Alcmene  

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In Greek mythology, Alcmene or Alcmenawas the mother of Heracles.

Exile to Thebes

According to Apollodorus, Alcmene went with Amphitryon to Thebes, where he was purified by Creon for accidentally killing Electryon. Alcmene refused to marry Amphitryon until he had avenged the death of her brothers. However, during Amphitryon's expedition against the Taphians and Teleboans, Zeus visited Alcmene disguised as Amphitryon. Extending one night into three, Zeus slept with Alcmene (thereby conceiving Heracles) and recounted Amphitryon's victories against the Teleboans. When Amphitryon finally returned to Thebes, Alcmene told him that he had come the night before and slept with her; he learned from Tiresias what Zeus had done.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Alcmene" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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