Disney’s Hercules and the false vilification of Hades
By Carys Lloyd, Second Year History
Statue of Hercules and Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of the underworld
Anyone with a shred of taste has watched and loved Disney’s 1997 adaptation of Hercules. A catchy soundtrack, a lovable hero, and the triumph of good over evil, the film fits the bill of a typical Disney film. Ancient Greek myth has become commonplace amongst popular culture, with many-an adaptation of the myth of Heracles, alongside other staples such as the Percy Jackson series and the loosely-based God of War franchise. Within all of these, Hades is presented as an inherent evil. Disney not only physically presents him as an embodiment of the Christian devil, by depicting him with ‘hellish’ characteristics, but also with typical villainous qualities – greedy, feared and ruthless. However, this framing is far from true by Greek mythological standards. This article will explore not only how the depiction of Hades in ancient myth contradicts that of Disney’s Hercules, but also why the creators present the god in this light.
As a Disney villain, Hades is presented as an inherently evil force than must be overcome in order to rebalance the world. The narrative depicts him as the antithesis of Zeus, who is presented almost as a modern-day God. It also centres around Hades’ greed and jealousy, as he hires his minions ‘Pain’ and ‘Panic’ to kill Hercules in a bid to overthrow to ‘good’ gods of Olympus. While obviously altered to follow the standard Disney narrative of ‘plucky hero’s plight against evil’, wherein good ultimately triumphs, the portrayal of Hades as ‘The Bad Guy’ wildly contrasts Hades in myth. For starters, in the myth, it was Hera, Zeus’ enraged and jealous wife and goddess of marriage, who ordered the death of infant Heracles, who was Zeus’ son by a mortal mistress. It, again, was Hera who taunted Heracles his whole life, by sending him into an enraged madness that resulted in him murdering his wife, and ultimately had to embark upon his twelve labours (set out by Hera) to repent. Rather than obstruct, Hades actually aided Heracles’ twelfth labour, which was to retrieve Cerberus (Hades’ guardian of the gates) from the underworld. In Apollodorus’ narrative, Hades allowed this on the condition that no weapons were used and the subsequent return of Cerberus[1]. In another myth, he also aided Orpheus, allowing him to venture to the underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice (an action in itself that ultimately undermines the natural balance of life and death), and even warns him not to look back at her until they had reached the land of the living. Therefore, within myth, Hades is not pitted against these heroes, but alongside them. Furthermore, this leniency and justness contradicts the evil agenda driven by greed that is often depicted in popular culture.
To further this, Hades also conformed to, and not challenged, broader Greek customs and ideas of morality. His justness often means that his appearance in myth is far less extensive than his Olympian counterparts, whose hot-headedness often drove the myths themselves, and, by extension, shaped cultural practices in ancient life such as the worshipping of shrines (his name ‘Hades’ derives from Ancient Greek for ‘the invisible one’[2]). However, Hades’ ‘kidnapping’ of Persephone, resulting in the creation of the seasons due to her mother’s, Demeter, lamenting, is often used in popular culture to adhere to his evil identity, as it transgresses modern morality. In ‘Homeric Hymn to Demeter’, the story is played out, and Hades asks Zeus (Persephone’s father) for permission, which is agreed, prior to relocating her to the underworld against her wishes. The text places the blame solely upon Zeus, as Demeter’s anger is directed at him following Helios’ reassurance [3]. In addition, Persephone voluntarily ate the pomegranate that essentially bound her to Hades. Thus, Hades was not acting outside of the realms of Greek custom, and much less with an evil agenda – upon hearing Demeter’s despair, he even compromised to allow Persephone to return for half a year.
So, if Hades was not the greedy villain as depicted not just in Disney’s Hercules and beyond, why was he presented as one?
This is best examined by using reception theory – looking at the way a story is presented to understand the values and morals of the moment it appeared in. Essentially, Hades represents both death and the underworld. In Ancient Greece, this was intrinsic to the creation of the hero, as demonstrated through The Iliad, which defines the hero as one who gains glory through great accomplishments that lie within the bounds of Greek masculinity and honour.[4] Thus, as Nagy argues, a key element to the formation of the hero is in their consciousness after death[5], and Hades himself is intrinsic in this. However, this ideal is not present in modern understandings of mortality, due to it stemming from Christian understandings of death and the afterlife. For Christianity, an ‘underworld’ was understood as hell, and thus the figure that ruled it, the devil. Disney simply transplants this figure into a Christian context, essentially transforming Hades into the Christian devil. This is evident through several tropes such as the Faustian contract Meg makes with Hades in order to save the life of her love, the use of fire and the emphasis on sacrifice throughout the film. Essentially, these all stem from the modern conviction of the finality of death as the film fails to engage with Ancient Greek perceptions of morality and honour.
Whilst the characterisation of Hades in Disney’s Hercules can be used to investigate contemporary attitudes towards death and morality, his figure fundamentally contradicts ancient mythology. Essentially, there should not be too much reliance upon the narrative to understand Greek myth and the film should be taken for what it is – a feel-good storyline with a catchy soundtrack!
[1] Apollodorus, The Twelve Labours of Heracles, Book 2 trans. by J G Frazer (Theoi Project, New Zealand, 2000)
[2] A. Henrichs ‘Dionysus, Hades, Hecate, Clymeus’ Greek Myth and Religion: Collected Papers (2019)
[3] Homeric Hymn to Demeter trans. G. Nagy (Harvard Centre for Hellenic Studies, 2020) 76
[4] Homer, The Iliad
[5] G. Nagy The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013) p. 417