In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles (pronounced /ˈhɛrəkliːz/ HER-ə-kleez; Ἥρα + κλέος, Ἡρακλῆς; a compound of the goddess 'Hera' [Ήρα] and the Greek word 'kleos' [κλεος], meaning "glory of Hera", or "glorious through Hera"), Alcides or Alcaeus (original name), was a divine hero, 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 masculi...
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In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles (pronounced /ˈhɛrəkliːz/ HER-ə-kleez; Ἥρα + κλέος, Ἡρακλῆς; a compound of the goddess 'Hera' [Ήρα] and the Greek word 'kleos' [κλεος], meaning "glory of Hera", or "glorious through Hera"), Alcides or Alcaeus (original name), was a divine hero, 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, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.
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