Sources on Hercules
Sifting through the conflicting information on Hercules is almost a herculean task in itself. His personality has been described as kaleidoscopic+. Most of what we know about the mythic hero comes from The Library of (Pseudo-)Apollodorus*, but Pausanias, Tacitus, and Plutarch also wrote about him, and Herodotus wrote especially about a Hercules worshiped in Egypt. There are also artifacts, the philosophical writing of Plato, Aristotle, and Lucretius, and the literary works of of Vergil (Virgil), Pindar, and Homer, as well as several plays, both comedy and tragedy, that refer to Hercules.
Herculean
Hercules is portrayed as larger than life in most areas -- especially his physical prowess, his sexual appetites, and his relationship with death, which is why we have the word "herculean". In just one paragraph of Apollodorus, Hercules impregnates 50 sisters; diverting a river to wash out the Augean stables was the act of a day. By the Renaisssance Hercules was an example of moral virtue . But he wasn't all noble. At times he seems simply foolish. He also ravished virgins, violated the rules of hospitality, and murdered his own children. It's small wonder that with all his variety he continues to fuel the imagination of dramatists.
Hercules Movies
The following is a list of movies about him from The Internet Movie Database, Ltd., up to, but not including, the 1997 Disney film:Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995)
Hercules II (1985).
Conquest (1983)
Ercole al centro della terra (1961)
Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide (1961)
Ercole contro Roma (1964)
Ercole e la regina di Lidia (1959)
Fatiche di Ercole, Le (1957)
Forbidden Zone (1980)
Hercules (1997)
Hercules and the Amazon Women (1994) (TV)
Hercules and the Circle of Fire (1994) (TV)
Hercules in New York (1970)
Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur (1994) (TV)
Hercules Returns (1983)
Hercules (1983)
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Unholy Three, The (1925)
Online Greek Plays About Hercules
Greek Tragedy
The Trachiniae, by Sophoclesc. 430 B.C., translated by R.C. Jebb.
Philoctetes, by Sophocles
c. 409 B.C., translated by Thomas Francklin.
Alcestis, by Euripides
c. 438 B.C., translated by Richard Aldington.
Greek Comedy
The Frogs, by Aristophanesc. 405 B.C.; Anonymous translator.
Hercules Resources
- People in the Life of Hercules
- Women in Hercules' Life
- Twelve Labors of Hercules
- Hercules and the Olympic Games
- Euripides' Alcestis
- Which Greek Hero Are You?
- Ancient Sources for the Labors of Hercules
*Apollodorus, a 2nd Century B.C. Greek scholar, wrote a Chronicles and On the Gods. It is thought that the Bibliotheca 'Library' was written a few centuries later, but the work is still referred to as the Library of Apollodorus or Pseudo-Apollodorus.
+"Intertextuality as Irony: Heracles in Epic and in Sophocles," by Vayos Liapis. Greece and Rome, 2006, Vol. 53.1, pages 48-59.
Hercules and Heracles
The name Heracles means "the Glory of Hera". The Roman name Hercules, the one that is generally used in English to refer to either the Roman version of the demigod or the Greek, is based on the Etruscan name Hercle. It's easy to see the path from Heracles to Hercle to Hercules.