Home > Alcmene

Alcmene, or Alkmênê ("might of the moon") was, in ancient Greek mythology, the daughter of Electryon, king of Mycenae, and wife of Amphitryon.

She was the mother of Heracles by Zeus, who assumed the likeness of her husband during his absence, and the mother of Iphicles by Amphitryon. While Alcmene was pregnant with Heracles, Hera tried to prevent her from giving birth. She was foiled by Galanthis, her servant, who told Hera that she had already delivered the baby. Hera turned her into a weasel.

One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she had pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day.

Alcmene was regarded as the ancestress of the HeracleidaeHeracleidae the general name for the numerous descendants of Heracles (Hercules), and specially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira, the conquerors of Peloponnesus. Hyllus was also sometimes th, and worshipped at ThebesFor the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, see Thebes, Egypt. Thebes #x303 Thivai) was a city in ancient Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. In ancient times and AthensAcropolis in central Athens is home to ancient monuments of Athens — a mainstay of its thriving tourism industry Athens ( Greek: Athina is the capital of Greece, and also the capital of the Attica region of Greece. A cosmopolitan modern city, Athens is al.

After separating from Amphitryon, she married RhadamanthusRhadamanthus (also transliterated as Rhadamanthys or Rhadamanthos in Greek mythology was a son of Zeus and Europa and brother of Minos, king of Crete and Sarpedon. He was raised by Asterion. Driven out of Crete by his brother, Minos, who was jealous of hi in BoeotiaBoeotia ( Greek Βοιωτια) was a central area of ancient Greece. The main city was Thebes. Boeotia had significant political importance, owing to its position on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth, extending westwa.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica