In celebration of Hercules’ 20th Anniversary, I have decided to do a little compilation as to how Disney handled the mythical Hercules’ Twelve Labours (yes that’s how it’s spelt)
For the uninitiated, Herakles (again that’s the Greek spelling) was given the task of twelve labors set upon him by his evil cousin Eurytheus as a way for Hera to channel her wrath upon and for the hero to be to cleanse his sin of committing murder. In order:
I) Slay the Nemean Lion
II) Slay the Lernaean Hydra
III) Capture the Ceryneian Hind
IV) Capture the Erymanthian Boar
V) Clean the Augean Stables within a single day and night
VI) Slay the Stymphalian Birds
VII) Capture the Cretan Bull
VIII) Steal the Flesh-eating horses of Diomedes
IX) Get the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
X) Steal the cattle of Geryon
XI) Steal the Golden Apples from the Garden of Hesperides
XII) Capture and bring back Cerberus
According to some myths, the hero was given ten labors, but two didn’t count since he had help, so another two were given to compensate.
I) Slay the Nemean Lion
In the original legend, the Nemean Lion was the daughter of Typhon and Echidna and often took the form of a beautiful woman in order to lure unsuspecting travelers into her den and then make a meal out of them. Herakles took care of the lion using only his fists, strangling the beast and making a tunic out of its near-impenetrable hide.
Technically speaking, Herc had two encounters with the Nemean Lion in the series. Chronologically, the first appearance of the lion was in “The Hero of Athens” where he was rampaging about the city looking for a fight. While Herc fights the oversized lion behind the scenes, Icarus gets all the glory and takes up an act as a superhero up until the end of the episode.
Rather famously in the film, Herc has a rematch with the lion in the film during the “Zero to Hero” sequence and ultimately kills him by dropkicking him like a pigskin, wearing the pelt during a “painting session”. Here the pelt now looks like Scar from the Lion King, as Andreas Deja was the animator for both Herc and Scar.
II) Slay the Lernaean Hydra
Perhaps the most well-known scene in the film is Herc’s fight against the Hydra, a reptilian monster that regrows three heads with each one lopped off, just outside of Thebes. This is unlike in the legend where Herc fought the monster in the swamp of Lerna. Hera had her own interference in the myth by sending Cancer the crab to attack Herc. Likewise, Herc countered by having his squire, Iolaus, help him with branding the necks of each head he cut off, which according to Eurystheus disqualified the validity of the labor. The last one was immortal, so it was buried under a heavy rock. This was the only aspect of the original fight that was left intact in the film: Herc finishes off the monster by burying it in a landslide. The 1998 PC game Hades Challenge, however, suggests that Herc fought a second Hydra and did it the exact same way as in the myth.
III) Capture the Ceryneian Hind
In the myth, Hercules had to chase the golden deer of Artemis, Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt. The deer is notable as being almost impossible to capture, and yet Herc was able to catch her by outpacing her.
The Hind herself does make a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the film, although she is not golden in color. Herc does portray her in an episode of the series “Muse of Dance” as a way to prove that dancing is not unmanly. Artemis herself has a supporting role in the series where she is voiced by country singer Reba MacEntire, mainly re-enacting her role from the myth of Actaeon.
IV) Capture the Erymanthian Boar
In the myth, Hercules had to hunt the giant boar native to Arcadia and bring it back alive. Along the way, Herc found himself in the midst of a Centaur Melee, with the wisest and most noble, Chiron, being caught in the crossfire, trying to protect Herc.
While Chiron himself appears in two episodes of the show as a minor character and rival to Phil, the Boar appears for about five seconds in the film, having been sent by Hades. Herc shoots him in the face with an arrow and has a meal out of him.
V) Clean the Augean Stables within a single day and night
For his fifth labor, Hercules had to clean the stables of King Augeas, known for his massive herd of cattle which stank up the place. Eurystheus thought of this as the one labor that Herc couldn’t finish as he had given him a shovel and bin. But through some extreme troll logic, Herc managed to wash the stench and manure out of the stables by diverting two rivers. This was one of the two labors that “didn’t count” because Herc was thinking outside the box.
The Stables don’t appear at all in the series, but Phil mentions the king and his stable issues in the film.
VI) Slay the Stymphalian Birds
These were vicious man-eating birds that were terrorizing a swamp near Arcadia, killing their prey with their steel feathers and ripping them to shreds with brazen claws. Herc had a bit of divine intervention thanks to Athena who gave him a set of castanets that stirred up the birds into a disorganized mess, leaving them as sitting ducks.
One of the birds is seen in the film during the “Zero to Hero” sequence where Herc and Pegasus have a short dog fight before caging it. The entire flock later appeared in an episode of the show where guarding the Spring of Canathus. Cassandra ended up saving one of their eggs as part of a home ec project.
VII) Capture the Cretan Bull
The sixth labor saw Hercules travel to Crete to capture the prized bull of King Minos, as well as the one that infamously impregnated the king’s wife with becoming the father of the Minotaur. Over time the bull became reckless but Minos was too attached to the bull that he couldn’t kill him. Herc was able to round him back to Eurystheus, who hid himself in a pot afterwards, telling him to sacrifice the animal. Hera then denied that it should happen, so Herc turned the bull loose in Marathon. Finally, Theseus was able to sacrifice the bull to Apollo.
Other than the statue in Hades’ Challenge, the Cretan Bull never appears in the series. Herc did however end up going to Crete upon invite from Minos, alongside Icarus and Daedalus, as Minotaur bait. Herc did battle against the Minotaur (voiced by Star Trek vet Michael Dorn) three times in the series; once in “Hercules and the Minotaur” within the Labyrinth of Knossos, a second time in “Hercules and the Grim Avenger” where he teams up with the Batman-esque Theseus to bring the Minotaur to justice and send him back to the Labyrinth, and finally in the “Zero to Hero” sequence in the film as a quick 3-on-1 set up by Hades alongside a Griffin and Stheno.
VIII) Steal the Flesh-eating horses of Diomedes
Perhaps the most ghoulish labor that Herc underwent was capturing the man-eating mares of Diomedes, King of Thrace. The four mares were bound to a bronze manger and had the unusual diet of human flesh, even breathing fire. In some versions of the myth, one of Herc’s companions had a first-hand encounter with the horses and was eaten alive while he fought Diomedes. In other versions, Diomedes himself was thrown to the mares either out of retribution for his companion’s death, or as a way to show that the evil you create is the evil that will destroy you. However it happened, Herc brought the mares to Eurystheus who ordered him to be destroyed by wolves, bears, and lions.
Herc encountered one of the mares, Xanthus, in the final aired episode of the series “The Tiff on Olympus” as a way to mend the bond between Zeus and Hera.
IX) Get the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
Other than being the mother of Wonder Woman in DC Comics, Hippolyte was the queen of an all-woman tribe of warriors. In some versions of the story, Herc had to fight the Amazons because they were ordered to by Hera. Other versions state that Hippolyte herself gave the girdle to Herc in exchange for marrying a good man. In this case Theseus who was with him in this part of the journey.
The Amazons, Hippolyte, and the Girdle all first appear in the series in “The Girdle of Hippolyte”. In fact, Tempest, the daughter of Hippolyte, was a former classmate of Hercules and had to earn her rite to wear the Girdle.
X) Steal the cattle of Geryon
The tenth labor saw Hercules travel to the tip of Italy to capture the cattle of the three-headed giant Geryon and his two-headed dog Orthos. Herc was able to take them down and brought the cattle back to the king. Depicted above is Geryon as he appears in Dante’s Inferno as a demon with the body of a dragon and the face of an honest man.
While Geryon does appear in series voiced by SNL Alumnus Will Farrell, it’s Orthos that I need to bring up. The series completely reimagines him as a two-headed cyclops (voiced by Wayne Knight and Brad Garrett) who Herc encounters after his first day of school. Orthos finds him to be a “stale nobody” as they had come accustomed to eating “junk food” (i.e. pita delivery boys). After a humiliating defeat the next day at lunch, Orthos returned in “The Epic Adventure” plotting his revenge but again suffering defeat.
XI) Steal the Golden Apples from the Garden of Hesperides
Perhaps the most well-known part of this labor was who helped Herc get the apples: the Titan Atlas. Because he was part of the faction led by Kronos during the Titan War, Zeus punished Atlas by forcing him to hold up the sky. Herc turned to Atlas who was just outside of the garden to pick the apples for him after defeating the dragon Ladon. Atlas began to scheme about getting his revenge against Zeus by keeping Herc there holding up the sky, but Herc outsmarted him.
In the animated series, Herc needed to get the golden apples to reverse a curse set upon Adonis by Gaia herself. Atlas himself is still present and is presented as a schemer.
I should probably bring up that Adonis is much more important to the series than we give him credit. Besides being the closest thing that Herc has for a rival, Adonis is also present in the original movie: He was Meg’s boyfriend. When he died, Meg sold her soul to Hades to bring him back to life, and his way of saying thanks? Dump Meg and go for Helen of Troy.
WHAT
A
JERK
XII) Capture Cerberus and bring him back alive
The final labor had Hercules pay a visit to Uncle Hades just to borrow his watch-dog. Nothing incredibly special, unless you count the fact that he also brought Theseus back with him after he got himself stuck down there.
Cerberus is a minor character in the film and a major character the series as he is the guard-dog of the underworld. Although the only time Cerberus did something much like in the myth, it was when Herc went down below to claim Meg’s soul and return her to life.
And that just leaves us with one thing…
BEST
VILLAIN
EVER
Granted, Hades is plotting an uprising against Zeus, but he is still remembered to this day as one of the funniest Disney Villains of all time. In fact James Woods, who voiced Hades, has gone on record as to say that Hades is his personal favorite role.
Special thanks to Mythweb for the information regarding the details of the Labours
Hyppolyte belongs to DC/Warner Bros.
Castlevania belongs to Konami
Take a Look Through My Eyes 