The Hero's Journey Of Hercules

Throughout history and across civilizations humans have told stories of good and evil, of great deeds and failed causes. Even before the days of pens and literary records stories where still spread by word of mouth. Over time these stories have been rearranged, their details altered and morphed. Ultimately stories evolve into something that stemmed from the collective imaginations and eventually became myths. Mythologies are not always rational but typically explains unknown origins, supernatural causes, human desires and most importantly offers insight into the values of communities they are derived from on a grand scale. There exists a particular genre of myths and tales that tell the stories of extraordinary men who are distinguished for virtue and valor, they are known as heroes/heroine.

In the book The Hero of a thousand faces(Campbell, 1994) he formulated the common trend which he called it “the Hero’s journey” or monomyth. The character of Hercules in Disney’s animated film Hercules is set as a story after the Great Labors of the Greek hero Heracles and follows a simplified hero’s journey. When discussing Hercules’ heroic qualities in the Greek sense it is essential to understand what it takes to be a hero in ancient Greek. There are two fundamental components that remain unique to the Greek mythology. Eusebia or Greek’s way of piety explores mortal’s relationship with deities reflected in their literary culture. The pursuit of glory that dictates their actions and structures ideologies. This analysis will compare Disney’s Hercules to the classical Greek heroism by examining the two quintessential elements that defines classical hero archetypes in mythology while drawing parallels with Campbell’s