The tale begins in the ancient city of Thebes, a place of high walls and deep political intrigue, where the noble Alcmene lived with her husband Amphitryon. Alcmene was a woman of legendary beauty and wisdom, the daughter of Electryon, and a descendant of the hero Perseus. Her husband, Amphitryon, was a great warrior who had been exiled to Thebes after the accidental killing of his father-in-law. While Amphitryon was away on a military campaign against the Taphians and Teleboans to avenge the deaths of Alcmene's brothers, the King of the Gods, Zeus, cast his gaze upon Thebes. Enamored by Alcmene’s virtue and grace, Zeus devised a plan to visit her. He knew that Alcmene was fiercely loyal to her husband, so he assumed the physical form of Amphitryon himself. To ensure his time with her was undisturbed, Zeus commanded Helios, the sun god, to remain idle, and Hermes to lull the world into a deep slumber, stretching a single night into the length of three. During this prolonged, mystical darkness, Zeus, in the guise of the returning hero, shared Alcmene’s bed, and the hero Heracles was conceived.
Shortly after Zeus departed, the real Amphitryon returned from his campaign, victorious and eager to see his wife. He was perplexed when Alcmene did not greet him with the surprise or fervor he expected, as she believed she had already spent the last three nights in his company. The confusion grew until the blind seer Tiresias was consulted, who revealed the truth: Alcmene had been visited by a god. Though Amphitryon was initially struck by a mixture of awe and jealousy, he accepted the divine intervention, and Alcmene soon found herself pregnant with twins—one the son of a god, and the other the son of her mortal husband. These two children would be known as Heracles and Iphicles. However, the joy of the household was soon overshadowed by the celestial gaze of Hera, the Queen of Olympus. Hera, the wife of Zeus, was infamous for her jealousy and her relentless pursuit of Zeus’s illegitimate offspring. When she learned of Alcmene’s pregnancy, she was consumed by a desire to thwart the destiny of the child who was prophesied to be the greatest of all mortal heroes.
As the time for the birth approached, Zeus made a grand declaration before the assembly of the gods on Mount Olympus. He announced that on that very day, a child of his bloodline would be born who would rule over all the descendants of Perseus. Zeus intended this to be Heracles. Hera, ever cunning, saw an opportunity to twist her husband's words. She made Zeus swear a solemn, unbreakable oath that the first descendant of Perseus born that day would indeed become the king. Once the oath was secured, Hera descended from the heavens with lightning speed. She sought out the goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia, and the Moerae (the Fates). Hera commanded them to delay the labor of Alcmene in Thebes while simultaneously hastening the birth of another Perseid descendant—Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelus, in the city of Argos. While Alcmene suffered in agonizing, prolonged labor, Eurystheus was born two months premature, thereby fulfilling the technicality of Zeus’s oath. Consequently, it was the weak and cowardly Eurystheus, rather than the mighty Heracles, who was destined to sit upon the throne and command the labors of the hero in the years to come.
In Thebes, Alcmene’s suffering was immense. Eileithyia sat outside Alcmene’s chamber with her legs crossed and her hands tightly clenched in a ritualistic gesture intended to bind the womb and prevent the delivery. Alcmene cried out in pain for days, her life hanging in the balance. She was saved by the quick thinking of her loyal servant, Galanthis. Realizing that some divine force was obstructing the birth, Galanthis suddenly ran out of the room and shouted within earshot of Eileithyia, 'The child is born! A son is born to Amphitryon!' Startled by the news that her charms had somehow failed, the goddess of childbirth leapt up and uncrossed her legs in surprise. The moment the gesture was broken, the magical bind was severed, and Alcmene finally gave birth to the twin boys. Furious at being tricked, Eileithyia transformed the clever Galanthis into a weasel, but the hero Heracles was safely brought into the world. He was initially named Alcaeus, after his grandfather, but he would later be known as Heracles—meaning 'Glory of Hera'—an ironic tribute to the goddess who sought his demise.
Despite Heracles’ birth, Hera’s hatred did not diminish. When the infants were roughly eight to ten months old, she decided to finish what she had started on the day of their conception. One quiet night, as the palace of Thebes lay under a blanket of stars and the household slept, Hera sent two monstrous, azure-scaled serpents into the nursery. The snakes were large and venomous, their eyes glowing with a malevolent fire as they slithered over the threshold of the room where the twins lay in their cradle—a hollowed-out bronze shield that Amphitryon had won in battle. The serpents glided across the cold stone floor, their scales hissing softly against the ground. As they reached the edge of the shield, they reared up, their flicking tongues tasting the air and their fangs glistening with lethal ichor. The movement and the low hissing sound woke the two children. Iphicles, the mortal twin, reacted with the natural terror of an infant. He let out a piercing wail and scrambled to the edge of the shield, his tiny limbs trembling as he tried to escape the impending death.