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