Was there a real Hercules, a man behind the stories? We will never know. Yet, his story is of a man who was so strong and courageous, whose deeds were so mighty, and who so endured all the hardships that were given to him, that when he died, Hercules was brought up to Mount Olympus to live with the gods.
It is possible that the myths surrounding Heracles were based on the life of a real person or several people whose accomplishments became exaggerated with time.
The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Heracles. The story is inaccurate in many aspects of his life, from his parents, to his name, and more. While the movie is great, many of the details in the actual myth are less than accurate.
Hercules was the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus, who was always chasing one woman or another, took on the form of Alcmene's husband, Amphitryon, and visited Alcmene one night in her bed, and so Hercules was born a demi-god with incredible strength and stamina.
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.
Every Mythical Inaccuracy in Disney's Hercules (300,000 subscriber special)
Who finally kills Hercules?
Painful Death
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.
Most of us think he was a mythologic Greek hero (Figure 1). The truth is that there may well have been a real Thessalian warrior, later mythologized by his semi-literate people. The story goes that his mother, Thetis, made him invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx while he was still an infant.
Greek myths explained everything from religious rituals to the weather, and gave meaning to the world that people saw around them. While many of these myths are fanciful tales, such as the legends of greedy King Midas or heroic Hercules, other stories like the Trojan War epic have a basis in historical fact.
Hera hates Heracles because he is a living reminder of her husband's infidelity. Because of this she is cruel to him. She could bring about Herakles' death but instead she wants him to suffer. She sends Madness to drive Heracles to murder his wife and progeny.
How does Achilles die? Achilles is killed by an arrow, shot by the Trojan prince Paris. In most versions of the story, the god Apollo is said to have guided the arrow into his vulnerable spot, his heel. In one version of the myth Achilles is scaling the walls of Troy and about to sack the city when he is shot.
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.
Chiron lived at the foot of Mount Pelion in Thessaly. Unlike other Centaurs, who were violent and savage, he was famous for his wisdom and knowledge of medicine. Many Greek heroes, including Heracles, Achilles, Jason, and Asclepius, were instructed by him.
Probably two names: Hercules, of classical Greek lore (where he is actually named Heracles—Hercules is the later Roman form), and the mighty biblical warrior Samson.
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.
Realizing that he has been poisoned, Hercules builds his own funeral pyre and burns himself to death on it. After he died, Athena carried him to Olympus on her chariot. According to legend, he will spend the rest of eternity with the gods.
Hercules possesses the greatest strength of all the Olympians and is stronger than even his father, Zeus. His strength exceeds that of most other powerful Marvel Comics icons, which he proved when he took away Mjölnir from a Thor clone in Civil War, one of the best Marvel Comics events.
Zeus is a figure from Greek mythology, and in that context, he is not considered a real, historical person. Greek mythology is a collection of stories and legends about gods, goddesses, and other mythical beings.
Whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. Many scholars believe that there is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age.
Medusa, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the monster figures known as Gorgons. She was usually represented as a winged female creature having a head of hair consisting of snakes; unlike the Gorgons, she was sometimes represented as very beautiful.
Achilles, dressed in women's clothing, holds a shield while admiring a sword. Based on ancient legend, Achilles' mother, knowing that her son would die if he fought in the Trojan War, disguised him as a woman and entrusted him to King Lycomedes' household, where he lived among the king's daughters.
But was it just a myth? Probably, says Oxford University classicist Dr Armand D'Angour: 'Archaeological evidence shows that Troy was indeed burned down; but the wooden horse is an imaginative fable, perhaps inspired by the way ancient siege-engines were clothed with damp horse-hides to stop them being set alight.
