Nemean lion

American  

noun

Classical Mythology.

1. a powerful lion strangled by Hercules as one of his labors.

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Nemean lion British  

noun

1. Greek myth an enormous lion that was strangled by Hercules as his first labour

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Example Sentences

This statue of Herakles-Vajrapani depicts him as a faithful defender of Buddha, wearing the head of the Nemean lion he famously slew and holding his sacred sword at repose.

From New York Times • Nov. 17, 2021

Chenel has brought a commanding, full-height Roman statue from the second century A.D., depicting Hercules wearing the skin of the Nemean lion.

From New York Times • May 4, 2017

He leads armies and battles all manner of man and beast, including undead soldiers, the hellhound Cerberus, the invulnerable Nemean lion and the multi-headed serpent the Hydra.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2014

The remaining four show Hercules wrestling with Antæus, taming the Nemean lion, extirpating the Hydra, and bending to his will the bull of Crete.

From New Italian sketches by Symonds, John Addington

The hero, it is added, "pleased with their courage, wrapped a great number of them in the skin of the Nemean lion, and carried them to Eurystheus."

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 98, May 17, 1890. by Various