MetaChat - Eerily Similar [HP spoilers]

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11 September 2007

Eerily Similar [HP spoilers] So, I was watching Hercules with my kids, and →[More:]...we noticed that it's almost exactly the same as the Harry Potter story. Hades = Voldemort / Zeus = Dumbledore / Harry = Hercules.

Hades hears a prophecy that says a child can stop his evil plan, so he tries to kill the child (make the child mortal) and fails. Child goes into hiding, and grows up not knowing of his power/potential/destiny. Never given all the information by Zeus, Herc has to literally face death in the end...

There are a LOT more connections, but I can't be arsed to type them out.

post by: chuckdarwin at: 13:27 | 7 comments

Going back further: "Harrod hears a prophecy that says a child can stop his evil plan..."

posted by mischief 11 September | 13:42

Hewlett-Packard? Don't tell me, they have a printer that outputs in four dimensions?

posted by Hugh Janus 11 September | 13:50

Yeah, I can get that whole Harry = Jesus bit, as well. To me, that only reinforces the fact that every word in the Jesus story was a 'remake' 2000 years ago.

Current thinking is that the Greeks ripped off the Egyptians.

posted by chuckdarwin 11 September | 13:54

Harrod's is selling children now?

posted by Hugh Janus 11 September | 14:02

Well....it runs even deeper than that. It's the ancient, pancultural Sun God/Hero legend, retold, as it has been in an astounding number of religious belief systems (including Christianity) and folk tales. Joseph Campbell made a career out of this; also see the Golden Bough, Star Wars, and the dissertations of umpteenazillion folklorists.

posted by Miko 11 September | 15:48

In other words, these story elements originated in prehistory and are continually retold in new times and places. In looking for some more Sun/Hero info for you I found this really nice Wikipedia entry on proto-Indo-European religion, the earliest antecedent we can know of for most mythologies of pan-European and Middle Eastern origin. The HP tales are just the latest remake of the Western Ur-Story.

posted by Miko 11 September | 15:58

That is so thoughtful and polite of you; thanks very much. I did notice that disney merged the zeus and hercules stories... and LO, AND BEHOLD... there was another virgin birth involved.

What a tired old script.

I need to hit the library.

posted by chuckdarwin 11 September | 19:50

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