100 Fun Facts About Hercules

Which directing duo made Disney's animated Hercules (1997)?

Ron Clements and John Musker took it on as a bargain: Disney's studio chief would approve their space-pirate passion project, Treasure Planet, only after they delivered another crowd-pleaser first.

Who voices Hades, the fast-talking lord of the Underworld, in Disney's Hercules?

James Woods improvised wildly at his audition, playing a breezy hustler miles from the purring villain the directors had written, and he kept inventing lines in the recording booth.

Who voices Phil, the grumpy satyr who trains heroes in Disney's Hercules?

Danny DeVito wouldn't audition for a part written with him in mind, so other actors were tested before he said yes over a pasta lunch he cooked in his trailer while directing Matilda.

Josh Keaton speaks for the teenage Hercules, but who provides the character's singing voice?

Roger Bart re-recorded the songs after Keaton had sung them all with the orchestra; Keaton says his voice was judged too pop for a Disney musical and was starting to break.

Before voicing Megara, Susan Egan had played which Disney heroine on Broadway?

Belle nearly cost her the part: Disney at first refused to let its sweet stage heroine audition for the cynical Meg, and relented only later.

Which actor was cast as Hades and recorded the role before the directors of Disney's Hercules let him go?

John Lithgow proved the wrong fit: scenes animated to his recordings fell flat and he wasn't comfortable improvising, so the directors thanked him and started over.

Which star was courted to play Hades but walked away when Disney refused him a share of the merchandise?

Jack Nicholson toured the animators' studio carrying his small daughter, who came dressed as Snow White, but he wanted the kind of merchandise deal he'd had on Batman and Disney said no.

Which British cartoonist served as production designer on Disney's Hercules, giving it its angular look?

Gerald Scarfe was approached because one of the directors remembered his Time magazine cover of the Beatles, and his bold line proved a match for Greek vase painting.

Alan Menken wrote the songs for Disney's Hercules with which lyricist?

David Zippel had to help replace Meg's big ballad after her animator argued she was too tough to sing it; the result was the wry "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)".

The Muses of Disney's Hercules narrate the story in which musical style?

Gospel was the directors' idea, borrowed from The Gospel at Colonus, a stage show that retold a Greek tragedy with a gospel choir; they wanted that same ecstatic sound for their storytellers.

"Go the Distance", the Hercules anthem, lost the Academy Award for Best Original Song to which track?

"My Heart Will Go On" nearly didn't exist: Titanic's director was wary of ending on a pop song, so the composer wrote it without telling him, and Céline Dion sang the demo reluctantly.

Which singer recorded the pop version of "Go the Distance" heard over the end credits of Disney's Hercules?

Michael Bolton sang it for English-speaking audiences, but the Spanish-language release went to a rising Ricky Martin, who put his version on the album Vuelve.

A song cut from Disney's Hercules, "Shooting Star", appears on European editions of the soundtrack sung by which boy band?

Boyzone recorded it for the international release; in the film itself the hero's ballad had been dropped in favour of "Go the Distance".

What are the names of Hades' two shape-shifting imp henchmen in Disney's Hercules?

Pain and Panic are voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait and Matt Frewer; Pain was written with Goldthwait in mind, yet he still had to audition to play what was, in effect, himself.

In Disney's Hercules, why does the infant hero keep his strength after drinking the mortality potion?

He missed the final drop: a passing couple startled the kidnappers mid-feeding, so the potion made him mortal without taking his strength, and the couple raised him as their own.

In Disney's Hercules, which event will let Hades free the Titans?

A planetary alignment is eighteen years off, the Fates tell Hades, and they add a catch: if Hercules fights, Hades fails, which is why the baby has to go.

In Disney's Hercules, the hero regains his godhood by leaping into which Underworld river to rescue Meg's soul?

Styx: as he swims down, the Fates move to cut his thread of life, but it will not cut, because risking death for Meg has made him a god again.

What finishes off the Hydra in Disney's Hercules?

A rockslide: with heads sprouting faster than he can cut them, Hercules smashes the cliff face and buries the monster, a win that earns him the respect of Thebes.

Which supervising animator, previously known for Gaston, Jafar and Scar, drew the adult Hercules?

Andreas Deja was offered Hades first but asked for the hero instead: after three villains in a row, he wanted to prove he could handle the harder job of animating someone good.

The directors of Disney's Hercules modeled Meg on which classic Hollywood actress?

Barbara Stanwyck's con artist in The Lady Eve was the template, because the directors wanted the snap of a classic screwball comedy, with Hercules as its young Jimmy Stewart.

In Disney's Hercules, Zeus creates the winged horse Pegasus for his baby son out of what?

A cloud: Zeus rolls a few together as a gift for the newborn. In myth Pegasus sprang from Medusa's blood and carried a different hero, Bellerophon.

On its wide-release weekend in June 1997, Hercules finished second at the box office behind which film?

Face/Off narrowly won the weekend, and as the cartoon kept trailing Disney's earlier hits the New York Times ran the headline "Hercules Is Too Weak to Lift Disney Stock".

Under what title did Disney release Hercules in Greece, hoping to head off local anger?

Beyond the Myth of Heracles gave the hero back his Greek name, but Greek audiences and commentators turned on the film anyway.

Which screen legend narrates the opening of Disney's Hercules before the Muses take over?

Charlton Heston, veteran of Hollywood's ancient epics, solemnly sets the scene until the Muses cut him off and retell the story their own livelier way.

In Hercules: The Animated Series, the teenage hero attends which high school?

Prometheus Academy is a school for gods and mortals where his friends are Icarus and Cassandra; the series happily contradicts the film, in which Hades has no idea the teenage hero is alive.

One episode of Hercules: The Animated Series was a crossover with which other Disney film?

Aladdin: in "Hercules and the Arabian Night", Hades meets Jafar's ghost in the Underworld, and the two villains bet that each can defeat the other's young hero.

In the Kingdom Hearts video games, Hercules' home world is called what?

Olympus Coliseum is Phil's arena, where the games' young hero Sora fights through tournament rounds; Kingdom Hearts II opened the Underworld below it, with Hades running a tournament of his own.

Which director signed on in 2022 to helm Disney's live-action Hercules remake?

Guy Ritchie signed on with producers Joe and Anthony Russo, and Joe Russo promised not a straight retelling of the cartoon but a more experimental musical that takes cues from TikTok.

The stage musical of Hercules premiered in 2019 at which venue?

Central Park's Delacorte Theater staged it free of charge for nine days, a Public Works show that put community performers from all five New York boroughs on stage beside professionals.

In Greek myth, who was Heracles' mortal mother?

Alcmene was deceived by Zeus, who came to her disguised as her absent husband; in some tellings he stretched that single night to the length of three.

In Greek myth, what did Hera send to kill the baby Heracles?

Two snakes: in the usual telling Hera sent them into the nursery, and while his twin brother cried out, the baby throttled one in each hand, showing which boy was the son of Zeus.

According to myth, what was created when Hera pushed the nursing infant Heracles away from her breast?

The Milky Way: her spilled milk streaked the sky, and the Greek name for it, galaxias kyklos or milky circle, is the root of our word galaxy.

Which king assigned Heracles his labours?

Eurystheus gained a servant through a crime: in the usual telling Heracles, driven mad by Hera, killed his own children, and the oracle at Delphi ordered him to serve the king for twelve years.

Which nephew helped Heracles kill the Hydra by burning the stumps of its severed heads?

Iolaus seared each neck with a burning brand before new heads could sprout; because Heracles had help, the king refused to count the labour, one reason ten tasks became twelve.

The Ceryneian Hind that Heracles chased for a year was sacred to which goddess?

Artemis confronted him on the road and would have taken the deer back, but Heracles blamed the king who had sent him, and the goddess let him carry it on alive.

How did Heracles clean the Augean stables in a single day?

He rerouted two rivers, the Alpheus and the Peneus, through the yards; in the usual telling the labour was then struck from the count because he had bargained for a tenth of the cattle as his fee.

Which hero finally dealt with the Cretan Bull, which ravaged Marathon after Heracles shipped it from Crete?

Theseus went out against the bull at Marathon and overcame it; he later sailed to Crete and killed the Minotaur, said to be the same bull's monstrous offspring.

Which Titan fetched the golden apples of the Hesperides for Heracles, then tried to trick him?

Atlas, in the best-known telling, meant to leave Heracles holding up the sky for good, until the hero asked him to take it back for a moment while he arranged some padding.

On what condition did Hades let Heracles take Cerberus?

He had to use no weapons, so Heracles, wrapped in his lion skin, locked his arms around the hound's neck and squeezed until it gave in, even as the snake in its tail bit him.

Heracles died after his wife Deianira gave him a shirt soaked in the poisoned blood of which centaur?

Nessus, dying by the hero's hand, told Deianira his blood was a love charm; it was tainted with Hydra venom, and the shirt burned Heracles until he built his own funeral pyre.

Whom did Heracles marry after rising to Olympus as a god?

Hebe, goddess of youth, was Hera's own daughter, so the wedding sealed his peace with the stepmother who had hounded him all his life.

In the best-known version of the myth, what did Philoctetes receive for lighting Heracles' funeral pyre?

His bow and arrows went to Philoctetes, and the Greeks later learned that Troy could not fall without them, so they had to fetch back the archer they had marooned on Lemnos.

Which Roman emperor styled himself 'the Roman Hercules' and had a lion skin and club carried before him?

Commodus went further still, fighting in the arena as a gladiator and giving Rome's colossal sun statue his own face, a club and a bronze lion at its feet.

Who played the title role in the 1990s TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys?

Kevin Sorbo suffered an aneurysm and three strokes in 1997, midway through the run; the illness was kept quiet, and his scenes were cut back while guest stars carried more of the action.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys spawned which hit spin-off, whose lead first appeared on the show as a villain?

Xena: Warrior Princess exists because a warlord scripted to die in her third episode was spared instead; the producers gave her a series of her own.

Which future movie star played the lead in the 1998 Fox Kids series Young Hercules?

Ryan Gosling moved to New Zealand as a teenager to take the part over from Ian Bohen, who had played the young hero in the pilot film and in flashbacks on the parent show.

Who starred as Hercules in the 2014 Brett Ratner film about a mercenary hired by the king of Thrace?

Dwayne Johnson's film drew a boycott call from writer Alan Moore, who said Steve Moore, the late creator of the comic it adapts, had been paid nothing and had not wanted his name on it.

Which American bodybuilder starred in the 1958 Italian film Hercules?

Steve Reeves, a former Mr. Universe, became an international star after showman Joseph E. Levine bought the low-budget Italian film and opened it across America behind a blitz of advertising.

Under what name was Schwarzenegger credited in his 1970 acting debut, Hercules in New York?

Arnold Strong was a billing gag: his surname was thought too long, and the new one played off his co-star, comedian Arnold Stang. His thick accent was dubbed over as well.

Who played the title role in the 1983 film Hercules, hurling a bear into space to form a constellation?

Lou Ferrigno, TV's Incredible Hulk, was dubbed by another actor throughout, and Variety's reviewer watched a Hollywood matinee crowd dissolve in laughter as the bear became Ursa Major.

Zeus fathered Heracles after visiting the hero's mortal mother disguised as which person?

Her husband, Amphitryon, was away at war when Zeus took his shape; the real man came home that same night, so the twins she bore had different fathers.

In Disney's Hercules, why did Meg sell her soul to Hades before the story begins?

To save a boyfriend, Meg signed herself over to the lord of the dead, only for the man she rescued to leave her for another woman while she stayed bound to Hades's service.

Which creatures did the jealous goddess Hera send into the nursery to kill the baby Heracles?

A pair of serpents slid into the room Heracles shared with his twin; his brother cried out in fear, while Heracles seized one in each fist and throttled them.

Which crime novelist wrote The Labours of Hercules, cases her detective models on the hero's myths?

Agatha Christie has Hercule Poirot, teased about his first name, pick a closing run of cases to mirror the labours, beginning with a kidnapped Pekingese as his Nemean lion.

The poet Pindar credits Heracles with founding which athletic festival in honour of his father Zeus?

The Olympic Games, in Pindar's telling, began as a festival Heracles set up at Olympia to honour Zeus after defeating King Augeas, owner of the famously filthy stables.

The mares of King Diomedes, stolen by Heracles in his eighth labour, were notorious for eating what?

Human flesh was the mares' diet, and in one telling Heracles tamed them by feeding them their own master, Diomedes.

The Pillars of Hercules are two headlands that flank the entrance to which waterway?

The Strait of Gibraltar is where, in one telling, Hercules smashed through a mountain on his way to Geryon's cattle, joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

In Disney's Hercules, which Trojan War fighter was the satyr Phil's most famous earlier pupil?

Achilles tops the list of trainees whose shortcomings disappointed Phil, long before Hercules flies in on Pegasus asking for lessons.

With which object did the young Heracles kill his music teacher Linus after a punishment?

A lyre, the very instrument being taught, did the damage after Linus caned him for his mistakes, and Heracles was sent off to herd cattle on a mountain as a result.

For his ninth labour Heracles was sent to fetch the belt of Hippolyta, queen of which people?

The Amazons' queen was at first willing to hand the belt over, but in the best-known telling Hera spread a rumour among her warriors, a battle broke out and Heracles took it by force.

In Disney's Hercules, which monster does Hades send to Thebes to kill the powerless hero?

The Cyclops stomps into Thebes while the Titans storm the home of the gods, and Hercules, stripped of his strength but urged on by Phil, beats the towering brute with his wits.

In Disney's Hercules, what falls on Meg when she shoves the weakened hero out of harm's way?

A column crushes Meg as she pushes him clear, and because Hades had sworn she would come to no harm, the broken promise hands Hercules his strength back at once.

At the end of Disney's Hercules, what does the hero choose instead of rejoining the gods?

Life on Earth with Meg wins out, so Hercules stays a demigod among mortals, and Zeus marks the moment by tracing his son's portrait in the stars.

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, the 1990s adventure series, was filmed in which country?

New Zealand stood in for ancient Greece, and the series was made there with mostly local actors putting on American accents.

The creature that bit Heracles as he fought the Hydra became which zodiac constellation?

Cancer is the crab that nipped his foot in mid-battle; Heracles killed it, and Hera, his lifelong enemy, set it among the stars.

Alongside a lion skin, which object does Heracles almost always carry in ancient Greek art?

A wooden club, cut from an olive tree in the stories, is his trademark, and together with the lion skin it lets viewers pick Heracles out on vases and statues at a glance.

In Disney's Hercules, which object do the three Fates share, passing it from one to another?

An eyeball is all the three have between them to see with, a trait the film borrows from a different mythical trio, the Graeae.

Which actor voiced Zeus, king of the gods and the hero's father, in Disney's Hercules?

Rip Torn gave Zeus his booming warmth in the film; in the animated series that followed, the part passed to voice actor Corey Burton.

In Hercules: The Animated Series, which figure from Greek myth is the teenage hero's best friend?

Icarus is the series' oddball sidekick, left scatterbrained by flying too close to the sun on wax wings, and he is hopelessly smitten with the prophetess Cassandra.

Heracles briefly joined the crew of the Argo, the ship captained by which Greek hero?

Jason led the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, but in the best-known telling Heracles never saw it: the ship left him behind in Mysia when his young companion Hylas went missing.

Heracles sacked which city after King Laomedon withheld the horses promised for saving his daughter?

Troy fell to Heracles a generation before the famous war; he killed Laomedon and every son but one, a boy later known as King Priam.

Which Greek city's two royal houses, the Agiads and Eurypontids, both claimed descent from Heracles?

Sparta kept two kings at once, one from each house, and both lines traced themselves to the Heraclids, the descendants of Heracles said to have conquered the Peloponnese.

When Heracles brought back the Erymanthian Boar, where did the terrified king who set his labours hide?

In a large jar sunk in the ground, the king cowered and begged Heracles to take the beast away, and he is said to have dived back in when Cerberus arrived later.

To flush the Stymphalian birds from their marsh, Heracles used which noisy gift from Athena?

A rattle forged by Hephaestus scared the birds into the air, solving a problem brute strength could not: the marsh would not bear the hero's weight.

After his knife failed, what did Heracles use to skin the Nemean lion, on the advice of Athena?

Its own claw was the only edge sharp enough to cut a hide that had shrugged off every blade, and Heracles wore the pelt as armour from then on.

The giant Antaeus could not be beaten while he touched the ground, so how did Heracles kill him?

Hoisted him aloft and squeezed until he died: lifted clear of the soil, his own mother Gaia, the Libyan wrestler who had killed every passer-by lost his source of strength.

In one telling, Heracles's fight with the shape-shifting god Achelous produced which famous symbol?

The cornucopia, or horn of plenty, began as a horn Heracles snapped off Achelous, who was fighting him as a bull for the hand of a bride; nymphs then filled it with fruit and flowers.

In the best-known version of the myth, Heracles performed his labours as penance for which crime?

Killing his children, and in some tellings his wife Megara with them, in a madness sent by Hera left Heracles so horrified that he went to the oracle at Delphi to ask how to atone.

Which late-night bandleader voiced Hermes, the messenger of the gods, in Disney's Hercules?

Paul Shaffer, who led the house band on Letterman's late-night shows for more than three decades, voices the messenger Zeus keeps sending to find Hercules.

Which Latin pop star sang the Spanish-language version of the Hercules ballad "Go the Distance"?

Ricky Martin recorded it as "No Importa la Distancia", heard in the Spanish dub and over its credits, and then put the track on his album Vuelve.

Which singer was turned down as the speaking voice of Disney's Hercules because he sounded too deep?

Donny Osmond lost the part but stayed in Disney's good books: a year later he was the singing voice of Captain Shang in Mulan.

The directors of Disney's Hercules made it so the studio would then approve which passion project of theirs?

Treasure Planet was the duo's pet project, but studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted a more commercial film first, so their pirate story among the stars waited until 2002.

For the Hercules premiere parade in June 1997, Disney asked thousands of New York businesses to do what?

Dim their lights, so the glowing floats of the Main Street Electrical Parade would stand out; the request irritated locals, and former mayor Ed Koch said no film deserved such treatment.

In Disney's Hercules, Lillias White voices which Muse, the goddess of epic poetry in Greek myth?

Calliope is the Muse with a headband over her big curls, the tallest of the group and its unofficial leader.

Which animator, a co-director of Pocahontas, supervised the satyr Phil in Disney's Hercules?

Eric Goldberg took on Phil only after his first assignment, Hades, lost its intended star, and he joked that he shared the short stature and baldness of Phil's voice actor.

The directors of Disney's Hercules modelled their naive hero on which classic Hollywood leading man?

Jimmy Stewart as the young lead of Mr Smith Goes to Washington was the template, in a script that borrowed from the screwball comedies of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges.

Which Ted Lasso actor appears as Hercules in the mid-credits scene of Thor: Love and Thunder?

Brett Goldstein turns up as the son of Zeus, sent to take revenge on Thor, and the film's director said Marvel's studio chief had personally wanted him for the part.

The Tower of Hercules, a Roman lighthouse and World Heritage Site, stands on which country's coast?

Spain is home to it, at the Galician port of A Coruña, where local legend says Hercules buried the head of the giant Geryon after three days and nights of fighting.

In Roman mythology, where Zeus goes by another name, Hercules is the son of which god?

Jupiter is the Roman counterpart of Zeus, and the hero's name changed on the way too: Latin borrowed Hercules through Etruscan, where he appears as Hercle.

The colossal Farnese Hercules statue was dug up in 1546 from the ruins of which Roman emperor's baths?

Caracalla's baths in Rome were its first home; the marble shows a muscular but weary hero at rest, and it moved to Naples with the Farnese collection in 1787.

Which ancient playwright wrote Women of Trachis, the tragedy about the death of Heracles?

Sophocles tells it through the hero's wife, who sends him a robe she believes carries a love charm and has a bad feeling the moment it leaves her hands.

Which Baroque composer's musical drama Hercules flopped at its London premiere in January 1745?

Handel saw the piece fail so completely that he suspended his season, yet once it was fully staged, later critics hailed it as one of the supreme masterpieces of its age.

In the ancient parable of the Choice of Hercules, which figure offers the young hero a hard road ending in honour?

Virtue offers him a hard road that ends in honour, while Vice promises ease and pleasure; the tale is credited to the sophist Prodicus and survives through Xenophon.

As punishment for a murder, Heracles was made the slave of which queen of Lydia?

Omphale put the hero to women's work in later tellings, dressing him in women's clothes to hold the wool while she wore his lion skin.

Heracles wrestled Death himself to bring back which queen, who had agreed to die for King Admetus?

Alcestis was already in her tomb when Heracles, a guest who had been feasting in the house unaware, hid by the grave and squeezed Death until he gave her up.

Who was the mortal twin of Heracles, born the same night but fathered by Amphitryon rather than Zeus?

Iphicles was the all-mortal one of the two, and his own son grew up to drive the hero's chariot and share in his adventures.

Which fire-breathing giant did Hercules kill on the future site of Rome for stealing his cattle?

Cacus dragged the stolen cows backwards by their tails so the tracks pointed the wrong way, but one of them lowed from his cave as the herd passed and gave him away.

Which Twilight actor played the title hero in the 2014 action film The Legend of Hercules?

Kellan Lutz starred for director Renny Harlin in a 3D telling that reached cinemas six months ahead of a rival Hercules film from another studio.

On which Greek mountain did the dying Heracles have his own funeral pyre built?

Mount Oeta is where the flames burned away his mortal part, leaving the divine half to join the gods, and Roman authors later nicknamed him Oetaeus after the place.

The constellation Hercules contains M13, a showpiece for stargazers and which kind of deep-sky object?

A globular cluster, M13 is the brightest of its kind in the northern sky, set in a constellation that ranks among the largest yet has no really bright stars of its own.