Alcmena
mythological figure · 13 works · 17 mentions · 40 anchored passages
Alcmena's son (referring to Heracles) · Tirynthian Alcmena · daughter of Electryon · neat-ankled Alcmena · poor Alcmena · the daughter of Electryon · the neat-ankled daughter of Electryon · wife of Amphitryon · wise Alcmena
in the texts
Alcestis
Heracles's mortal mother, daughter of Electryon, invoked by Heracles to affirm his own courage and lineage.
O heart, O soul, both sufferers oft, now show the mettle of that son Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare to Zeus.
yonder, I believe, comes Alcmena’s son toward thy hearth.
Heracleidae
Aged mother of Heracles, grandmother of the suppliant children, who shelters Macaria's sister within the shrine and later anxiously awaits news of the battle.
But you, children, I lament and pity, and that aged mother of your sire, Alcmena.
of Zeus will I never speak ill, but himself doth know, whether he is just to me.
my care is centred on these boys, while she, I mean Alcmena, clasps her son’s daughter in her arms, and bears her for safety within this shrine, for we shrink from letting tender maidens come anigh the crowd or stand as suppliants at the altar.
Nemean
Mother of the infant Heracles, who leaps from her bed to defend her sons against Hera's serpents.
But as for me, I cling to the theme of Heracles gladly, rousing an ancient story from among the great heights of his excellence, how, when the son of Zeus suddenly came out of his mother’s womb into the brilliant light, escaping her birth-pangs, with his twin brother, he did not escape the notice of gold-throned Hera when he was placed in his saffron swaddling-clothes.
for she herself leapt to her feet from her bed, unrobed as she was, and tried to ward off the violent attack of the monsters.
Zeus made this saying clear by visiting Alcmena and Danae, and he united the fruit of intelligence with straightforward justice in the father of Adrastus and in Lynceus.
Trachiniae
Mother of Heracles by Zeus.
For the son whom Alcmena bore to Zeus is hurrying homeward, with spoils won by supreme valor.
But at last, to my joy, the glorious son of Zeus and Alcmena came and closed with him in combat and delivered me.
You, to whom Night gives birth when she is vanquished and despoiled of her starry crown, and whom, as you blaze, she lays to rest, I pray you, O Sun, Sun, tell me, where is Alcmena’s son, where dwells her child?
Heracles
Mortal wife of Amphitryon and, by Zeus, mother of Heracles; granddaughter of Perseus.
We have not come to do your city any hurt, but our warfare is against the house of one man only, against him whom they call the son of Zeus and Alcmena.
the other, Zeus, who came to wed the bride sprung from Perseus;
All hail the marriage!
Shield of Heracles
Wife of Amphitryon, daughter of Electryon, mother of Heracles by Zeus and of Iphicles by Amphitryon.
Or like her who left home and country and came to Thebes, following warlike Amphitryon,—even Alcmena, the daughter of Electryon, gatherer of the people.
She bore him through the embrace of the son of Cronos lord of dark clouds and the other, Iphicles, of Amphitryon the spear-wielder— offspring distinct, this one of union with a mortal man, but that other of union with Zeus, leader of all the gods.
And she, being subject in love to a god and to a man exceeding goodly, brought forth twin sons in seven-gated Thebes.
Theogony
A mortal woman, mother of Heracles by Zeus.
And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neat-ankled Alcmena, when he had finished his grievous toils, made Hebe the child of great Zeus and goldshod Hera his shy wife in snowy Olympus.
Hymn 15 To Heracles
Mythological woman named as the mother of Heracles.
Alcmena bare him in Thebes, the city of lovely dances, when the dark-clouded Son of Cronos had lain with her.
Helen
Mortal woman whom Zeus approached in the likeness of her husband Amphitryon, mother of Heracles.
For in the likeness of Amphitryon he came to Alcmena, and as a shower of gold he united with Danae, and in the guise of a swan he took refuge in the bosom of Nemesis, and again in this form he espoused Leda;
While he was devoted most of all to the son of Alcmena and to the sons of Leda, yet his preference for Helen, as compared with Heracles, was so great that, although he conferred upon his son strength of body, which is able to overpower all others by force, yet to her he gave the gift of beauty, which by its nature brings even strength itself into subjection to it.
Isthmean
Mother of Heracles, said to have borne her 'fearless son' in Thebes.
Since the Isthmus gave to the people of Cadmus six garlands from her games, the glory of triumph for my fatherland, where Alcmena bore her fearless son, before whom the bold hounds of Geryon once trembled.
Alcmena’s son.
Olympian
Mother of Heracles, whose bastard brother Licymnius was killed by Tlepolemus.
For indeed, striking Licymnius, the bastard brother of Alcmena, with a staff of hard olive-wood as he came out of the chamber of Midea, the founder of this land once killed that man, in anger.
Pythian
The mortal woman who, lying with both her husband Amphitryon and with Zeus, bore the twins Heracles and Iphicles in a single birth.
Wise Alcmena lay with Amphitryon and with Zeus, and bore in a single birth twin sons, strong and victorious in battle.
Amphitruo
Wife of Amphitryon and daughter of Electryon; unknowingly deceived by Jupiter into intimacy, left pregnant by both her husband and the god, and eventually delivered of Hercules and Iphiclus.
JUPITER, being captivated by love (Amore) for Alcmena, has changed (Mutavit) himself into the form of her husband, while Amphitryon is fighting for (Pro) his country with the foe;
both by her husband and by supreme Jupiter And my father is now lying here (he points to the house) in-doors with her;
He, before he departed hence for the expedition, left his wife Alcmena pregnant.