The document provides an overview of the Greek myths surrounding Heracles/Hercules and compares them to Disney's portrayal in the animated film Hercules. It summarizes the major plot points of Heracles' life from his divine parents and mortal upbringing, his twelve labors assigned as penance, his marriage and madness, and eventual deification. The document also notes characters, events, and details that Disney changed, omitted, or misrepresented for comedic effect in their retelling of the myths.

1. The real myths, because Disney prefers silly songs over
staying true to culture/myth/a country’s heritage.

2. Parents
 Disney: Zeus (Jupiter) & Hera (Juno)
 Myth: Zeus (taking form of Amphitryon) & Alcmene
 In Greek mythology, Heracles. Roman Hercules (add
Ara Maxima, Cacus; claimed by Commodus & other
emperors) roughly equivalent to Greek Heracles.
 Raised by Amphitryon & Alcmene
 First wife= Megara. Second = Deianira

3. Marble statue in
Birth/Youth Capitoline Museum
 Hera sent two snakes to
kill him & his (mortal)
twin half-brother
Iphicles
 Remember when Pain &
Panic transformed into
snakes in the movie?
Vase painting in
Vulci, Etruria

4. First Marriage
 To Megara, daughter of King Creon, King of Thebes
 Hera caused him to go crazy, and he killed their
son/daughter (and her, according to some accounts)
 After searching for a way to atone for his crimes, the
Oracle of Delphi (under influence from Hera) directs
him to King Eurystheus for ten years

5. The Twelve Labors
 First, Nemean Lion
 Club, strangle
 Second, Lernaean Hydra
Top Left: Vase
 In movie
painting in the
 Cut off & burned Louvre
Top: Engraving
by Beham
Right: Hercules
Farnese
(Lysippos)

6. Museum in Palermo
Twelve Labors, cont.
 3= Capture Ceryneian Hind
 4= Erymanthian Boar (in the montage)
 Statue in Berlin
 5= Clean the Augean Stables
 Mentioned in passing in movie
 Supposed to be humiliating.
 Immortal cattle.
 Rerouted rivers to clean out
Statue in Berlin

7. Cont. Roman mosaics in
Llíria, Spain
 6= Stymphalian Birds
 7= Cretan Bull
 8= Mares of Diomedes (a giant)
 Capture them, then kill Diomedes
 9= Girdle of Hippolyte (Amazon
queen)
 10= Cattle of Geryon (herd them)
 Giant; H. used Hydra arrows

8. Top L: Museum in Naples, Top R:
Building in Melbourne, Bottom R:
Museum in Crete, Bottom L: Vase
painting in the Louvre
Final Labors
 11= Apples of Hesperides
 Help from Atlas.
 12= Capture Cerberus
 Underworld
 Movie mentions
 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12
 Adds Minotaur & Gorgon

9. Hercules’ death
& deification Marble statue
in Florence
 Remember Nessus?
 River-god centaur
 H. kills after attempted rape of D.(Hydra-tipped arrow)
 Nessus to D.: “Collect my blood, apply to H’s armor in
order to keep him from being unfaithful.”
 His blood also poisoned (Hydra arrow)
 Deianira applied it, & it burned Herc.
 Gods deified him
 Or, his mortal half burned to death
Etching in Fine Arts Museums
of San Francisco

10. Added characters
Philoctetes, a satyr? Pegasus
 Greek who assisted at the end  Associated with myth of
of the Trojan War Perseus
 Hercules’ mentor, according  Born out of Medusa when
to some accounts: Chiron, the decapitated by Perseus
centaur
 Satyrs- really like women
 Wood-nymphs
 Meg
 Random chicks chasing H.
 Aphrodite at end

11. Mis-associations
 Hades = Devil
 “Speak of the devil,” “Brimstone in my ear”
 Pain & Panic
 Phobos & Deimos, = Fear & Terror, minions of Ares
 The Fates (L=Parcae, G= Moirai) v. Graiai (old triplet
sisters with powers/knowledge; 1 eye, forced to help
Perseus)

12. Venus De Milo, in
the Louvre
Fun notes
 Jason & Argo
 (H. hits his head on the Argo at Phil’s house)
 “Call IXII!!”
 Cyclops/Titans in Tartarus
 Gave Zeus the lightning bolt after he freed them to help
overtake Olympus from Cronus (Uranus) & his
generation (the ruling Titans).
 9 Muses- we saw 5 in movie
 Calliope (epic), Clio (history), Melpomene (tragedy),
Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy)
 Venus de Milo in courtyard. Also, Meg struck by Cupid