Once he was a god, he became the gatekeeper of Olympus. However in the movie, Hercules is born a god, then turned into a demigod, then turned back into a god, and then into a mortal, contradicting the original myth. In the Greek myth of Heracles, there was no Phil. Heracles was never trained by anyone.
Featuring the voices of Tate Donovan, Danny DeVito, James Woods, and Susan Egan, the film follows the titular Hercules, a demigod with super-strength raised among mortals, who must learn to become a true hero in order to earn back his godhood and place in Mount Olympus, while his evil uncle Hades plots his downfall.
In the film, Hercules becomes a god when he risks his life to save Meg, the girl he falls in love with. Once he turns into a god, he wishes to stay mortal and live with Meg. In the mythology tale, Hercules must complete 12 labors in order to become a god. Once he becomes a god he stays one.
Hades accepts, but only if Hercules can reclaim it in the River Styx, which gradually saps his life force as he swims. However, his will to sacrifice his life for Meg awakens Hercules as a true hero and restores his status as an immortal god.
The blood proved to be a powerful poison, and Heracles died. His body was placed on a pyre on Mount Oeta (Modern Greek Oíti), his mortal part was consumed, and his divine part ascended to heaven, becoming a god. There he was reconciled to Hera and married Hebe.
Youth. According to the ancient Greeks, the demigod Heracles (or Hercules, as the Romans called him) was the son of a mortal woman named Alcmene and the supreme god Zeus.
Hercules, also known as Heracles or Herakles, was a demigod in Greek and Roman mythology who rose to godhood through many adventures and great deeds. He is the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and Alcmene, a mortal woman and granddaughter of Perseus.
Hercules then asked for help from the gods to end his life, and he received it. The Greek god Zeus sent lightning to consume Hercules' mortal body and took him to live with the gods on Mount Olympus. This was the apotheosis, the transformation of Hercules into a god.
To ensure that Greek viewers were aware that Disney's “Hercules” was a loose interpretation of the sacred myth and not a historically accurate endeavor, the film was retitled “Beyond the Myth of Heracles,” returning the hero to his Greek name.
In the movie Hercules becoming a hero wasn't a given task by anyone nor after achieving all his great heroic accomplishments he received his immortality. In the movie, Hercules has to fight the monsters because Hades sent them to kill Hercules. In the movie, we see Hercules receive his immortality but give it back.
Hercules was not a god but was born a mortal, although, like many mythic heroes, he had a complicated family tree. According to legend, his father was Zeus, ruler of all the Greek gods on Mount Olympus and all the mortals on earth, and his mother was Alcmene, the granddaughter of the hero Perseus.
For the ancient Greeks he was an archetypal hero who embodied the human condition. Despite his greatness he was still mortal and fated to die. A hero cult for Achilles developed in several areas across Greece where he was venerated and worshipped like a god.
Climactic Moment: Hercules proves himself a true hero by sacrificing his own life to save Meg. Just as he is about to die, his immortality is restored. He returns Meg's soul to her body, and together they go to Olympus, where he reunites with his parents.
Alcmene and her husband named the baby Hercules which means “glorious gift of Hera” in Greek. When Hera discovered her husband's secret affair had bred a child, she was overcome with jealousy, rage and hate. Determined to kill Zeus's illegitimate son, Hercules, Hera sent two snakes to strangle the baby in his sleep.
Hercules has superhuman strength (Class 100), greater than most other Olympian gods. His superhuman leg strength enables him to perform a standing high jump of at least 100 feet. Hercules is highly durable, resisting most forms of impact, penetration and energy assault.
The narrative depicts him as the antithesis of Zeus, who is presented almost as a modern-day God. It also centres around Hades' greed and jealousy, as he hires his minions 'Pain' and 'Panic' to kill Hercules in a bid to overthrow to 'good' gods of Olympus.
Megara. After defeating the Minyans at Orchomenos, King Creon offered his eldest daughter, Megara, to Hercules as a bride in reward for his prowess in battle. Together, Hercules and Megara had anywhere between three and eight children.
During the course of his life, Heracles married four times. Heracles waged a victorious war against the kingdom of Orchomenus in Boeotia and married his first wife Megara, daughter of Creon, king of Thebes.
Antaeus (/ænˈtiːəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος Antaîos, lit. "opponent", derived from ἀντάω, antao – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part of the Labours of Hercules.
Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity, the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.
A demigod (literally "half-god") or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine being, resulting either as the offspring of a deity and a human, or human (or non-human) creatures that are granted divine status, sometimes after their deaths.
In his private life Zeus was quite the lothario, fathering an unbelievable number of around 100 children with many different women (but don't hate him too much – it's just a myth, after all). Of this 100, he fathered a mix of sons and daughters, many of whom were gods and goddesses, and some became great leaders.
