Hercules left the herdsmen and the herd and went to a quiet place to ponder his life path. www.biquge.infoSuddenly, he saw two noble women approaching him.

A woman with a great demeanor, noble and pure, with modest eyes and courteous manners, wears a white robe. The other was graceful and luxurious, with snow-white skin smeared with perfume and perfume, and her posture was upright, making her appear a little taller than she really was.

Her gaze was straight ahead, and she was well-dressed, showing infinite charm. She admired herself, and looked forward to seeing if anyone was looking at her with admiration. As they approached, the latter woman took a few steps ahead of the first, and as she approached the handsome Hercules, she greeted her:

"Hercules, you know what? I can see that you are still hesitating and don't know what path you should choose in life.

But if you choose me to be your girlfriend, then I can lead you on the most comfortable path of life. There, you can enjoy the joy of life and have no worries and grievances in your life; You don't have to go to war, you don't have to worry about buying and selling, you just enjoy good wine and good food, you sleep in a warm and soft bed, you stretch out your hands for your clothes, you don't have to open your mouth for food, you don't have to do physical and mental work; I can enjoy the fruits of other people's labor, and I will have the glory and wealth that I will not enjoy for the rest of my life, because I give my friends the right to enjoy everything. “

Hercules listened to this seductive word and asked her in astonishment, "What is your name, beautiful woman?" “

"My friends call me the goddess of happiness." She replied, followed by "And those who want to belittle me call me a frivolous girl." “

Just then, another woman came to the front. "I've come here to you, dear Hercules." She said, "I know your father, I know your gifts, and you have been educated, and all this gives me hope that if you choose the path I have shown you, then you will accomplish all the good and great things in the world."

But I can't guarantee you the glory and riches. I just want to tell you how much the gods in heaven love you. But nothing will fall from the sky.

If you want the gods to protect you, then you should first worship them. If you want to be loved by your friends, then you should do good deeds for your friends; If you want the country to respect you, you should serve it; If you want all Greece to exalt your virtues, then you should seek happiness for all Greece; If you want to win the war, you have to learn the art of war; If you want to keep your body strong, you should make it strong through hard labor. “

The flirtatious woman interrupted her suddenly. "Behold, dear Hercules," she said, "what a long and rough road you have to go to reach the object of which she speaks. And I guide you to happiness in the most comfortable way. “

"You are a lying woman," the virtuous woman said to her, "and you have nothing beautiful." You don't know what true happiness is, because you haven't walked in front of them before you're satisfied. You don't eat hungry, you don't drink thirsty, and no soft and warm bed can satisfy you. You let your friends drink all night and sleep soundly during the day, and how much good time is wasted. They spend their days drinking and living carefree lives when they are young, and in their old age, they are ashamed of the time that passed. And you? Though you are immortal, you are spurned by the gods and despised by the good of the world. You've never heard a compliment, you've never done a good deed.

But on the contrary, I was welcomed by the gods and all good people. Artists see me as a messenger, my parents see me as a loyal protector, and servants see me as a benevolent helper. I am a supporter of the cause of peace, a reliable ally in war, and a loyal partner of friendship. Eating and sleeping are more important to my friends than to lazy people.

Young people are happy to be praised by the elderly, and old people are happy to be respected by the young. They are satisfied with their past behavior, and they are happy with what they are doing now. We have made people respectful of each other, blessed by the gods, loved by their friends, and honored by their nations, so that when the end comes, they will not go to the grave in silence and without glory, but their glory will remain on earth and admired by the generations to come. Ah, Hercules, if you choose such a path in life, you will feel true happiness. “

After the two women finished speaking, they disappeared instantly, leaving Hercules alone, determined to choose the path of "virtue". Soon, he found an opportunity to do good.

It is well known that at that time, the Greek jungle was dense and swampy, full of fierce lions, boars and other evil beasts. Therefore, the removal of these obstacles and the liberation of Greece from such harmful beasts was one of the great goals of the ancient heroes. Hercules was destined for this daunting task. When he heard that there was a terrible lion at the foot of Mount Kitalon, in the pasture of King Fitryon, the voice of "virtue" sounded in the ears of the young hero, and he immediately made a decision, and climbed up the barren mountain, fully armed, and killed the lion, skinned it, and draped it over his shoulders, and then cut off the lion's head for a helmet.

As he hunted triumphantly, he encountered emissaries sent by King Myeongye, Elginos, who collected an annual tribute from the Thebans, a heavy burden that was both unreasonable and humiliating. Hercules, who made himself the savior of all the oppressed, quickly knocked the wicked messengers to the ground, and then bound them up and sent them back to their king.

Erginos brutally demanded that the king of Thebes hand over the murderer. King Creon of Thebes feared the power of his opponent and was ready to meet his demands. Hercules mobilized a brave youth to join him in resisting the enemy. However, the people did not have a single weapon, because the Meiba people collected all their weapons to prevent the Thebans from rebelling. When the goddess Athena saw this, she summoned Hercules to the temple and armed him with her own armor, which also contained weapons that their ancestors had captured in battle to sacrifice to the gods.

The young men who came with Hercules took up arms one after another and set out with Hercules. They only have a small group of men, and the Mingye people are a large legion with a strong force.

The two armies met on a narrow road, and in this small land, although there were many soldiers in Mingye, they could not be used at all, and the army of Elginos was completely defeated, and he himself was killed on the battlefield. However, Hercules' stepfather, Amphitryon, was also killed in the war. After the end of the war, Hercules quickly advanced into the capital city of Orkomenos, and he stormed the city and burned the palace and destroyed the city.

All the Greeks celebrated his exploits.

In order to reward him, King Creon of Thebes gave him his daughter Megara, who later bore him three sons. The gods also gave the demigod hero many gifts: Hermes gave him a sword, Apollo gave him a bow, Hephaestus gave him a golden quiver, and Athena gave him a brand new bronze shield. His mother, Alcmene, remarried, to the judge Radamantis.

Hercules was grateful for the precious gifts of the gods. Soon, he found an opportunity to repay the reward. It turned out that Gaia, the goddess of the earth, had given birth to a group of giants for the god Ouranos, and these monsters had hideous faces, long beards, long hair, and a scaly dragon's tail behind them, which became their feet.

Mother instigated them to oppose Zeus, who became the new ruler of the world, and sent all of Gaia's former sons, the Titans, to Tartarus in Hell. A few years later, they broke through hell and emerged in the fields of Thessaly. As soon as he saw them, the stars changed color, and even Apollo turned in the direction of the solar car.

"Go, children, and avenge me, for the sons of the gods of yesteryear." Mother Earth said to them, "The vultures are pecking at Prometheus' liver; Titius was also punished, Zeus struck him with lightning, he lay on the ground, and two eagles pecked at his liver! Atlas was sentenced to carry the sky on his shoulders; The Titans are chained and tortured, go, take revenge, save them! You should use my limbs, the high peaks, as ladders and weapons! Climb aboard the starlit castle!

Alkyunaeus, take the scepter and lightning from the tyrant's hands! Encherados, you go and conquer the seas and drive Poseidon away! Ryodus to take the reins from the sun god, and Perfirion to take the temple of Delphi! The giants heard the command and shouted loudly, as if they had already triumphed. They climbed Mount Thessaly and prepared to storm the sky from there.

At the same time, the rainbow goddess Aerys, the messenger of the gods, hurriedly summoned all the gods, water gods, and the goddess of fate in the underworld, and asked them to come together to discuss how to deal with them. Persephone left her underworld; Her husband, the king of the silent dead, also climbed the glittering sacred mountain of Olympus on a light-phobic steed. Like the inhabitants of a besieged city flocking to the Acropolis from all directions, the gods gathered on the sacred mountain of Olympus.

"Gods," Zeus said to them, "look how the Mother Earth is so vigorously and viciously against us. Let's get up and fight! As many sons as she sends us, we will send her as many corpses as we send!" “

As soon as the Father of All Gods finished speaking, there was a thunderclap in the sky. In return, a violent earthquake erupted below in the subterranean world. Nature is in chaos as it was when it was created. The giants uprooted mountain after mountain, and piled up Mount Osa, Mount Pelion, Mount Ota, and Mount Athos of Thessaly, and then washed away Mount Rodupop with half of the source of Heberos. The giants climbed up the mountain ladder step by step towards the dwelling place of the gods, holding flaming oak sticks and huge stones in their hands, and rushed towards Olympus like a storm.

The gods were given an oracle that if no mortal was involved in the battle, the gods would not be able to kill the invading giants. When Gaia heard this, he hurried to find a way to keep his sons safe from mortals. This requires a medicinal herb. However, Zeus was one step ahead, and he did not let the morning glow, the moon, and the sun shine. While Gaia searched everywhere in the darkness for herbs, Zeus harvested them. He asked Athena to give the herb to his son Hercules and asked him to come to war.

The holy mountain of Olympiens is ablaze with fire. Ares, the god of war, sat upright on his chariot, and the horses in front of it neighed loudly. He rushed in the wagon towards the dense enemy. Ares held a glittering golden shield in his hand, shining brighter than a flame. The feathers on his helmet whirred in the wind.

He pierced the serpent-footed giant Peloros with a single shot, and ran over his limbs in a chariot. But it wasn't until the giant saw the mortal Hercules climb to the top of Mount Olympus that he died out of his body. Hercules looked around the battlefield and found a target for his bow: he shot an arrow at Alchiunaeus, and the giant rolled down, but when it touched the earth, he was resurrected. According to Athena's idea, Hercules also chased after him. He lifted Alchiunaeus from the ground. Poor Alkyunaeus died as soon as he left the earth.

At this moment, the giant Perfirion swooped down on Hercules and Hera to fight them to the death. Zeus watched all this, and immediately made the giant want to see the queen of the gods, and as soon as he lifted Hera's veil, Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt. Hercules shot an arrow that killed him instantly. In the battle ranks of the giants, there has rushed out of Epheals, whose eyes are spitting sparks.

"Humph! Just in time, he has become a target for our archery. Hercules laughed and said to Apollo beside him. So Apollo and the demigod took action together and shot two arrows, which hit Ephials in both eyes. Dionysus, the god of wine, raised the Dionysian staff and knocked Lydus to the ground. Hephaestus threw a red-hot iron bullet with one hand. The scorching iron bullets rained down like a torrential rain, and the giant Cleytius fell to the ground and died on the spot.

Athena lifted Sicily and slammed it at Encheradus, who was fleeing, holding him down. The giant Polypotes was pursued by Poseidon on the sea, and fled all the way to the island of Kos in the Aegean Sea. Poseidon immediately split a corner of the island and buried him in it. Wearing the helmet of the hellish god Pluton on his head, Hermes killed Hippolytus. The other two giants were also crushed to death by the iron rod of the goddess of fate.

The rest of the giants were struck with lightning or shot to death by Hercules with bows and arrows.

At the end of the battle, the gods praised Hercules for his great achievements. Zeus called the gods who fought Olympians, the title of the brave. The two sons born to Zeus, Dionysus and Hercules, also received this glorious title.

Before Hercules was born, Zeus had announced at the Council of the Gods that the first grandson of Perseus would rule over all the other descendants of Perseus. He wanted to give the honor to one of the sons born to him and Alcmene.

Hera, however, was jealous of the fact that this glory was owed to her rival, so she tricked up her trick to give birth to another of Perseus's grandsons, Eurystheus, who was supposed to be born later than Hercules. Thus, Eurystheus became King of McKenny, and Hercules, who was born later, became his subject. The king, noticing the great fame of his young brother, summoned him as if he were a subject, and gave him a great deal of difficult tasks.

Hercules was unwilling to obey. But Zeus was unwilling to disobey his rules, so he ordered his son to carry out the king's orders. Unwilling to be a slave to mortals, this demigod, half-human hero left his home and came to Delphi to ask for an oracle. The oracle revealed that Eurystheus had taken the throne by deceitful Hera, and that the gods would correct it, but Hercules had to complete the ten tasks assigned to him by the king. When these tasks are completed, he can be elevated to the status of God.

When Hercules heard this oracle, his heart was depressed and he fell into deep sorrow. Serving someone who is inferior to him is really detrimental to his dignity and lowers his status. But he did not dare to disobey the will of his father Zeus.

Hera still hated Hercules, even though he had aided the gods in his battle with the giants. She took the opportunity to turn the depression in Hercules' heart into a wild rage. Hercules could not control himself, and he even tried to kill his cherished nephew, Iolaus. The nephew was taken aback and hurriedly fled. Hercules shot the children born to him and Megara with an arrow in a rage, imagining that he was killing the giant with an arrow. He went crazy for a long time before he could get out. He saw himself in a great calamity, plunged into deeper sorrow and misfortune.

He closed his door and didn't see anyone. As time passed, the pain in his heart lessened. He regained his strength, determined to complete the task given to him by Eurystheus.

The king's first task to Hercules was that Hercules had to skin the great lion of Nemia for him. This giant beast lives in the great forest between the Peloponnese, Nimia and Crevona in the Argolis region. The lion is so fierce that human weapons can't hurt it at all. Some say that the lion was the son of the giant Typhon and the half-human, half-serpent monster Eucadna, while others say that it fell from the moon to the earth. Hercules set out to hunt lions. He traveled all the way to Crewona and met a poor day laborer named Mororculus, who was warmly received. Mororculus was trying to slaughter an animal as sacrificed to Zeus. "Good man," said Hercules, "let your cattle live another thirty days!"

If I can return from the hunt by then, then you can sacrifice to Zeus, the savior, and if I die, you should sacrifice me as a hero who has ascended to the gods. “

With that, Hercules moved on again. He carried a quiver on his back, a bow in one hand, and a stick made of olive trees uprooted from Mount Helikon in the other. After a few days of walking, he came to the great forest of Nimia. He searched around the woods, trying to spot it before the lion could see him. But there was no lion in sight, and he didn't meet a single person. All the people hid in their homes and closed their doors out of fear.

In the evening, the lion walks slowly on a forest path. It has just returned from predation and is ready to return to its nest to rest. It had eaten to a bulging belly, and there was still a little blood dripping from its head, mane, and chest, and its tongue licking the blood from its lips. Hercules saw it approaching step by step, and hurriedly hid in the dense bushes, quietly waited for it to approach, and aimed an arrow at its waist, Hercules pulled out his bow and shot an arrow. But his arrow did not hurt it, but it bounced back like a stone and landed on the mossy ground. The lion raised its bloody head and rolled its eyes to look around, revealing its terrible fangs.

Now, it just had its chest facing Hercules. The demigod, half-human hero seized the moment and shot a second arrow at its heart. But this time it was the same, an arrow could not hurt it. When Hercules was about to shoot the third arrow, the lion had already seen him. It wrenched its long tail in a rage, its neck swollen with rage, its mane stood on end, its back arched, its blood-red eyes wide, and its dull roar swooped down on its foes.

Hercules threw down the arrow in his hand, threw away the lion's skin on his body, and struck the lion on the head with a wooden stick in his right hand, striking it in the neck, and the lion fell to the ground. Then it jumped, but pounced. Then it stood up trembling on all fours, and Hercules, before it could recover, immediately rushed forward. He simply threw all the bows and arrows on his back on the ground, and with his free hands, he grabbed the lion's neck and grabbed the lion's throat with all his might, and the lion struggled for a while, and finally gave up his breath. Hercules did not take any trouble to peel off the lion's skin, for no iron could cut a hole in it.

Finally, he came up with a way to cut the skin with its claws, and finally peeled the lion's skin off. Later, he sewed a piece of armor from this bizarre lion skin and also made a new helmet. Now he packed up the lion skin and weapon he had brought, draped the lion skin of the great lion of Nemia over his shoulders, and set out for Tyrins.

When Hercules came to Morocus as promised, exactly 30 days had passed. Mororculus was busy offering sacrifices to the undead of Hercules, however, he was pleasantly surprised when the hero suddenly appeared in front of him. So the two made sacrifices to the savior Zeus, and then Hercules said goodbye to him cordially and went home.

When King Eurystheus saw Hercules returning in a terrible lion's skin, his legs trembled with terror, and he was afraid of the hero's divine power, and from then on he never allowed Hercules to come near him, and all orders were conveyed to him by Cooproyus, the son of Pelops. (To be continued.) )