Published May 20, 2021
"Storm"
Alcmene had cared for many children over the years. Being childless herself, friends and neighbors knew she could always be called upon to lend a hand with children, since she had both the time and the desire to care for them.
From this experience, she knew what things were likely to scare young children, especially babies. Loud noises were one thing. Natural phenomena were another. That was one reason why stories of the gods were so important: they helped to explain how the world worked, especially things that had no perceptible cause—like why the seasons changed, or why the sun rose and set, or why rain fell and lightning flashed and thunder boomed.
The days after Alcmene and Amphitryon found Hercules were filled with almost constant thunderstorms. Alcmene expected the baby to be frightened and cry. But the storms had the opposite effect on Hercules.
As a baby and a toddler, he laughed every time he heard thunder. He reached out his hands every time he saw lightning, as if he wanted to touch it. Instead of wanting to be hidden away, he wanted to be near the window and peek outside to see the storm. Instead of being agitated, he seemed almost comforted by such inclement weather.
Even as Hercules grew older and laughed less easily, he still enjoyed watching storms. Unlike most farmers, he did not worry about the harm that a storm might cause to their home or the surrounding hills and fields. If there was any damage left behind, Hercules was happy to help clean up and rebuild afterwards. He eagerly picked up any felled branches or even entire tree trunks.
He did not even mind getting caught in the rain, or being outside when lightning flashed. He seemed to think there was nothing dangerous about it—which made sense, to some extent, because many things that were dangerous for other people turned out to be harmless for him. He could absorb the impact from falling or hitting something or being hit with barely a bruise. But Amphitryon explained that his strength would not protect him from being struck by lightning, so he stayed inside during storms to spare his parents any anxiety. Even so, Hercules seemed to think that the lightning would not harm him, that he was somehow safe from the wrath of its god.
This behavior—just one of the many unusual things about Hercules—made his parents wonder about the medallion they had found with him. The symbol of the gods was a thundercloud with a bolt of lightning extending down. But if they thought of any possible connections, they dared not speak of them out loud, risking blasphemy and whatever divine retribution might follow.
Sometimes Amphitryon thought that Hercules himself was like a thundercloud, trying to contain his energy until it reached a point at which it needed to be released—sometimes resulting in destruction. And when it was too great, causing harm for their neighbors, embarrassment for his parents, or isolation for himself, it could be accompanied by tears, like his own rainfall.
Thinking this way made Amphitryon wonder if the rain was actually someone's tears. Was it the gods' way of venting their emotions? It was a strange thought, considering that mortals needed the rain for the crops to grow—a good thing coming out of someone's suffering.
He hoped the same kind of paradox might prove true for his son.