The distorting mirror. Heracles in 21st century cinema
Abstract
This article examines how 21st-century cinema has embraced one of the most important figures in classical mythology, the Greek hero Herakles. How cinematic art has captured and adapted the events that classical sources tell of the myth of the son of Zeus. And be- yond his story, how it has assumed, varied or decontextualized the personality, values and attitude of a being that was undeniably of his time. In this way, by comparing the written story with the filmed story, we examine which episodes of the hero’s life have been brought to the big screen and which of them have not, and try to explain why. This comparison will also help us to determine the interrelations between the production of the films and the literary work on which they are based.
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