The two babies were named Iphicles and Heracles. In her anger at being tricked, Eileithyia turned Galanthis into a weasel. Eileithyia, in confusion as to how this could have happened, jumped up and broke her spell, allowing Alcmene to deliver two baby boys. She shouted that the baby had already come. Alcmene was close to breathing her last breath when her nurse, Galanthis, came up with a trick to break Eileithyia’s spell. Eileithyia sat outside the delivery room crossing her fingers and legs which halted the labour. No birth can take place unless Eileithyia is physically present and allows the birth to proceed. When Alcmene went into labor, Hera sent Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent the birth from taking place. Upon discovering that Alcmene was carrying Zeus’ child, Hera grew irritated. This early part of Heracles’ story was dramatized in the play Amphitryon, created by the Roman playwright Plautus in the late 3rd century BCE.Īlcmene was pregnant with twins: one of them from Zeus and another one from Amphitryon. ![]() Amphitryon believed her and they finally consummated their marriage. Amphitryon did not believe Alcmene’s story, that the man she had been with had looked and sounded exactly like him, but the seer Teiresias told him that the interloper had been Zeus himself and that Alcmene’s story was true. After speaking with his wife, he discovered the truth: Alcmene had spent the previous night with someone else. The next day when the real Amphitryon returned home, he wondered why she did not give him a hero’s welcome. Alcmene was overjoyed and gladly allowed him into her bed. He told her that he had just returned from avenging her brothers. On the night before Amphitryon returned from his journey, Zeus came to Alcmene in the form of her husband. Consequently, Amphitryon traveled to the Taphian Islands (off the western coast of Greece, near Ithaca) and stayed there for several weeks, until he had killed all of the Taphian Pirates. But Alcmene refused to consummate her marriage until Amphitryon had avenged the murder of her brothers, who had been killed by Taphian Pirates. Alcmene was married to Amphitryon, the heir to the throne of Tiryns. Heracles was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene. ![]() ![]() The following content is adapted from Mythology Unboundby T.
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