Text Leveling System

The Twelve Labors of Hercules

RDQ:	2239	Max Word/Sent	46	Total Words	1899		Diff Words	703
Lex	940	Ave Word/.Sent	14	Hi Freq occurs	1228	64.7%	Hi freq	243	34.6%
AR	5.3	Long Sentences	23.4	Low Freq occurs	183	9.6%	Low freq	143	20.3%

The birth of Hercules
Hercules  glory to Hera! Roared great Zeus from Mount Olympus. The father of the gods did a dance for joy and made the heavens rumble. He had just heard that his son was about to be born to him.
Hercules  what a fitting name. He will be stronger than a lion, wiser than the stars, a war hero, protector of gods and men. And one day he will save the gods from the race of giants! I swear that this son of mine, descended from Perseus himself, shall be the king of Mycenae. Ah, Hercules, my son, my son!
But Zeus's wife, the goddess Hera, was far from pleased at having Hercules named after her  in fact, she was furious, for the child was not hers! It's mother to be with a woman called alcmene and, with Zeus as its father, the baby would be half man half God. When she learned that the baby was to be born the next day, Hera plotted revenge on her unfaithful husband. She asked him sweetly, do you swear that the next son born in our family and descended from Perseus will be king of Mycenae?
I do! Thundered Zeus.
At once the jealous goddess hurried off to Mycenae and arranged for and nicippe, the wife of King sthenelus, who was also descended from Perseus, to give birth to her child an hour before Hercules was born. His name was eurystheus, and he was Hercules's half-brother.
Zeus could not go back on his word, so now eurystheus would be King of Mycenae.
But Hera was not satisfied. The green snake of jealousy still writhed within the mother of the gods.
A year later, she sent to to deadly serpents with poisoned fangs and strong coils to kill the infant Hercules and his crib. But the serpents were no match for Zeus's baby son. Next morning, servants found the infant sitting up, gurgling and laughing, whirling the dead serpents around his head like skipping ropes. He had tied their heads into a knot and strangled them with his bare hands!
As Hercules grew to manhood, he was taught by the best tutors: eurytus showed him how to use a bowl; amphitryon, to drive the chariot; Castor, to ride a horse; Pollux, to wrestle; Linus, to sing and play the lyre; and Chiron, the art of healing.
Hercules grew up tall and broad shouldered with dark, curly hair and a gaze like smoldering fire behind his Amber flecked great eyes. No youth could match him in wrestling or any other sport, and he often used his strength to help those in need.
For one such deed, the grateful king of Thebes gave Hercules his daughter Megara to be his wife. It was a perfect match: Megara and Hercules were devoted to each other. In time they had three sons. No family could have been happier.
But their happiness was not to last. The vengeful Hera was determined that misery should follow Hercules like a shadow.
One day, she enveloped him in a fit of madness. Not knowing what he was doing, Hercules seized his poor wife and children and threw them into the fire, where they were burned to death.
At once his blind rage dissolved like mist, and he was overcome with remorse. What had he done? Why had he killed those he loved most? And how was he to pay for this dreadful crime? Mad with grief, he wept uncontrollably. He fail into a troubled sleep, and in the dream he was told to go to the temple at Delphi and accept whatever judgment the Oracle should decree.
Hercules walked barefoot across the rocky land for many days, until he arrived at Delphi. There, at the top of a steep cliff, stood the famous Temple. He climbed the jagged rock and entered the Temple, torn and bleeding, then fell upon his knees before the altar and sobbed out his tale of woe.
Tell me how I may cleanse myself of this evil, he cried.
There was a long silence. Then the voice of the priestess echoed around the walls and marble columns.
Go to the city of Mycenae. There you must serve your half-brother, King Eurystheus for twelve years. He will set you 12th tasks, each harder than the one before. If you perform these labor successfully, your soul will find peace.
The Oracle had spoken.
The labors of Hercules were about to begin.
The LION
of NEMEA
For as long as he had been king, Eurystheus feared that one day Hercules would try to take away his throne, so he was less than pleased when his -	half-brother arrived at his gate. But when he learned that the Oracle had put Hercules at his mercy, he rubbed his hands in glee: Hercules's first task, he decided, would also be his last.
Summoning his half-brother, he said to him, "Hercules, a savage lion is terrorizing the countryside of Nemea, near Corinth. The beast comes down from the hills at night, killing shepherds and their sheep. Your first task is to slay the lion and bring me its skin as proof that it is dead."
The king knew, though Hercules did not, that no weapon could pierce the lion's hide.
Hercules set out for the valley of Nemea, taking with him a strong net, a spear, and his favorite club carved from a wild olive tree. It was early morning when he caught sight of the lion returning to its hillside lair. He settled down behind a rock to wait.
It was not long before the beast came over the crest of a hill, its great jaws dripping blood. The very sight of the massive
beast would have sent most men fleeing in terror, but not Hercules. He leaped out as the monster passed and aimed his spear.
The spear whistled through the air straight and true, hitting its target with a jarring thud-and bounced harmlessly off the lion's chest as if from solid rock.
The beast turned, snarling with rage, and charged Hercules with a roar, its sharp teeth ready to tear him apart. But Hercules stood his ground.
He stretched up and swung the club with all his might. It caught the beast a hefty blow that would have killed any other creature. But the lion was not even stunned; it turned before Hercules could follow up the blow and slunk off to the safety of its den. He pursued it into the cave and tied his net across the entrance so that it could not escape.
Then a terrible fight began: Hercules, with his bare hands, fought the huge lion with its razor-sharp teeth and claws. Gradually he forced the beast back into the net, where it twisted and roared, unable to escape from the cave. The ground trembled as the two wrestled to the death. Finally, Hercules gained a grip on the lion's throat and choked its breath away.
When he went to skin the carcass, he found that his spear would not
pierce its hide. Then he had an idea. Using one of the lion's sharp curved paws, he cut through the hide with ease and skinned the shaggy beast.
Hercules returned to the king wearing the lion skin over his shoulders, its head serving as a helmet. When Eurystheus saw him, the poor man fainted; he thought that the lion had killed Hercules and had now come to tear him limb from limb!
Eventually the king realized it was Hercules in the lion skin. Laughing heartily, he shouted, "You won't live to play tricks on me again!"
The HYDRA
o f LERNA
Eurystheus was eager to get rid of Hercules, and wondered what task he should set him next. Suddenly he remembered that at Lerna, not far from Argos, lived the Hydra, a snakelike monster with nine serpent heads. It preyed on passers-by, poisoning them with its deadly fangs and crushing them in its coils. Its breath alone brought death to anyone who ventured near. Many a warrior had tried to slay it, but all had failed. As soon as they cut off one head, another, even bigger, grew in its place.
Calling Hercules to him, the king said, "Brother, your second task is to slay the Hydra that lurks in the steaming swamps of Lerna."
So Hercules set off toward the Hydra's lair in a chariot driven by his nephew Iolaus. He wore his Nemean lion skin for protection and carried a sword and bow.
A cold wind wailed across the bleak marshes, bending the tall, brown-topped bulrushes. When the chariot could go no farther, Iolaus pointed to a distant pool amid a grove of plane trees.
"Hercules," he said, "you'll find the Hydra there."
Hercules strode forward and waded into the water until it reached his armpits. Now he could see the monster writhing and splashing, but an impassable bog separated him from the beast. All he could do was fire burning arrows high into the air. They fell hissing into the waters of the pool; clouds of steam rose up, and the enraged serpent came slithering toward him, forked tongues flicking out from all its jaws and bloodshot eyes glinting from every socket of its head.
Hercules was not afraid. He stepped forward, holding his breath against the poisonous fumes, and struck out with his sword, slicing off the darting heads one by one. Yet the moment one head flew through the air, another grew in its place. Again and again he slashed off a head-and again and again the heads grew back.
By now, the monster had coiled itself about his waist and he could not break free. His great strength began to ebb away as the poison took hold.
Then two huge crabs came crawling out of the mud and locked his ankles in a pincer grip. Any ordinary man would have been crushed to death, his ankle bones cracked in two. Not Hercules. He raised his foot and stamped so hard on each crab that their shells smashed to smithereens. But he could not break free of the Hydra's coils, and he was tiring fast.
In desperation, he called Iolaus to his aid.
"Quick, light a fire and bring a torch!" he yelled. Iolaus did as he was bid. Then, as Hercules cut off one head, Iolaus burned its bloody stump, so that no more heads could grow. One by one they destroyed the monster's heads. Now it was the Hydra's turn to tire.
Finally, with a mighty sweep of his sword, Hercules severed the last remaining head and Iolaus burned its stump in the sizzling fire. The evil red gleam of the Hydra's eyes died out. Hercules had slain the Hydra.
He dipped his arrow heads into its poison to make them deadly, then buried the Hydra's body deep in the ground, and returned safely with Iolaus to Mycenae.
"It is done. I have killed the Hydra," he told the king. And he described how he had done the deed.
But Eurystheus shook his head.
"No, no, I cannot count this as a labor," he said. "You were helped by Iolaus."
Only when Hercules threatened to dig up the Hydra's body and drag it to Mycenae, did the king reluctantly accept that Hercules had passed his second test.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: Many difficult words

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Many Long Complex

Text structure: Difficult

Inferences: Several Implications

Complexity: Several unrelated ideas

Concept: Fanciful

Chapters

Headings

Features

Character traits

Integral Setting - Historical

Symbolism

Difficult names

Foreign words

Topic

Challenges

Danger

*Fictional Ideas/Charac

*Family & Friends

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

alcmene	altar	amphitryon	bloodshot	bulrushes
carcass	castor	charged	chariot	cleanse
columns	crawling	curved	decree	delphi
descended	desperation	determined	dissolved	dreadful
ease	ebb	echoed	enraged	enveloped
eurystheus	eurytus	eventually	fitting	flecked
flicking	forked	furious	glee	glinting
glory	goddess	gradually	grateful	grief
grove	gurgling	happier	happiness	harmlessly
healing	heartily	hefty	hera	hydra
hydra's	impassable	iolaus	jagged	jealous
jealousy	judgment	knowing	labor	labors
lair	limb	lurks	lyre	madness
manhood	marshes	massive	mercy	misery
monster's	mount	mycenae	nemean	nephew
nicippe	olive	olympus	ordinary	overcome
passers	peace	perform	perseus	pierce
pincer	poisoned	poisoning	poisonous	preyed
priestess	protection	protector	pursued	razor
reluctantly	remorse	revenge	satisfied	savage
seized	separated	serpent	servants	severed
shaggy	shepherds	shouldered	sizzling	skinned
slicing	slithering	slunk	smithereens	smoldering
snarling	socket	soul	sthenelus	strode
stunned	summoning	swamps	swear	sword
terror	terrorizing	threatened	thundered	tiring
tongues	torch	unable	vengeful	warrior
whirling	whistled	wrestle	wrestled	wrestling
writhed	writhing	youth