Hercules: The Greek Myth

It is estimated by boxofficemojo.com that the famed Disney movie Hercules has generated $252,712,101 in revenue. However, the Greek myth, in which the movie was based on, is rarely purchased for reasons outside of academics. Perhaps this is the reason the heroic Heracles is now unrecognized unless his name is changed to Hercules, although this may have origins in the Roman version of the Greek myth. Despite the misinterpretation of the hero’s name, Disney did retain some features of the original greek myth. These include the role of faith, Heracles’ love interests, and some of the challenges faced by Heracles. However, Disney also made multiple attempts to modernize the myth and thus changed the movie by altering the birth of Heracles, changing …show more content…
Thus various differences occur between the myth and the Hercules movie. These are clearly demonstrated at the beginning of the movie when Hercules is born. In the myth, Heracles is the son of Zeus and Alcmene. However, in the movie, Hercules is the son of Zeus and Hera. As a result of this, Hercules is born as a demigod in the myth, and instead born as a god in the movie who loses his god powers from hades. Furthermore, Heracles was born in Thebes in the myth, but he was born on Mount Olympus in the film. This is likely changed due to the fact that Zeus is married to Hera and thus has an affair with Alcmene to give birth to Heracles, and Disney’s audience is mostly comprised of young children. This leads to another difference between the Heracles movie and myth: the gods’ relationship with Heracles. This is primarily seen in Heracles relationship with Hera. Throughout the movie, Hera is on Hercules side. However, in the myth, Hera is consistently working against Heracles, likely out of anger due to Zeus’ affair. For example, in the movie, Hera is saddened by the Hercules’ childhood as a mortal, yet in the myth, Hera sends snakes (rather than Hades) to kill Heracles as a baby but Heracles ends up killing them. Hera’s relationship with Heracles also leads to differences in the end of the movie versus the myth. Towards the end of the movie, Hercules saves the gods from the chaos unleashed by Hades and the Titans and is therefore offered a position as a god but turns it down to be with Meg. However, in the myth, the ending is not as happy: Heracles ends up getting killed by his own wife, ironically, he denies immortality to live with a similar companion in the movie. Although both instances display Heracles weakness for those he loves, they establish a fundamentally different tone and theme of the story. In the movie, the audience is captivated by Hercules’ strength and