The first of the great trials of Heracles was a beast whose golden hide no weapon on earth could pierce: the Nemean Lion, a monstrous lion that terrorised the valley of Nemea and could not be killed by any blade, arrow, or spear ever forged. To defeat it, the strongest hero in the world would have to throw away his weapons entirely.
The Lion Whose Skin Could Not Be Cut
An offspring of Typhon and Echidna (or, some say, fallen from the moon), the Nemean Lion was larger and fiercer than any natural lion, and its tawny-golden fur was utterly impervious — arrows bounced off it, swords shattered against it, spears could not break the skin. It made its lair in a cave with two entrances and devoured the people and flocks of Nemea, and no one could stand against it.
The First Labour
Slaying it was the first of the Twelve Labours of Heracles. The hero soon discovered that his arrows were useless. So he trapped the lion in its cave by blocking one entrance, cornered it, and — in the image that defines him forever — throttled the beast to death with his bare hands, his immense strength succeeding where every weapon had failed.
The Invincible Cloak
The triumph gave Heracles his iconic emblem. Unable to cut the hide with any blade, he used one of the lion's own razor-sharp claws to skin it, and thereafter wore the impenetrable pelt as a cloak and helm — an armour no weapon could pierce. The lion that had been invincible became the hero's own invincibility. The Greeks set the beast in the sky too, as the constellation Leo.
The strongest of all heroes began his legend by learning that some enemies cannot be cut — only out-gripped.