It's Hercules Day!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite Brazilian writers was Monteiro Lobato. I have already mentioned him here a long time ago.

One of his books, in two volumes, was "The Twelve Labours of Hercules":

 It was an amazing experience for me to follow the adventures of Lobato's  main character, Pedrinho (Pete), who travels to Ancient Greece with his friends to meet the powerful demigod and witness his incredible labours. Monteiro Lobato talks about Greek mythology in a language suited for children, making the reading a pleasure, and putting the book down an almost impossible task. It was when I learned to love the ancient myths and when my curiosity to learn more and more about this beautiful culture was born.

His adventure, in a nutshell: Hercules, who was son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, was driven mad  ,when he grew up, by Zeus' wife, Hera, since she couldn't do anything else to get revenge fo her husband's infidelity (as if this wasn't his standard behaviour!). Hercules kills his wife and kids while out of his mind, and is totally horrified when he recovers his sanity and realizes what he has done. As part of the punishment for his evil act, he's doomed by the God Apollo to work for the King Eurystheus for twelve years and also perform the 12 Labors. Only fully reading his fantastic saga to understand how strong this demigod was.

Today is in his honor, a perfect day to remember that sometimes you just can't give up, that determination is the only key to carry on and to get where you want. Many times we do need to simply keep walking while fighting our inner demons.