At Thebes Heracles strangled Hera's serpents in his cradle; after he freed the city from the Minyans, madness drove him to slay Megara's children, and Delphi sent him to serve Eurystheus — first Alcides, then Heracles.1
The serpents in the cradle
When Heracles was eight months old, Hera sent two great serpents to destroy him in his bed. The infant rose and strangled them with both hands while Amphitryon and Alcmene looked on — a sign that the elder twin was Zeus' son, though Apollodorus also knows a tale that Amphitryon himself laid the serpents there to learn which boy was his.2
Zeus or Amphitryon⚖
Zeus came to Alcmene in Amphitryon's likeness and prolonged the night threefold; she bore Heracles the elder by one night and Iphicles by the mortal husband. Hesiod and Homer name Zeus as sire; the handbook gives both fathers — the archetypal dispute of the hero who is mortal and more than mortal at once.3
Megara and the madness
After he overthrew the Minyans of Orchomenus, Creon of Thebes gave him Megara as a prize. Hera drove him mad, and he slew the children he had by her and two sons of Iphicles. Condemned to exile, he went to Delphi — where the Pythia first named him Heracles, though before that he had been called Alcides.4
Service at Tiryns
The oracle told him to serve Eurystheus at Tiryns and Mycenae, performing whatever labours the king should set — penance for the slaughter, and Hera's long revenge made into twelve public ordeals that would drive the hero to the ends of the earth.5
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How the centuries saw it
Heracles Strangling the Serpents
Attributed to the Berlin Painter, c. 480–470 BC
Louvre stamnos: the infant in the cradle throttles Hera's snakes while Iphicles recoils — the Theban birth that proves Zeus' son.
Boy Heracles Strangling a Snake
Unknown (Roman), 2nd century AD
Capitoline marble: the chubby child grips a writhing serpent — the cradle miracle sculpted as innate heroic strength.
The Choice of Hercules
Annibale Carracci, 1596
Carracci's young hero at the crossroads of Virtue and Pleasure — the arduous path that follows the cradle and precedes Eurystheus' labours.
Farnese Hercules
After Lysippos (signed by Glykon of Athens), c. 216 AD
The exhausted strongman after the labours — the end-state of the child who strangled serpents and was banished into Eurystheus' service.
On screen
In music & on stage
In play
Herakles (Euripides)
Euripides
Euripides stages the madness that slays Megara's children — the Theban homecoming that turns the infant serpent-strangler into a polluted exile.
Heracles
From Alcmene's cradle to Eurystheus' service — the birth, the serpents, and the Delphic banishment that open the labours.