Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus were twin sons to the Roman goddess Rhea, and the god Mars. The other gods were jealous of Rhea and Mars and they sought out to kill Romulus and Remus. Mars was away and Rhea had to protect her sons, so she made a basket and put them in water, hoping someone would see her kids and take care of them. A wolf had found the two boys and started raising them as her own cubs. As the boys started to grow, the wolf knew she could not take care of them so the wolf took boys to a place where a farmer and his wife could find the boys. The farmer and the wife took care of Romulus and Remus until they were young men. As the boys reached early adult hood, they wanted to build a city and rule it as kings. Romulus and Remus had a competition to see who was going to be the dominate king. As it seemed Remus was going to win, out of anger, Romulus killed his brother with a stone and Romulus ruled over Rome. The Romans thought they were the best city because there first king was a son of the gods.
Apollo and Cassandra
Apollo enjoyed visiting his temples the Romans built in his honor. One day, he saw Cassandra, a young beautiful Priestess, and Apollo fell in love at first sight. Apollo wanted to make a deal with Cassandra, that he would give her a special gift. The gift was a prophecy, to see the future. But only if she gave Apollo a kiss. Cassandra thought it was a good deal, so Apollo gave her his gift. Instantly she was able to see the future and when Apollo leaned over for a kiss, she spit in his face. For she had seen he wanted to help destroy Troy. He was furious but could not take back his gift. However, he could add on to it. When she told everyone to watch out for the Trojan Horse, no one listened. Ever. And that was Apollo’s addition to his gift.
The Mighty Hercules
Hercules was the son of Jupiter, the god of all gods. However, Hercules was a demi-god, or half god-half mortal. Juno, Jupiter’s wife, was jealous of this child and wanted the child dead. She had even sent a big snake into his crib. But with Hercules' ability to detect danger and his amazing strength, he killed the two serpents. Jupiter admired strength and he loved his son, so he sent him to live on earth because he feared Juno would try to kill him. Hercules grew into a young man, loved and noble but he didn’t fit in on earth. He was too big and too strong to be a mortal, so his earthly father told him he was a god...half god anyway. Eurystheus, Hercules cousin, hated Hercules very much. Juno offered to help Eursytheus kill Hercules. So they created twelve tasks that Hercules had to do and those tasks would kill Hercules. So Eurystheus told Hercules that if he completes these twelve tasks, he can have immortality. Hercules did the twelve tasks and was still alive at the end of each task. This surprised Juno and Eurystheus very much. So Hercules would have immortality, and earn his rights into the heavens and rule with the gods.