This week, on the Mythos and Legends by Cast, it's the death of Hercules.

You'll see why, if you're going to save someone from Sea Monster, you should really get cash

up front. And how any competition with Hercules is like playing chess with a wookie.

Just let the Hercules win. Then, on the creature of the week, it's a child-sized creature from

Canada, who just wants you to buy him cigarettes. Or he'll give your chicken seizures and burn your

house down. This is the Mythos and Legends by Cast, episode 37, the best at what he does.

This is a by Cast where I tell stories from folklore. Some are incredibly popular stories you

think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories you might not have heard,

but really should. This week, we're going back to ancient times, and seeing the death of a man

who needs no introduction. You don't need to have listened to the previous Hercules episodes.

10A and 10B, but it helps. Today's story starts not after, but during the Leipzig

Hercules. Also, I'm 100% aware his name in the Greek is Hercules. I'm calling him Hercules,

the Roman version of the name, because that's the name I picked in the previous Hercules

episodes. And that's what I've always called him. The Monster Rose from the Sea,

onlookers from short, could see its scales graze the surface of the water.

Every so often, between the seafoam, they could see a reptilian eyes and a razor-sharp beak.

Before the creature dove back into the blue, seemingly limitless depths of the Mediterranean

Sea. On the rock, not far from where the monster was starting to surface, was a woman.

She was naked and chained to the rock. She was terrified, but she wasn't showing it. Being

chained naked to a rock was indignity enough. Besides, the monster would kill her soon.

Then, she saw the greatest terror in the world, gripping his club and clod in the skin of the

Namyun lion, riding triumphantly, musculately, and almost equally nakedly at the head of his ship.

...