The Triumph of Hercules
1964 film directed by Alberto De Martino
The Triumph of Hercules, the 1964 film, was one of many Italian sword and sandal epics during the 1960s craze. Originally titled Il Trionfo di Ercole, the film was directed by Alberto De Martino. Hercules was portrayed by Dan Vadis.
The film was released internationally as Hercules vs the Giant Warriors, and also as Hercules and the Ten Avengers.
Plot
Hercules is called upon to fight seven golden giants summoned by the Dagger of Jae, sister of Juno (Hera), who dislikes Hercules "for certain family reasons." Hercules also fights to protect his princess love, but matters are complicated by her evil relative Milo, who has murdered her father the king but has tricked her into thinking it was someone else because she trusts him too much. Milo tricks Hercules into killing his friend, for which he is punished by his father Jove (Jupiter/Zeus) who takes away his enormous strength, because he has misused it. Milo is conspiring with his sorceress mother to take the throne for himself.
Now only as strong as a mortal man, Hercules is overpowered when he tries to rescue the princess Ate (pronounced Ah-tay) from Milo and is then accused of being a fraud. Milo tries to kill both Hercules and Ate by chaining them to a giant wooden lever with spikes, complete with a cage over Hercules which he must support while rocks are piled on him: if he can hold it up, then he will prove himself the true Hercules (which he is) but if not, then he will be guilty and he and Ate will die together for conspiring to steal the throne and give it to an imposter.
As the weight of the stones and rocks drive the de-powered Hercules to his knees, he sincerely begs his father Jove to let him die if it is his destiny but to spare Ate who is innocent.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Triumph of Hercules” is 1964 film directed by Alberto De Martino. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Triumph, Hercules and film, not as a finished interpretation.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1199652. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Triumph of Hercules” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.