Alcmene
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- 82 Alkmene is an asteroid.
Alcmene, or Alkmênê ("might of the moon") was, in ancient Greek mythology, the daughter of Electryon, king of Mycenae, and wife of Amphitryon.
She was the mother of Heracles by Zeus, who assumed the likeness of her husband during his absence, and the mother of Iphicles by Amphitryon. While Alcmene was pregnant with Heracles, Hera tried to prevent her from giving birth. She was foiled by Galanthis, her servant, who told Hera that she had already delivered the baby. Hera turned her into a weasel.
One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she had pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day.
Alcmene was regarded as the ancestress of the Heracleidae, and worshipped at Thebes and Athens.
After separating from Amphitryon, she married Rhadamanthus in Boeotia.ca:Alcmena de:Alkmene et:Alkmene es:Alcmena gl:Alcmena it:Alcmena nl:Alkmene pl:Alkmena sv:Alkmena