Human and Divine: Hercules as a Christ-Figure

When I was a child, my family had a collection of Disney movies on videocassettes, which my siblings and I would watch frequently. One of them was Hercules, which came out in 1997. I did not like it much as a kid, so I went many years without watching it before eventually revisiting it as an adult. By then, I had developed an interest in mythology, and learned to see echoes of the Christian mythos in other stories.
 
Returning to Hercules as an adult, I was amazed to see multiple levels of Christian allegory in the story. In Zeus and Hera, I saw a resemblance to both God the Father and our first parents, Adam and Eve. In Hercules’ search for identity and purpose, I saw the struggle of discerning one’s vocation. In his eventual decision to stay on Earth, I saw an affirmation that this world, though broken, is ultimately beautiful.
 
For the purpose of this analysis, I will focus on the Disney film’s depiction of mythical characters and events. In this first of two essays, I will focus on how Hercules’ journey parallels the stories of the human race, of Christ’s Incarnation, and of every individual who seeks God in their life.
 
 
Hercules as Humanity
 
Looking at the character Hercules’ origins, he seems to embody the human race in its separation from God and yearning for the divine. In his journey from “zero” to “hero,” I see a universal human experience: the desire to understand his identity, fulfill his life’s purpose, and find home and belonging.
 
Like the Bible, Disney’s Hercules begins with a sort of creation myth about a god bringing order out of primordial chaos, and then becoming the parent of a special heir. In the film’s prologue, Zeus defeats the Titans—basically manifestations of chaos—and brings peace to the world. He then becomes a father when Hercules is born to his wife Hera, and all the deities on Mount Olympus rejoice around this family.
 
But Hades, the ruler of the underworld, is jealous of Zeus and wants to take over the cosmos. After learning from the Fates that Hercules could prevent this, he sets out to destroy the child. There is a literal “fall” as Pain and Panic, Hades’ demon-like minions, kidnap Hercules and pull him down to Earth. Once there, they bottle-feed him a potion to take away his immortality and, in a sense, his birthright. However, he does not drink the last drop, so he retains his god-like strength.
 
This is very much like how Adam and Eve’s sin introduced death to the world and broke humanity’s relationship with God, our Father. Hades, the god associated with death, serves as an analogue for Satan. Like Adam and Eve and their descendants, Hercules is cut off from his home and his parents. Like our heavenly Father, Zeus and Hera can only watch as their child grows up in the confusion and brokenness of Earth. And while we human beings have lost our original glorified state, we still have something of the divine in us.
 
As he grows up, Hercules senses that he is not where he is supposed to be. When he seeks out guidance from the gods, he sums up his struggle in two questions: “Who am I? Where do I belong?” Essentially, he wants to know his identity and his purpose—one might use the word vocation.
 
We too sense that this world is not our permanent home, that we have come from somewhere else and we are meant to return there. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has placed eternity in our hearts, and St. Augustine writes in his Confessions, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Hercules has a similar feeling that drives him to seek answers about his past and his future.
 
In the first act of the film, Hercules learns that he is not from this world: his parents were Zeus and Hera, and his first home was Mount Olympus. He had a divine origin, and that is now his destination. Throughout the rest of the story, Hercules and his trainer Phil talk about his desire to “go the distance.” This mantra sounds similar to St. Paul’s imagery of running a race to obtain a prize (see Philippians 3:12-14 and 2 Timothy 4:7). Our ultimate goal is union with God, and our ultimate destination is heaven.
 
 
Hercules as Christ
 
As much as Hercules’ journey parallels the typical human experience, it also bears strong similarities to Christ’s Incarnation. This is partly because the film draws inspiration from the story of Superman, which drew inspiration directly from the Bible.
 
There are some key differences, of course: unlike Hercules, Jesus deliberately left His heavenly home, was aware of His ultimate mission, and understood how He must accomplish it. But like Jesus, Hercules is both human and divine; he experiences the extremes of both ostracism and celebrity; he spends a period of time performing acts of service; and he ultimately embarks on a mission to save the one he loves—a mission that, unlike his crowd-pleasing heroics, can only be accomplished through sacrifice.
 
Like Jesus, Hercules is raised by mortal human parents. But in his youth, his unworldly power draws negative attention and gets him into trouble. He is reprimanded, ridiculed, and rejected by his community—not unlike how Jesus was not accepted in his hometown. (All four gospels record this: Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24, and John 4:44.)
 
Finally, a day comes when the adolescent Hercules leaves his earthly parents’ home and travels to the temple of Zeus. Although he does not know of his divine parentage at that point, he senses that he must be “about my father’s business” or, as some translations say, “in my father’s house” (Luke 2:49). Inside the temple, Hercules and Zeus have an interaction not unlike those involving Jesus and God the Father at two moments in the gospels: the Baptism and the Transfiguration. In both of those revelatory moments, the Father speaks out of the heavens, affirming the Son’s identity and mission. Likewise, Zeus reveals Hercules’ true heritage and sends him on his quest to restore his godhood and rejoin his family.
 
When Hercules first presents himself as a potential hero to the suffering people of Thebes, they do not take him seriously. Like the song “In Christ Alone” says of Jesus, he is “scorned by the ones he came to save.” But he begins using his supernatural strength in service to others, and thereby gains their ostensible love. Looking at a particular shot of Hercules riding Pegasus through an adoring crowd, it is hard not to think of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Jesus and Hercules are both hailed as saviors—but that turns out to mean something different than the people think.
 
 
Humanity and Divinity
 
By the end of the film, Hercules regains his immortality, and with it, the opportunity to return to Olympus. Here, some key differences between this story and the story of salvation emerge, along with some thought-provoking insights about humanity and divinity.
 
In the stage musical adapted from the film, Hercules at this point sings a song titled “To Be Human,” reflecting on his choice between an eternal life on Olympus with his divine family, or a single lifetime on Earth with Meg and his friends and adoptive family. He contemplates the strangeness of the human condition, full of pain as well as beauty. He realizes that human beings’ struggles are part of their journey to glory: “If you cannot lose, then how can you win?” By contemplating the complexity and dignity of mortal life, he comes to recognize that, paradoxically, “to be human is divine.” He discerns that his place is “in the human race,” like Christ choosing to identify with our humanity through His Incarnation.
 
In the end, Hercules chooses a mortal life in a broken world over an eternal life with the heavenly host. But Christ did not have to choose one or the other; He was both fully God and fully human. And because He, in His divinity, joined our humanity, we, in our humanity, will share in His divinity.
 
In my next essay, I will analyze the character of Meg and how her relationship with Hercules mirrors our relationship with Christ. More analysis can be found in the Hercules episode of the podcast.