Thread by @travisdon1981

Was #Jesus based on the story of #Hercules/#Herakles?
Um, #No, and here is why:

Hercules is the most famous hero of Greco-Roman myth. Known to the Greeks as Herakles and the Romans as Hercules, he was the ideal man of the ancient world, one who battled monsters and even gods. But does his story have any bearing on that of Christ’s?
Well, lets see how

"similar" they are.
Born of a virgin? No, Hercules was the product of an extra-marital affair between Zeus and Alcmene.
In other words, they did the hunka-chunka.

Similar mothers? No. Indeed, while Mary was a Roman-era peasant girl, Alcmene was a princess.
A star in the sky proclaiming his birth? No, Hercules had no such sign. As a newborn, Hercules did bite into Hera’s breast, which squirted milk into the sky

(thus creating the Milky Way), but this wasn’t a sign of his birth; it was a sign that he bit into the breast of his mortal enemy Hera.

Wise men visited Hercules after he was born? No, one day Athena and Hera found him on the side of the road (his mother had abandoned him to the wild after he was born).
Performing miracles? Only those involving strength, and since all gods (and some demigods) were thought to have

supernatural powers, this isn’t much of a parallel at all.
Incarnate deity? No. Unlike Jesus, who is God the Son incarnate in human flesh (John 1:1), Hercules was a demigod, half divine and half mortal. Indeed, he is far more similar to the Nephilim angel/human hybrids of

Genesis 6:1-4 and numbers 13:33 (Like Hercules, the Nephilim are called heroes, and like him they were described as large). So there is no incarnation.
Both demigods? As stated above, Jesus is fully god and fully man, while Hercules is half and half.

Both the son of a God? Not in the way you think.
When Jesus is called “Son of God”, this doesn’t mean that he is a demigod (like the Greeks thought when using the phrase), or an angel (In Hebrew, Bene Elohim (son of god) was a term that referred to angels) or something or

someone who had been created, without having to be born by another (hence another reason why angels were called “Sons of God”, Bene Elohim signified that they were created, not conceived and later born. Adam, as of Adam and Eve, is called “Son of God” in Luke 3:38 (due to the

fact that he was created, not born by a woman. Jesus always existed in spirit form, and his body was born of a woman, so it would be wrong to apply the term to Jesus using the “newly created/not born” meaning).
It means that he is God the Son, the term “son” metaphorical of

Christ’s relationship with God the Father.
Both crucified? No, Hercules killed himself by building a pyre, throwing himself on it and having someone light it up. The only similarities there are wood and death, and not enough to make a good legit comparison, especially when you

consider that countless executions (wooden gallows, hanging from trees, beheaded with axes (which had wooden handles) and suicides (running themselves through with a sword or spear (which likewise have wooden parts) involved wood.

Not very similar, are they?
Indeed, while Jesus comes from a monotheistic Hebrew background, Hercules comes from a polytheistic Greek background.
So what similarities could they have?
1. An attempt was made on their lives shortly after they were born?
True, both Jesus and

Hercules were targeted for termination while babies. Herod wanted all the boys of Bethlehem a year old or younger killed, while Hera sent two snakes to kill Hercules. Both attempts failed. Sounds like a parallel, until you realize that numerous people, as infants, escaped the

clutches of someone or something that was seeking to kill them. Wars, genocides, murderers, animals etc, there have been numerous stories of people who, though very young, escaped the clutches of people or beasts who wanted them dead. The infant Moses escaped Pharaoh’s edict

(Exodus 1:8-2:10), and according to Herodotus, and the infant Cyrus the Great was similarly threatened.
Not…much of a similarity.
Which brings us to Hercules’ supposed resurrection.
According to the Myth, after Hercules died, he was taken to Olympus and made a full fledged god

. However, his “phantom” (a spirit reflecting his mortal half) went to the Underworld, where Odysseus met it and had a discussion (as seen in Homer’s Odyssey). In Diodorus Siculus’ “Library of History”, it seems at first to hint that there was a physical resurrection (I.e.

Hercules’ friends not able to find his bones after the cremation, which was taken as a sign that he had went on to the gods (though it could just simply be a sign that he went to the gods and not indicative of a physical resurrection).
However, this idea fails when you dig

deeper into the details.
For you see, Ovid, in his "Metamorphoses", is clear that Hercules’ body was consumed entirely, no trace of his mortal frame remained. This could be reconciled with Diodorus Siculus's account, which states that there were no bones left after the fire.

Indeed, Hyginus, the 2nd century Roman Mythographer, confirms this, stating that Hercules “discarded his human body and was made immortal”. Thus, his mortal body, in its entirety, was consumed, leaving behind his divine essence, which went up to become a full-fledged god.

This is not a physical resurrection.
And plus, we also have to remember that even if this was a physical resurrection, there would still be one BIG difference.
In Herakles/Hercules’ tale, the gods resurrect him.
In the Bible, Jesus resurrects himself.

Indeed, there are several other resurrections in the Bible (including the Old Testament, see 2 Kings 4:18-37). In all of those, they are being resurrected by the power of God (in most by God the Son Jesus specifically), they aren’t doing it themselves.

Hercules makes for great fiction.
Jesus makes for great salvation.
Sources:
Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, 9.159-280
Homer “The Odyssey”, Book 11
Hyginus “Fabulae”, 102
Apollodorus “Bibliotheca”, Book 2, 157-160
penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman…

Herodotus "The Histories", 1:107-53

@thethreadreader untoll please