Heracles

Heracles is the son of Zeus and Alcmene, princess of Mycenae. Zeus, taking the form of her absent husband Amphitryon, united with Alcmene. Hera, furious at this betrayal, did everything to obstruct the demigod's birth: she delayed Alcmene's labor to favor that of Eurystheus, destined to reign over Argolis in his place.

The story of Hera's milk is famous: Zeus secretly placed the infant at the sleeping goddess's breast to grant him immortality. Hera woke and pushed him away — too late. The milk that spurted from her breast formed the Milky Way in the sky. From his earliest age, Heracles revealed his divine nature by strangling bare-handed two serpents sent into his cradle.

Driven mad by Hera, Heracles killed his wife Megara and their children. Overwhelmed by remorse, he consulted the oracle at Delphi, which ordered him to enter the service of his cousin Eurystheus to atone for his crime. Twelve supposedly impossible labors were imposed on him:

I. Slay the Nemean Lion bare-handed — he wore its skin as armor. II. Defeat the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra. III. Capture the Ceryneian Hind with golden antlers. IV. Capture the Erymanthian Boar. V. Clean the Augean Stables in one night by diverting two rivers.

VI. Drive away the Stymphalian Birds. VII. Capture the Cretan Bull. VIII. Tame the Mares of Diomedes. IX. Steal the Girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. X. Steal the Cattle of Geryon.

XI. Fetch the Golden Apples of the Hesperides — guarded by the dragon Ladon. XII. Bring Cerberus, the three-headed guardian dog of the Underworld, into the light of day — without weapons, bare-handed. These twelve trials made Heracles the greatest hero in Greek mythology.

The end of Heracles is both tragic and sublime. His second wife, Deianeira, jealous, offered him a tunic soaked in the poisoned blood of the centaur Nessus, believing it to be a love potion. The tunic clung to Heracles's skin and burned him from within. Unable to die — he is a demigod — and unable to live, he had a pyre built on Mount Oeta and lay upon it.

Zeus gathered his soul from the flames and raised him to Olympus, where Heracles was finally deified and reconciled with Hera. He married Hebe, goddess of youth. His constellation, Hercules, is one of the largest in the northern hemisphere sky, visible near the Dragon — the guardian he had defeated during his eleventh labor.

In Saint Seiya, the Silver Saint wearing the Hercules Cloth — Argetti — is an opponent of the Bronze Saints, serving the Grand Pope. This is a tragic irony: in mythology, it is precisely Athena who protects Heracles during his Labors, guiding and supporting him through the trials imposed by Hera. In the series, Argetti fights Athena's knights in the name of a corrupt Sanctuary.

The connection to the Labors pervades the spirit of the series: the Bronze Saints themselves face trials in the spirit of the Labors of Heracles — each saga is a climb toward the impossible, each battle a demonstration that human will can transcend its limits. The cosmos of the knights is, in this sense, the direct heir of Heracles's immeasurable strength.