The movie labours of Hercules

Hercules is surely the most popular - besides Medea and Orpheus - mythological hero in the cinema. He appears in movies, series and animations in his own - so to say - form, i.e. as a comely muscleman, or “in disguise”, under a diff erent name, without the Olympic origins, not always impressing with the brawn, but invariably having the same goal: he risks his life to do some labour which is beyond the capabilities of so-called “ordinary people”. His heroic movie deeds have various signifi cance and gravity – from defeating the Minotaur and conquering Atlantida, through obtaining the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail, to bringing law and order to the underworld of New York or Gotham City, or even saving the world from some imminent danger. I consider the reasons of Hercules’ attractiveness in the cinema, point to his most popular movie characters and present the dangerous labours undertaken by him on the screen. Above all, I try to answer two questions: why the old myth about the mighty muscleman and his heroic deeds appears to have settled in the cinema for good endearing him to consecutive generations of spectators and how - and with what results - this mythical Olympic demigod turned into a pop culture hero.