Constellation Leo Myth

Constellation Leo Myth

Leo, which occupies the fifth place among the zodiac signs, signifies a fierce and huge lion that terrorized the land of Nemea. The constellation gets its name from the Latin word meaning lion. Virgo and Cancer are its neighboring constellations. Virgo occupies the eastern position, while Cancer occupies the western.

Mythology states that Leo lived in a cave that was situated in a place named Nemea. People of the land were very scared of him as he used to kill anybody who ventured near him. Leo had a special skin that served as his shield. It was so thick and strong that it could not be pierced by sword or spear.

Zeus wanted to put an end to this huge lion, and called upon Hercules for this. The brave warrior fought with the lion for about a month. It was quite a challenging task to face the scary and fierce animal in the first place and also find strategies to kill him as its skin acted like a protective armor.

Since the fierce beast could not be killed by a weapon, he had to wrestle with the animal just with his bare hands! During one of the moments when Leo was not alert, Hercules managed to strangle the lion to death.

Hercules then used the claws of the lion to cut off the beast's tongue. Then he removed the skin and made a shield for himself as it could protect him and serve as armor. He then chopped the lion's head and fulfilled his mission thus.

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Constellation Leo Myth