Nemean Lion’s Family Tree

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Family

• Echidna(parent),Typhon(parent),Cerberus(sibling),Chimera(sibling),Colchian Dragon(sibling),Ladon(sibling),Lernaean Hydra(sibling),Orthrus(sibling),Sphinx(sibling)— Consort

  Typhon and Echidna produced a brood of monsters including Cerberus, the Chimera, the Lernaean Hydra, the Nemean Lion, the Sphinx, Orthrus, Ladon, and the Colchian Dragon — terrors that defined Greek heroic mythology.

• Chimera(parent),Orthrus(parent),Sphinx(sibling)— Consort

  Chimera, overcome by Orthrus, bore the Sphinx who plagued Thebes and the Nemean Lion that Heracles strangled as his first labor.

  ⚠ Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 3.5.8, 2.5.1) attributes the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion to Typhon and Echidna, while Hesiod (Theogony 326\u2013332) names Chimera and Orthrus as their parents.

• Echidna(parent),Orthrus(parent),Sphinx(sibling)— Consort

  Orthrus fathered the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion by his own mother Echidna, as told in Hesiod's Theogony.

  ⚠ This parentage is textually uncertain. The relevant passage in the Theogony (326-332) uses ambiguous pronouns, and scholars debate whether 'he' refers to Orthrus or Typhoeus. Many editors prefer Typhoeus as the father.

Guarded by

• Hera

  Hera nurtured and raised the Nemean Lion, setting it to ravage the countryside of Nemea as a trial for Heracles during his First Labor.

Slain by

• Heracles

  Heracles strangled the Nemean Lion with his bare hands as his first labor, thereafter wearing its impenetrable hide.

Associated with

• Eurystheus

  Eurystheus commanded Heracles to slay the Nemean Lion and bring back its hide as the First Labor, a task he believed impossible due to the beast's invulnerability.

• Selene

  Selene dropped the Nemean Lion from the moon to the earth, giving Hera's monstrous beast an alternate celestial origin before Heracles strangled it as his first labor.

  ⚠ Aelian's account of the lion's lunar origin contradicts the more widely attested parentage from Typhon and Echidna (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.5.1) or Orthrus and Chimera (Hesiod, Theogony 326-332).