Re-conceiving Hercules: Divine Paternity and Christian Anxiety in Hercules (2005)

Abstract

In August 2004, NBC announced the filming of its made-for-television movie Hercules: “The definitive re-telling of the most famous myth of all: the story of a half-god half-man whose extraordinary feats of strength would elevate him to the status of legend on Earth and immortality in the heavens.”¹ But the finished product rejects the origin story of the ancient Greek hero Herakles (better known by his Latin name Hercules²). Instead of Zeus, Hercules presents a blasphemous human sociopath, mistakenly believed to have been Zeus, as the hero’s father. Depriving Hercules of divine paternity allows producer Robert Halmi Sr. and director Roger Young to reshape his life story. Rather than achieving apotheosis, Hercules repudiates his false identity as “son of Zeus” and oncludes his Labors with conjugal domesticity and fatherhood on earth. This hero’s journey is not cosmic but spiritual—and aimed at an audience for whom there is only one true Son of the King of Heaven.