(Perseus, who was also said to be one of Zeus’ sons, famously beheaded the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa.)ĭid you know? The constellation Hercules is the fifth-largest one in the sky.

According to legend, his father was Zeus, ruler of all the Greek gods on Mount Olympus and all the mortals on earth, and his mother was Alcmene, the granddaughter of the hero Perseus. Hercules was not a god but was born a mortal, although, like many mythic heroes, he had a complicated family tree.