However, the young boy killed the animals. Zeus' lawful wife Hera hated the child born out of wedlock, and sent two snakes to kill the baby. Youth Heracles and the snakesĪccording to the ancient Greeks, the demigod Heracles (or Hercules, as the Romans called him) was the son of a mortal woman named Alcmene and the supreme god Zeus.
Several dynasties, like the twin royal houses of Sparta and the Argeads of Macedonia, claimed to descend from this son of Zeus. Heracles (Latin: Hercules): most important of the Greek demigods.