This is one of those “technically true, but missing the bigger picture” pedantic gotchas.
Yes, Hercules is the Roman name not the Greek name. Yes, barbarian as a term originally meant not-Greek or not-Greek-enough for some Greeks.
But it’s not like you’re going for full historical accuracy already (or even could if you wanted to). It’s just a subjective scale of how accurate do you want to be in what ways that you think are important.
You’re not going to speak ancient or koine Greek when playing the game. You’re playing game rules that aren’t based solely on Greek mythological cosmology. Barbarian isn’t a term in DnD for non-Greeks the same way chai tea in English doesn’t mean “tea tea,” but rather “a spiced Indian tea.” Words have multiple meanings. Those meanings can change over time. Those words can have a different meaning in a different language even if adopted from the same source.
Yeah this kind of nerdy factiod is more appropriate for another time, like for instance if they say, “did Hercules’s go by any other names? I can’t remember.”
Although to slightly contradict you I am on a personal mission to say “masala chai” and never “chai tea,” but I recognize this affectation is not going to chane anything or do me any favors, and I never “correct” other people, because they’re not ‘wrong’ for using foreign words in a popular new way.
Headcanon: Hercules actively kept people using his Roman name even as the Greek names became more popular because “Heracles” means “Hera is great” and he knows first-hand that she is not. Though I’m not sure why he doesn’t just go by his birth name of Alcaeus.
Okay, I’ll bite—what’s the joke here?
Heracles or Hercules is a Greek tragic character who at one point murders his wife and child when in a rage. Thinking Disney’s Hercules is an accurate portrayal is where they messed up in describing their character, and both the DM and history buff know it, but the DM won’t let them ruin the surprise.
Alright but “inspired by” is a far cry from “did or will do all the same stuff”. They want a strong half-celestial dude that kills monsters.
It’s two jokes. Firstly, “Barbarian” was a ancient Greek-“invented” term for people who don’t speak Greek (or heavy dialects of Greek). The generally accepted theory is that “Barbar” is them imitating sounds they don’t understand, similar to a modern “blabla”. Secondly, Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek Heracles.
wouldn’t it be more like a racist stereotype? like calling Chinese (Using as an example not come at me) ching chongs? ie making fun of their language.
It’s still in use today when people talk of the Berbers, in north Africa, that’s the origin of the name.
Ah, yes, of course… I had heard both of those little factoids before, but I needed this reminder, as it turns out 😅
Hercules is the name the Romans called Heracles (or Herakles if you’re pretentious), besides that, barbarian is from the Greek word that essentially means people who don’t speak Greek.
To be fair barbarian is also a Roman term since they adopted it and they also used it for people not speaking Latin
Herakles would probably be more correct. Romans used ‘k’ mostly in Greek loanwords, and used their native letter ‘c’ everywhere else.
Ah, yes, of course… I had heard both of those little factoids before, but I needed this reminder, as it turns out 😅
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What is the anime used in the meme?
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3252114/ this one. It’s about an Airsoft club at a girls school iirc
