"In a Disney film, issues of philandering and illegitimacy are a little hard to handle," said Musker. In the Disney version, Hercules is the legitimate son of Zeus and Hera, and the snakes are ordered by the underworld lord, Hades. Hamilton's own version, drawn from accounts written by Theocritus and Apollodorus, differs from the story told in another standard reference work, "Bullfinch's Mythology."īut most accounts of Hercules' life do begin with his illegitimate birth to the human Alcmena and the philandering god, Zeus - and the wrath of Hercules' stepmother, Hera, who tries to kill the boy by sending two snakes into his nursery (later she drives him mad and forces him to kill his family). They don't all jibe with one another."Īs Edith Hamilton pointed out in her classic study, "Mythology," Ovid even "passes over Hercules' slaying of his wife and children." Little details like that are also missing from the Disney treatment. "We felt we could take more liberties," said the film's co-director, John Musker, during a Seattle visit.
After all, even the ancients were selective about which version of the story they told.
With "Hercules," which goes into national release Friday, the studio may find itself on safer ground. Disney made a few controversial changes when it turned out feature cartoons based on the Pocahontas story and Victor Hugo's tragic novel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
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