Disney's 1997 film 'Hercules' is a loose adaptation of the legend of
Hercules. One of the film's climactic scenes shows Hercules defeating
a Cyclops even though he has lost his strength. While I am not
familiar enough with the Hercules legend to know whether it too has a
battle with a Cyclops as one of the decisive scenes, it is still clear
that this scene draws heavily upon the legend of Odysseus and the
Cyclops. One of the most pivotal ways in which this scene echoes The
Odyssey rather than the traditional Hercules legend is that in the
movie, Hercules defeats the Cyclops through cunning rather than sheer
might--Odysseus' strengths rather than typically Herculean traits.
While in the Homeric legend Odysseus tricks the Cyclops into getting
drunk so that he might stab the creature's eye before claiming that
'Nobody' is responsible for it, in the Disney movie Hercules-though
having to face a monster for the first time without his god-like
strength-blinds the Cyclops with a torch before tangling the monster's
feet in rope so that he collapses off a cliff. In this manner both the
Cyclops in Hercules and the Cyclops in the Odyssey were defeated
through a more Odysseus-like trickery than simple power. The
motivations for the characters are also similar. In the Odyssey,
Odysseus' ultimate goal is to get home to his wife, who is swarmed
with unwanted suitors, while the ultimate goal of Disney's Hercules'
is to attain the love of Meg, whose soul is controlled by Hades.
Essentially, both characters are deeply driven by love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Very nice observations on the fact that both Cyclops encounters focus on brain vs brawn theme and both heroes are motivated by their love to a woman. Moreover, Disney's Hercules is also trying to get home, back to his parents on Olympus.
ReplyDeleteThe Cyclops is, of course, completely alien to the Greek Hercules myth. He is just too well-known as that the Disney script writers could have left him out.