Alcmene
ALETHEIA: So, Alcmene, you are the mother of Hercules. How does that feel?
ALCMENE: Well, most days it feels surreal. I mean I met Zeus by happenstance and the next thing you know I am the mother of a demigod.
ALETHEIA: Hold on... how exactly did you meet Zeus?
ALCMENE: Well, I being a mortal princess was down on earth, and I had a husband named Amphitryon and together we had two children, but that is beside the point... I was a very good-looking lady if I do say so myself, so it turns out that one night while my husband was away at war Zeus came down from the heavens disguised himself as my husband, acting as if he was back from battle, and, well, you can guess the rest.
ALETHEIA: Oh my goodness, Alcmene, that there is scandalous! I never knew that... did his wife know?
ALCMENE: Well, she found out, that's for sure. Zeus decided to announce to ALL of Olympias that I was going to give birth to his son Hercules and he made a deal that his son born on this day would rule the kindgdom. So, Hera sent her witch friend to postpone my birth. This cost Hercules throne and cost me my health, I mean I was in labor for more than 24 hours!
ALETHEIA: Oh, honey, that must have been rough but you popped him out nonetheless and what happened after he was born?
ALCMENE: I'll be honest, we tried to give him up.
*Audience gasps*
ALCMENE: I know, I know... but understand that my husband and I were terrified of Hera. She put postponed my labor and sent snakes to attack my children, thank goodness Hercules was strong enough to strangle them, but what else could she be capable of? We were fearful that our baby would suffer, so we left him in a field.
ALETHEIA: But...
ALCMENE: Again I know, I still raised him and you're probably wondering how if I just admitted to putting him in a field. Well, it is all thanks to Athena. She found him in the field, somehow tricked Hera into nursing him as if he wasn't the demigod that her husband cheated on her to make, and brought him back to me. Not only that, but Hercules nursed so aggressively that Hera pushed him away. This caused her milk to spray across the heavens and created the Milky Way you see today.
ALETHEIA: Wait, what? I had no idea! So I guess Herc, hope it's okay that I call him that, Herc's childhood was not all sunshine?
ALCMENE: You're right! And as Herc got older he only got stronger. To begin with he didn't know what to do with it. Actually, there was one time he was playing ball with the neighborhood kids and needless to say they never saw their ball again and sadly Herc was never asked to play again.
ALETHEIA: Now, that is something I have always wondered. Did he make friends easy?
ALCMENE: Not when he was young. He had the hardest time because the boys were jealous and the girls were scared. Thankfully people grew to love my boy.
ALETHEIA: Oh yes, I know that changed... and this seems like a great time to ask Deianira some questions. Deianira...
Author's Note: The context of her back story comes from a couple sources listed below. I think she would be a very sweet quaint woman and shy about the truth of her bring Hercules into this world. I plan to bring her back in as she still has some good points to be made about him. Alcmene's story is generally left out especially to someone who only knows the Disney version of the story. But she was seduced by Zeus, got pregnant and then was forced to hold her labor by a witch so that Hercules would not have the throne. I didn't really add much except for emotion as I made her guilty about leaving Hercules and I added the story about his childhood and his struggle with friends to give a human element and also make it seem as though his mother really did know him. I chose Alcmene because she is the mother of Hercules and deserves the recognition. The picture is actually a depiction of her childbirth and while it seems a bit graphic it shows you that a demigod came from a normal place. He did not just appear or come easily. He came from a mortal woman who had a difficult labor.
Sources: