In Greek mythology, Megara was a Theban princess, the eldest daughter of Creon of Thebes, and the first wife of the hero Heracles. She was given to Heracles as a reward after he defended Thebes against the Minyans, and bore him several sons. When Hera drove Heracles into a fit of madness, he killed their children; whether Megara herself perished in this attack, or later survived to be given by Heracles to his nephew Iolaus, varies by source. She is not to be confused with Megaera, one of the Erinyes (Furies).
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Megara (wife of Heracles)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Megara was the eldest daughter of Creon, King of Thebes, who was the brother of Jocasta and the uncle of Oedipus. If Creon is taken as the same figure across sources, her mother would be Eurydice, and her siblings would include Menoeceus (Megareus), Lycomedes, Haemon, and Pyrrha.
The number and names of the children Megara bore to Heracles vary by source. Apollodorus names three sons — Therimachus, Creontiades, and Deicoon — to which Dinias the Argive added a fourth, Deion. Pindar states that she bore eight sons, while Hyginus names Therimachus and Ophites.
II.Mythology
Megara was married to Heracles as a reward from her father after he defended Thebes against the Minyans of Orchomenus. The couple had several sons together. Because of Hera's hatred for Heracles, the goddess sent him into a temporary madness during which he killed their children, either by shooting them with arrows or by casting them into fire. Whether Megara herself died in this attack depends on the source.
In some accounts, after Heracles completed the Twelve Labours, Megara was married to his nephew Iolaus and became the mother of Leipephilene.
Heracles' desire to atone for murdering his wife and children is typically the motivation for his servitude to Eurystheus and his performance of the Twelve Labours. Euripides, however, presents an alternative sequence in his tragedy Heracles: the play opens with Megara, her children, and Amphitryon as suppliants seeking refuge from the tyrant Lycus while Heracles is away laboring in the underworld. On his return, Iris and the spirit of madness, Lyssa, drive Heracles insane, and he kills Megara and their children believing he is attacking Lycus. Seneca the Younger retells a similar account in his Hercules Furens.
Odysseus encounters Megara among the shades in the underworld, but Homer gives only minimal detail, identifying her simply as Creon's daughter and the former wife of Heracles. A Hellenistic poem titled Megara, by an unknown author, presents a dialogue at Tiryns between a grieving Megara and Heracles' mother Alcmene, in which Megara mourns her children and Heracles' long absence during his labours.
III.Cult dedicated to Megara's children
The sons of Heracles and Megara appear to have been incorporated into the hero cult of Heracles at Thebes. They were celebrated at a festival known as the Herakleia, at which feasts were prepared in Heracles' honor above the "Elektran Gates," accompanied by sacrifices. The hero-tombs of the children of Heracles and Megara at Thebes were venerated under the name Chalkoarai.