Nemean Lion- Greek CreatureCreature · Monster

The Beast of Nemea

The Nemean Lion terrorized the region of Nemea in the northeastern Peloponnese. Larger than any natural beast, it possessed a golden hide that turned aside every weapon — bronze, iron, sharpened stone, nothing left a mark. The creature preyed on herds and travelers alike, and no hunter who went after it returned alive. Some sources name Typhon and Echidna as its parents, placing it among the siblings of the Hydra, Chimera, and Cerberus. Others say the goddess Selene created it, or that it fell from the moon.

The First Labor

King Eurystheus, seeking to destroy Heracles, commanded him to bring back the lion's skin as his First Labor. Heracles tracked the lion to its lair, a cave with two entrances in the hills above Nemea. He blocked one opening and entered through the other. When his arrows and club proved useless against the golden hide, he wrestled the beast with his bare hands and choked it to death — the only way to kill a creature whose exterior was impervious to any weapon. Having slain it, Heracles faced another problem: how to skin it. Athena advised him to use the lion's own claws, the only things sharp enough to cut the hide.

When Heracles returned to Tiryns carrying the carcass on his shoulders, Eurystheus was so terrified at the sight that he hid inside a bronze storage jar sunk into the ground. He ordered Heracles to leave his trophies outside the city gates from then on and to receive his commands through a herald.

The Lion's Skin

Heracles wore the Nemean Lion's skin for the rest of his life. The hood was formed from the lion's head, the paws knotted across his chest, the golden hide serving as armor no weapon could pierce. When Heracles died and ascended to Olympus, Zeus placed the lion among the stars as the constellation Leo.