Hercules aka Heracles

If you think of Hercules (in Greek, Herakles or Heracles) together with Autolycus, Iolaus, and Ares, your vision of Hercules comes from Kevin Sorbo's Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. While Sorbo-Herc and crew may have delighted 1990s audiences with their antics and strong morality, the ancient and very diverse stories of the hero shared little with Kevin Sorbo's Hercules beyond strength, strained relations with his stepmother, Hera, and an affinity with mythological monsters.

A Possible Biography of the Mythological Hero Hercules

There were many heroes who could claim Zeus, the king of the gods, as their father, but few were immortal. Hercules and his half-brother Dionysus (Bacchus) claimed immortality as an accident at birth. Dionysus was immortal because, although conceived by the mortal Semele, he was actually born from the thigh of Zeus. Dionysus is therefore referred to as twice-born. Hercules was born in a more normal manner, from a human woman. His final dose of immortality sprang from the Queen of the gods, Hera, whose milk he drank at birth.

Hercules and the Milky Way

Hera didn't know whose child she suckled -- just that its mother had abandoned her baby, but when the newborn sucked too hard, Hera threw him from her breast with a cosmic spurt of milk that created the Milky Way. From nurturer she became enemy. When she learned his identity, she sent snakes to strangle the infant Hercules and his hapless brother, Iphicles. But Hercules only chortled as he strangled the snakes in his chubby baby fists.

Enemies of Hercules

Hera drove Hercules mad (but see Epilepsy - The Disease of Hercules). In penance for the unforgivable acts he committed while out of his mind, he performed the 12 labors, which Hera, again, instigated. But Hera wasn't his only or deadliest enemy. Hercules killed Nessus, a centaur -- that mythological half-human half-horse breed -- but very different from the kindly centaur, Chiron, who trained most of the heroes in Greek mythology. With his dying blood, Nessus produced the weapon of Hercules' destruction. Immortals don't usually die. Burning alive from Nessus' posioned blood, Hercules begged his father to let him die and so end the pain.

Mercifully, Zeus intervened.

• What More You Should Know About Hercules!
• Death of Hercules
• People in the Life of Hercules
• 12 Labors of Hercules
• Which Greek Hero Are You?

Ironically, once Hercules was dead and resurrected, he and his step-mother were reconciled. Hera made him her son-in-law by bestowing her daughter Hebe in marriage.

At least that's one version of Hercules' life and death.

Next: Representations of Hercules

Hercules Resources

• Who Was Hercules - The Basic Hercules
• Representations of Hercules
• People in the Life of Hercules
• Women in Hercules' Life
• Hercules and the Olympic Games
• Euripides' Alcestis
• Which Greek Hero Are You?
• Ancient Sources for the Labors of Hercules
• Why Did Hercules Have to Perform the 12 Labors?
• What Are the 12 Labors of Hercules?
• Quiz on the 12 Labors of Hercules