Hercules (Greek Mythology)

## Background

The son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman, Alcmene, the young demi-god Heracles forever earned the ire of Hera, Queen of Olympus and Zeus' wife, with her going on to constantly torment Heracles as revenge. Driven mad by Hera, Heracles killed his wife and children, deeply regretting it once he regained his sanity. As penance, Heracles went to serve King Eurystheus, who appointed Heracles 12 great labors. Heracles would go on to complete his quest as well as many more impossible tasks, becoming one of the greatest heroes of Ancient Greece, and even eventually rising to Olympus, finally earning his place alongside the gods.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Godlike Strength:** When you think of Heracles, or at least his Roman counterpart, the first thing you associate with the demigod is his super strength. Contrary to popular belief, Heracles was not born with super strength despite being a son of Zeus. Instead, he received it as a direct result of being breastfed by Hera after Athena tricked her into taking care of him. Even though Hera only took care of baby Heracles for a very short time before chucking him back to Earth, her milk gave the demigod enough strength to rival the Greek Gods. Heracles’ super strength allowed him to perform impressive feats that made him famous throughout history. These include holding up the sky, fighting on par with some of the gods, and wrestling Zeus to a stalemate.
* **Superhuman Speed**
* **Godlike Stamina**
* **Nigh-Invulnerability**
* **Semi-Immortality** (formerly): Although Hercules' demigod body was immune to age, it was vulnerable to disease, such as when Hercules was tricked into putting on a shirt covered in Hydra blood, which is poisonous.
* **Expert Hand-to-Hand Combat:** Thanks to his godlike strength, Heracles easily became an expert in hand-to-hand combat. The most popular hand-to-hand sport in Ancient Greece was wrestling, which involved grappling techniques such as clinch fighting, throws, takedowns, joint locks, pins, and other grappling holds and submission maneuvers. The demigod would base his fighting style on wrestling, allowing him to defeat powerful foes such as the impervious Nemean lion, the immortal giant, Antaeus, and the three-headed guard dog of the underworld, Cerberus.
* **Archery:** Heracles is an expert marksman with a bow and arrow, having trained with King Eurytus in some tellings and Radamanthus in others. Aside from his club, the bow and arrow are the demigod’s most well-known weapons, especially since the arrows have been dipped in the blood of the Lernaean Hydra. With his bow and arrows, Heracles has slain various foes, including the Stymphalian birds, the monster Geryon, the giants Porphyrion and Ephialtes, and the centaur Nessus.
* **Immortality:** Herc's arguably most powerful aspect is simply the nature of his lineage. Although Heracles' mortal half may be destroyed, this is more akin to a shedding of skin to him than truly dying. His immortal half will remain, making him virtually unkillable by normal means, similar to many other immortals in Greek mythology.

## Equipment

* **Club:** One of Heracles’ most well-known weapons is a club made of olive-wood, and he has used it against various enemies. In his first labor, Heracles used it to stun the Nemean lion before he strangled it with his bare hands. Some sources say he cut the club himself before going to take on the beast. In his tenth labor, Heracles one-shotted the two-headed hound Orthrus with the club. In some interpretations, he also used it to battle the Lernaean Hydra.
* **Nemean Lion Pelt:** Heracles’ first labor was to slay the Nemean lion. Unfortunately, the lion’s hide was invulnerable to weapons such as arrows and swords, with the only thing that can penetrate the hide being its own claws. To kill the lion, Heracles stunned it momentarily with his club, and then strangled it with his immense strength. After killing it, the demigod skinned the lion and used its fur as a makeshift cape, shielding himself from any weapon that could harm him. This tool has been proven to work quite effectively, having protected Heracles from an onslaught from Cerberus, nullifying every attack the dog tried to make.
* **Golden Sword:** Heracles was no stranger to using a blade as a weapon. Among several other gifts from the gods, he was given a sword by Hermes. For his second labor, he was tasked with killing the Lernaean Hydra, a serpentine water monster famous for having multiple heads. The hydra was a difficult monster to slay due to the fact that for every head that got cut off, two more had regrown in its place. However, Heracles got around this regeneration by having his nephew Iolaus cauterize the stumps with flames. The central head was immortal, but Heracles defeated it nonetheless by lopping it off and leaving it trapped under a boulder. Ancient depictions vary on what the weapon looked like, and some sources and art depict him with a golden scimitar during his slaying of the Hydra. It’s possible he used multiple blades throughout his career.
* **Shield:** Another piece of Heracles’ arsenal is his shield that was forged by Hephaestus. Made of enamel, ivory, electrum, and gold, the shield has never been broken or crushed. Decorating the shield are personifications of Fear and Strife, and snake heads that would clash their teeth whenever Heracles fights. He would equip this shield in his battle against Cycnus, the son of Ares. It was strong enough to withstand attacks from Cycnus, and even his father Ares as well.
* **Rattles:** Created by the God Hephaestus and gifted to Heracles by Athena, the demigod possesses noise makers that can make an extremely awful, loud noise. He used this for his sixth labor to deal with the Stymphalian birds.
* **Armor:** While most classical artwork likes to depict Heracles either in the nude or with just the Nemean lion’s pelt, he did receive a golden breastplate from Hephaestus and a robe from Athena.
* **Hydra Poison Arrows:** Heracles learned the art of archery from Eurytus, receiving a bow and arrow from Apollo afterwards. After killing the Lernaean Hydra, he dipped his arrows into the monster’s poisonous blood, making the arrows poisonous as well. A single shot from one of these arrows is enough to kill beings other than gods, such as giants. While unneeded, the arrows’ piercing power is nothing to scoff at, as they were strong enough to penetrate the metal feathers of the Stymphalian birds, and even the flesh of gods like Hades and Hera. In fact, the arrow doesn’t need to pierce its target for the poison to take effect. Skin contact is sufficient enough; the hydra’s poison is so potent, it even contributed to Heracles’ eventual death after blood laced with it was smeared on the inside of a tunic that he put on. While it didn’t immediately kill the demigod, due to being unused for decades and diluted from Nessus the centaur’s blood, the hydra’s blood was capable of tearing through Heracles’ skin, exposing his bones, boiling his blood, and melting his marrow. The pain was so unbearable, Heracles had no choice but to burn himself alive, killing his mortal half (though he did become a god as a result).

## Feats

### Strength

* Held up the immeasurable weight of the firmament in Atlas’ place.
* Fought Apollo to the point where Zeus had to intervene.
	+ Apollo was powerful enough to threaten the entire universe’s existence when fighting Poseidon (892.5x Universal - see Cosmology section below).
* In a battle at Pylos, wounded Hera and Hades with his arrows.
* Other sources add Poseidon and Apollo to this fight at Pylos, who Heracles is able to evenly contend with while fighting Hades, and some also mention a fight with Ares there.
	+ Zeus claims his rank is no greater than Poseidon or Hades.
	+ Hades is stated to be equal to Zeus.
	+ Poseidon can shake the Earth and can flood the Underworld.
* Shot an arrow to the sun, in which the arrow traveled faster than light, in which shooting an arrow faster than light would require strength that's immeasurable to humans.
* Wrestled the god of death, Thanatos, in order to reclaim Alcestis’ soul.
* Wrestled Zeus during the first Olympic games.
	+ Zeus' power could burn the axle of the universe.
* Stabbed Ares with his spear.
	+ Ares is powerful enough to move Mars (Small Star to Solar System Level).

### Speed

* In some versions of his tenth labor, shot an arrow at the Sun, which exists seven heavenly spheres away from Earth, because it was too hot (yes really) (2.5 quintillion c).
* Managed to stab an infuriated Ares in the thigh before he could block, who:
	+ Can travel across seven spheres in a short amount of time (2.5 quintillion c).
	+ Is fast enough to crash down from Olympus “like a lightning bolt”.

* Comparable to Zeus, who:
	+ Can send shockwaves across the entire firmament by simply nodding his head (29 quintillion c).
	+ Can process and see the entire cosmos at once (Potentially 1 quattuorvigintillion c, though the method is tentative).

* Comparable to Poseidon, who:
	+ Is responsible for the movement of the Earth.

* Comparable to Athena, who can fly to Olympus from Earth (2.9 quintillion c).

### Durability

* Barely withstood hydra poison seeping into his body and ripping off his skin.
* The result of Hera breastfeeding him created the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
	+ Heracles was able to ingest this milk.
* His shield completely negated a spear from Cycnus.
* Survived wrestling with Cerberus.
* Wears the hide of the Nemean lion, which not even he himself could pierce.

### Skills

* Completed the 12 Labors, impossible tasks meant to humiliate (or kill) Heracles, including:
	+ Slaying the Nemean lion, Lernaean Hydra, and the Stymphalian birds.
	+ Directing a river to clean out the Augean stables.
	+ Capturing the Ceryneian Hind, Cretan Bull, and Erymanthian Boar.
	+ Retrieving Hippolyta’s belt (she gave it willingly, as she was impressed with him).
	+ Killing Geryon.
	+ Taming the man-eating mares of Diomedes.
	+ Bringing Cerberus back to the Underworld after defeating and capturing it.
* Sailed on the Argo and was said to have been able to solve the entire adventure by himself.
* Saved Prometheus from an absolutely nightmarish fate of having his liver eaten every day by an eagle (The Greek gods had some messed up punishments).
* Rescued Theseus from his punishment in the Underworld but left Pirithous behind (he deserved it though).
* Exploited Antaeus’s immortality and killed him in a wrestling match.
* Alongside Iolaus, defeated both Ares and his son Cycnus.
* Tricked Atlas into taking the sky back.
* Fought alongside the Olympian gods against the giants, notably killing Alcyoneus, Porphyrion, and Ephialtes.
* Sacked the city of Troy.

## Weaknesses

* Heracles is a powerful fighter and can be rather intelligent, but much like other Greek heroes, he has a massive fatal flaw. While most have the flaw of hubris, Herc’s biggest weakness is his wrath, to the point where it literally ties back to his mother’s name.
* He can be affected by magical means, and in some cases can get agitated easily, such as the time he shot at the Sun while crossing an extremely large and hot desert (something that, surprisingly, intrigued Helios rather than made him mad), or killing Augeas after the latter refused to pay Heracles for cleaning his stables. He even killed his teacher, Linus, for the sin of not succeeding in teaching Heracles the arts.
* Heracles’ biggest problem, however, is that he often uses his own strength to get through most problems that he’s having. While he has the intelligence to figure out what he needs to do, it’s usually his own demigod powers that let him actually solve the issue he’s having.