Alcmena regained her spirits and reclaimed her son. She was a loving mother to both her boys and remained devoted to them and her grandchildren all her life.

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    Heracles left his mark on the world, even to modern times.

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    He did indeed kill the Giants and save the Gods, fighting side by side with the Immortals to defeat the unruly children of Mother Earth. This was after he had rescued Prometheus, killing the eagle which had preyed upon the flesh of the great Titan.

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    Among his many other great deeds, he built the Pillars of Heracles, one at Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Europe; and the other across the strait at Ceuta, in Africa.

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    Not far from there, Heracles slew the golden dragon Ladon, and took over the onerous task of holding the universe on his shoulders for a time, while Altas went into the Gardens of the Hesperides to bring out the three golden apples.

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    The modern Spanish Coat of Arms includes a depiction of the Pillars of Heracles. The universally recognised dollar symbol, an S curve on two parallel vertical lines, commemorates the Pillars of Heracles and the slaying of the dragon Ladon.

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    The foot race at the ancient Olympic Games was run over 193 metres, said to be the distance Heracles could run on one breath.

     

    Twice did Heracles descend into the Underworld and return. The first time, as one of his Twelve Labours, he went down to capture Cerebos, the three headed Hound of Hell. On his second visit he freed his friend, the Hero Theseus, who had been imprisoned there by Hades.

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    Heracles became the Hero not only of his own generations, but of all generations. 

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    Through Hera's spite, he became the slave of Eurystheus of Argolis, and the Twelve Labours he was forced to carry out for that mean-spirited master are remembered and retold today, the most famous part of the legend that was Heracles.

 

    When he died, he did not go to the Underworld as other Mortals must, but ascended to Olympus, undergoing apotheosis; and as a God married Zeus's youngest daughter, the lovely Hebe, Goddess of Youth. No more that he deserved.