To show the courage of Hercules, it is said that he entered the cave where the lion's lair was, closed the entrance behind him, and at once grappled with the monster.[67:2]
Samson is said to have torn asunder the jaws of the lion, and we find him generally represented slaying the beast in that manner. So likewise, was this the manner in which Hercules disposed of the Nemean lion.[67:3]
The skin of the lion, Hercules tore off with his fingers, and knowing it to be impenetrable, resolved to wear it henceforth.[67:4] The statues and paintings of Hercules either represent him carrying the lion's skin over his arm, or wearing it hanging down his back, the skin of its head fitting to his crown like a cap, and the fore-legs knotted under his chin.[67:5]
Samson's second exploit was when he went down to Ashkelon and slew thirty men.
Hercules, when returning to Thebes from the lion-hunt, and wearing its skin hanging from his shoulders, as a sign of his success, met the heralds of the King of the Minyæ, coming from Orchomenos to claim the annual tribute of a hundred cattle, levied on Thebes. Hercules cut off the ears and noses of the heralds, bound their hands, and sent them home.[67:6]
Samson's third exploit was when he caught three hundred foxes, and took fire-brands, and turned them tail to tail, and put a fire-brand in the midst between two tails, and let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines.
There is no such feature as this in the legends of Hercules, the nearest to it in resemblance is when he encounters and kills the Learnean Hydra.[67:7] During this encounter a fire-brand figures conspicuously, and the neighboring wood is set on fire.[67:8]
We have, however, an explanation of this portion of the legend, in the following from Prof. Steinthal:
At the festival of Ceres, held at Rome, in the month of April, a fox-hunt through the circus was indulged in, in which burning torches were bound to the foxes' tails.