Greek Influence On Hercules

Everyone has some experience with Greek a mythology and legends. Greek history and mythology is probably the most well-known of any of the ancient cultures and makes regular intrusions into pop culture. Some of the most recognizable Greek legends in modern society are the ultra-popular young adult series Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the spinoff series The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan as well as the two movies made from the Percy Jackson series. Disney’s Hercules and Atlantis are a couple other Greek influenced movies. This paper will focus on the most well-known hero of ancient Greece: Hercules (called Heracles by the Greeks). Through the exploration of the original legends and the Disney retelling, the similarities and stark

The twelve labors is what made Hercules the most famous. For his first labor he was tasked with killing the Neman lion. The lion was terrorizing the people and its pelt was immune to all weapons, Hercules strangled the beast with his bare hands, skinned it and wore its pelt as armor from then on. His next task was to kill the Lenarin hydra which was sent by Hera to destroy his hometown (Cartwright). This time Hercules could not do this alone because the hydra was a fire breathing monster with the body of a lion and nine heads of snakes, each time a head was cut off two more grew back . Some tellings say a giant crab bit Hercules' foot hindering him in the fight. According to Cartwright of ancient histories.com, Hercules' nephew Lolaus used fire to keep the heads from coming back and Hercules eventually killed the beast. The next task was to capture a sacred hind (deer) of the goddess Artemis. It was said that it took Hercules a year to finally catch the notoriously fast animal (Cartwright). The next labor was to capture Ermathyian boar, he angered the boar and ran from it until it tired then he carried it to his destination. During this labor Hercules killed his mentor Cherion with one of his poison