Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Fandom
Name:	Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Abbreviation(s):	HtLJ, HTLJ, Hercules
Creator:	Sam Raimi
Date(s):	1995-1999
Medium:	television series
Country of Origin:	New Zealand, US
External Links:	IMDB
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Show synopsis

Hercules: the Legendary Journeys is set in a neverland version of ancient Greece that looked amazingly like New Zealand, complete with monsters, interfering gods and an off-the-wall spin on Greek mythology.

It spawned two spinoff shows, Xena: Warrior Princess and Young Hercules.

Characters

Hercules is a demigod, the son of Zeus and a human woman, Alcmene, and possibly immortal. Iolaus, a mortal, is his best friend. Together, they fight monsters, demons and evil warlords, including Xena, but she turned good after three episodes and went off on her own adventures, soon joined by Gabrielle.

Other fandom favorites include Ares, the god of war, and his sidekick Strife, Hercules' mortal half-brother Iphicles, Salmoneus, a kindly con man, Autolycus, the King of Thieves, Nebula, a pirate who's also a Sumerian princess, Cupid, god of love, and Joxer.

Hercules: the Legendary Journeys fandom

Most online activity took place on different mailing lists and web sites that were divided up by their focus on certain characters or pairings, genres (gen, het, or slash), and ratings (adult or PG13). There was a great deal of overlap with Xena fandom, especially Joxer and Ares fans. The slash fandom was split off into various slash pairings (Hercules/Iolaus, Ares/Joxer, Cupid/Strife, Hercules/Ares, Iolaus/Ares, Iolaus/Autolycus, and other combinations). The show also featured a rotating cast of female characters, with plenty of opportunity for romantic fanfic featuring Hercules/Deineira, Hercules/Serena, Iolaus/Niobe, Iolaus/Nebula, Hercules/Xena, Iolaus/Gabrielle, and many others. If there was acrimony in the past, it seems to be concentrated on the slash versus gen debate, rather than pairing wars. The large cast of recurring characters tended to lend itself to multiple pairings, as well as gen and adult adventure stories. Nowadays the fandom's grown rather quiet, but several mailing lists are still active.

Notable Fanworks

Hercules fandom is new enough that it can be called an Internet fandom, but it also created paper zines, both slash and gen.

Mailing Lists

• GoldApple - Iolaus gen and het. This list has a rating of PG13.
• Iolausian Corner - Russian-language list for Iolaus fanfiction and discussion.
• Iolausian Mailing List - discussion of Iolaus and the actor who played him, Michael Hurst.
• Strife Lust - Strife slash
• KSAres - Ares and/or Iphicles slash

Story archives

• Delphi is a fairly new automated archive for gen, het and slash stories.
• Less Than Legendary Journeys is a shared universe fanfiction archive with gen, het and slash stories featuring Hercules and Iolaus. Also contains Young Hercules stories.
• Iolausian Library is an archive for gen and het stories featuring Iolaus.
• AresJoxerCupidStrife is an archive for Ares/Joxer and Cupid/Strife slash stories.
• Strife Lust is an archive for slash stories featuring Strife.
• Joxerotica is an archive for slash, gen and het stories featuring Joxer, Jett and/or Jace, all characters played by Ted Raimi.
• KSmithAres is an archive for slash stories featuring Ares and/or Iphicles, both characters played by Kevin Smith.
• Hercules After Dark was an archive for het fiction rated no lower than R.
• The Iolausian Corner is an archive for Russian-language fanfiction.
• The Iolausian Dimension an Iolaus-specific archive and fan site.

Notable vids

Vids by Mary Crawford, including a splendidly cracktastic Hercules/Widow Twanky Holding Out for a Hero vid, and an Iolaus vid Live Til I Die.

Zines

Hercules: the Legendary Journeys was primarily an online fandom, with most of the fan fiction appearing in online archives such as the Iolausian Library, but it still produced some fanzines.

Some of the zines listed also contain Young Hercules stories.

The The Less Than Legendary Journeys (zine), with gen Hercules & Iolaus stories from the archive of the same name:

• The Less Than Legendary Journeys I. Published May 2000. 2001 Fan Q winner winner for Best Hercules: the Legendary Journeys fanzine.
• The Less Than Legendary Journeys II. Published May 2001.
• The Less Than Legendary Journeys III. Published May 2002.
• The Less Than Legendary Journeys IV. Published May 2003.
• The Less Than Legendary Journeys V. Published May 2004.
• The Less Than Legendary Journeys VI. Published May 2005.

• The Less Than Legendary Journeys: the Naughty Bits. Published in May 2003. This edition contained the het and slash stories from the site.

Gen zines from DreamCatcher Press, with gen Hercules & Iolaus adventure and hurt/comfort stories:

• You're Hercules?
• You're Iolaus?
• You're Salmoneus?
• The Gates of Death
• Loose Arrows
• Gods and Monsters
• Monsters R Us
• The Panathenea Scrolls

Other zines include:

• Blessings of Battle
• The Brass Jar Series (Ares het fic)
• By the Sword of Ares
• The Conscience of a King
• The Daily Muse
• Discipline (Stargate and Xena crossover zine)
• The Euphonius Scrolls
• A Friend in Need
• Gods and Heroes
• Gods Darkness Desire
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Special Gen Collection
• Honor's Path
• Joxer Fairy Tales
• Mistakes of the Past (Poltergeist crossover)
• Oracle
• Thermopylae!
• The Sorbo Sentinel
• To Heroes #1
• The View From Olympus

Essays

• We Always Hurt the One We Love... and then turn him into a sorry-ass, emasculated, mentally unstable, whiny, co-dependent tag-along by Helena Handbasket