Heracles and his 12 labours

                                         Heracles---The Aravu Kaliyan.

                                          [www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles]

                                        Heracles  ; Ancient Greek,  Herakles , from  Hera , "Hera", and  kleos , "glory" born  Alcaeus   (  Alkaios ) or  Alcides  (  Alkeides ), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson (and half-brother) of  Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae   and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West he is known as  Hercules.

                                       Heracles is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Aravu  Kaliyan. Hera is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Aravu  which  means  a snake.  Kaliyan means the player and hence Heracles means the snake player. Alcaeus is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Alagan.   Alkaios is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Alakiyon. The name Alakan  denotes  lord  Murugan , the sun god , the son of Lord Siva.  Siva, the Seyon  is the Greek Zeus.   Alcmene is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Alaku Mani or Alagu mani , the moon  goddess. Amphitryon  is the corrupted form of the tamilname Ambi  Tharan [ the star of land and the sky] and Perseus  is the Tamil Peru  Seyan.

                                       Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among his characteristic attributes. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king  Augeas of Elis, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor. Heracles was an extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great deeds for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus, who had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend  Tyndareus  to the throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus and Laomedon all found out to their cost.

                                 Augeas is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Athiyan  and Antaeus is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Anthiyan , the setting sun.  Palaestrae[ wrestling school]  could be the corrupted form of the Tamil name Balan tharai , the place  of  young  boys.   Thanatos  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Thee Nathan  and Admetus  is the Tamil Adhi Mathan. Tyndareus  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Thee  Indiran. Neleus is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Nelan.

Birth and childhood

                                        A major factor in the well-known tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the   goddess   Hera, wife of   Zeus, had for him. A full account of Heracles must render it clear why Heracles was so tormented by Hera, when there were many illegitimate offspring sired by Zeus. Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman   Alcmene.   Zeus   made love to her after disguising himself as her husband,   Amphitryon, home early from war (Amphitryon did return later the same night, and Alcmene became pregnant with his son at the same time, a case of heteropaternal   super fecundation, where a woman carries twins sired by different fathers).   Thus, Heracles' very existence proved at least one of Zeus' many illicit affairs, and Hera often conspired against Zeus' mortal offspring as revenge for her husband's infidelities. His twin mortal brother, son of Amphitryon, was   Iphicles, father of Heracles' charioteer   Iolaus.

                                 On the night the twins Heracles and Iphicles were to be born,   Hera, knowing of her husband Zeus' adultery, persuaded Zeus to swear an oath that the child born that night to a member of the House of   Perseus   would become High King. Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was    Eurystheus. Once the oath was sworn, Hera hurried to Alcmene's dwelling and slowed the birth of the twins Heracles and Iphicles by forcing   Ilithyia,   goddess of childbirth, to sit cross legged with her clothing tied in knots, thereby causing the twins to be trapped in the womb. Meanwhile, Hera caused   Eurystheus   to be born prematurely, making him High King in place of Heracles. She would have permanently delayed Heracles' birth had she not been fooled by   Galanthis, Alcmene's servant, who lied to Ilithyia, saying that   Alcmene   had already delivered the baby. Upon hearing this, she jumped in surprise, loosing the knots and inadvertently allowing   Alcmene   to give birth to Heracles and  Iphicles.

                                     Fear of Hera's revenge led Alcmene to expose the infant Heracles, but he was taken up and brought to Hera by his half-sister   Athena, who played an important role as protectress of heroes. Hera did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity. Heracles suckled so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away. Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way. But with divine milk, Heracles had acquired supernatural powers. Athena brought the infant back to his mother, and he was subsequently raised by his parents.

                        The child was originally given the name Alcides by his parents; it was only later that he became known as Heracles.   He was renamed Heracles in an unsuccessful attempt to mollify Hera. He and his twin were just eight months old when Hera sent two giant snakes into the children's chamber. Iphicles cried from fear, but his brother grabbed a snake in each hand and strangled them. He was found by his nurse playing with them on his cot as if they were toys. Astonished, Amphitryon sent for the seer   Tiresias, who prophesied an unusual future for the boy, saying he would vanquish numerous monsters.

       Tiresias  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Thee Rasan.

                          Driven mad by Hera, Heracles slew his own children. To expiate the crime, Heracles was required to carry out ten labors set by his archenemy,   Eurystheus, who had become king in Heracles' place. If he succeeded, he would be purified of his sin and, as myth says, he would be granted immortality. Heracles accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus did not accept the cleansing of the Augean stables because Heracles was going to accept pay for the labor. Neither did he accept the killing of the Lernaean Hydra as Heracles' nephew,Iolaus, had helped him burn the stumps of the heads. Eurysteus set two more tasks (fetching the Golden Apples of Hesperides and capturing   Cerberus), which Heracles performed successfully, bringing the total number of tasks up to twelve.

Not all writers gave the labors in the same order. The   Bibliotheca   gives the following order:

1.        Slay the Nemean Lion.

2.        Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.

3.        Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis.

4.        Capture the Erymanthian Boar.

5.        Clean the Augean stables in a single day.

6.        Slay the Stymphalian Birds.

7.        Capture the Cretan Bull.

8.        Steal the Mares of Diomedes.

9.        Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.

10.   Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon.

11.   Steal the apples of the Hesperides (He had the help of Atlas to pick them after Hercules had slain Ladon).

12.   Capture and bring back Cerberus.

                                           Later in Thebes, Heracles married King Creon's daughter, Megara. In a fit of madness, induced by Hera, Heracles killed his children by Megara. After his madness had been cured with hellebore by Antikyreus, the founder of Antikyra,  he realized what he had done and fled to the Oracle of Delphi. Unbeknownst to him, the Oracle was guided by Hera. He was directed to serve King Eurystheus for ten years and perform any task Eurystheus required of him. Eurystheus decided to give Heracles ten labours, but after completing them, Heracles was cheated by Eurystheus when he added two more, resulting in the Twelve Labors of Heracles.

                    Thebes   is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Theebam. King Creon is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Kariyan[ the black man] .  Megara  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Ma  Karan [ great sun] or  Maha  Ara[ great snake].Antikyreus is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Anthi Keeran.Eurystheus   is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Eri theeyan [ the red  fire].

                                        Hesiod's   Theogony   and   Aeschylus'   Prometheus Unbound   both tell that Heracles shot and killed the eagle that tortured   Prometheus   (which was his punishment by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mortals). Heracles freed the   Titan   from his chains and his torments. Prometheus then made predictions regarding further deeds of Heracles.             

                Theogony is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Thee akhu ne[ created by the thee , the fire].Poemetheus is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Perum Mathee yon.

                             During the course of his life, Heracles married four times. His first marriage was to   Megara, whose children he murdered in a fit of madness. Apollodoros ( Bibliotheke ) recounts that Megara was unharmed and given in marriage to   Iolaus, while in   Euripides' version Heracles killed Megara, too.

                               His second wife was   Omphale, the   Lydian   queen or princess to whom he was delivered as a slave.   His third marriage was to   Deianira   for whom he had to fight the river god   Achelous   (upon Achelous' death, Heracles removed one of his horns and gave it to some nymphs who turned it into the   cornucopia.) Soon after they wed, Heracles and  Deianira had to cross a river, and a   centaur   named   Nessus   offered to help Deianira across but then attempted to   rape   her. Enraged, Heracles shot the centaur from the opposite shore with a poisoned arrow (tipped with the Lernaean Hydra's blood) and killed him. As he lay dying, Nessus plotted revenge, told  Deianira to gather up his blood and spilled semen and, if she ever wanted to prevent Heracles from having affairs with other women, she should apply them to his vestments. Nessus knew that his blood had become tainted by the poisonous blood of the Hydra, and would burn through the skin of anyone it touched.

                              Omphale   is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Ambal.Deianira is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Thee  Aanirai . Aanirai in Tamil  means cattle.Achelous  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Akilon  or Akilan. Nessus is the Tamil  Neesan .

                                    Later, when Deianira suspected that Heracles was fond of   Iole, she soaked a shirt of his in the mixture, creating the   poisoned shirt of Nessus. Heracles' servant,   Lichas, brought him the shirt and he put it on. Instantly he was in agony, the cloth burning into him. As he tried to remove it, the flesh ripped from his bones. Heracles chose a voluntary death, asking that a   pyre   be built for him to end his suffering. After death, the gods transformed him into an immortal, or alternatively, the fire burned away the mortal part of the demigod, so that only the god remained. After his mortal parts had been incinerated, he could become a full god and join his father and the other Olympians on   Mount Olympus. He then married   Hebe, his fourth and last wife.

                     Lole  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Leela .   Lichas  is the corrupted form of the Tamil Lokan.

                           All of Heracles' marriages and almost all of his heterosexual affairs resulted in births of a number of sons and at least four daughters. One of the most prominent is   Hyllus, the son of Heracles and   Deianeira   or   Melite. The term   Heracleidae , although it could refer to all of Heracles' children and further descendants, is most commonly used to indicate the descendants of Hyllus, in the context of their lasting struggle for return to Peloponnesus, out of where Hyllus and his brothers - the children of Heracles by Deianeira - were thought to have been expelled by Eurystheus.

                         Hyllus  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  oyilan.  Melite is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Malathee or  Malathi .

                                   The children of Heracles by Megara are collectively well known because of their ill fate, but there is some disagreement among sources as to their number and individual names. Apollodorus lists three, Therimachus, Creontiades and Deicoon; to these Hyginus   adds Ophitus and, probably by mistake, Archelaus, who is otherwise known to have belonged to the Heracleidae, but to have lived several generations later. A scholiast on   Pindar's odes   provides a list of seven completely different names: Anicetus, Chersibius, Mecistophonus, Menebrontes, Patrocles, Polydorus, Toxocleitus. The divine sons of Heracles and   Hebe   are   Alexiares and  Anicetus.

                                    Other well-known children of Heracles include   Telephus, king of   Mysia   (by   Auge), and   Tlepolemus, one of the Greek commanders in the   Trojan War.  

                                   Apollodorus  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name A- Bala tharan.Therimachus is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Thiru Makan.Creontiades is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Kariyan  Thee Athan  or Aten ,  Deicoon is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Thee kan.Anicetus Is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Ani  Suthan. Chersibius  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Ko  Ori sibiyan. Manebrontes  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Mani  pranthan. Petrocles is the Tamil Pathra kalan  . Hebe is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Abi.   Alexiares is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Alagu  orai  Alagu  Aran . Telephus is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Thalai  Appan .Tlepolemus is the Tamil Thalai Palamman.

                                           1.   Slay the Nemean lion

                         The   Nemean lion   (Greek: ( Léon tes Neméas );   Latin:   Leo Nemaeus ) was a vicious monster in   Greek mythology   that lived at   Nemea. It was eventually killed by   Heracles. It could not be killed with mortal weapons because its golden fur was impervious to attack. Its claws were sharper than mortal swords and could cut through any armor.

                            Lion symbolically represents the ruler of the cosmos, the god of the gods, the sun, as the lion is the ruler of the forest and the head of the beasts. The golden mane symbolically signifies the golden radiations of the sun. Hence the Nemean lion' golden fur cannot be damaged by mortal weapons. Animal's teeth, claws and bones were the primitive weapons used by men even before the use of bow and arrow.   So  the  lion symbolically signifies the sun god, Zeus who is none other than Heracles father.

                                  The lion is usually considered to have been the offspring of   Typhon   (or   Orthrus) and   Echidna; it is also said to have fallen from the moon as the offspring of   Zeus   and   Selene, or alternatively born of the   Chimera. The Nemean lion was sent to   Nemea   in the Peloponnesus   to terrorize the city.

                                                Typhon is the corrupted form of the Tamil word 'Theban' which means the lord of the fire.  Selene is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Shalini , the moon goddess.Chimera is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Komara [ The ruler the sun] .

                                    The first of   Heracles'   twelve labors, set by King   Eurystheus   (his cousin) was to slay the Nemean lion.

                              According to one version of the myth, the Nemean lion took women as hostages to its lair in a cave near   Nemea, luring warriors from nearby towns to save the damsel in distress. After entering the cave, the warrior would see the woman (usually feigning injury) and rush to her side. Once he was close, the woman would turn into a lion and kill the warrior, devouring his remains and giving the bones to Hades.

                            The lion's  habit of  taking  women  as  hostages   symbolically  indicates  the womanizing  behavior of  Zeus. That was the reason Hera   wanted to kill the Nemean lion to make a symbolic  threat to Zeus.

                                   Heracles wandered the area until he came to the town of   Cleonae . There he met a boy who said that if Heracles slew the Nemean lion and returned alive within 30 days, the town would sacrifice a lion to Zeus; but if he did not return within 30 days or he died, the boy would sacrifice himself to Zeus.   Another version claims that he met Molorchos, a shepherd who had lost his son to the lion, saying that if he came back within 30 days, a ram would be sacrificed to   Zeus. If he did not return within 30 days, it would be sacrificed to the dead Heracles as a mourning offering.

                                 Cleonae is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Kalai nayam. Molorchos is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Malar Kan or malar Kon, the sun god. 

                                While searching for the lion, Heracles fetched some arrows to use against it, not knowing that its golden fur was impenetrable; when he found and shot the lion and firing at it with his bow, he discovered the fur's protective property when the arrow bounced harmlessly off the creature's thigh. After some time, Heracles made the lion return to his cave. The cave had two entrances, one of which Heracles blocked; he then entered the other. In those dark and close quarters, Heracles stunned the beast with his club and, using his immense strength, strangled it to death. During the fight the lion bit off one of his fingers. Others say that he shot arrows at it, eventually shooting it in the unarmored mouth.

               The exit of the cave signifies the western direction and the entry is the eastern direction.  When the lion/ sun  was tired in the evening hours, during the sun set  , Heracles could attack the lion.

                            After slaying the lion, he tried to skin it with a knife from his belt, but failed. He then tried sharpening the knife with a stone and even tried with the stone itself. Finally,   Athena, noticing the hero's plight, told Heracles to use one of the lion's own claws to skin the pelt.

                               Since Athena was the daughter of Zeus , she  knew  all about  the sun god , the lion,  and so  guided  Heracles  to use the lion ‘s claws  to tear the animal.

                           When he returned on the thirtieth day carrying the carcass of the lion on his shoulders, King Eurystheus was amazed and terrified. Eurystheus forbade him ever again to enter the city; in future he was to display the fruits of his labours outside the city gates. Eurystheus warned him that the tasks set for him would become increasingly difficult. He then sent Heracles off to complete his next quest, which was to destroy the   Lernaean hydra.           

                  The 30 days period would signify the astrological  position of sun in the sky in relation to the earth.

                                      2   Slay the nine headed  Lernaean  Hydra

                                                In   Greek mythology, the   Lernaean Hydra   was an ancient   serpent-like   chthonic   water beast, with reptilian traits  (as its name evinces), that possessed   many heads   — the poets mention more heads than the vase-painters could paint, and for each head cut off it grew two more — and poisonous breath and blood so virulent even its tracks were deadly.[ www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean   hydra]

                                   Hydra is the corrupted form of the Tamil word Athira.  Athira  is  the name of the zodiac or the star , or the full moon  or simply  the sky.   Athira   is the combination of  Athee+ Ra ,  the  primordial  sun god  Ra [ Egyptian].   Thiru Athirai is the star of Lord Siva. The female form of  Athira  =  Athee  or  Athi   +Aravu[ snake].   It is the  snake  in the water[ hydra], namely the   human placenta inside the amniotic fluid. The nine  heads  represents the 9 lunar months of pregnancy. The poisonous fumes signify the fumes of the snake-  the  astrological  constellation   of the  star , over  the sky.

                                                After slaying the   Nemean lion,   Eurystheus   sent Heracles to slay the Hydra, which   Hera   had raised just to slay Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near   Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt,   Heracles   covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to protect himself from the poisonous fumes. He fired flaming arrows into the Hydra's lair, the spring of   Amymone , a deep cave that it only came out of to terrorize neighboring villages.   He then confronted the Hydra, wielding a harvesting   sickle   (according to some early vase-paintings), a sword or his famed club. Ruck and Staples have pointed out that the   chthonic   creature's reaction was botanical: upon cutting off each of its heads he found that two grew back, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but the   hero. The weakness of the Hydra was that it was invulnerable only if it retained at least one head.

               Amymone  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Ammani  which means the   big and the great star or the full moon.

                                      The details of the struggle are explicit in the   Bibliotheca     realizing that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way, Heracles called on his nephew   Iolaus   for help. His nephew then came upon the idea (possibly inspired by   Athena) of using a firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after each decapitation. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus cauterized the open stumps. Seeing that Heracles was winning the struggle,   Hera   sent a large crab to distract him. He crushed it under his mighty foot. The Hydra's one immortal head was cut off with a golden sword given to him by Athena. Heracles placed the head - still  alive and writhing - under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius (Kerenyi), and dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood, and so his second task was complete. The alternative version of this myth is that after cutting off one head he then dipped his sword in it and used its venom to burn each head so it couldn't grow back. Hera, upset that Heracles slew the beast she raised to kill him, placed it in the dark blue vault of the sky as the   Constellation   Hydra. She then turned the crab into the Constellation   Cancer.

                                    Lolaus  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name  Lolan, the sun  .  “Intha  Lolayee   thanam  yellam enkittae vaendam”; “ Yaen  lo lo  vena  alaikirai”?   The  word   ‘ lo  lo'  signifies the wandering of the sun  as a loner. ‘Lolayee  thanam' means the mischievous behavior  of the sun god.  ‘Sthree  lolan ‘means the  ‘womaniser'. Elaius  is the corrupted form of the Tamil name Elaiyon, the younger one.

                                                Heracles would later use arrows dipped in the Hydra's poisonous blood to kill other foes during his remaining Labours, such as   Stymphalian Birds and the giant   Geryon . He later used one to kill the centaur   Nessus ; and Nessus's tainted blood was applied to the   Tunic of Nessus, by which the centaur had his posthumous revenge. Both   Strabo   and   Pausanias   report that the stench of the river Anigrus in Elis, making all the fish of the river inedible, was reputed to be due to the Hydra's poison, washed from the arrows Heracles used on the centaur.

                                     When   Eurystheus , the agent of ancient   Hera   who was assigning   The Twelve Labors   to Heracles, found out that it was Heracles' nephew   Iolaus who had handed him the firebrand, he declared that the labor had not been completed alone and as a result did not count towards the 10 Labours set for him. The mythic element is an equivocating attempt to resolve the submerged conflict between an ancient ten Labours and a more recent twelve.