Hercules is the archetypal hero of antiquity whose image and adventure narratives dominated a millennium of classical art, poetry and history. Shakespeare's many allusions to Hercules are source-rich and often obscure, compassing no fewer than fifteen Labors and Deeds. While Coriolanus and Mark Antony have been described as tragic "herculean heroes", Benedict, in Much Ado about Nothing, bears the unmistakable imprint of a comedic "herculean hero". Shakespeare arguably drew on Euripides' Alcestis for the final scenes of both Much Ado and The Winter's Tale. Recent scholarship has identified evidence that Shakespeare was also familiar with untranslated works by Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles. This debt to the Greek dramatists challenges the century-long assumption of the poet's "lesse Greek". The authorship claim of the Earl of Oxford, who read Greek and had access to editions of the 5th century Attic tragedies, is enhanced in consideration of this philological research.