All language subtitles for 18-HÉRCULES, O HOMEM QUE SE TORNOU UM DEUS

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Zeus put
together a devilish plan.

He ordered the god of the sun,
Helios, to put out his fires.

Then he commanded his son, the god Hermes,

to slow down the course of the moon,

and asked the god of sleep to
send all of mankind to sleep

so that no one could see
what was about to happen.

Everything was ready.

Zeus disguised himself as a mere mortal,

a certain Amphitryon,
then visited Alcmene,

Amphitryon's wife, in
her bedroom that night.

Not only was Alcmene very beautiful,

she was also the granddaughter
of the great Perseus.

Amphitryon, he's here.

The moment she saw him
she flung herself at him.

Not for an instant did she suspect

that the man she was showering with kisses

was not her husband, but
the king of the gods.

She listened to the imposter
tell of his exploits,

and of how he had killed
her brother's murderers.

The revenge she had prayed
for was finally hers.

So as she had promised on
the day of their marriage,

the young woman gave herself
to her husband, all night.

A night to which Zeus attributed
the length of three nights.

Dawn finally came.

Helios had reignited his fires.

The king of Olympus
returned to his palace,

high up in the clouds.

It was time.

For the true Amphitryon had returned home.

Flushed with victory, he was impatient

to taste the rewards
of his wife's promise.

He entered her bedroom.

He found her drowsy, as
if she were exhausted.

She barely reacted when he
slipped into the bed beside her.

Once their lovemaking was over,

Alcmene gently pushed him aside.

She asked him where he had
suddenly found this new energy,

and begged him to tell her
once more of his warrior feats.

Amphitryon was confused.

What was she talking about?

His mind was overcome with doubts.

He wanted to know the truth.

He hurried to see the
famed diviner Tiresias.

Tiresias listened.

A smile suddenly lit up
the old blind man's face,

and he declared, you have
been cheated on, my friend.

Amphitryon felt his knees begin to buckle.

Yes, added Tiresias, and the
guilty party is Zeus himself.

Nine months went by.

Alcmene was ready to give birth.

On Olympus,

Zeus was finding it hard
to disguise his impatience.

He had already found a name for the child,

a descendant of the great Perseus.

He would be called Heracles,
meaning glory of Hera.

Hera was the name of
Zeus' legitimate wife.

By choosing to name the newborn after her,

Zeus, who knew how irascible
and jealous his wife could be,

hoped to please her, and
receive her good grace.

Curiously, Hera's reaction
wasn't the one Zeus had expected.

Unmoved, she declared to her husband,

swear to me that the
first child to be born,

the direct descendant
of the great Perseus,

will one day be king.

Zeus frowned.

He feared trickery.

He knew his wife well, and
knew how vengeful she could be.

Hadn't she one day tried to
kindle a revolt against him?

And yet, so excited was he
by the forthcoming birth of

his son, whom he knew would
possess extraordinary strengths,

he made the oath to his wife.

So Hera left Mount Olympus
and hurried to Argos.

There, Alcmene's cousin
was also with child.

With one of her secret spells,

Hera provoked a premature birth.

She had trapped Zeus.

If he kept his word and upheld his oath

to take as his rightful
heir the first descendant

of Perseus to be born, then
it wouldn't be Heracles,

but his cousin, Eurystheus,
who had just been born.

Zeus was distraught and furious.

His head became filled
with the blackest thoughts.

Hera, though, howled with laughter

at the dirty trick she
had played on her husband.

But still she wanted further revenge.

Barely had Heracles come into the world

when she sent two evil snakes
to the infant's bed chamber.

She counted on doing away with
the child during his sleep.

That day, Heracles would
discover his incredible strength.

Woken by the hissing of the two snakes,

he leapt from his cradle,
grabbed the two reptiles

with this bare hands, and
strangled them to death.

(dramatic music)

It was the first of a long
line of extraordinary feats.

Heracles grew up.

He was exceptionally tall.

He was doted with a muscular strength

the likes of which had
never been seen on Earth.

Zeus had given him one of the best tutors,

but the pupil was far from compliant.

One day, his music teacher
decided to punish him

for being insolent.

Heracles lost his temper.

He grabbed his lyre and his
his teacher so hard with it,

he killed him.

This quick-tempered nature
concerned Alcmene and Amphitryon,

to whom Zeus had finally
revealed the truth

about the child's origins,

and who agreed to raise
him as their own son.

Fearing that Heracles might give in

to other bouts of violence,

Amphitryon sent him into the
countryside to tend his flocks.

From the wood of an old olive tree,

Heracles fashioned himself a club.

It would become his favorite weapon.

Apollo, the protector of
shepherds and goatherds,

was also a warrior god,
and he presented Heracles

with a bow and a quiver of arrows.

On the day that Heracles turned 18,

he left the countryside
and Amphitryon's flocks

and set off to discover the world.

Soon, Heracles would also discover love

in the shape of the daughter
of the king of Thebes.

Her name was Megara.

To win her heart, he rid
the city of all the bandits

and brigands, and restored
the authority of the king.

Heracles and Megara married.

She gave him no fewer than eight children.

Heracles felt fulfilled and settled.

Here he was, a father,
the husband of a princess,

and heir to the throne of Thebes.

Not for an instance did
he imagine that on high,

up in the clouds, Hera had
not abandoned her plan.

The whole time, she had
waited for the perfect moment

to take her revenge on Zeus.

She saw Heracles playing
tenderly with his sons.

It was on these unfortunate innocents

that she would unleash her wrath.

Hera inflicted madness on Heracles.

The effect was terrifying.

In a fit of madness,

his head filled with
dreadful hallucinations,

the hero then committed
the worst of all crimes,

infanticide.

Confusing his children with
wild beasts, he leapt on them,

and killed them all, one after the other.

When he came to his senses,

Heracles realized the
full horror of his deed.

He fell into deep despair.

He had to pay for his crime.

He had no choice.

Now a pale phantom amongst mortals,

he went in penitence to
Delphi, to consult the oracle.

Your crime is the worst crime of all.

You are not worthy to be
called the son of Zeus,

nor even to be called a man.

There is only one way
for you to be purified.

Go to he who by an oath sworn by Zeus

has become the uncontested
ruler of Greece.

Your cousin Eurystheus,

who was born but a few hours before you.

Obey him in all things,
whatever his orders may be.

Only then can you hope
to earn your pardon.

Heracles was a broken man.

The prospect of entering
into the service of a man

as tyrannical as Eurystheus was terrible.

But he had no choice.

When he came before his cousin,

Eurystheus looked him up and
down, eyes full of contempt.

Overjoyed at having Heracles
kneel before him like a slave,

he told him the price he must
pay to obtain purification.

He was to carry out 12 labors,

all of them deemed impossible.

And when he spelled out the list

inspired by the unyielding Hera,

even the old stones of the
palace shook with fear.

And thus, the curtain was raised
for the most fabulous feats

every accomplished by mortal man.

(dramatic music)

The first of the 12 labors
could be fatal for Heracles.

It consisted in slaying a monstrous beast,

the fruit of love between
infernal creatures.

A lion with a magic hide,
similar to a carapace,

the Lion of Nemea.

When Heracles saw that not
even the arrows gifted to him

by Apollo could slay the best,
he decided to wrestle it.

(intense music)

He grabbed the creature
by the neck and broke it.

Then he carefully skinned it,

and with leather harder than iron

made himself a helmet
and impenetrable armor.

Attired in this, he returned
to the court of Eurystheus.

Eurystheus then dispatched him to slay

another monstrous beast,
the Hydra of Lerna.

A gigantic serpent with nine heads.

Heracles attacked with his sword.

But every time he chopped off
a head, two others grew back.

Each blow brought to the
Hydra regenerated it.

Heracles, attacked from all sides,

thought his days were over.

But just then, an idea came to him,

inspired by the goddess Athena.

Every time he chopped off a head,

he cauterized the wound
with a flaming torch,

thus preventing two
heads from growing back.

When there was only one head remaining,

Heracles raised his golden sword

and decapitated the
monster before burning it.

Then he dipped each of his arrows

in the Hydra's black blood,
impregnating them with a poison

lethal to any living being.

Heracles' labors were far from over.

Having tracked down the Golden Hind,

a deer with horns of
gold on Mount Ceryneia,

captured a wild boar which had
been terrorizing the region

of Erymanthia, and cleaning
the Augean stables,

he was sent off to perform his sixth labor

on the shores of Lake Stymphalia.

There, a huge flock of
birds haunted the swamps.

Their heads, beaks and
wings were made of bronze,

and they could shoot
their feathers like arrows

to kill humans, which
they would then devour.

Once again, Athena came to the rescue

of the mortal she had made her protege.

She gave him a musical
instrument until then unknown.

A crotala, which when rattled
produced a strange sound

which terrified the birds,
causing them to fly off,

and allowing our giant
hero to pick them off

one by one with his poisoned arrows.

(dramatic music)

Barely had he returned
than Eurystheus sent him

on a new mission, to capture
the cattle of Geryon.

Geryon was a giant with three bodies,

and considered to be the
strongest man on Earth.

He dwelt at the far end of the world,

where two islands faced each other,

separated only by a narrow strait.

After a fierce combat,
Heracles brought down the giant

and made off with his cattle.

In this place, now become legendary,

Heracles built on either
side of the strait

two stone columns.

These would later be named by the Romans,

the Pillars of Hercules.

But the most astonishing of his labors

was undoubtedly the cleaning
of the Augean stables.

Augeas was a king as rich as he was idle.

He owned a huge herd of white bulls.

These sacred animals lived in stables

up to their knees in the
foulest smelling dung.

Their stables hadn't been
cleaned for 30 years.

To make the task even harder,
Eurystheus ordered Heracles

to accomplish it in a single day.

However would he manage?

The hero made a vast
breach in the stable walls.

Then he rerouted the two
rivers which flowed nearby.

Their waters rushed through
the breach in the walls,

washing out the filth, and
sweeping it away to the sea.

There was also the capture
of the Cretan Bull,

and stealing the mares of Diomedes.

After which, he had gone
to the land of the Amazons

where he obtained the girdle
of Hippolyta, their queen.

And the long quest which took
him to the fabulous garden

of the Hesperides, from
where he returned with

the golden apples which
the earth goddess Gaia

had given to Hera as a wedding gift.

But the most terrifying labor
was undoubtedly the last.

Heracles now had to venture
into the kingdom of the dead,

to the depths of the underworld,

to capture and bring back Cerberus,

the three headed hound that
guarded the gates of Hell.

(exciting music)

Having received advice from
Athena and then Hermes,

Heracles penetrated the darkness.

He crossed the river Styx
and arrived before Hades,

ruler of the underworld.

Heracles demanded that
he hand over Cerberus.

Hades agreed, but on one condition.

That Heracles manage
to overcome the animal

without using his club
or his poisoned arrows.

No one knows the exact outcome of that day

on the banks of the river Styx.

No soul has ever returned
to tell the tale.

And the two opponents
themselves kept their silence.

Was Cerberus tamed by Heracles' strength?

Or did he simply bow down before
the bravery and abnegation

with which this mere mortal had
paid for his terrible crime?

The cousin of Heracles,
the perfidious Eurystheus,

who since the beginning had
orchestrated the 12 labors,

was terrified by the
sight before his eyes.

There, still alive, stood
the valiant Heracles,

and at his feet, the
three headed dog Cerberus,

the nightmare of mortals,
his neck leashed,

and with searing eyes.

(ominous music)

Thus, Heracles had triumphed
by accomplishing his 12 labors.

He was at last purified.

But then came the day that
Hera would finally apply

the fatal blow to her enemy.

Heracles had just wed
the beautiful Deianira.

As the couple were crossing a river,

a sudden flood blocked their way.

Heracles was a good swimmer,

but even he could not
defy the swirling waters

and carry his bride on his shoulders.

Just then, a creature
plunged into the river.

The centaur Nessus.

He offered to ferry the
young woman to the riverbank

on his back, while Heracles
should make it on his own

to the other bank.

Heracles agreed.

The centaur was first to reach safety.

When Heracles set foot
on the opposite bank,

he heard the screams of Deianira.

Nessus was attempting
to rape the young woman.

(dramatic music)

Heracles grabbed his bow and
fired one of his poison arrows.

It flew towards the
creature and hit it full on.

Realizing he was dying,
Nessus took off his tunic,

gave it to Deianira, and
with his dying breath said,

I have been punished.

Now let my death profit you.

Accept my tunic, soak it in my blood,

and give it to your husband.

It will forever keep
his love for you alight.

Deianira did exactly what
the centaur had told her.

Then she presented
Heracles with the tunic.

At first Heracles merely
felt a slight tingling,

then unbearable itching, and finally,

a burning fire devouring
him from the inside.

Struck down by the pain, he
tried to rip off the tunic,

but it was his skin,
stuck fast to the cloth,

which was ripped to shreds.

He realized that Deianira
had been tricked.

Up on Mount Olympus, Zeus
was unable to intervene.

Such are the laws of fate, Hera told him.

As a powerless witness, all
the almighty king of the gods

could do was look on, waiting
for death to finish its work.

When Heracles finally
let out his death rattle,

Zeus sent down a thunderbolt.

A cloud appeared, and amid
thunder and lightning,

lifted the hero into the
sky, to the gates of Olympus.

He had finally entered his father's realm.

Immortality awaited him.

Heracles had joined the gods.

(exciting instrumental music)