Hercules: American Culture Vs. Ancient Greek Culture

Ancient Greece was a time of beautiful literature, art, architecture, and advancements in things like politics and culture. When compared to the modern American culture, Greek culture was different in various ways. The movie Hercules, produced by Disney in 1997, was based on the Greek myth Heraclês, but there are many differences between the two. These differences show exactly how different the American culture is from the ancient Greek culture. From reading Heracles and watching Hercules, it is easy to see the differences in how people today feel about heroism, villains, and the importance of love The way heroism is depicted is one of the greatest cultural differences between the movie and the myth. In the myth, Heraclês does several good

Throughout the myth, Heraclês is shown working through multiple tasks and hardships of his own, but no singular villain is given. The myth mainly talks about his personal struggles and how he overcomes them. While the movie mentions how Hercules strengthens himself, it doesn’t really talk about what he goes through or any of the hardships mentioned in the myth. For example, the myth explains how Heraclês had to overcome his anger, but the movie never mentions this. Hercules tends to focus more on a person instead of the struggles. Hades is portrayed more as a villain in the movie. While he is in Greek myths, he is never really shown as a villain. The movie characterizes Hades as jealous and having envy over Zeus. He sees Hercules as the only thing keeping him from overtaking the heavens, so he tries to get rid of Hercules. Hades is shown giving Hercules problem after problem in the movie, but in the myth, he never has an issue with or tries to harm Hercules. Hades, in fact, tries to kill baby Hercules at the beginning of the movie and is seen as the main source of all of the hardships he endures. This just shows how the modern society likes to place blame on an individual rather than to work through problems without it being someone else’s fault. Placing blame on someone makes it easier to understand why something may be happening. Hollywood tries to help it’s younger viewers relate to and comprehend the myth by adding this cause to the issues Hercules goes through, rather than trying to draw out the movie