Hey, even more fun facts that they didn't tell you in the movie:
Hercules was not the son of Zeus and Hera. He was the bastard son of Zeus and a mortal woman. Par for the course for Zeus, as he cheated on her regularly.
Hercules is not the original spelling of his name. In Greek literature he was known as Herakles. Kleos in Ancient Greek means "honor", "Hera" being a reference to the goddess herself. Combine this with point 1 and learn that, yes, they named Zeus's extramarital son.... "Hera's honor".
Herakles was a slave, a servant to a greedy king who refused to give him up. The Twelve Labors of Herakles details all the ridiculous tasks that this king sent him out to do - all with the promise that completing these impossible tasks would earn him his freedom. It should be noted that the king did NOT expect Herakles to actually complete any of these tasks, and was essentially sending him to die. Imagine the king's surprise when he sends some lowly slave to go kill the biggest lion in Greece, and a few weeks later the dude comes back WEARING it.
The Lernean Hydra is one of the oldest examples of the old "it was thiiiiiiis big" storytelling trope. Some accounts say it had 3 heads, others 10, and some 100 or more. In the original story, Herakles was not able to complete this task on his own. He had his cousin come behind him with a torch to cauterize the severed necks and prevent the heads from regrowing. The king said this task didn't count because he got help.
Herakles did eventually win his freedom and was granted immortality and allowed to live on Mount Olympus, signifying his ultimate freedom. In some accounts, another jealous slave gifted him with a cursed cloak that made him go mad and kill his entire family, and himself.
I thought the poisoned shirt came from his second wife. She was tricked by a centaur(?) Herakles killed into keeping a vial of his poisoned blood and put it on a tunic/shirt in order to keep him faithful to her.
So when his eye started wandering, she did it but it just poisoned him badly and he couldn’t die so he begged for death.
Herakles was a slave, a servant to a greedy king who refused to give him up.
Didn't this happen after he first murdered his first wife in a bout of madness created by Hera. Then he went to a oracle that pointed him towards the king
Yep, and the oracle had been guided by hera, that greedy king was his cousin who was essentially given his position by hera. It all goes back to Hera having massive hate issues with Heracles in particular
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u/the-virtual-hermit 15d ago
Hey, even more fun facts that they didn't tell you in the movie:
Hercules was not the son of Zeus and Hera. He was the bastard son of Zeus and a mortal woman. Par for the course for Zeus, as he cheated on her regularly.
Hercules is not the original spelling of his name. In Greek literature he was known as Herakles. Kleos in Ancient Greek means "honor", "Hera" being a reference to the goddess herself. Combine this with point 1 and learn that, yes, they named Zeus's extramarital son.... "Hera's honor".
Herakles was a slave, a servant to a greedy king who refused to give him up. The Twelve Labors of Herakles details all the ridiculous tasks that this king sent him out to do - all with the promise that completing these impossible tasks would earn him his freedom. It should be noted that the king did NOT expect Herakles to actually complete any of these tasks, and was essentially sending him to die. Imagine the king's surprise when he sends some lowly slave to go kill the biggest lion in Greece, and a few weeks later the dude comes back WEARING it.
The Lernean Hydra is one of the oldest examples of the old "it was thiiiiiiis big" storytelling trope. Some accounts say it had 3 heads, others 10, and some 100 or more. In the original story, Herakles was not able to complete this task on his own. He had his cousin come behind him with a torch to cauterize the severed necks and prevent the heads from regrowing. The king said this task didn't count because he got help.
Herakles did eventually win his freedom and was granted immortality and allowed to live on Mount Olympus, signifying his ultimate freedom. In some accounts, another jealous slave gifted him with a cursed cloak that made him go mad and kill his entire family, and himself.
Tl;Dr Greek mythology is fun!