. He cut the skin into a coat and made the lion's head into a hat. Then he returned to see Eurystheus.

When he arrived at the king's castle, he was still wearing the lion skin. The king was not a brave man; when he saw Hercules wearing the lion skin, he thought that it was a lion walking on two legs. The king screamed, ran into his bedroom, and shut the door. Hercules laughed hard at the king, as did the king's guards who saw the whole scene.

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