Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was a television series produced from 1995 to 1999, very loosely based on the tales of the classical culture hero Hercules.

It had been preceded by several TV movies with the same major characters in 1994: Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur, Hercules in the Underworld, Hercules and the Circle of Fire, Hercules and the Lost Kingdom and Hercules and the Amazon Women.

Set in a fantasy version of ancient Greece not precisely located in historic time, the show starred Kevin Sorbo as Hercules and Michael Hurst as his sidekick Iolaus. Typical plot lines involved Hercules and Iolaus saving rustic villagers from monsters, evil warlords or the often selfish whims of the gods. In the earlier episodes (and mentioned in the show's opening title) Hercule's main nemesis is his evil stepmother Hera, who seeks to destroy Hercules using various monsters because he is a reminder of her husband Zeus' infidelity. Later in the series, the malicious God of War, Ares, replaces Hera as the show's primary antagonist.

The show had a successful spinoff, Xena: Warrior Princess, with which it shared recurring characters such as Ares (Kevin Smith), Autolycus (Bruce Campbell), and Salmoneus (Robert Trebor ). Both shows, although produced in New Zealand using mostly antipodean actors, who strove for American accents (with varying degrees of success), were syndicated worldwide.

See also

• Episode list
• List of Hercules and Xena characters

Main Characters

• Hercules (Kevin Sorbo)
• Iolaus (Michael Hurst)

Recurring Characters

• Ares (Kevin Smith)
• Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings)
• Discord (Meighan Desmond)
• Hera
• Zeus
• Alcmene (Liddy Holloway)
• Deianeira
• Jason
• Iphicles
• Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis
• Dahak
• Evander
• Xena ([Lucy Lawless])