NEMEAN LION

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extradimensional Feline (Olympus)

Occupation: Predator

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Hera, Selene

Enemies: Hercules

Known Relatives: Typhon (father), Echidna (mother, deceased), Selene (foster mother), Cerberus, Ladon, Orthrus (brothers), Chimaera, Hydra, Phaea (sisters), Sphinx (sister, deceased), Geryon (uncle), Delphyne (aunt, deceased), Chrysaor (maternal grandfather), Callirrhoe (maternal grandmother), Pegasus (maternal great-uncle)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Nemea in Northern Argos in the 13th Century BC (Now part of modern Greece)

First Appearance: Marvel Saga#1 (December, 1985)

Powers/Abilities: The Nemean Lion possessed all the traditional abilities, senses and parameters of a normal lion (Felis leo) except on much a greater level. Its body density was dense enough that it was invulnerable to traditional weapons and it could use its claws to rend through stone and metal. It's ferocity was unmatched.

History: (Greek/Roman Myth) - The Nemean Lion was the spawn of of the Titan Typhon, and his mate, Echidna, the snake-goddess. Typhon was imprisoned under Mount Aetna after attacking the Olympian gods, and Echidna fled to Arcadia where she gave birth to a host of numerous incredible creatures, each one more foul than the last. After Echidna was slain by Argus Panoptes, the original sentry of Olympus, the Nemean Lion was nursed to full health by Selene, the moon-goddess, on behalf of Hera, Queen of the Gods.

(Greek/Roman Myth, Marvel Saga#1/Hercules III#1 (fb)) - For undisclosed reasons, the Nemean Lion terrorized the town of Nemea north of Argos. Hercules, the son of Zeus, confronted it as one of his first labors on behalf of King Eurystheus of Mycenae. Hercules found it to be invulnerable to weapons and had to kill it by strangulation. On his route to kill the lion, Hercules had stayed the night with a poor laborer named Molorchus who wanted to make a sacrifice to him as the son of Zeus. Hercules had told him to wait until he was successful, but after the lion’s death, Molorchus made a sacrifice to Hercules as one of the Gods of Olympus. As Hercules brought the dead lion to Eurystheus in Tiryns, the cowardly king hid in a bronze storage jar. He then arranged for Hercules to take all his orders through a messenger named Copreus. Not wanting anything to do with the lion’s carcass, Eurystheus allowed Hercules to skin it. Hercules turned its pelt into another tunic to replace his previous one created from the Cithaeonian lion.

(Thing II#7 - BTS) - In ancient Greece Hercules wore the hind of the Nemean Lion while fighting a time-traveling Thing. It got stained with vine from Dionysus' vats during the fight.

Comments: Adapted by Peter Sanderson, Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom.