Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Heracles.
The gallery
Farnese Hercules
After Lysippos (signed by Glykon of Athens), c. 216 CE (Roman copy after a 4th-century BCE Greek original)
The most celebrated ancient image of the hero, this colossal marble shows an exhausted Heracles leaning on his club, the lion-skin draped over it, with the golden apples of the Hesperides concealed behind his back to mark the completion of his Labours. A Roman copy after a bronze attributed to Lysippos, it monumentalises the muscular weariness of the greatest of Greek heroes. Excavated in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and long held by the Farnese family, it is now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Heracles Strangling the Serpents (detail of an Attic red-figure stamnos)
Attributed to the Berlin Painter (Unknown vase-painter), c. 480–470 BCE
This red-figure scene depicts the foundational episode of Heracles' divine nature: as an eight-month-old infant in his cradle he seizes and throttles the two serpents Hera sent to destroy him, while his mortal twin Iphicles recoils in terror. The myth, attested in Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 2.4.8), reveals the child fathered by Zeus, marking him out from his human brother. The vase is held in the Louvre, Paris.
Boy Heracles Strangling a Snake
Unknown, 2nd century CE (Roman)
A Roman marble statue of the infant Heracles gripping a writhing serpent, sculpting in three dimensions the cradle-serpents miracle that proved his descent from Zeus. The chubby, determined child crushing the snake became a popular Roman emblem of innate heroic strength and divine destiny. The work is preserved in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.
The Choice of Hercules
Annibale Carracci, 1596
Carracci's Baroque canvas shows the young hero seated at a crossroads between two female personifications: Virtue, who points up the steep rocky path toward lasting glory, and Pleasure, who offers an easier life of ease and indulgence. Painted for the Camerino of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, it casts Heracles as the moral exemplar who must choose his arduous destiny. The picture is now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
On screen
Hercules
Ron Clements & John Musker
Disney's gospel-singing Olympus turns the labours into a satire of hero-branding — merchandise, action figures and all — while Hades steals the film as a fast-talking dealmaker. For a generation it is the first Heracles they meet.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Kevin Sorbo's syndicated wanderer softened the strongman into a reluctant do-gooder roaming a mix-and-match antiquity; its success spun off Xena: Warrior Princess and ruled 1990s syndicated television.
Hercules
Pietro Francisci
Steve Reeves' peplum made the labours international box-office — the bare-chested strongman template that launched a decade of Italian myth epics.
Hercules
Brett Ratner
Dwayne Johnson's mercenary Heracles sells the labours as war stories — then has to live up to them — a modern blockbuster that keeps the club and the lion-skin.
In music & on stage
Hercules
George Frideric Handel
Handel's 'musical drama' of the homecoming centres not on the hero's strength but on Dejanira's jealousy, driving toward the poisoned robe and one of the great mad scenes of the baroque stage.
Ercole amante
Francesco Cavalli
Cavalli's Paris wedding opera for Louis XIV puts Hercules in love and entanglement — the strongman as baroque court spectacle rather than labourer.
Go the Distance
Alan Menken & David Zippel
The Disney Hercules power ballad of a demigod who wants to belong — the labourer's yearning scored as 1990s pop, and still the song that carries the film's heart.
In play
Hercules
Marvel Comics
Marvel's Olympian Avenger keeps the club and the bravado in cape-comics continuity — Heracles as immortal teammate, rival of Thor and cosmic punchline.
Hades II
Supergiant Games
Supergiant stations Heracles among the surface champions Melinoë meets — the labours' veteran as a weary, muscle-bound ally in Chronos' war.
Herculean
English borrowed the hero's name for any task of impossible strength — a herculean effort still means work fit for the twelve labours.
God of War III
Santa Monica Studio
Kratos' ascent of Olympus stages Hercules as a jealous boss — brother against brother in a chain-and-gauntlet duel that ends the strongman myth as spectacle combat.