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leo mythology

Leo, much like the Sign of Cancer, is representative of a mythical monster fought by the great Heracles. This monster was the Nemean Lion. The valley of Nemea had been terrorized by the beast, which was thought to be impossible to kill. The First Labor of Heracles was to find the lion in its mountain lair and destroy it before it could completely wipe out the Nemean countryside. Once he had killed the lion, his brother and taskmaster Eurystheus wanted him to bring its hide back to the city as proof that he had actually accomplished the task.

Heracles sought out the lion and immediately tried to kill it, first with his arrows, then with his giant sword. The arrows bounced harmlessly off the lion's hide, and the sword broke. When Heracles realized that the lion's hide was truly impenetrable, he decided to kill it using brute force. He wrestled the lion, strangling it with his bare hands. Then, he skinned it using its own claws and carried it triumphantly to Eurystheus. His brother panicked and ran when he saw the lion's remains. He told Heracles to leave his spoils outside the city gates in the future. Heracles took the lion's carcass away. He made a cloak out of the skin and a helmet out of the head. Pictures of him nearly always show him clothed in the skin of the Nemean Lion. The spirit of the lion was placed in the sky, where, no longer deadly, it has become beautiful.

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