This article is about the animated series. For articles that share the same name, see Hercules.
Hercules is a spinoff and midquel to the 1997 Disney animated feature film Hercules that introduces more Greek mythological characters. The series premiered in syndication on August 31, 1998 and on Disney's One Saturday Morning on September 12, 1998. The syndicated series ran 52 episodes while the Saturday morning run ran 13.
The series follows teenage Hercules training as a hero, as well as trying to adjust to life. With his free-spirited friend Icarus, his future-seeing friend Cassandra, and his teacher Philoctetes ("Phil"), he battles his evil uncle Hades. Like all teenagers though, Hercules has to worry about peer pressure when the snobbish prince Adonis ridicules him. The theme song is a shortened version of Zero to Hero.
Premise[]
Disney's Hercules, like Disney's The Little Mermaid and Disney's Aladdin, is a spin-off from the film of the same name (Hercules) and is based on his teenage adventures while training with Phil. The whole series is something of a midquel, taking place during the song "One Last Hope" (which Phil sings while Hercules is training).
Many of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses only glimpsed during the film pay visit to the young hero-to-be and help or hinder him in his adventures. Other characters from the film that appear are Hades (James Woods), Pegasus (Frank Welker), and Hercules' mortal parents Amphitryon and Alcamene.
The series would adapt elements from numerous other Greek mythologies, such as Icarus, Triton, Medusa, and many more.
Production[]
Disney's revamping of Greek legend moved to the small screen in the fall of 1998. Disney’s Hercules had the Greek god still in "geek god" mode, before his "Zero to Hero" transformation. In the series, "Herc" was enrolled at Prometheus Academy, a school for both gods and mortals. Since events occur before Hercules meets and falls for Megara, he is joined by two new friends: Cassandra (Sandra Bernhard) and Icarus (French Stewart).
The show is noted as having many inconsistencies from the movie it was based of. The most glaring of these is the fact that Hades is well aware Hercules is alive during his teenage years, while in the movie he assumed Hercules was dead until his adult years. Hades' master plan to unleash the Titans, his very reason for trying to kill Hercules in the first place, is never referenced, rather Hades attempts to destroy Hercules because he poses a threat to his plot of the day. Hercules also encounters a number of mythological heroes, such as Jason, Theseus, and Achilles, whom Phil establishes as having already perished upon meeting him. Hercules is also shown to have met his future wife Megara prior to their encounter in the movie, although this is resolved by the fact the two lost their memories of having met each other by the episode's end, by water from the Lethe river.
Several visual elements from the film were also tweaked for the show, mainly due to the smaller television budgets. Most notably, divine characters, such as Zeus lack their glowing aura, while Hades' smoke trail was visibly reduced. The characters Cupid and Artemis were completely redesigned, while several characters received minor design tweaks. Hercules is also frequently seen wearing the outfit he wears as an adult as a teenager, something never seen in the film.
The show was also known for employing a large number of well-known actors for both recurring and guest roles, including Jason Alexander, Ed Asner, Jim Belushi, Dan Castellaneta, David Cross, Tia Carrere, Merv Griffin, Jennifer Aniston, Jon Cryer, Jane Curtin, Dom DeLuise, Wink Martindale, William Shatner, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jim Varney, Jay Thomas, Brad Garrett, Annie Potts, Harvey Fierstein, Melissa Manchester, Idina Menzel, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Elliott, David Alan Grier, Kathie Lee Gifford, Louis Gossett Jr., Gilbert Gottfried, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Hamilton, Eugene Levy, Miguel Ferrer, Jane Leeves, Eric Idle, Jeffrey Tambor, Craig Ferguson, Vince Vaughn, Reba McEntire, Andrea Martin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Heather Locklear, Carl Reiner, Paul Reubens, Richard Simmons, Jerry Stiller, Lisa Kudrow, George Takei, Patrick Warburton, RuPaul, Steven Weber, Steven Wright, Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Fred Willard, Wayne Newton, Charles Nelson Reilly, Tim Conway, and John O'Hurley.
Disney's Hercules debuted as part of Disney’s One Saturday Morning block, joining The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Disney's Doug. The show proved to be as big a hit on television as it had been in theaters, still going strong into the early 00's.
Characters[]
Main characters[]
Hercules, Icarus and Cassandra.
- Hercules (Tate Donovan) - The god turned mortal hero-in-training, thus he is now half-mortal, half-god. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, which is in contrast to the myth. In Season 1 Episode 20, he says he is 16 years old, indicating he trained for two years with Phil as he was 18 at the end of the movie. Tate Donovan only portrayed Hercules as an adult during the film, whereas in the series he portrays him at both ages.
- Philoctetes (Robert Costanzo, replacing Danny DeVito) - The satyr hero trainer. Phil continues to train and teach Hercules whenever the hero in training is not occupied with his schooling.
- Pegasus (Frank Welker) - The winged horse formed from clouds by Zeus, he is the childhood pet and faithful companion of his owner Hercules with the brain of a bird.
- Icarus (French Stewart) - Hercules' best friend. The boy who escaped from the Labyrinth with his father on wax wings appears as a complete nut (the explanation is that he was "brain-fried" by flying too close to the Sun). Despite his accident, Icarus still flies every chance he gets resulting in a few more encounters with the sun. Icarus is very adaptive and hence could adjust to about every situation, except when he is very jealous or overly hyperactive. He could become an ultra serious soldier at boot camp or a nearly identical version of Hades himself. Thankfully, at the end of each episode, he reverts to his own odd self. His father Daedalus (David Hyde Pierce) is a genius, but egotistical teacher in the academy. When Icarus graduates, he goes into inventing with his father and makes a fortune, earning the commercial title "Icarus: The Wax-Wing King".
- Cassandra (Sandra Bernhard) - The Trojan War prophet appears as an anti-social girl, that has visions of the future (usually bad) once in a while. Icarus is completely obsessed with marrying her; she has no reciprocation, but merely tolerates him, though she loathes even trying to kiss him. After graduating, she joins the Oracle Friends Network, earning the title of "The Psychic Cynic to the Stars".
Supporting characters[]
- Adonis (Diedrich Bader) - The narcissistic and self-obsessed prince of Thrace, who bullies Hercules and Icarus every chance he has. He even annoys the gods, at one point resulting in Gaia putting a curse on him. Adonis believes that anything can be solved with power and money. In "The Yearbook", at graduation, he was one credit short and had to attend summer school much to his horror.
- Tempest (Jennifer Jason Leigh) - An Amazon, daughter of Queen Hippolyte (Jane Curtin) and King Darius (Emeril Lagasse). She sports a mohawk hairstyle and is aggressively tough. In the Amazon culture, the women fight and work while the men stay at home baking cookies and cleaning the house. Tempest is forbidden by her culture from showing any emotion beyond bravado and aggression, which causes a great deal of friction between her and her classmates.
- "Bob" the Narrator (Robert Stack) - The incorporeal voice who opens most episodes and is helped by the Muses who act as a "Greek chorus" typically singing their narration. Bob is often interrupted or upstaged by the muses, but manages to maintain a professional working relationship with them. Bob has an incorporeal wife (Mrs. Bob) and two incorporeal children named Tiffany & Chad. Their only "appearance" on screen, is in episode "Return of Typhon", their movements only noticeable by the hats they wore.
- Helen of Troy (Jodi Benson) - Helen was the sweetest and most feminine character of the series. She was the most popular girl in the academy and Adonis' girlfriend. Helen tries her best to keep Adonis from being a jerk but typically fails. Unlike most students, she is openly amicable towards Hercules.
Greek pantheon[]
- Zeus (Corey Burton, replacing the late Rip Torn) - The king of all gods. Unlike the film, where he could only communicate with his son through a temple statue, Zeus frequently shows up in person to communicate with Hercules. Though a just ruler, he is at times shown to be both immature and nepotistic, using his position to give Hercules advantages in life. He showed lavish closeness for Hercules despite the distance between them and helps him out whenever he could. Sometimes, his attempts go wrong, causing Hercules even more trouble than before. His frequent teasing towards Hades often ends up driving him further into villainy, to which the King of the Gods seems blissfully unaware of.
- Hades (James Woods) - The smooth-talking lord of the underworld, who constantly makes plans to overthrow and rule Olympus, bring more dead into the underworld or rewrite universal order. His crazy shapeshifting imp assistants, Pain and Panic, have also returned from the film, but at times end up working alongside Hercules. The personal reason for Hades' villainy is due to Zeus' constant belittling.
- Hera (Samantha Eggar) - The loyal Wife of Zeus and equally loving mother to Hercules, though she proves to be the more rational of his parents, often forced to reign in her own husband at times.
- Poseidon (Jason Alexander) - God of the sea, storms, and earthquakes. He, Hades, and Zeus are brothers and are affectionately referred to by them and Hercules as Po-Po. Poseidon is married to the sea-goddess Amphitrite (Leslie Mann) and has a son, Triton (Chris Elliott), a cousin of Hercules. Poseidon is easily swayed by others, particularly Hades, which tends to bite him back in the end.
- Hephaestus (Kevin Michael Richardson) - The column-legged god of fire and the Gods' blacksmith. Though he is shown to work with other Gods, he makes an effort to keep out of their personal squabbles. He is engaged to Aphrodite and hates it when Hades flirts with her.
- Morpheus (Jonathan Katz) - God of sleep, is and has a little brother called Phobetor who wanted to become the god of sleep but Zeus said that Thanatos can't be God of sleep because of his "seniority."
- Phantasos (Tom Kenny) - He became the god of dreams and nightmares after a failed attempt to make Morpheus look bad. Hercules and Morpheus convinced Zeus to give the job of dreams to Phantasos since he was much better at dreams and nightmares than his brother.
- Ares (Jay Thomas) - The god of war, who just wants to destroy things and prove the superiority of his home city of Sparta over that of Athens, his sister's city. He hates intellectuals, referring to them as 'eggheads', and is a brash god. He is openly antagonistic towards his sister Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, although their animosity is more sibling rivalry than actual hate. He is served by his dimwit sons Fear (David Cross) and Terror (Toby Russ), whose lack of intellect and common sense frustrate their father to no end. Ares also has two "dogs of war" who draw his chariot named Brutacles & Sadisto.
- Athena (Jane Leeves) - The goddess of wisdom and warfare, witty sister of Ares - her rival. Ares tries frequently to destroy her worship city, Athens, but Athena always receives help from Hercules. Athena has a pet owl named Ibid. Though she doesn't get along with Ares, when the two are forced to team up, they are a formidable pair.
- Boreas (Alan Rosenberg) - The god of the north wind, who seems to have a grudge against Ares for beating him up when Sparta was being created. Aeolus or any of the other winds do not appear so in the show he may be the god of all of the winds.
- Apollo (Keith David) - God of the sun, which he rides around in the sky as a chariot.
- Aphrodite (Lisa Kudrow) - Goddess of love and beauty, with a theme song that even she thinks is annoying. She is quite strong-minded, feisty, and clever. Though she speaks with a dignified flourish in times of presentation, when speaking casually her voice is that of a valley-girl. She has pink skin and blonde hair. Despite her engagement to Haphestus, Hades is constantly trying to flirt with her, to no avail.
- Demeter (Florence Henderson) - Goddess of agriculture. Summoned Nemesis to smite the satyr Pan (Joe Pantoliano) for his inadequate offerings at her harvest festival and was building a temple to himself.
- Persephone - Conceptualized, but did not appear outside of promotional material. According to an inside source from the show, several different stories were considered for her, including one where she was the daughter of Hades and Demeter who was embroiled in a custody battle, and another where she would have been a teacher at Prometheus Academy, but nothing ever felt really appropriate and her storyline was dropped.
- Cupid (Tom Arnold) - The god of passion. He is shown as a pink, short, overweight, middle-aged man wearing a diaper. Cupid has minions called puttos, and his quiver holds both "love" and "loathe" arrows. Cupid's design differs drastically from his design in the film, where he was presented as a more traditional cherub-like character.
- Hermes (Paul Shaffer) - The messenger of the gods and god of thieves, shown to be tremendously fast and constantly airborne. Frequently a companion to "Herc" and Zeus, whom he furnishes with comic relief.
- Bacchus (Dom DeLuise) - God of wine and revelry at a regular party. Bacchus' appetite for partying shows no limits as Hermes mentioned even Mount Olympus can barely survive it.
- Nemesis (Linda Hamilton) - The Demigoddess of Vengeance who works for the Infernal Retribution Service, a service which punishes mortals for offenses committed against gods. She can turn her hands into weapons but gets very angry whenever she is forbidden from smiting.
- Trivia (Ben Stein) - The God of when three roads meet. Considered boring and unimportant and not invited to Hades' pool party (actually a memory-erasing plot) at the River Lethe. He speaks in a monotone. Depicted as a god of Trivial Information, sought out Hercules to help maintain order in the world while the other gods have lost their memories. In actual mythology, this name belongs to Hecate.
- Artemis (Reba McEntire) - Goddess of the moon and more shown as the goddess of the hunt, Artemis has a few appearances mainly relating to episodes involving hunting, sporting McEntire's accent. In particular, she is seen protecting the Calydonian Boar and transforms a few of the characters into animals, a reference of her turning a hunter who saw her bathing into a stag in mythology. She is also seen scolding Orion also making references to the Belt of Orion in terms of the star patterns. A few times, she is comically seen fighting off her adoring animal fans like a snake that starts to constrict her.
- Hestia (Betty White) - Only making a few appearances, the goddess of family and the hearth is seen as a cheery housewife type. She is often seen cooking or marveling at her own confections, most of which end up being ruined in a comical fashion.
- Hecate (Peri Gilpin) - A witch of the Underworld, Hecate is the goddess of witchcraft and longs to take over the Underworld from Hades in much the same way he longs to take Olympus from Zeus. Despite his open distaste for his assigned position, Hades is very possessive of his kingdom whenever she tries to overthrow him.
- The Muses: Clio, Melpomeme, Terpsichore, Thalia, & Calliope - Daughters of Memory, goddesses of the arts and proclaimers of heroes. They are usually the ones who set the scene for the story. They sometimes have comical exchanges between the narrators. Terpsichore even has her own special appearance when Hercules is afraid of dancing in front of others.
- Gaia (Kerri Kenney) - Goddess of the Earth, mother of the Titans. Adonis selfishly woke her from her eternal slumber after not heeding a warning sign and she cursed him to die at sundown. With Hercules' help, Adonis procured golden apples to appease Gaia, who removes his curse.
Heroes[]
- Hercules and Pegasus
- Hippocrates (Mandy Patinkin) - He is the world's First Doctor. He cures people of plague and going as far as bringing the dead back to life.
- Paris (Cary Elwes) - Trojan Academy student and arrogant Trojan prince.
- Hylas (Rocky Carroll) - "The bad boy of rowing".
- Orpheus (Rob Paulsen) - A singer and teen idol.
- Chiron (Lou Gossett, Jr./Kevin Michael Richardson) - Centaur, Hero, famous hero-trainer and author. Chiron is both rival and friend to Phil, and hunting buddy of Nestor and Meleager.
- Meleager (Nicholas Turturro) - He is usually is with Nestor. He has extraordinary hearing abilities.
- Nestor (Jim Belushi) - He is usually with Meleager. He can see very far.
- Agamemnon (Patrick Warburton) - He is a drill sergeant for the Spar O.T.C.
- Achilles (Dom Irrera) - He is an old hero who everyone except for Hercules has forgotten. He was once trained by Phil, but he failed.
- Odysseus - (Steven Weber) cunning king of the Greek island of Ithaca.
- Telemachus - (Justin Shenkarow) The prince of Ithaca. He, Hercules, and three Argonauts end up in their own Odyssey.
- Jason (William Shatner) - The leader of the Argonauts.
- Lynceus (Larry Miller) - The helmsman of the Argo.
- Bootes (Steven Wright) - Bee keeper from the Argo.
- Bellerophon (David Schramm) - Hero king of Corinth who takes Pegasus in and names him "Ignatius". With the help of Pegasus, Bellerophon is able to defeat the Chimera.
- Mentor (Edward Asner) - The tough chief police man.
- Chipacles (Mike Connors) - A city-state trooper for the Athens P.D who takes his job very seriously. (Probably a reference to the television show CHiPS)
- Melampus (Ethan Embry) - He is a nerd that goes to Prometheus Academy. He is dating Cassandra which makes him Icarus' rival. Icarus once tried to hurt Melampus but was stopped by Hercules.
- Alectryon (Steve Hytner) - He is a retired hero and a Rooster. Whenever he crows, anyone who is asleep wakes up.
- Theseus (Eric Stoltz) - After the Minotaur escapes from the Labyrinth, he helps Hercules face it. Theseus has a double identity, his second self being the superhero "Grim Avenger", whose costume resembles that of DC Comics' character Doctor Fate, though his personality and backstory are more inspired by Batman. As the Grim Avenger, Theseus is constantly narrating his every move aloud, a habit he is unaware of.
Jr. Prometheus Academy[]
- Alexander the Great (Courtland Mead) - He is a geek who can't tie his shoes. Hercules is his mentor.
- Brutus (Pamela Segall) - He is a bully and a centaur.
- Alcides (Christine Cavanaugh)- He is always scared and holding his blanket.
- Callista (Lacey Chabert) - A brat girl who has an Aphrodite doll.
- Phillip (Ryan O'Donohue) - A kid with teething problems.
Guest characters[]
- The Fates - Atropos (Paddi Edwards), Clotho (Tress MacNeille/Amanda Plummer), & Lachesis (Carole Shelley) from the movie reappear in some episodes, including one where they accidentally sink Atlantis. They also doubled as the Norse Norns in one episode. They tell the fate of all through the Tapestry of Fate, which if someone weaves something, it turns into reality. They are omniscient, like Bob, knowing everything, past, present and future.
- Echidna (Kathie Lee Gifford) - The Mother of all Monsters. Echidna had a recurring role in the series and was typically seen as an obsessive and doting mother to her various children who one-by-one were defeated by Hercules (a reference to Kevin Sorbo's Hercules fighting Echidna, except here she serves Hades). Her mate was Typhon (Regis Philbin) the many-headed Titan who battled Zeus, but was defeated by Hera (which is celebrated as an annual school holiday called "Titan Smit'n Day." Among their children were the cyclopes Brontes, Steropes & Arges, Polyphemus and Zool and Orthos, the two-headed Bi-Clops (Wayne Knight/Jeff Bennett), Cerberus, Hydra, Erymanthian Boar, Nemean Lion, the Harpies, Ceto, Minotaur, Medusa, the Furies, Chimera, Ladon, Gaggenus (the multi-armed yeti-like sailor-eating monster), Geryon, Argus Panoptes, and Briareus.
- Homer - Homer (coincidentally voiced by another "Homer", Dan Castellaneta) is Journalist for a National News-scroll, the "Greekly World News."
- Another episode featured the Titan Prometheus (Carl Reiner) himself, with Hercules rescuing him from the Eagle (Jerry Stiller).
- One episode featured a cross-over with Aladdin, in which Hades and Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) team up to destroy both their respective enemies (ignoring the fact these two series seem to take place a thousand years apart from each other).
- One episode deals with Egyptian Gods (Horus, Bastet and Ra) and the dual role of the Greek gods in Rome who answered the petitions of Romulus and Remus and vied for patronage with Icarus, Nemesis and the Grecian Gods of Olympus. At the end of the episode, Icarus gives all the gods Roman names, where Zeus became "Jupiter", Hera became "Juno" etc. Hades is infuriated at receiving the name "Pluto". As he storms out of the room in a rage, Hades shouts: "Pluto?! I wouldn't name my dog Pluto!" Having given nearly all of the Greek gods new Roman names, Icarus suddenly found himself at a loss when he came to Apollo and finally dubbed him "Larry." (reference to both Romans and Greeks using the same name for Apollo)
- The Norse Gods also appeared where Loki (Vince Vaughn) tricks Hercules into depowering Thor (David James Elliott) to cause the Twilight of the Gods. This is slightly referential to the episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in "Somewhere Across the Rainbow Bridge" where Ragnarok would begin but to a lesser extent. Also The Fates are accused of "moonlighting" as the Norns, a reference to how the Norns bear striking resemblance to the Fates. Vaughn's portrayal of Loki is obviously comparable to Woods' portrayal of Hades as a slick showbiz agent-type, and is very reminiscent of his role in Swingers. Even Odin (Garrison Keillor) is portrayed somewhat similarly to Zeus' persona in the show.
- The Nemean Lion (Jeremy Piven) made an appearance in an episode involving Icarus moonlighting as a costumed superhero.
- Medusa (Jennifer Love Hewitt) made an appearance in an episode. Here Medusa rescues Herc from drowning and has a crush on him. Hoping to befriend him, she ask for divine assistance to make her beautiful. Aphrodite offers useful but utterly ignored self-esteem tips and stone-preventing sunglasses, while Hades grants her a beautiful appearance by day, monster and his employee by night. But if one true friend accepts her for who she is, he'd turn her human permanently. But when Hercules finds out what she truly was, he first thought she was trying to get close to turn him to stone and she runs off, sad. When Hades learns that it is Hercules that she had a crush on, he purposefully revealed her appearance in the dark to turn him to stone. But Aphrodite appeared, pointing out the technicality in the contract but Hades was only concerned in turning Medusa human but she deflects the spell with Hercules' shield at him. With his eyes closed, Hercules asks Medusa out but she first takes Aphrodite's glasses. One of Medusa's sisters appears in Hercules and the Phil Factor, although whether the sister is Euryale or Stheno is not clarified.
- Galatea (Jennifer Aniston) also made an appearance, but not as the wife of Pygmalion the art teacher, but as the statue Hercules beseeched Aphrodite to bring to life for him as a date to the Aphrodasia Dance. Hercules learned a decidedly different lesson than the one from the original myth. Because he asked that her personality would be "crazy about [him]", Galatea becomes increasingly obsessive about him, especially when he dumped her and dropped her off on an island in the middle of nowhere. Literally, she walked through water to get to him. She was solidified by an accidental fire but tried hopping to him. Aphrodite changes her personality to free will and have a mind of her own.
- Circe (Idina Menzel) also made an appearance, but not with Odysseus, who appeared in other episodes. She was simply looking for suitable boyfriends and turned most of the male cast into various animals.
- Electra (Joey Lauren Adams) is a beatnik-like girl, that when angered summons the Furies, vicious birds.
- King Midas (Eugene Levy) is a greedy king whose touch turns everything into gold, which wanted Hermes' sandals to transform the whole world. After being foiled in a James Bond manner by Hercules, Midas sees the negative side of his power after accidentally touching his daughter Marigold (Tia Carrere).
- The Minotaur (Michael Dorn) appears in two episodes, the first following his myth, being housed inside the Labyrinth — built by Daedalus for the insane Crete king Minos (Charles Nelson Reilly) —, and the second has him escaping and reaching Athens, where he faces Hercules and Theseus. Despite his brutish appearance, the Minotaur is actually quite sophisticated, though prone to bouts of loud frustration.
- Megara (Susan Egan) appeared twice, once as a teenager and once as an adult from the movie timeline. One interesting note is that the person to whom Megara sold her soul to Hades to save, (in the Hercules movie), was actually Adonis.
- The Armageddon Bow is a weapon that can fire energy arrows without need for real one, developed by Hephaestus to give to Ares. But it talks like a girl for some reason and apparently didn't want to be a weapon in the first place. Hercules soon gives the bow to Cupid, who uses the bow for shooting his love arrows, which the bow says is poetic justice.
- Doubt is a snake that bites people, causing them to drown in fear and doubt. Hades called him in to strike Icarus so that he won't kiss Cassandra (because she sold her soul to him to make sure he doesn't kiss her), but his bite wore off quickly.
- Arachne, the guardian of the Tapestry of Fate. She only became a guardian because of her mother, saying she should see the world, eat exotic people. When Hades changed the Tapestry, Arachne was reduced to minding the cave where the Tapestry used to be.
Zero to Hero[]
4 episodes of Hercules: The Animated Series were put onto direct-to-video home video in movie format: Hercules: Zero to Hero. The episode "Hercules and the Yearbook" is the main plot of the video. Unlike the televised version, the random clips are replaced with 3 other episodes (in the following order):
- "Hercules and the First Day of School"
- "Hercules and the Grim Avenger"
- "Hercules and the Visit From Zeus"
Some of the dialogue between Hercules and Meg are altered to fit the episodes. An example of this is Hercules and the Visit From Zeus replacing the clip of Hercules graduating from Promethous Academy.
Trivia[]
- Both Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow starred in this series, who both had main starring roles on the sitcom Friends during production of this show. Tate Donovan, who voiced Hercules, also appeared in Friends as Joshua, Rachel Green's (Aniston) love interest.
Differences from the original mythology[]
- Every character is portrayed with their original Greek names, except for Hercules, Cupid, and Bacchus, who are portrayed with their Roman names (the original ones being Heracles, Eros, and Dionysus). Cupid (Eros in Greek) is given his Roman name due to the family-friendly theme of the cartoon.
- In ancient Greek mythology, Hercules and Achilles do not bear their real names. Hercules is Alcide and Achilles is Pyrisius.
- Hercules is shown in the film and in this series to be a son of Zeus and Hera but in the mythology, he is the illegitimate child of Zeus and a mortal woman (named Alcmene in Greek mythology). In this version, Alcmene is the mortal woman, who, with her husband, Amphitryon, simply finds the abandoned infant Hercules and raises him as their own. The legends generally depict Hera as despising Hercules; with the Goddess frequently trying to kill him or otherwise hinder his quests.
- Unlike the series and the film, which all Greek characters are described as demigods, in ancient Greek mythology no one, including Hercules himself, was a real demigod, as even their mortal parents were direct or indirect descendants of the Greek gods themselves. Hercules is her god, because Zeus is not only his father, but also his maternal great-great-grandfather. Achilles is her god because his mother Themis is his goddess and his father is her god. Narcissus is depicted in the series as an Olympian god, which he was not in original mythology.
- There were 9 Muses in Greek mythology; in the series there are only five shown, with no mention as to the other four.
- The series shows Pegasus being created by Zeus to be Hercules' pet and servant. In Mythology, Pegasus was a wild beast created from Medusa's blood, who was captured by another hero, Bellerophon. The original Hercules never even encountered Pegasus.
- Homer appears as a reporter, yet is a historical, not mythological figure.
- Icarus originally died when he flew too close of the Sun.
- In the Series, young Hercules claims to be a fan of Odysseus, whose exploits took place after the mythological Heracles
- In mythology, Cassandra received her ability to see negative events from Apollo, but with the curse that nobody would believe her predictions. In the series, everyone usually believes Cassandra's predictions, unlike the original myth.
- The original Adonis was a deity, while the one in the series is a mortal.
- In the original mythology, Hera is the one who tries to interfere with Hercules, not Hades.
- Cupid isn't shown as being the son of Aphrodite and Ares, which he is in mythology.
- Pan is portrayed as a simple satyr in the series; He was originally a god son of Hermes, and king of the satyrs.
- Hercules introduces the Greek Pantheon to Rome, a city yet to be founded let alone grow to a large city.
- Trivia, the god of when three roads meet and of trivial information, doesn't exist in Greek Mythology. Trivia was, however, the Latin name for Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and darkness.
- The series depicts Atlantis being sunk. The island was sunk many years before Hercules' time.
- Ceto, Medusa, the Minotaur, the Harpies, Geryon, Argus Panoptes, the Cyclops, the Erymanthian Boar, and the Furies are depicted as children of Echidna and Typhon, which they are not in mythology.
- In mythology, the Nemean Lion is killed by Hercules and isn't able to talk, unlike the series' version.
- Galatea was created by Pygmalion, not Hercules.
- Hercules never found Medusa in Greek mythology. In the series Medusa gradually becomes Hercules' friend.
- Unlike the Circe of the series, that seduces men to her island, the original Circe turned to animals those who dared to go there.
- Unlike in the series, griffins can't talk in mythology.
- Hercules participates in the Ancient Olympics, which he didn't in the original mythology. Also, most likely due to the family-friendly theme, the participants of the Olympics wear clothes.
- Hades refers to himself as Zeus' younger brother, but Zeus is the youngest of his brothers in mythology while Hades is the oldest.
- However, this could be in reference to the fact that he was the last to be extracted from Cronus, making him the "youngest" to be "born".
- In the series, Hades is evil. But in the Mythology, He's an ally of Zeus, and he doesn't even care about Mount Olympus. He just wants to stay in the Underworld.
- Hades never wanted to unleash the Titans. Nor were the Titans ever unleashed, so the Titans never stormed Mount Olympus. However, snake-legged children of Mother Earth did try to storm Olympus once.
- In the movie, Nessus the centaur attacks Hercules. But in the mythology, he at first offers to help Heracles' wife, Deinera, across the river but later changes his mind and tries to carry her off, causing Heracles to shoot the centaur with one of his poisoned arrows.
- Although Philoctetes was a friend of Heracles, he wasn't a satyr in the mythology, and never even trained him.
- In the series, Hercules was born on Mount Olympus and later taken down to Earth. But in the mythology, he was born on Earth.
- Paris and Helen are not shown as lovers even though they were famous for it in legend.
- Geryon in Greek myth was the grandson of Medusa. In the series they are considered siblings born from Echidna and Typhon.
- In contrast to the series, Athena and Ares aren't twins but half-siblings in mythology.
- In mythology, Amazons want nothing to do with men except to aid them in producing daughters however in the series, Tempest who is an Amazonian princess is sent to a mix-gender school to be educated and her father is living in the Amazonian kingdom.
- In mythology, Helios is the god of the sun. Apollo is the god of light.
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