All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Ancient.Greece.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] On the shores
of the Mediterranean Sea,

hidden deep beneath
the Rock of Gibraltar,

archaeologists dig
inside a mysterious cave.

-What’s that one there, Nilia?

[Narrator] On the ground,

they discover ritual objects
left by the Ancient Greeks.

-So this could be an offering.

[Narrator] And a secret
passageway that heads into the

bowels of the earth.

-This is the start
of a deep chamber.

[Narrator] Discoveries here
could reveal the truth behind

the greatest hero of
Greek myth, Hercules.

-What are we looking
at down this hole,

was it perhaps the
entrance to the Underworld?

[♪ theme music playing]

[Narrator] The wonders of
Ancient Greece are among the

greatest ever known.

Greece was the
birthplace of democracy,

and the cradle of Western
engineering and architecture.

From inspiring inventions
to epic heroes and legends,

the legacy of Ancient Greece
still shapes the modern world.

Hercules, or Heracles in Greek,

is one of the greatest
heroes of Greek legend...

...a warrior of superhuman
strength who completed 12

seemingly impossible labours.

-Hercules was basically your
quintessential Greek hero,

so he was celebrated as
a monster killer because

he killed so many monsters.

[Narrator] The Ancient Greeks
believed in many heroes,

but Hercules was one
of the most popular.

This season, international
teams of archaeologists dig

through centuries of
earth to shed light on the

real world behind
this legendary hero.

What did Hercules mean
to the Ancient Greeks,

could a kernel of truth lie
behind his mythical labours?

A clue could lie at
the ancient site of Nemea

in southern Greece.

Here, archaeologist
Tulsi Parikh is on a mission

to uncover how the
stories of Hercules emerged.

Nemea is the setting for
Hercules's first labour...

...Tulsi explores
its enormous temple,

which dates to the reign
of Alexander the Great in

the 4th century BCE,
when the stories of Hercules

were well established.

But the earliest mention
of the hero himself is by a

Greek poet known as Homer,

writing more than
400 years earlier.

-We're not really sure
when the stories of

Hercules originated,
all we know is that he

pops up for the first
time in the 8th century BC.

Homer describes Hercules
as a hero who's fought

all these battles,

he doesn't mention
too much about his labours,

so it's likely that stories
of Hercules were circulating

before this time as
part of oral tradition.

[Narrator]
According to the myth,

Hercules is the son of
the chief god Zeus and

a mortal woman
named Alcmene.

It earns him the lifelong
hatred of Zeus’s wife

Hera, she casts a spell
that drives Hercules insane,

tricking him into
killing his wife and children

in a fit of madness.

To atone for his sins,

Hercules is told to complete
a series of daunting tasks.

For his first challenge,

Hercules travels
to Nemea to kill a

monstrous lion with fur
no mortal weapon can pierce.

So he turns to brute
super strength and strangles

the lion to death
with his bare hands.

Tulsi investigates how
the tale of the Nemean lion

could shed light on
the origins of the saga.

It bears remarkable
similarities with a much older

tale from
ancient Mesopotamia,

about a god called Ninurta.

-Ninurta fights various animals
that are very similar to the

beasts that Hercules fights.

And they were both known
for their monster slaying,

and every time Ninurta
completed a task,

he would bring the
beast back home.

[Narrator] Hercules,
like Ninurta,

also fights a many-headed
snake monster...

...in Greek known as the Hydra.

And a ferocious wild stag,
the Ceryneian Hind.

The civilization of ancient
Mesopotamia predated that of

Greece by nearly 1000 years.

Archaeologists have found
evidence of trade between them,

a route along which the
stories might have found

their way to Greece.

But Tulsi thinks we should
be cautious before drawing a

direct connection with Ninurta.

-I think it’s quite difficult
to say exactly how much

they were inspired
by the Ninurta myth.

The trope of humans fighting
beasts were incredibly common

in ancient times
and across cultures.

It’s something that we see
right up until the present day

so for example,
in superhero films.

[Narrator] So if Hercules
was a homegrown hero,

how did his amazing
stories develop?

And why was the story of
the Nemean lion set here?

Another piece in the puzzle
could lie 60 miles southwest at

the small town of Olympia
in the region of Elis.

Here, archaeologist
Oliver Pilz is digging at

one of the most
sacred sanctuaries

in ancient Greece,

and the birthplace
of the Olympic Games.

[Oliver] It's, it's an
amazing site, this was a,

a Panhellenic sanctuary,
meaning that it drew visitors

basically from all
over the Greek world.

[Narrator] At Olympia,

Oliver and his team are
uncovering the remains of

a colossal wall.

It lies close to a stream
called the Kladeos,

a tributary of the
mighty Alpheios River,

which plays a starring
role in one of Hercules's

most notorious labours.

For his fifth task,

Hercules is ordered to
clean the stables of King Augeas

of Elis, mired in
decades of filth.

He does this

by diverting the flow
of two nearby rivers,

the Alpheios and the Peneios,
towards them.

Floodwater roars
through the stables,

washing away 30 years of
accumulated dirt and dung

in a single day.

Oliver's investigations
at the wall could shed light

on the evolution of this story.

Its location close to
the river is intriguing,

and despite its size,

the wall's exact
function is unknown.

[Oliver] This so-called Kladeos
wall is topped two meters wide

and in, in most sections,
almost three meters high.

And several hundred meters long.

It’s really a
massive structure,

it would be very interesting
for us to learn more about why

was this Kladeos
wall constructed,

because until now it’s
unfortunately only guesswork.

[Narrator] Oliver
wants to find out,

but first he must dig
through feet of sediment.

The sediment comes from
the Kladeos and reveals

that it was once not the
gentle stream that it is today.

-The site in antiquity
was very prone to flooding,

mainly by the Kladeos stream.

[Narrator] Oliver suspects
that the wall might be an

ancient flood barrier.

To confirm that he
needs to find out how far

the wall extends.

The similarity between the
ancient flooded landscape of

Olympia and that in
the myth is intriguing.

How far did the
real world influence the

stories of Hercules?

Another clue could
lie not with his first,

but with one of
his final labours.

It took place far to the
west at the very edge of

the Greek world.

[Narrator] Hercules was
one of the most well-traveled

of all the Greek heroes.

His exploits supposedly spanned
the Mediterranean world.

And the setting for one of
them could shed light on the

rise of this legendary
ancient hero.

More than 1,400 miles
west of Greece stands the

Rock of Gibraltar
near southern Spain.

Here, anthropologists Stewart
and Clive Finlayson are on

their way down to investigate
the mysterious cavern known

as Gorham's Cave.

The route there is treacherous.

[Stewart] That section there,
we’ll stop there.

We’ve had a lot of issues there
‘cos it’s very slippery there.

[Narrator] But a magnificent
site waits for those who make

it this far.

-I think it, it shocks you
every time you come down.

It's really beautiful,

the sea comes straight up,
it's amazing.

[Narrator] The cave
lies at the bottom of the

Rock of Gibraltar,

one of two prominent rock
formations either side of the

strait that connects
the Mediterranean Sea

with the Atlantic Ocean.

The Greeks called
the two rocky outcrops

the Pillars of Hercules and
they believed that they marked

the end of the world.

Legend says that
Hercules creates both pillars

by splitting apart a mountain
that is blocking the way

to his 10th labour.

From there, he travels to
an island where he fights

and kills a three-bodied
giant called Geryon.

Stewart and the team want to
find out why the rock features

so strongly in the
Hercules myths.

He works alongside his parents,
Clive and Geraldine.

[Stewart] I first started
coming down here in 1989,

so I was 6 years old,
I was the,

the young boy that spent
his summers here, er,

and instead of going
to the beach I learnt

sieving and archaeology.

[Narrator] Today, the
team works at the entrance

to the cave.

[Stewart] Got quite a
bit of sand there now.

-Yeah, it is quite loose
compaction as well in this area.

[Narrator] The trenches
here are not deep,

but the archaeology is fragile,

so the team must tread
carefully and work slowly.

[Stewart] The problem is
that if you start bringing

people into the sites,
people walking on the surface,

which is archaeology,
you’d actually be eroding it

and destroying it.

[Narrator] Archaeologists
have discovered that people

have been using
these caves for at least

100,000 years.

The first were early
humans called Neanderthals.

[Stewart] What's that
one there, Nilia?

I think it's probably
a hammer stone,

it's Neanderthal.

[Narrator] For many years,
archaeologists believed that

the ancient Greeks had only
heard about this distant place

through myth and rumor.

But the secrets within this
cave challenge everything they

thought they knew.

Gorham's Cave is a
remarkable time capsule.

Inside are carvings made by
Neanderthals 40,000 years ago.

But deeper within lies a
much more recent discovery,

scattered ceramic
fragments that,

when pieced together,

reveal a face in
the form of a mask,

a Gorgoneion,
an image of Medusa.

A terrifying monster
from Greek legend.

What is this artifact
doing so far from Greece?

And could its presence
here shed light on why the

rock is associated
with Hercules?

While the team continues to
hunt for more Greek objects,

Geraldine examines the
broken pieces of the mysterious

Medusa mask.

it's a unique discovery.

-As you start putting
them together and the,

the face from antiquity
starts looking out at you,

then the feeling that
you get is incredibly

difficult to describe,

but it's like all your
birthdays put together.

It would have had these
eyes looking at you,

and it would of course
have been painted.

It would have been
something staring at you in

the darkness of the cave.

[Narrator] Medusa masks were
common in Ancient Greece.

People used them
as magical amulets to

ward off evil spirits.

Their powers drew
on those of Medusa herself.

Medusa was a type of
monster called a Gorgon,

she had snakes on her
head instead of hair,

and just looking at her
could turn mortals to stone.

The myth tells how
Medusa was killed by another

Greek hero called Perseus,

he cuts off her head by using
a polished shield as a mirror

to avoid looking
at her directly.

Geraldine believes that the
person who left the mask here

was probably a Greek traveller.

-An item like a gorgoneion,

which isn't found anywhere else
in the Western Mediterranean,

suggests to us that this is an
item that has been specifically

brought here by a person
or a group of people who are

very closely associated
with this cult.

[Narrator] This discovery
reveals that for the Greeks,

the rock was not a
fairytale location,

it was a place they knew.

The team's next step is to
work out why the Ancient Greeks

left a magical
amulet in this cave.

A clue could lie
within the myths,

Perseus, the killer of Medusa,

was also believed to be the
great-grandfather of Hercules.

What did the Greeks see
here that might have shaped

the stories of both epic heroes?

[Narrator] At Olympia,

Oliver Pilz continues
his hunt for more of

the mysterious wall.

It could be a flood barrier to
protect against the Kladeos,

a tributary of the river
diverted by Hercules during

his 5th labour.

To find out, he wants to
know when it was built,

and how far it once extended,
but his dig hits a dead end.

-Unfortunately,
we are not able to establish

a precise chronology
of the wall,

so it ends here now,

but in an antiquity probably
it continued further down,

to the south.

[Narrator] So his team
turns to other methods to

answer these questions,

Oliver works with
geoscientist Andreas Voett.

He uses ground imaging
devices to search for more

evidence of structures
buried underground, and

drills to investigate
the ancient landscape.

-So this is the
coring machine we use for take

out the sediment course,
meter by meter,

and we get our sections
one meter long,

we open them in the lab
and then we can analyze

and interpret them.

[Narrator] First, the team
takes samples of earth.

By studying plant material
locked inside the sediment,

Andreas hopes to work
out when the river flooded

in ancient times.

[Oliver] Would you expect
like charcoal fragments to

analyze with radiocarbon
dating in these cores,

on the other side
I remember, yeah.

[Andreas] Yeah, and there
should be something inside,

of course, yeah.

[Narrator] Discoveries from
the main sanctuary reveal

how the Kladeos River
used to run through the

centre of Olympia until it
was diverted around 700 BCE.

These samples might allow
Andreas to tell if the wall

also dates to this time.

[Andreas] So we're
not archaeologists,

but we can give some
information about the age of

the wall, in that we are
dating the sediments to the

left and to the right of it.

And so indirectly deduce the
minimum age of the wall itself.

[Narrator] The samples
will need to be sent

away for testing.

Early scanning results
reveal the wall ran for at

least half a mile and
they also hint at another

structure buried underground.

[Andreas] We think that there
is some evidence to believe

that there is not
only one Kladeos wall,

but a parallel wall that
runs maybe 30 to 60 meters

parallel of the
known part of the wall.

So and this would mean
that they had a very early

system of water regulation.

[Narrator] The team
suspects that these walls

may have been a canal,

designed to keep
water out of the sanctuary.

Could this diversion of the
River Kladeos have influenced

the Hercules story?

[Oliver] The diversion
of the stream,

this is really a
historical fact, whereas the,

the cleaning of the stables
is a mythical narration.

But on the other hand,

I would not exclude
that some memory of the

diversion of the stream has
been preserved locally here.

[Narrator] The landscape
of ancient Greece played an

important role in Greek myth.

At Nemea,

Tulsi explores how the
real world might also have

influenced some of
Hercules’s other labours.

She heads to the hills
above the town on the hunt

for the truth behind
the Nemean lion.

[Tulsi] The Nemean was said
to have lived right here

in the Nemean hillside.

He had a den and a cave
somewhere in this landscape.

[Narrator] Today, there
are no big cats prowling

the hills of Nemea,

but recent discoveries
reveal that this was

not always the case.

-We do have some evidence of
lions once living in Greece,

we have some zooarchaeological
evidence, some bones.

We're not sure when exactly
lions became extinct in Greece.

[Narrator] Some lions may
have survived until as recently

as the 7th century BCE,

around the time that the
story of the Nemean lion

first appears in art.

Could the memory of
this very real threat have

survived as myth?

[Tulsi] It makes sense to
set the story of Hercules

killing the lion er,

right here in the
Nemean mountains,

because it’s such
a rugged landscape,

you can imagine wild animals
roaming around and

being very real
threats to humans.

[Narrator] Ancient Greece
was a largely rural society.

One theory is that many of
Hercules's early labours draw

inspiration from the dangers
that Greeks faced in their

everyday lives.

The monsters he fights
include an enormous wild boar,

a fire-breathing stag, and

bronze beaked birds
that ravage crops and

feast on human flesh.

-I think the monsters
and the challenges that

Hercules faces really
reflect the environment that

people were living in.

Some of the struggles
that Hercules faces also

represent some of the
daily challenges that people

would go through in their life.

[Narrator] Hercules was
a superhero who protected

humanity from
nightmarish creatures,

and helped to make sense
of a world where crops

could fail and wild
animals lurked in the forest.

[Tulsi] The early labours
of Hercules symbolize the

idea of chaos versus order.

The beasts symbolize chaos,

things that are
often uncontrollable,

and Hercules fighting
against these beasts is

part of creating order
within the social world.

[Narrator] But the later
labours all take Hercules

far from home.

Why did the Greeks place
these exploits outside Greece?

[Narrator] Hercules's
final six labours

all take place
beyond mainland Greece.

An insight into why could
lie hundreds of miles away

on the Italian
island of Sicily.

Here, archaeologist
Dario Giuliano is

excavating the ancient
city of Agrigento.

Today, Agrigento is Italian,

but it began life
as a Greek colony.

During the 8th and
5th centuries BCE,

Greece experienced
an exodus of people.

The country's mountainous
terrain struggled to support

its growing population,

and people began to
travel west overseas in search

of new land to farm
and minerals to trade.

Many colonized lands in
southern Italy, like Sicily.

[Narrator] Today, Dario wants
to find out more about the

religion of the ancient Greek
settlers who founded this city.

So his team digs inside a
sanctuary for Greek deities.

The fertility goddess Demeter
and her daughter Persephone.

[Narrator] Dario is
unsure if the statue is meant

to depict one of the goddesses,

or a person making an
offering at the sanctuary.

[Narrator] These early
Greek settlers brought their

gods with them.

Hercules was a particular
favorite for those in Italy.

They named new
towns after him,

like Herculaneum near Pompeii,

which is now famous
as a Roman city.

Ancient texts recount how
Agrigento citizens built an

enormous temple of Hercules.

Writers describe how the feet
of the temple's bronze statue

of Hercules were worn
away by the kisses of

his devoted worshipers.

[Narrator] Many of these
colonies developed in

mid 6th and 5th
centuries BCE,

around the same time as
some of the later myths

of Hercules
started to appear.

For his 7th task,

the hero travels to Crete
to capture the massive bull

that sired the Minotaur.

Next, he heads north to
Thrace where he tames the

human eating horses of Diomedes

and journeys east where he
kills the Queen of the Amazons

to claim an enchanted belt.

Hercules travelled with
the Greeks as they

explored strange new lands.

And the furthest he journeyed
was to the western edge

of the Mediterranean.

At Gibraltar, one of the
two pillars of Hercules,

the team digs close to where
they found the Medusa mask.

Hidden in the sand could be
clues that reveal what Greek

travelers were doing here
and how they saw this cavern.

-Yeah.

[Narrator] This tooth
isn't that of a human.

As they brush away the
sand another emerges.

[Narrator] Gorham's Cave is
difficult to reach which makes

Stewart think that
this animal didn't wander

in by accident.

-So it's, it's definitely an
animal that would have had to

have been brought in.

It's not an ibex from
what we're seeing which is the

wild mountain goat, the,

the tooth would have
been slightly different.

This is probably an
animal that was brought in

and laid here.

[Narrator] This discovery
may suggest that a goat was

sacrificed as an offering,

and that the cave may
have been used as a shrine

or place of ritual worship.

Clive is the
team's chief scientist,

he takes a closer look
at the back of the cave

where they found
the Medusa mask.

-This is the start
of a deep chamber,

it goes for 37 meters,

as you can see it's a
bit of a crawl right now.

It's an enigma, we don't
know where it's going, we,

we know it ends in a slightly
elevated chamber but whether

that carries on further
or not, until we excavate,

we don't know.

[Narrator] The chamber
is full of sediment.

But in ancient times it
may have been the focal point

of the shrine.

[Clive] My own view is
that it's not coincidence

that the fragments of this
gorgoneion were found here.

It was a way of telling
people do not go beyond here.

[Narrator] One theory is that
Greek travelers believed this

was Medusa’s actual lair,
where Hercule’s ancestor

Perseus killed the monster.

[Clive] When you read
the descriptions of the

decapitation of Medusa,
the descriptions are a

geographically perfect
fit to what is Gibraltar

and Gorham's Cave.

[Narrator] The team intends
to bring in specialist

equipment to excavate
the chamber next season.

But what they can tell
is that the Greeks were not

the first travelers
to use it as a shrine.

Another people
called the Phoenicians got

here before them.

[Stewart] Phoenicians were
mariners from the eastern side

of the Mediterranean,

they were really
great explorers.

The first items that we
start seeing that are clearly

Phoenician are from
the 9th century,

things like scarabs,
beautifully painted glass er,

a huge amount of different
kinds of, of ceramic,

really wonderful pieces.

[Narrator] The Phoenicians
set up colonies in

southern Spain centuries
before the Greeks got here.

How did the Greeks
interact with the inhabitants

of these new lands?

[Narrator] In
Agrigento in Sicily,

Dario and the team
investigate the sanctuary

of the goddesses
Demeter and Persephone.

They want to explore
how the gods of the

Greek settlers fitted
in with those of

the existing population.

Finds expert Martina
takes a closer look at the

statuette uncovered
the previous day to try to

work out its identity.

She thinks the figurine is
wearing a crown called a polos.

[Narrator] The statuette
dates to the 5th century BCE

when Agrigento
was in its heyday.

Agrigento grew with
astonishing speed and

by the 5th century BCE,

it stretched
across 1,000 acres.

The city's sacred zone
lay at its western edge,

overlooking the valley
below and was lined with

grand temples and
religious structures.

The sanctuary complex,
dedicated to Demeter and

Persephone is one
of the earliest here.

At its height,

the city was home to
up to 300,000 people.

But the Greeks were
not the first people here.

Nearby discoveries suggest
that local people were living

in the area at the time
the Greeks arrived.

[Narrator] Dario believes that
when the Greeks first came here

they incorporated local cults
into their own religion.

[Narrator] Greek religion could
be inclusive and adaptable,

this helped the Greeks
fit into these new lands.

At Gibraltar near Spain,

Clive thinks a similar process
might have happened here.

He heads up to the
top of the rock...

...even today visitors are
struck by its grandeur.

-Directly below
us is Gorham's Cave,

and over there you can imagine
Greek ships coming in across

the sea and suddenly
being faced by this massive

wall of limestone.

It's very likely that
this geology was difficult

for them to comprehend.

[Narrator] The ancient Greeks
might have tried to explain

what they saw here using
stories of Hercules and Medusa

as a point of reference.

Clive thinks that the people
who are already here might have

played a helping hand in
encouraging these myths.

[Clive] One idea,
and it's difficult to be

certain of course,

is to assume that the
people who first came here

started the whole idea of the,
the end of the world.

Those people were
the Phoenicians.

[Narrator] The Phoenicians and
the Greeks were great rivals,

what started as a myth might
have gained another purpose.

[Clive] The Phoenicians got
beyond the end of the world,

beyond the pillars,

and were very successful
trading with peoples

on the Atlantic Coast.

From myth it turns
into something which

gives you economic power,

by telling
people don't go beyond here

it's very dangerous,

you are cornering the market
and keeping it for yourself.

[Narrator] At least some Greek
mariners who came here may have

heeded these warnings,

leaving offerings to ask
for a safe journey beyond

the edge of the known world,

or to give thanks for
making it back alive.

-I think that the
Greeks related a lot of their

myths to this part of the
world because it was really

the don’t go beyond.

This was like us going to
the Moon or Mars, it was the,

you know the limit.

[Narrator] The grounding of
these myths in places like

Gibraltar meant that those
labours set in a faraway

neverland now received a
specific real world location.

But there's a mystery.

If the stories of Hercules
were not set in stone and

could evolve over time,

how did these individual
tales join together to form

the epic saga
that we know today?

[Narrator] Hercules's final
two labours are the most

daunting of all.

They take him to the edge
of the world and beyond.

First, Hercules travels to
north Africa where he steals a

golden apple guarded
by nymphs and a dragon.

Finally, he descends into the
underworld where he completes

the hardest task of all,

capturing Cerberus...

...the three headed
hell hound.

Hercules's journey into the
underworld is the blockbuster

ending to the 12 labours saga.

But intriguingly this
final labour might predate

all the others.

The first mention of Hercules
in the underworld dates back to

the stories of the poet
Homer in the 8th century BCE.

Historians think that the order
and even the exact number of

the labours was not fixed.

At Olympia in south west Greece,

Oliver explores how
the classic 12 emerged.

He thinks a clue lies with
the sanctuary's magnificent

Temple of Zeus.

It dates to the
5th century BCE,

a period of great
prosperity in Greece,

when the Parthenon in
Athens was also built.

Olympia's rulers were growing
in power and decided to expand

the site with a massive
building program.

[Oliver] Standing in front of
the Temple of Zeus in antiquity

or even walking in would have
been a magnificent experience.

You must imagine this temple
like a rich, colorful,

monumental building, it is
a bold statement that they

basically control the
sanctuary and have the power,

and also the means
to realize such a

gigantic building project.

[Narrator] Olympia was home
to the famous Olympic Games,

which took place every four
years and in which any free

Greek adult males were
eligible to take part.

Its rulers were keen to
promote the games and encouraged

a local tradition that
Hercules had founded them

after completing his 5th labour,

the cleaning of the
nearby Augean stables.

[Oliver] Owners
of the sanctuary,

they had the great
interest to promote Heracles

as a founding figure,
because as a hero,

Heracles was known
in the whole Greek world.

In ancient Greece he
was certainly considered

an ideal athlete.

[Narrator] Oliver investigates
how the builders of the temple

incorporated Hercules
into its design.

These sculptures once
decorated the exterior,

and they show the
hero completing all 12

of his labours...

...beginning with the
defeat of the Nemean lion

and ending with Hercules's
visit to the underworld.

These sculptures may
have set the order of

the labours literally in stone.

[Oliver] The Olympic Games
were visited in the classical

period by tens of
thousands of people,

and you should imagine
that all these people,

they also saw these sculptures.

The representation of
Heracles's labours here at the

Temple of Zeus probably
contributed also to the popular

imagination of his labours.

[Narrator] Hercules was a
diving pin up who could bring

in the crowds.

But his attraction was
not just skin deep.

At the end of Hercules's life,

Zeus judged his son
worthy of immortality,

bringing him
to Mount Olympus,

the home of the gods.

[Oliver] He is certainly
a very interesting and the

biggest figure
in Greek mythology,

because he was
born as a mortal.

But the example of his life
shows that the person can

achieve immortality through
labours and deeds during life.

-Hercules was a
pretty complex character,

he wasn’t just known for his
brute strength and heroism,

he also had these occasional
moments of uncontrollable

rage and violence.

Hercules has this
moral struggle going on

so whilst he’s
completing his tasks,

he also has this
kind of tragic side,

he’s the combination of
a hero and a tragic hero.

[Narrator] The secret to the
success of Hercules's stories

were not just his victories,
but his flaws.

[Tulsi] Hercules is very
human in how he behaves,

he makes mistakes,

and in that sense he's
a very relatable hero.

[Narrator] To the
ancient Greeks,

Hercules was the
champion who protected

humanity from monsters,

a guide who accompanied
explorers on their journeys,

and helped to explain
the world around them and

an inspiration of
a life well lived.

Today the tales of Hercules
continue to be told,

this ancient Greek
demigod is the

western world's
original superhero.