Yet, his story is of a man who was so strong and courageous, whose deeds were so mighty, and who so endured all the hardships that were given to him, that when he died, Hercules was brought up to Mount Olympus to live with the gods.
Hercules was both the most famous hero of ancient times and the most beloved. More stories were told about him than any other hero. Hercules was worshipped in many temples all over Greece and Rome.
Berlin F , Attic red figure kylix, c. Side B: Hercules, carrying his club and wearing his lion skin, walks with a procession of gods and goddesses to Olympus. Differences between the Disney movie version and other versions include the explanation of who Hercules' parents were, and why he had to perform the 12 Labors. Zeus, Hercules' father, was the most powerful of the gods.
That meant Zeus could do anything he pleased, but it also meant that sometimes Zeus was not a very good husband to his wife, Hera, the queen of the gods. When Alcmene's husband, Amphitryon, was away, Zeus made her pregnant. This made Hera so angry that she tried to prevent the baby from being born. When Alcmene gave birth to the baby anyway, she named him Herakles. The Romans pronounced the name "Hercules," and so do we today.
The name Herakles means "glorious gift of Hera" in Greek, and that got Hera angrier still. Then she tried to kill the baby by sending snakes into his crib. But little Hercules was one strong baby, and he strangled the snakes, one in each hand, before they could bite him.
Louvre G , Attic red figure stamnos, c. The baby Hercules wrestles with the snakes Hera has sent to his crib. 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. Eurystheus and the 12 Labors When Hercules grew up and had become a great warrior, he married Megara.
They had two children. Hercules and Megara were very happy, but life didn't turn out for them the way it does in the movie. Hera sent a fit of madness to Hercules that put him into so great a rage, he murdered Megara and the children.
When Hercules regained his senses and saw the horrible thing that he had done, he asked the god Apollo to rid him of this pollution.
Apollo commanded the hero to do certain tasks as a punishment for his wrongs, so that the evil might be cleansed from his spirit. Modern archaeology has been able to confirm many of the estimated dates proposed by these ancient writers.
In the case of Hercules , ties to Troy help to narrow down the window of time in which he could have been born. While Hercules may not have been a historical Bronze Age figure, modern science has shown that the Greek estimation of his age fits the mythology better than ever thought possible! The Greeks also believed that the events of their myths were not very far removed from their own time. Rulers in the Greco-Roman world still claimed direct ancestry from the gods and members of the Argive genealogy, and believed their famous lineage went back only a few generations.
The early poet Homer believed when he wrote the Iliad and Odyssey that he was describing events that happened only a few hundred years before his own time. Homer lived in the 8th century BC and the events of the Trojan War were thought to have taken place about four hundred years earlier. This is important in estimating the lifetime of Hercules because Homer includes the hero in the legend.
Before the events of the Iliad , Troy had also been sacked by Hercules. The remaining son, Podarces, saved his own life by offering Hercules a gift. Podarces was later renamed Priam and was the king of Troy during the Trojan War. Linking royal genealogies of his own time, historical events, and descriptions in older texts, Herodotus settled on a date of roughly BC for the start of the Trojan War.
Later writers such as Apollodorus of Athens expanded on the work of Herodotus. Their chronology puts the Trojan War at about BC, the installation of Priam as king about forty years before, and the birth of Hercules roughly forty years prior to that. The ancient historians believed that Hercules was born around BC. Remarkably, modern archaeology and science have managed to corroborate some parts of their chronology. Archaeologists have long been fascinated with the precision of Greek historians.
While many of the events of mythology can be assumed to be invented, the wars and kings of the Age of Heroes are sometimes believed to have been based in some measure of fact. Some of these theories seemed to be confirmed when the ruins of an ancient city were found in Asia Minor. The location of the city, its dating, and many of its features appear to correspond to ancient descriptions of Troy. Even more remarkable than the discovery of Troy was the fact that the city showed evidence of major conflict that corresponded to the years the Greek historians had placed the Trojan War.
The walls of ancient Troy show significant damage, indicating a loss in war, dating to roughly and BC. Troy is not the only site at which the Greek legends appear to be supported by archaeological evidence. Hercules known in Greek as Heracles or Herakles is one of the best-known heroes in Greek and Roman mythology. His life was not easy—he endured many trials and completed many daunting tasks—but the reward for his suffering was a promise that he would live forever among the gods at Mount Olympus.
Hercules had a complicated family tree. According to legend, his father was Zeus, ruler of all the gods on Mount Olympus and all the mortals on earth, and his mother was Alcmene, the granddaughter of the hero Perseus. Hercules had enemies even before he was born. First, she used her supernatural powers to prevent the baby Hercules from becoming the ruler of Mycenae. Then, after Hercules was born, Hera sent two snakes to kill him in his crib. The infant Hercules was unusually strong and fearless, however, and he strangled the snakes before they could strangle him.
But Hera kept up her dirty tricks. When her stepson was a young adult, she cast a kind of spell on him that drove him temporarily insane and caused him to murder his beloved wife and their two children.
Once Hercules completed every one of the labors, Apollo declared, he would be absolved of his guilt and achieve immortality. The Nemean Lion First, Apollo sent Hercules to the hills of Nemea to kill a lion that was terrorizing the people of the region. Some storytellers say that Zeus had fathered this magical beast as well. Hercules trapped the lion in its cave and strangled it. The Lernaean Hydra Second, Hercules traveled to the city of Lerna to slay the nine-headed Hydra—a poisonous, snake-like creature who lived underwater, guarding the entrance to the Underworld.
For this task, Hercules had the help of his nephew Iolaus. This way, the pair kept the heads from growing back. The Golden HindNext, Hercules set off to capture the sacred pet of the goddess Diana: a red deer, or hind, with golden antlers and bronze hooves. Eurystheus had chosen this task for his rival because he believed that Diana would kill anyone she caught trying to steal her pet; however, once Hercules explained his situation to the goddess, she allowed him to go on his way without punishment.
The Erymanthean Boar Fourth, Hercules used a giant net to snare the terrifying, man-eating wild boar of Mount Erymanthus. However, Hercules completed the job easily, flooding the barn by diverting two nearby rivers.
Hercules used these tools to frighten the birds away. Hercules drove the bull back to Eurystheus, who released it into the streets of Marathon.
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