Nemean Lion

The great lion that stalked the hills of Nemea, whose golden hide no weapon — neither iron nor bronze nor stone — could pierce. Heracles loosed his arrows uselessly and his club glanced off the beast; at last he drove it into a two-mouthed cave, walled up one entrance with boulders, entered by the other, and strangled it with his bare arms. Unable to skin it with any blade, he used one of its own claws. The hide became his cloak and the head his helm for every labour that followed.

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