Hercules : The Father Of Heracles, The God's Tale

In Greek mythology Hercules is known for his strength and courage, considered as half man and half god. He was an adventurous superhuman born from mortal mother and the son of god Zeus. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus decided to kill Hercules after his birth. Hercules then married the Theben princess Megara and had three children. However, Hera wasn’t happy about him. She was filled hatred of him, and as time goes, this situation made him to kill his wife and all his children. Hercules then felt guilty about the crime he had done. Hercules was charged to serve his cousin, king Eurystheus, and the ‘twelve labors’ were given to him as punishments. Those labors are a call to adventure that made Hercules to cross the threshold

Who is the best example of a hero? Hercules. He is the mortal son of zeus. Hercules is the strongest hero of all time. Not only does he have incredible strength, but he is very caring of his family and mortals. Hercules is not just one of those basic, amatuer heros, he has so much experience since he had performed 12 labours. These are some of the reasons why Hercules is known as the greatest hero of all time.

Hercules have you met him? This movie was produced by Ron Clements and John Musker. The movie is about Hercules who is the son of Zeus who becomes a hero. After training with Phil he goes off with Pegasus his flying companion to become a hero. During Hercules journey he goes through 3 parts of a hero's journey.

Hercules is not the hero that greek mythology glorifies him to be. His ruthless acts to “purify” himself from killing his family, are nothing but him following commands of robbery, whether it be of a life or possession. He is less of a hero and more of a modern day hired ‘hitman’. Hercules agreed to completing the twelve tedious labours, however bad they might be. If he was ordered to steal something, he would. If he was told to kill something, he would do it. His actions are more alike the ones of an assassin or hitman rather than a selfless hero.

Myths and religious doctrine are generally recognized as two entirely different things. Myths are usually referred to as a fictitious story or a half-truth; often they are stories shared between groups of people that are part of a cultural society. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, and purpose of the universe, and often containing an ethical code dictating appropriate human conduct. Although they differ in certain aspects, they still hold similarities. Comparable to parables within the Bible, myths have different versions which are both motivating, as well as entertaining. There are not only parallels to the idea of the stories but specific tales hold similar morals and equivalent characters.

There has been many discussions on the differences between Hercules and Heraclês. Disney likes to change stories to make them more child friendly. This creates differences between the original stories and the Disney take on the tales. In the case of the movie of Hercules and the story of Heraclês the main differences, that I will be focusing on is family value, true love, and comic relief.

Greek mythology has been passed on and retold over generations. Literature and movies have been created to entertain as well as provide specific themes based off of myths. There are many heroes that mythology talks about and each one has lived an epic life, but there is one famous hero that has been immortalized throughout history. Hercules is the son of Zeus and a mortal named Alcmene. Zeus impregnated her while her husband was away and this is where his story began. Zeus' wife, Hera, found out about the affair and was outrageous about his careless actions. She tried to prevent Hercules' birth; however, when that didn't work she sent snakes to kill the baby. Hercules was too mighty for the snakes and strangled them before they could even hurt him. As stated in this source, "Hera remained angry. How could she get even? Hera knew that she would lose in a fight, and that she wasn't powerful enough to prevent Zeus from having his way. Hera decided to pay Zeus back for his infidelity by making the rest of Hercules' life as miserable as she could" (Crane WEB). Hercules grew up to be a great young warrior and was all around. With this god-like strength, also came an uncontrollable temper that made him react at times without thinking, but later made him realize the wrongdoings of his violence. He later then married a woman named Megara and had two beautiful children. But one day, Hera instilled a fit of rage into Hercules and made him slaughter his family with his very own hands. He was shocked by his actions and asked Apollo for assistance since he was drowning in guilt. Apollo later then gave him specific tasks to help Hercules redeem himself for the bloodshed he caused. The hero was sent to Eurystheus, and under his strict hand, he was to accomplish twelve labors over the next twelve years.

When Hercules went to Eurystheus, the king eagerly started to think of twelve labors for Hercules. What Hercules didn’t know was that Hera was influencing the king to think of tasks that seemed to be impossible. However, no matter what task Hercules had to complete, he always came back with the task completed. After twelve years and twelve labors, he was finally released. Hercules’ went on to live a life full of adventures, and he even remarried to a woman named Deineira. Deineira became very jealous when Hercules took King Eurystheus’ daughter Lole prisoner for vengeance. She feared Hercules was being unfaithful to her, and wanted to make sure she was the only woman he loved. She took the blood of a centaur (that she was tricked into thinking would make Hercules love her forever) and smeared it on his robe, but it turned out to be poison. Hercules began to die when he put the robe on, but it ended up only killing the mortal part of him. Hera decided to end her

Since the days of mythological origin to the origin of pop culture, various mythological stories have been adopted and presented to newer generations. Some of these presented adaptations of mythological stories have significantly been modified in order to be deemed entertaining by audiences in a pop culture generation. Thus, my study will seek to compare mythological hero's during their time to how they have been depicted in modern day. Moreover, my study will analyze the similarities and differences between the Greek hero Heracles and his replica character, Hercules, depicted in Disney's adaptation of this myth. Although there are few similarities between the two versions, the differences between Heracles and Disney's Hercules are

The 12 labors that Heracles had to face were to purify him from killing his family even though his madness that caused him. The madness was caused by Hera because of her hatred for him. The person that assigned the way to purify him was the oracle at Delphi. “To find out how to cleanse himself of his sins, Heracles consulted the oracle at Delphi. The oracle answered, “You must go too your cousin Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, and do whatever he demands of you. Only in this way shall you be cleansed” (Low 94). This was the only way for Heracles to become cleansed and to atone or his sins.

Once when he was taking music lessons he became so frustrated with the lyre that he went berserk and with one blow to the head he killed his music master. “He did not know his own strength.” He was not aware of his own strength. He would later have to learn how to hone(2) his temper and his strength but not before Hera had got to him. Hera was Heracles demented(2) stepmother who constantly obtruded(1) herself into his life. She hated Heracles because of her husband Zeus’s affair with his moral mother. “Heracles is driven by Hera to kill his wife and children in a fit of madness.” He was again devastated by his act and submitted himself to the punishment of the gods. One of the punishments that he completed was the Asian stables it was one of the 12 labors. Where he was able to amalgamate(2) his wisdom with his strength to clean the stables. This is interesting because Heracles is described as not “blessed with great intelligence but his bravery made up for any lack of cunning.” Yet, this situation says that he could be cunning. In conclusion, Heracles has a tough beginning in life. He was born in licentious(1)

Take a minute to look at the world around you. Notice how different people are. Notice how lucky some people are. Notice how unlucky some people are. Notice the amount of people who are so famous or popular. Then notice those who are nobodies. Disney’s Hercules is a film about a young hero, Hercules, who was born a God, but was forcefully taken of everything but his strength. He was taken of this by Hades, the God of the underworld, who is out to destroy the other Gods of the world and destroy Olympus forever. Throughout the movie Hades is faced with the fact that Hercules may return to stop him from pursuing his evil plan. Hades goal is then to defeat Hercules and finish his scheme . In the film Hercules, the writers use the evil genius to reveal, that humanity will use many resources in order to make themselves seem better than others because they fear that since they may be less fortunate than them, they may be overlooked by the society around them.

Heracles’s life is at risk in his numerous acts as a hero, but no matter the strife, Heracles is willing. This willingness to do heroic acts, causes Heracles to fall in Carl Jung’s definition of a willing hero, which ultimately reinforces that is a hero. Heracles is willing to do twelve potentially fatal labours ( he is told to do by the Oracle Delphi), in order to repent for killing his children and wife. When Heracles arrives at the Kingdom of Mycenae, he willfully tells Lord Eurystheus “ twelve labours, you are to set to me.” (Lottridge & Dickiie, 89). This means that Heracles compliantly takes it upon himself to do these twelve labours, illustrating he is a willing hero. Another instance, where Heracles was willing to preform a heroic deed, was when “[he] bravely killed the sea monster terrorizing Troy, by allowing himself to be swallowed

These labors were designated to him through King Eurystheus because of the unspeakable acts he committed. Hercules sought out many prophets, only in the end to return to King Eurystheus to complete his 12 suicidal labors. One of the last 6 labors completed was to capture the Cretan Bull. Minos promised Poseidon that he would sacrifice whatever the god sent to him. Poseidon sent a great bull, but Minos thought it was too beautiful to kill. So he killed another bull, and Poseidon grew angry so he made it rampage through the city of Crete. Hercules wrestled the bull to the ground. He carried the bull back to Eurystheus, but it could not be tamed so Eurystheus set it free. The 8th labor Hercules had to complete was stealing the Mares of Diomedes. Diomedes’ Mares are 4 men eating horses with terrible tempers. Diomedes kept the horses chained to a golden post to keep them from escaping. Hercules snuck behind the golden post taming the horses, and right before he could release them Diomedes soldiers began attacking Hercules. From hearing all the commotion Diomedes awakens. He is informed that Hercules is trying to steal the mares from a random foot soldier. Diomedes is irate and attacks Hercules.

King Eurypterus told Hercules that the only way to cleanse himself is to complete 12 heroic labors. He added that performing these labors would cause Hercules to become an immortal god with honor restored. Hercules first labor was to kill the Nemean lion. The second labor was to kill the multi-headed hydra. The third labor was to capture Cerynitian without wounding it. The fourth labor was to capture an enormous boar. The fifth labor was to clean the stables of King Augeas in a single day. The sixth labor was to kill the stymphalian birds without entering the swamp. The seventh labor tasked Hercules was disposal of the Minotaur. The eighth labor was to bring the mares of Diomedes to King Eurypterus. The ninth labor was to retrieve the belt of the queen Hippolyta. The tenth labor was to capture cattle that belonged to Geryon, a monster. The eleventh