HADES

Fig. 1. Hades yelling in Hercules, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Walt Disney Home Video, 1997, 00:10:26.

Isayiah Lim

In 1997, Disney released the animated musical Hercules, a colorful, family-friendly story of love, sacrifice, and having a heroic heart. While mirroring many story beats from classical mythology, Disney’s adaptation simplifies the Greek pantheon, transforming Hercules into a clumsy dork and his uncle Hades a hot-headed villain. Although it serves as a fun introduction to Greek myth, Disney’s Hercules is far from a faithful rendition. In Hades’ hyperbolic and villainous portrayal, we see the Western tendency to drift from traditional conceptions and associate Hades, death, and the underworld with Satan and evil.

In the film, Hades drives the plot. Embittered by Zeus casting him down to a realm he despises for its “dull and uncouth” dead, Hades seeks to overthrow Olympus (Hercules 00:06:42). He schemes to free the Titans to install himself as ultimate ruler, but the Fates prophesy that the infant Hercules will foil his takeover. Consequently, Hades orders his minions to murder Hercules, but they fail and turn him mortal. As Hercules tries to become a hero and win back his godhood, Hades is shown orchestrating Hercules’ tribulations, attempting to off the hero by planting the many monsters that Hercules bests. Ultimately, he uses Megara to blackmail Hercules into surrendering his strength. However, through Hercules’ cunning and Megara’s self-sacrifice, Hercules fulfills the prophecy and saves Olympus.

While we see several familiar attributes in Disney’s Hades, it’s written with a ‘angel versus devil’ lens. Removing the moral ambiguity of Greek deities, the gods of Olympus are shown as cheerful folk, whereas Disney’s Hades is shown as scheming, tempermental, and bitter of his unwanted underworld assignment. This contrasts with classical Hades, who drew the short stick in choosing kingdoms but is content with his situation. Because all mortals end up in the underworld, he was “not fighting with his brother Zeus for our immortal souls” (Morford et al. 380). Furthermore, his titles of Pluto or Dis (“wealthy one”) reflect his role as a god of fertility and wealth, rather than a social climber (Morford et al. 378). He didn’t seek Olympus, and he certainly would not have freed the titans as he benefitted from their fall and would likely be unable to control their immense power.

The film also inaccurately attributes Hercules’ labors to Hades. In classical mythology, Hercules is product of Zeus’ infidelity, and thus Hera, not Hades, is the constant hostile force in his life. It was Hera who sent serpents to Hercules’ crib, not Hades’ minions Pain and Panic, and it was Hera who kickstarted Hercules’ quest for immortality (inducing a fit of madness in which he killed his family), rather than Hades’ vial of poison taking his immortality away. Additionally, many assorted trials that classical Hercules faces are inaccurately attributed to Disney’s Hades’, pinning all evil on the God. By replacing Hera’s complex marital vengeance with Hades’ cosmic ambition, Disney sanitizes the Olympian family dynamic. Despite the textbook explicitly stating that Hades “is not in himself evil or our tormentor,” the movie adopts this persona for the benefit of the narrative (Morford et al. 380).

These modifications to both the motivations and disposition of Hades reflect a western trend of imposing Christian beliefs onto the morally complex pantheon of ancient Greece. As the textbook cautions, the “Christian concept of Satan should not be confused with the ancient portrayal of Hades” – however, in conflating the actions of other deities with him and casting him in a scheming, evil light, we see how western media skews Greek myth to match the Christian ‘God/Satan’ duality (Morford et al. 380). In pinning all ‘evil’ actions on Hades, Disney creates a story easily digestible for modern audiences, but it loses the nuanced ancient Greek understanding of death. Death was perceived as an inevitable and neutral reality, something to be feared but not the domain of someone who was inherently “evil or our tormentor” (Morford et al. 380). Ultimately, while Disney’s Hercules succeeds as an entertaining and heroic coming-of-age story, its portrayal of Hades sacrifices classical authenticity in favor of a conventional, culturally familiar villain.

Rui Fan

Disney’s Hercules is not generally considered an accurate depiction of Greek mythology. For one, the movie portrays Hades as “bad” and opposed to the rest of Olympus. The gods live in harmony and Hades schemes and plots to disrupt the peace. In Greek mythology, the morality of the gods is much more unclear. It’s also stated that Hercules (or Heracles) was born to the mortal Alcmena. Although Zeus was his father, as a demigod, he was still mortal (Morford et al. 546). In the movie, Hercules is born as a god and only has it stripped through the schemes of Hades. However, despite the mythological inaccuracies (or perhaps because of them), the movie provides a revealing view of the cultural differences between the modern cultural West as opposed to the ancient Greek.

In 1997, when Hercules was released, over 80% of Americans identified as Christian (Pew Research Center). In contrast to the many gods of Greek mythology, Christianity believes in one God. This God is generally seen as all-good and the basis of morality. On the other side of the moral spectrum, the Devil is often portrayed as the personification of evil. On the other hand, the deities of ancient Greece are almost the complete opposite. Their desires and temptations, often explicitly detailed or implied, are flawed and variable, almost mortal. The birth of Zeus, for example, tells of Cronus’ greed for power and Rhea’s grief and fury (Morford et al. 76). Where the Christian God and Devil serve as the guiding moral compass for mortals to follow, the ancient Greek deities seem to reflect, not guide, the actions of humans.

Hercules bridges the two worlds in a way that is both interesting and entertaining using Hades, its main antagonist. In the movie, amongst all the gods of Olympus, he stands out not only visually with his grey skin, sharp teeth, and black attire, but also audibly. The other gods enunciate their words and speak clearly and loudly. Zeus has a booming voice that commands over any scene. Hades, on the other hand, speaks casually. He has a distinct gravelly voice, he speaks fast, and he mumbles at times. Hades cracks jokes, he’s sarcastic, and some might even call him charming.

In the movie, Hades schemes to overthrow Olympus and is shown to have little regard for others and doesn’t appear to have much he won’t do in the name of benefitting himself. In fact, at the very beginning of the movie, knowing that Hercules was prophesied to defeat him, Hades plans to kill him in his infancy. Only by luck (and the incompetence of his minions) does this plot fail. Throughout the film, he takes pleasure in manipulating others for own gain and his short temper is highlighted every time his plans go awry. In contrast to the rest of the gods, he is uniquely malevolent.

In many ways, this Hades is a direct call to the Christian Devil. He serves as a role model for the worst qualities in us and is a force to actively work against. At the same time, his wittiness and mortal-like disposition ground him both to the audience and to his ancient Greek roots. The movie does a great job re-imagining Hades, making him an entertaining antagonist for an overall enjoyable movie. However, more than that, for those who are more versed in the actual Greek mythology, it highlights the cultural differences between the culture which birthed the movie and the culture which birthed the mythology.

Works Cited

Hercules. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Walt Disney Home Video, 1997. DVD.

Morford, Mark, Robert J. Lenardon, and Michael Sham. Classical Mythology. 12th ed., Oxford University Press, 2023.

Pew Research Center. “How U.S. Religious Composition Has Changed in Recent Decades.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, Pew Research Center, 13 Sept. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades/.

‌