The Twelve Labor Of Hercules: 12 Labors In Disney

The ninth labor of Hercules seemed like an easy one at first, simply get the queen of the amazon’s girdle, the queen even agreed to give it to him. The labor took a dark turn when Hera intervened once more. She tricked the Amazons into thinking Hercules was out to steal away their queen. A battle ensued in which the strongest man alive killed the queen and took her girdle. What seemed like an easy job was made difficult by the goddess of marriage. The next labor involved a lot of traveling for the hero. Hercules crossed the ocean and the dessert to capture the cattle of Geryon (also appears in “battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan"). The then Demi-God killed the three bodied Geryon and his guard dog. Hercules then brought the cattle back

Both telling’s touched on the twelve labors but they were very different renditions. In the original legend the labors are very difficult tasks set forth for Hercules to redeem himself for his past crimes. He spends years of his life devoted to these labors. In the Disney movie the only labor even given its own scene was the hydra labor, which was actually one of the easier labors. The other labors were carried out contemptuously by Hercules in a montage. They provided him virtually no challenge. So while the differences in the legend and the movie are easily notable, the portrayal of Hercules in another Disney work the book " the mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan Is vastly different to that of the movie. In the mark of Athena Hercules is portrayed as a bitter figure. Hercules articulates his plight as such “you understand nothing. My first family: dead. My life wasted on ridiculous quests. My second wife dead, after being tricked into poisoning me and leaving me to a painful demise. And my compensation? I got to become a minor god. Immortal, so I can never forget my pain. Stuck here as a gatekeeper, a doorman, a... a butler for the Olympians. No you don 't understand." (Riordan). While the common perception of Hercules is that of the golden boy, and the original myth is something of a cautionary tale, the truth may be somewhere in the middle. Hercules had a great many sins and flaws but he also carried out even more heroic acts. He can not be remembered for just his sins or his heroics, he must be remembered for both. The real Hercules should be remembered as the original and possibly greatest anti