[narrator]
Mythology's ideal man.
Hercules.
He is the most popular hero in history.
A half god, half mortal with superhuman strength
who is destined to rid the Greek world of evil.
But that's only the beginning of his story.
Hercules was something special
and, at the same time, extremely ordinary.
He was a man of the people.
He was a little bit like Babe Ruth
in-in American mythology.
He was a womanizer.
He was a heavy drinker.
And he was an extraordinary athlete.
He was a little bit like a god.
But he was very definitely a human being.
[serious music]
[Michael]
heroes have superhuman strength,
they get the girl,
they have superhuman powers, can fly through the air.
It's a different conception in the Greek world.
A hero is someone who has superhuman strength,
but someone that has to suffer.
And Hercules is the consummate hero
in Greek society.
He's destined to suffer more than anyone else.
[narrator]
the sex-crazed king of the gods,
having an illicit affair.
[thunder roars]
Hercules is the son of Zeus
and a mortal woman named Alcmene.
[Peter]
of gods who impregnate mortal women
and give birth to gods or demigods.
So this demigod idea means that this person
has some features that are very godly,
some divine powers.
But at the same time, he is mortal. He can die.
I suspect that the Greeks invented this idea
because they wanted to reach the gods as much as possible,
to create images of themselves
that are closer and closer to the gods.
[narrator]
But he has one powerful enemy who wants to see him destroyed,
Zeus' wife, the goddess, Hera.
[dark music]
[Michael]
and she has wonderful beauty.
She's supremely intelligent.
She's mighty.
But she's also exceedingly jealous
because Zeus is always running after other women.
[narrator]
with a variety of mortal women.
And Hera hates them all.
But she decides it is Hercules
who must pay the ultimate price for the sins committed by Zeus.
[foreboding music]
One night, while Hercules is still a baby,
Hera sends two poisonous snakes into his nursery.
[hysterical scream]
[snakes hiss]
[Rebecca]
and he's squeezing them to death.
Little tiny infant
squeezing to death these two giant serpents.
Everyone knew at that point that there was something
a little bit different about Hercules.
[David]
why Hera will hate him because she cannot kill him.
She can make his life wretched, but she cannot kill him.
Because destiny says he will become immortal.
And even a god has to obey destiny.
[narrator]
Hercules comes of age.
A man-god straddling two worlds,
the human and the supernatural.
[Rebecca]
Um, he's sort of like a god trapped in a human's body.
Often, he accidentally does bad things
to people around him,
like he accidentally kills people.
He accidentally damages property.
Um, he can't really control himself.
[narrator]
makes it impossible for Hercules
to blend in to Greek society.
Desperate for some semblance of normalcy,
Hercules marries a beautiful princess
who bears him two sons.
But his domestic bliss is short-lived.
[dark music]
His nemesis, Hera, soon returns,
determined to make sure he never knows happiness.
This time, she'll transform him from family man to murderer
by driving him mad.
[eerie music]
She sends madness to him as he sleeps.
And he, in his madness,
believes that his wife and his children
are his enemies.
[dark music]
[narrator]
Hercules commits an unspeakable horror.
[grim music]
[blood splats]
The strongest man on earth
has slaughtered his entire family.
[dramatic music]
When his blind rage subsides,
it is replaced with intense remorse.
A horrible anguish that will plague him forever.
The ancient Greeks called this a "blood guilt."
For guidance, he seeks out
ancient Greece's greatest prophetess.
Hercules' crime is so great that only one,
the most powerful religious authority of his time
could help him solve it.
And that's the Oracle of Delphi.
[narrator]
that only a terrible penance can absolve him of his crimes.
[eerie whispers]
To receive that penance,
he must go to his cousin and archrival, King Eurystheus.
But it's a trick.
Hera is using the oracle and King Eurystheus
to crush Hercules.
Eurystheus assigns Hercules 12 challenges
all designed by Hera.
They will forever be known as the "Labors of Hercules."
In them, the hero is challenged
to rid the Greek world of its greatest evils.
To confront its most savage beasts,
forces of nature, evil tyrants, and monsters.
No man could be expected to survive
even one of these challenges.
But Hercules must overcome 12.
One labor at a time,
Hercules is making amends for killing his family.
So far, he has proven himself greater than any obstacle
that Hera and her puppet king, Eurystheus, have dreamed up.
And with each struggle, he is only getting stronger.
Now, one last test remains.
For his twelfth and final labor,
Hercules must find his way
to the mysterious Underworld of the Dead.
Hades.
There, he must capture Cerberus,
the three-headed guard dog at the gates.
[barking]
Hercules tries a diplomatic approach
with Hades.
He asks for permission to take his guard dog
up to Earth.
Hades agrees on one condition.
Hercules must overpower the beast
with nothing but his fists.
This is the final moment of truth.
[Cerberus growls]
[barks]
Hercules wrestles the dog to the ground...
and beats it into submission.
[Cerberus barking]
[Cerberus whimpers]
At last, Hercules has completed his penance.
He has conquered every obstacle
that has been put in his path
and endured physical and mental torment
beyond measure.
By all rights, he should finally be at peace.
Hercules is someone who struggles, who overcomes.
He suffers. But he always gets back up.
And there's some vague promise
that life is gonna be better for him
after this adventure is completed.
But of course, it never is.
[gloomy music]
[narrator]
against Hercules for being Zeus' illegitimate son.
There is only one escape from her curse.
Death.
He builds a huge funeral pyre.
His life on Earth ends just as he endured it.
In torment.
[fire crackles]
[Rebecca]
The proper death of a hero.
He wants to burn on a funeral pyre.
Well, when this happens,
it seems to be the final cleansing.
What burns away is not Hercules.
What burns away is his mortal flesh.
And this releases his soul,
so that he himself ascends to the heavens.
[narrator]
Zeus, the king of gods,
believes his son has suffered enough.
He invites him to join the immortals on Mount Olympus.
[thunder roars]
And his nemesis, Hera, finally relents.
What we see here, I think, is that Hercules
is the hero of heroes.
He's the greatest of the great.
And at the very end of it all,
Zeus says, "Okay, Hercules, you've suffered enough
and you're so great, I'm actually gonna go ahead
and just make you a god."
[thunder roars]