Time's up The post The watch that haunted Mick Fleetwood: “Disgusted by myself” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Can't get a better feeling. The post The times Glenn Frey called “the golden moments” of his career first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

This stew dates back centuries when traveling workers were forced to be savvy with their meager earnings and scarce food rations. It became an iconic meal.

While you won't find many $1 items at Dollar Tree anymore, the store lets you save a great deal on groceries, if you're not making those classic mistakes.

Democrats weaponizing suffering of Americans against Trump admin.

by Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Craig Roberts: I am more confident that Putin’s reasonableness, his politeness, his nonresponse to provocations have greatly widened the conflict with Ukraine, which in reality is a conflict with the West, and are leading directly to a much wider and more serious conflict. My confidence in my position has increased […]

by ZH, Modernity News: So much for these protests being “organic” … A new bombshell report by Americans for Public Trust (APT), based on IRS Form 990s and media reports, reveals that five foreign “charities” have funneled nearly $2 billion into American leftist nonprofits, injecting what can only be described as a far-left extremist European policy agenda and […]

from Daniel Davis / Deep Dive: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

  Discovered in 1968 and 1974, the remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man revolutionized how the world looked at the history of the Australian continent. Archaeologists and historians found evidence for something they had been speculating about for years—that the ancestors of contemporary Aboriginal Australians moved out of Africa and into Australia between 65,000 and 50,000 years ago. Furthermore, Lake Mungo validated what Mungo’s aboriginal descendants have always maintained: that they are the oldest continuous culture in the world.   Remains at Lake Mungo Ancient footprints have been uncovered in the Willandra Lakes region. Source: Australian Museum   The so-called Lake Mungo remains belong to two different people, a man and a woman, and they are the oldest-known burials of Indigenous people on the Australian continent. The man was named Mungo Man, the woman Mungo Lady (or “Mungo Woman”). Far from being a couple, they probably never met each other in their lifetime. Both of them, however, used to live in the region now known as the Willandra Lakes, on the ancestral lands of several Aboriginal nations, the Muthi Muthi, Ngyiampaa, and Barkindji (Paakantji). They drew their last breath between 42,000 and 40,000 years ago.   The first to be discovered was Mungo Lady. Her remains emerged from an eroding dune flanking the dried-out shores of Lake Mungo in July 1968. She was assigned the scientific identifier WLH1, “Willandra Lakes Hominid 1.” The man in charge of studying the Mungo Woman’s skull was paleo-anthropologist Alan Thorne (1939-2012).   Animal bones emerging from Lake Mungo. Source: National Museum Australia   He determined that her body had been cremated, in one of the world’s earliest cremations we know of. Her bones were crushed, gathered together, and finally laid to rest in a conical hole. Analysis of Mungo Lady’s remains suggested a complex, far from random, funerary ceremony.   Six years later, on February 26, 1974, Mungo Man (WLH3) was discovered approximately 500 meters to the east of Mungo Lady, on the arid shores of Lake Mungo. Around 170 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall, his almost complete skeleton was found lying in a supine position, his hands folded on his lap. His corpse had been sprinkled with red ochre, a practice widespread among many Indigenous tribes and nations, including the Palawa from Tasmania. Studies of his remains have shown that he suffered from osteoarthritis due to repetitive spear-throwing.   Where Is Lake Mungo? The eroding sand dunes on the eastern shore of Lake Mungo are known as the “Walls of China.” Source: National Museum Australia   Lake Mungo is one of the seventeen lakes making up the semi-arid Willandra Lakes region in southwestern New South Wales, about 760 km (472 miles) west of Sydney. In 1981 the region was added to the World Heritage List. It covers 2,400 square kilometers (926 square miles), where dried saltwater lakebeds alternate with a landscape of eroded crescent-shaped dunes (also known as Walls of China), cypress pines, and mallee trees.   Today, the Mungo National Park, managed jointly by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Traditional Tribal Groups, encompasses 29.9% of the Willandra Lakes Region. The rest of the area comprises several pastoral stations administered by the New South Wales Land and Property Management Authority. When Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were alive, the lakes in the Willandra region were full and intermittently fed by a large river, now known as the Lachlan.   Lake Mungo People, before the region dried up between 19,000 and 18,500 years ago, people inhabited the shores of Lake Mungo. Source: National Museum Australia   Archaeologists have discovered an impressive trail of footprints in the Willandra Lakes region, imprinted into a mud flat, suggesting that Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were only two of the people gravitating around Lake Mungo. They were likely part of a larger community that heavily relied on the seventeen interconnected lakes for survival, hunting small mammals, feasting on freshwater mussels, and cooking crayfish and waterfowl on stone ovens.   Then, between 19,000 and 18,500 years ago, the Willandra Lakes dried up. Its alkaline soil helped preserve the sandstone tools (likely used for seed grinding), food waste, and hearths, as well as the well-preserved fossils of giant marsupials that archaeologists would find thousands of years later. Today, such findings are considered the earliest evidence of human adaptation outside the African continent.   The Oldest Continuous Culture in the World Aboriginal rock art at Walinynga (Cave Hill) in South Australia, photograph by June Ross, 2016. Source: National Museum Australia   In 2003, both Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were dated to 40,000 years old. As of today, Mungo Man remains the oldest example of ochre burial rituals, while Mungo Lady is the oldest known example of cremation. 40,000 years after their deaths, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady have transformed how both non-Indigenous Australians and the world perceive the history of the Australian continent. Their discovery has thus ignited a much-needed reassessment of Australia’s prehistory.   The Mungo remains confirmed what archaeologists and historians have speculated for years, that the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians moved out of Africa and into Australia between 65,000 and 50,000 years ago. Aboriginal people have therefore been living on the Australian continent for at least 65,000 years, as confirmed by the artifacts discovered in the Madjedbebe rock shelter in Mirrarr Country, Northern Arnhem Land, and at Warratyi, in the Northern Flinders Ranges.   Lake Mungo, photograph by Ian Brown. Source: National Museum Australia   On the other hand, the discoveries of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady have confirmed what their descendants have always asserted—that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have continuously inhabited Australia, and that they are the oldest continuous culture in the whole world. They have indeed been living, surviving, and thriving in what is now Australia for as long as modern populations have been living outside of the African continent.   In triggering a new global understanding of the unique relationship between Aboriginal people and the land, the Lake Mungo discoveries also had the effect of galvanizing the land rights and self-determination movements. Aboriginal claims, now backed by universally accepted scientific evidence, were further legitimized. The discovery at Lake Mungo laid the foundation for a new, cross-cultural research approach involving academics, archaeologists, and Indigenous people and Elders, an approach that is continuously being refined.   The Men Behind the Discovery Archaeologist John Mulvaney (on the right) at work. Source: National Museum Australia   The remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady were found by Jim Bowler, a postgraduate student in geology at the Australian National University (ANU). Committed to uncovering geological evidence of the climatic changes triggered by the glaciation of Australia during the Pleistocene, he was researching the thirteen once-interconnected ancient lakes in the Willandra region.   Several archaeologists joined forces to excavate the burial of Mungo Lady in 1968, including Welsh-Australian Rhys Jones (1941-2001) and John Mulvaney (1925-2016). Mulvaney, who is widely acknowledged as “the father of Australian archaeology,” returned to Lake Mungo in 1973 with Jim Bowler to lead the excavation that resulted in the discovery of Mungo Man. This excavation is now recognized as the largest ever in the region.   Land Rights, painting by Eunice Yunurupa Porter, 2019. Source: National Museum Australia   In a recent interview with The Guardian, Bowler recalled that “I was always very much aware of the importance of … Mungo Lady. [But] her remains were highly fragmented – they’d been burnt and they were sitting already exposed – so there was no actual understanding of the environment [at time of burial] … but I always had in the back of my mind that there was more evidence of people and so you keep going on looking.”   In February 2024, 94-year-old Jim Bowler returned to the Willandra Lakes region to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady. He was joined by members of the three (recognized) Traditional Custodians of the region, the Barkindji, Ngyiampaa, and Muthi Muthi. The area was, and remains, “a goldmine for a geologist.”   What to Do With the Remains? Tina Asela, a Dauan Island Council staff member, discussing rock art at Dauan Island. Source: National Museum Australia   While welcoming the discovery of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady, the Traditional Custodians of the Willandra Lakes region were also deeply upset by archaeologists’ decision to remove their ancestral remains without their consultation, let alone consent. As their remains were secured at ANU, their removal was, in their view, tantamount to theft.   In his 2024 interview with The Guardian, Bowler agreed that by the 1970s “science had been operating on some disgraceful treatment of Indigenous remains. That sense of disrespect had not yet dawned…There at the time was not…a conscious reflection of shame. But it is now seen as a gross misrepresentation of what we should have been doing…We would treat those remains very differently today.’’ After years of heated discussions, Mungo Lady was returned to her descendants in 1992. Mungo Man was repatriated in 2017, along with more than 100 remains found over the years in the Willandra Lakes region.   Mungo National Park, photograph by Gilberto Olimpio, 2021. Source: Unsplash   “We are so grateful he is going to be coming home,” Mutthi Mutthi Elder Mary Pappin observed in 2015, “He’s done his job. It is time for him to go home and rest now.”   For decades, Aboriginal tribes from the Willandra Lakes region opposed plans to re-bury Mungo Man and Mungo Lady in a public ceremony, while others criticized the decision to eventually bury them in a secret location. Many also opposed the construction of monuments on their re-burial site, because, to put it with Barkindji man Michael Young, “the type of monuments some were talking about were ridiculous. It was very colonial…just the idea of a monument goes against our culture.” In 2022, the remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady were moved to a secret place near Lake Mungo, without any markers, monuments, or public ceremonies to celebrate the event.   Margo Neale, the lead Indigenous curator of the National Museum, discussing Minyipuru at Pangkal, by Aboriginal painters Mulyatingki Marney, Nancy Nyanjilpayi Chapman, and May Wokka Chapman. Source: National Museum Australia   Jim Bowler expressed himself in favor of a more public, Western-influenced form of preservation, as he believes that neither Mungo Man nor Mungo Lady deserved “to be secretly buried without honour. […] In contrast to the ritual ceremony that was enacted there 40,000 years ago, the secret reburial remains a sad moment.”   The debates surrounding Mungo Man’s and Mungo Lady’s final resting place raise important, although controversial, questions. When it comes to archaeological discoveries, who should have the last say? If there’s one thing that Bowler and Aboriginal Elders agree on, it is the need to start viewing the Mungo remains as a starting point, as a “place of healing.” This can only be achieved through dialogue and education. To put it with Jason Kelly, the grandson of Aboriginal activist Alice Kelly, “We have never come close to realising the potential of Mungo as a place of global cultural and spiritual and human importance.”

  After completing his twelve labors, Heracles sought a new wife. However, his past deeds haunted him, leading to rejection, revenge, and murder. Once again, Heracles had to spend years atoning for his crimes. Yet, instead of grueling hardship, Heracles found something unexpected. Later, he sought vengeance on those who wronged him during his labors, leading armies against his enemies. Afterward, Heracles joined the Olympians in the great war against the Giants, protecting humanity and his nemesis Hera from destruction. Read on to learn what happened to Heracles after his labors.   Newly Freed Hero Looking for Love The Choice of Heracles, by Annibale Carracci, 1596. Source: Web Gallery of Art   Heracles was finally free. For the last ten years, he had been commanded by his cousin, King Eurystheus, to complete twelve nearly impossible labors to atone for his blood crime: murdering his wife and children while under an awful madness sent by Hera. Heracles had dreamed of his freedom for years and had developed a long list of things to do once freed.   While Heracles planned to seek revenge on those who wronged him during his labors, the hero’s highest priority was finding a new wife. During Heracles’s final labor and descent into the Underworld, he encountered the ghost of his friend and fellow hero, Prince Meleager. Heracles promised Meleager’s spirit that he would marry Meleager’s sister, Deianira, after finishing his last labor. It seems that Heracles forgot about his promise to his friend after he had gained his freedom and heard the news of an archery contest to win the right to marry King Eurytus’s daughter, Princess Iole.   The Archery Contest Herakles archer, by Antoine Bourdelle, 1909. Source: Joconde database   King Eurytus of Oechalia, the grandson of Apollo, was regarded as the greatest archer of his time. When his daughter Iole reached marriageable age, he decreed that only the man who could surpass him in an archery contest would be worthy of her. Many suitors had tried and failed to beat him with a bow.   When Heracles heard about the contest, he eagerly joined. Heracles held Eurytus in high esteem, as the King had been his archery instructor in his youth, teaching him everything he knew about the bow. While the rumors of Iole’s beauty were undoubtedly appealing, Heracles was most interested in having his respected teacher as a father-in-law.   While Eurytus may have once been hailed as the best archer, years of monster slaying had honed Heracles’s archery skills. It became clear that the student had surpassed the master when Heracles easily beat Eurytus in the contest. However, although he won, Eurytus refused to award Heracles with his daughter’s hand in marriage. He told Heracles that he would not risk his daughter’s safety by letting her marry a man who had murdered his previous wife and children.   Heracles explained his madness as a curse from Hera and Iphitus, Eurytus’s son, admired Heracles and tried to persuade his father to reconsider. Despite Iphitus’s plea to his father to honor his promise, Eurytus refused and asked Heracles to leave Oechalia. Heracles left the city and vowed to seek revenge against Eurytus.   Going Back to Where It All Began Priestess of Delphi, by John Collier, 1891. Source: Art Gallery of South Australia   Coincidentally, around the same time Heracles left Oechalia, twelve of Eurytus’s prized cattle mysteriously disappeared. Eurytus immediately suspected that the theft was a petty act of revenge from Heracles. However, Iphitus denied his father’s accusations and volunteered to find the true culprit. Iphitus traveled to Tiryns to tell Heracles about the theft and to find the real culprit.   While many people thought Heracles was the thief, it was actually Autolycus, the son of Hermes and a well-known cattle rustler. Autolycus took advantage of the public conflict between Heracles and Eurytus to steal the cattle.   Heracles, wanting to clear his name, offered to help search for the cattle and invited Iphitus to stay with him. However, Heracles and Iphitus argued during their investigation, and Heracles lost control of his temper. The argument led to Heracles succumbing to another episode of uncontrollable madness, causing him to hurl Iphitus off the high walls of Tiryns, resulting in Iphitus’s death.   In ancient Greece, killing a guest was a severe crime, considered second only to murdering a family member. Xenia, the law of hospitality, was enforced by Zeus, who punished violators harshly. When Heracles killed his guest, Iphitus, he was afflicted with a disease as punishment. To seek atonement, Heracles needed purification from an anointed King and approached King Neleus of Pylos for help, but Neleus refused due to his friendship with King Eurytus. Heracles then sought purification from King Hippocoon of Sparta, who also refused. In response, Heracles swore to seek revenge against both Kings for refusing to cleanse him of his crime.   Neck Amphora with Herakles and Apollo Fighting Over the Delphic Tripod, by the Circle of Antimenes Painter, ca. 520 BCE. Source: The Walters Art Museum   Heracles found himself in a familiar situation: he desperately needed ritual atonement, but no anointed King would help him. So, like last time, he sought advice from the Oracle of Delphi. However, the Delphic Oracle named Xenoclea initially refused to help Heracles due to his violation of the laws of hospitality and would only help him once he had been cleansed. But Heracles could not start the purification process without the oracle’s guidance, which frustrated him. So, he took the priestess’s tripod and refused to return it until she answered his questions. Eventually, Apollo, the god of prophecy, stepped in, returned the tripod, and ordered Xenoclea to answer Heracles’s questions.   Xenoclea told Heracles that to be purified for killing Iphitus he had to enter into slavery for three years. The money made from his sale and the wage he would have earned during his enslavement would be given to Eurytus as compensation for his son’s death. Xenoclea also declared that he would become the property of Queen Omphale of Lydia.   Heracles’s life of atonement and hardship seemed far from over as he was once again forced into the service of another to atone for his crimes. Some might argue that Heracles brought it on himself, or perhaps it was another cruel trick of his old nemesis, Hera. Regardless, Heracles’s life of labor was far from over.   Heracles and Omphale Hercules at the feet of Omphale, by Édouard Joseph Dantan, 1874-1894. Source: Bonhams   Omphale ascended to Lydia’s throne in modern-day Turkey after her husband, the mountain King Tmolus, was killed by a bull. During her reign, Lydia flourished, and Omphale readily paid three silver talents, a significant amount of money, to buy the renowned hero Heracles.   As Heracles’s mistress, Omphale commanded the hero to complete many degrading and grueling tasks, including cleaning her feet and dispatching bandits within her realm. Omphale ordered Heracles to switch clothes with her, making matters even more humiliating. The Queen enjoyed wearing the lion skin cloak of Heracles and wielding his club, while Heracles was forced to dress as a woman and wear clothes from Omphale’s wardrobe. Heracles served Omphale for three years, and during that time, the hero undertook a series of minor labors for the Queen, similar to what he had done for Eurystheus.   Hercules at the Feet of Omphale, by François Boucher, 1912. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Omphale tasked Heracles with burying the remains of Icarus, who tragically fell into the sea after flying too close to the sun. Icarus was the son of the inventor Daedalus, and both were imprisoned in a tower by King Minos of Crete after Daedalus helped Theseus navigate the labyrinth of the Minotaur.   Daedalus had constructed wings made of wax and feathers to escape, warning Icarus not to fly too low or too high to avoid damaging the wings. Unfortunately, Icarus ignored the warning. As he ascended higher and higher during his flight, the sun’s rays melted the wax, causing the feathers to fall off. This led him to plummet into the sea, meeting his unfortunate end. Unable to save his son, Daedalus had to continue his flight alone. Fortunately, under Omphale’s orders, Heracles retrieved Icarus at sea and gave him a proper burial.   The love-sick Hercules being hen-pecked by Omphale, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1602. Source: RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History   Omphale then ordered Heracles to conquer the neighboring city of the Itones, which had been sending raiding parties into Lydia and he was also sent to investigate a local wine farmer named Syleus. Omphale had received reports that Syleus was forcing travelers who passed by his vineyard to work on his land before killing them. Heracles traveled to the vineyard, discovered Syleus’s cruelty, killed the brutal farmer, and then set fire to the farm.   Similarly, Heracles was commanded to deal with a farmer named Lityerses, the brother of King Midas of Phrygia. Lityerses used to force travelers to work on his farm during the harvest, only to behead them afterward. Heracles challenged Lityerses to a harvesting contest, defeated him, and then beheaded him.   Later, Omphale sent Heracles to deal with the mischievous Cercopes, small monkey-like brothers who enjoyed causing chaos and stealing from her citizens. Heracles caught and bound the troublemakers to a wooden pole after they stole his weapons. While traveling back to Omphale, the Cercopes, who now had a perfect view of the hero’s rather hairy buttocks, began to laugh at it. When Heracles asked what they found so funny, the Cercopes told him that their mother had long ago given them a prophecy warning them to avoid a man with a hairy behind.   In some versions, Heracles finds the story amusing and lets them go, while he hands them over to Omphale in others. The Cercopes would go on to try and trick Zeus, who, lacking Heracles’s sense of humor, transformed the brothers into a pair of monkeys.   Jupiter Transforming the Cercopes into Monkeys, by Antonio Tempesta, 1606. Source: RIJKSMUSEUM   It did not take long for Heracles and Omphale to become lovers, and later, the servant and mistress fell in love and married. After the wedding celebrations ended, Omphale and Heracles returned to their chambers. While they were asleep, the god Pan snuck into their room. Heracles, still dressed as a woman, was mistaken for Omphale by Pan in the darkness. Pan attempted to force himself upon Heracles, but Heracles woke up and threw the god off before anything could happen.   Omphale and Heracles had two sons, Agelaus and Tyrsenus. Agelaus later succeeded his mother as the ruler of Lydia and was the ancestor of the famous Lydian King, Croesus. Tyrsenus supposedly invented the trumpet, then left Lydia and settled in the region of the Tyrrhenians in Etruscan Italy.   Hercules and Omphale, by Johann Heinrich the Elder Tischbein, 1754. Source: Hessen Kassel Heritage   After three years of service, Omphale sent the wages that Heracles would have earned to King Eurytus as the oracle had commanded. However, Eurytus refused to accept them, claiming that no amount of money would compensate for the loss of his son. Eurytus’s rejection further angered Heracles, who would not forgive the insult. Seemingly, Heracles abandoned his second wife Omphale and his sons once he finished his service and regained his freedom. Once again cleansed of his sins, Heracles set forth on a new mission: to deal with the people on his grudge list.   Grudges Hercules delivering Hesione, by Hans Thoma, 1890. Source: Musée d’Orsay   Heracles had an often-overlooked characteristic—his remarkable ability to hold onto a grudge. Throughout his twelve labors, Heracles had made a list of people he swore to one day take revenge on for cheating him. At the end of his labors, Heracles had two names on his list: King Augeas of Elis and the Trojan King Laomedon. Both men had broken their promise to pay Heracles after he helped them.   Augeas refused to pay Heracles for cleaning his stables during his fifth labor and Laomedon also refused to pay Heracles after saving his daughter Hesione from a sea monster at the end of his tenth labor. Since completing his labors, Heracles had added three more names: King Neleus of Pylos, King Hippocoon of Sparta, and King Eurytus of Oechalia.   Heracles’s first target was Laomedon. The hero gathered a small army and set sail to Troy, accompanied by his old friends, the brothers Telamon and Peleus (the fathers of Ajax the Greater and Achilles). Together, they sacked the city of Troy and killed Laomedon and all but two of the royal Trojan family. Hesione, the princess Heracles had once saved, was given to Telamon as a bride. Heracles also decided to spare Laomedon’s youngest son, Priam, who was left in charge of the now-ruined city of Troy.   Priam remembered how easily Heracles destroyed his home and later made Troy nearly impregnable to all invaders. Some accounts also claim that Priam never forgave Telamon for abducting his sister Hesione. As a result, Priam sent his son, Paris, to abduct Helen of Sparta in revenge, ultimately leading to the start of the Great Trojan War.   The Labors of Hercules: Hercules Conquering Troy, by Hans Sebald Beham, 1545. Source: The Cleveland Museum of Art   Heracles then returned to mainland Greece and assembled another small army to attack the city of Elis, ruled by King Augeas. Augeas received news of the invasion in time to organize a defense force led by the conjoined twins Eurytus and Cteatus, also known as the Moliones. These fearsome fighters, born to Poseidon and Molione, shared one body, two heads, and four arms and legs. Under the leadership of the Moliones, Augeas’s army repelled Heracles’s initial attack.   During Heracles’s second assault, the Moliones gained the upper hand and killed Iphicles, Heracles’s twin brother. Iphicles’s death sent Heracles into a violent rage, leading him to brutally kill the twins by bisecting them with a sword. Driven by anger and bloodlust, Heracles then overcame the remaining defenders, eventually finding King Augeas and massacring him and his entire family.   After Heracles’s forces conquered Elis, he invited Phyleus, the last surviving son of Augeas, to become the new King. Phyleus had been exiled from Elis for defending Heracles when Augeas failed to keep his promise to pay the hero. With Phyleus as the new King, Heracles established an athletic competition in Elis to honor his father, Zeus. Heracles decreed that the contest would be held every four years and named it after his father’s home, calling it the Olympic Games.   Hercules Conquering the Molionide Twins, by Albrecht Dürer, 1496. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art   After crossing another name off his list, Heracles directed his attention to King Neleus of Pylos. Neleus had refused to absolve the hero of his crime against xenia, leading to Heracles’s enslavement under Omphale. Heracles marched on Pylos and overcame Neleus’s defending army, killing Neleus and his entire family.   Neleus had one surviving son, Nestor, who was away from the city during Heracles’s attack. Nestor was a renowned hero in his own right and had participated in Jason’s quest for the golden fleece and the Calydonian boar hunt. After Heracles’s attack, Nestor returned and successfully rebuilt Pylos into a thriving and peaceful city. He earned a reputation as one of the wisest kings in Greek mythology. In his later years, Nestor played a crucial role as one of the key advisors to King Agamemnon during the Trojan War.   The news of Heracles’s quest for revenge had by now reached Hippocoon, who sent his Spartan fighters to help Neleus battle Heracles. However, when Heracles saw Spartans at Pylos, he became further provoked and marched on Sparta with his army.   The battle-hardened and skilled Spartans presented a formidable challenge for Heracles. Nevertheless, he ultimately managed to defeat them and hunt down and kill Hippocoon and his entire family. Years earlier, Hippocoon and his sons had ousted the former King of Sparta, Tyndareus, who was Hippocoon’s brother. Heracles called upon Tyndareus to reclaim the Spartan throne after his brother’s defeat.   Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World, by Maerten van Heemskerck, 1535. Source: The Walters Art Museum   Heracles’s restoration of Tyndareus to the Spartan throne and his sacking of Troy had significant consequences. Tyndareus later married his two daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen, to two exiled Mycenaean princes, Agamemnon and Menelaus. All four of them played essential roles in the Trojan War. Some have suggested that the Trojan War might never have happened without Heracles’s petty vendettas against Hippocoon and Laomedon. This completely altered the political landscape of the two influential cities and sowed the seeds for an all-out war between the Trojans and the Greeks.   Giants Olympus. The Battle of the Giants, by Francisco Bayeu y Subías, 1764. Source: Museo del Prado   Before Heracles could cross off the final name, King Eurytus, from his grudge list, his father Zeus called him to Olympus. While Heracles had been preoccupied with vengeance, a war was brewing between the Olympians and the giants, later known as the Gigantomachy.   When Cronus overthrew and castrated his father, the primordial sky god Uranus, his blood fertilized the earth, leading to the birth of many creatures, including the Giants. The giants were enormous beings with serpentine legs and the strength and power that rivaled the Olympians. Gaia roused the giants to overthrow Zeus and the Olympians as revenge for the gods’ overthrow of her children, the Titans.   An oracle had made a prophecy warning both sides about an upcoming war and prophesied that the gods of Olympus could not defeat the giants without the aid of a mortal hero. The prophecy led to a cold war between the two, each waiting for a reason to instigate a full-on battle.   The spark that ignited the Gigantomachy arose while Heracles was out fighting kings who had annoyed him. One of the giants, Alcyoneus, stole the cattle of the sun god Helios, who jealously guarded them from both gods and mortals. Alcyoneus’s provocation led to both sides gearing up for the inevitable conflict.   Battle of Hercules and the Giants, by Anonymous after Antonio Pollaiuolo, 15th century. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art   Faced with an impending war, Gaia searched the world for a magical herb to grant immunity to the giants and protect them from a prophesied mortal hero. However, Zeus, with the help of Prometheus, anticipated Gaia’s plan. Zeus ordered Helios, the god of the sun, and Selene, the goddess of the moon, to stop driving their chariots, plunging the world into darkness. During this darkness, Zeus gathered all the magical herbs and concealed them from Gaia.   When the war finally began, around 100 giants faced Heracles, the twelve Olympians, Hecate the goddess of magic, the Moirai, the sisters of fate, and victory herself, Nike. Their two most powerful fighters, Alcyoneus and Porphyrion, led the giants. Alcyoneus appeared impervious to attacks. Instead of risking a close-quarter fight, Heracles shot him with his hydra venom arrows, which seemed to kill him. However, when Alcyoneus fell back to the earth, the giant instantly revived him to full strength. Like Heracles’s old foe Antaeus, Alcyoneus seemed revitalized whenever he fell to the ground.   As Heracles hopelessly kept Alcyoneus at bay with his attacks, Athena whispered the solution to defeating the impervious giant. Alcyoneus was immune to all harm as long as he was on his native soil. Yet if taken away from it, he would succumb to all the damage he had so far shaken off. Heracles understood what he needed to do. He holstered his weapons, grabbed hold of Alcyoneus, and dragged the giant from Greece to Italy. Once on the Italian peninsula, all of Alcyoneus’s power faded, and he succumbed to his injuries. Heracles then buried him under Vesuvius.   Sala dei Giganti, by Giulio Romano, 1532-1534. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Next, Heracles faced Porphyrion, the last remaining giant leader. Porphyrion was quick and agile, dodging all of Heracles’s venom-coated arrows. He was determined to attack Hera and impregnate her. Porphyrion might have succeeded if Heracles had not stood in his way to protect his stepmother.   Despite his flaws, Heracles was ultimately a hero who always tried to defend the vulnerable regardless of who they were. Despite Hera being a constant source of trouble in his life, he bravely shielded her from Porphyrion’s attempted attack.   The prophecy had warned Zeus that his thunderbolts would not kill the giants. However, Zeus soon discovered that while they could not kill them, they did momentarily stun them. While Porphyrion was distracted trying to reach Hera, Zeus used his thunderbolts, stunning him long enough for Heracles to kill him with his poison arrows. Some say that Zeus cast a spell on Porphyrion, causing him to lust after Hera, which distracted the giant long enough for Zeus to land a hit with his thunderbolt.   In the end, the Olympian gods emerged victorious over the giants, largely thanks to the help of Heracles, their prophesied hero. While the gods managed to defeat most of the giants, Heracles played a crucial role in taking down their leaders and ensuring Hera’s safety throughout the remainder of the conflict.   Hera hiding during the battle between the gods and the giants, by Carel Fabritius, 1643. Source: RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History   Even though Hera had attempted to ruin Heracles’s life at every opportunity, including being the architect of his labors and the instigator of his family’s death, her feelings towards the hero changed after he defended her from the giants. The hatred she once harbored for Heracles transformed into love and gratitude.   Finally free from Hera’s wrath after a lifetime of torment, Heracles decided to settle down, marry, and find love. Little did he know that this newfound happiness would ultimately lead him to his fateful end.