Herakles and the Nemean Lion: How Facing Fear Becomes Our Strength

In this series of articles, we consider how Herakles’s 12 Labors created the Greek hero known to us today.

We, like Hercules, have many tests to overcome. Oleg Senkov/Shutterstock

Of all the great Greek heroes, Herakles (or Hercules, as the Romans called him) was considered the greatest.

I touched on Herakles’s greatness in my article about his defeat of the Hydra and explained why this story is so relevant today. In fact, that feat was technically the second of Herakles’s 12 Labors that earned him immortality. (Of course, 12 isn’t an accidental number. For a fuller understanding of its significance across all cultures, I recommend “The Mystery of the Number 12.”)

Herakles’s First Labor

Do Herakles’s other labors speak to us now as brightly as the killing of the Hydra does? Surely, yes; it will come as no surprise that each labor has its own special quality.