Hercules in popular culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hercules, the Greek mythical hero also known as Heracles, has been an important figure in Western popular culture from the Renaissance to today.
Since the Renaissance, Hercules has rarely been distinguished from Heracles, the Roman figure overshadowing the Greek. Later interpretations of Hercules' legend cast him as a wise leader and a good friend (many of the movie and TV adaptations cast him in this light, especially the 1995-1999 syndicated TV series). The legend of Hercules endures, though often co-opted to suit the political fashion of the day. Hercules has also had an undeniable influence on modern pop culture characters such as He-Man. The legend of Hercules has been described in many movie and television adaptations.
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[edit] Video games
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was given a video game where he fought against his evil half-brother Ares, loosely based on the TV series.
- Hercules And The Princess Of Troy - A freeware game of Hercules and one of his great adventures created by 17 year old Michael Becker.
- Disney's Hercules has a PlayStation port.
- Herc's Adventures is a tongue-in-cheek adventure-RPG on the PlayStation where you must complete many tasks, many of which are not actually credited to Hercules anywhere else (such as slaying Medusa).
- Heracles is a PlayStation 2 game where he must free Pegasus from the clutches of his uncle the evil god Poseidon.
- Hercules appeared in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II as a Disney character.
- Hercules is made reference to and is an unlockable skin in the Playstation 2 game God of War II
[edit] Computer game
The Return of Heracles is a computer game designed by Stuart Smith and released for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 computers. It is a turn-based adventure/rpg designed around the Twelve Labours of Heracles, though you could play as any or all of several characters including Pegasus and Achilles. It's design is similar to Smith's earlier game Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
[edit] Disney's Hercules
Hercules' tale was later made into a movie by Disney. In this tale, he is originally a whole god as a son of Zeus and Hera, but is drained of his power by Hades. He lives among mortals until discovering his tremendous strength is actually the remaining bit of god left in him. He travels to his father, who is overjoyed to see him, and gives him his horse Pegasus. Hercules learns of an evil scheme of Hades' to destroy the other gods and release the Titans, as well as kill Hercules.
[edit] The Italian Hercules film series (1957-1965)
A series of nineteen Hercules "beefcake" movies of the "Sword and sandal" film genre were made in Italy during the late 50s and early 60s.
[edit] Others
In other incarnations, Hera is still presented as his spiteful stepmother and Zeus as his father though plenty of plots like Amphitryon his stepfather, Zeus taking the guise of his stepfather, etc. are removed.
One version has it that he ends up performing the twelve labors because he accidentally killed his mother. After each labor is performed, he becomes at peace with Eurystheus and marries Megara which is a deviation. He also never confronted Hera either and Hera accepts his existence after the labors are done.
He doesn't confront Hera as a direct enemy but as somebody who tells him that she is his "beloved" stepmother and tricks him into several labors which he all succeeds into.
Also, in another movie, Hercules lives as a mortal striving to become a "hero". If this is accomplished, Hercules will be able to rejoin his father on Mount Olympus. While attempting to be a "hero", characters from the twelve labours are sent to kill him by his Uncle Hades who is usually portrayed to be evil. Hercules must battle Hades, these monsters, and his feelings in order to live with his family on Mount Olympus.
In Paul Tefler's version, there is no appearance of Zeus and Hera as Hera seems to be controling his mother Alcmene and his first wife Megara, which some fans considered to be quite inconsistent.
[edit] Comic books
Hercules has also appeared in several comic books:
- Hercules (a 1958 Dell comic adapting the film)
- Hercules Unchained (a 1959 Dell comic adapting the film)
- Hercules (Marvel Comics)
- Hercules (DC Comics)
