By Princess O’Nika Auguste

During the holiday season, the pull of childhood nostalgia often leads me back to the familiar landscapes of my past. This means I return to the adventures of the mythological universe of Xena: The Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. In my rewatch, I find myself drawn more to Hercules and enjoying HTLJ more; while Xena’s darker arc was groundbreaking, I sometimes skipped whole clusters of episodes. Hercules, with its earnest, often parable-like approach to storytelling (Hercules is accused of being preachy), possesses a timeless quality that, to my mind, has aged gracefully. The show’s willingness to step back from epic adventures and monster-of-the-week stories and tell quiet, human-scaled stories is never clearer than in one of its most resonant episodes, Season Three’s “A Star to Guide Them.” This episode, alongside a brief but starkly different nod in Xena’s Season Five-episode “Eternal Bonds,” explores the wise men motif. The contrast between the two shows’ approaches is quite telling: where Xena deconstructs and challenges, Hercules builds and affirms, weaving a story that feels both refreshingly modern and ancient.

The plot in “A Star to Guide Them” is like a mythic tapestry. On the winter solstice eve, Iolaus, Hercules’s best friend, is compelled by a prophetic dream of a star, a rock, a tree, and a strange pointy object. Iolaus’s journey north only draws in others with the same dream and red-stained palms: Uris, a father protecting his newborn son from a Herod-like king’s edict, and Trinculos, a thief with a latent conscience. They become unlikely seekers, with Hercules not being the central figure but rather their protector. Their quest leads them to defy the murderous King Polonius and Queen Maliphone, to protect babies, confront Hera’s army, and ultimately, follow the star to a humble, glowing home where a profound peace awaits.

What is immediately striking and deeply satisfying about this narrative is its deliberate structure; Hercules is not front and centre. He is the guardian and protector, but the spiritual and emotional journey belongs to Iolaus, Uris, and Trinculos.

This restraint elevates the story from a typical hero’s exploit to a communal pilgrimage. It mirrors the biblical account in the Gospel of Matthew, where the Magi are the active protagonists of their own journey of faith, arriving at their destination through their own perseverance and divine guidance. The episode’s focus on the seekers makes their ultimate revelation feel earned and personal, not merely a backdrop for the hero’s prowess.

The episode adheres to both the biblical text and to popular tradition. Popular tradition states that it was three wise men who visited the Christ child; the episode depicted three men. The Gospel of Matthew does not call the men kings. A Star to Guide adheres to that. According to the Gospel of Matthew, they are Magi from the East (probably astrologers, scholars, seekers of signs).

Hercules honours the men not as kings or royals, but by their stations and flaws: the loyal friend (Iolaus), the protective father and farmer (Uris), and the redeemed rogue (Trinculos). They are the scholar, a guardian, and an artist of sorts, representing a cross-section of humanity called to something greater than themselves.

The episode also offers a fascinating, modernised take on the “Herod” figure. King Polonius and Queen Maliphone are equals in villainy. The king seeks his wife’s counsel, and she is the one who devises the plan to round up and later kill the infants. This is a testament to HTLJ’s consistent portrayal of women, whether heroes or villains, as strong, independent, and instrumental agents. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, like Xena: The Warrior Princess, is known for its strong female characters. Maliphone’s evil is her own, exercised from a position of power, making the threat more nuanced and the world less simplistically patriarchal. This dynamic partnership in tyranny contrasts sharply with the collaborative, developing fellowship of the three seekers, highlighting that the threat to the sacred is often a systemic corruption of power.

The journey itself mirrors the spiritual archetype. The men are guided by cryptic dreams and celestial signs (the star), face a tyrannical ruler who fears being supplanted, and are led not to a palace but to a place of humble, radiant peace. The star stops over a simple home, not a castle, reiterating the core biblical narrative: divinity and profound truth are found in vulnerability and innocence, not in political might.

This is where the contrast with Xena becomes particularly illuminating. In Xena’s Season Five episode “Eternal Bonds”, the show presents its own version of the three gift-bearers. Three priests of Apollo, Poseidon, and Artemis arrive bearing gifts for the infant Eve, who is prophesied to bring about the “Twilight of the Olympians”. This is some weeks after Xena has given birth to Eve and when Hercules kills Zeus to save Eve. (In airtime reality, “Eternal Bonds” aired a week after “God Fearing Child”) However, this is not an act of homage but a deadly ruse. Their gifts are traps, and their true mission is assassination. This is classic Xena: cynical, twist-driven, and focused on the brutal cost of destiny. It presents the “Wise Men” tradition as a façade for ancient, vengeful power structures seeking to maintain their dominance by snuffing out a new threat. It is a compelling idea, but one that lives firmly in the realm of deconstruction.

Hercules, conversely, I believe, is in the business of reconstruction. In “A Star to Guide Them,” the gifts are not physical objects but the seekers transformed selves: their loyalty, protection, and newfound purpose.

The final beautiful theological twist comes not from scripture but from a meditation. As the episode concludes, the implication is clear: the star did not lead them to the child for the child’s sake, but for their own. Their pilgrimage has transformed these men from individuals haunted by a dream into a community forged by a purpose. In protecting the innocent and following the sign, they have found their own way. This reframes the quest: the guiding star is not just a celestial GPS to a destination of passive adoration; it is a call to guides and protectors themselves.

The meaning is found not in the finding, but in the faithful journey and the responsibility that follows. Watching this episode, then watching “Eternal Bonds,” reveals the complementary hearts of the shows. Xena’s episode exposes the darkness that can hide with sacred tropes, while Hercules illuminates the enduring light at their core. “A Star to Guide Them” is a timeless episode because it chooses affirmation over cynicism. It reminds us that the journey of the Magi is not a quaint prelude but a universal narrative about seeking light in darkness, resisting corrupt power, and discovering that the greatest purpose is often revealed when we stop looking for a king to worship. We begin to become stewards of the hope we find in a humble place. In the end, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys suggests that we are called to be true wise men, to follow our stars, to face our Herods, and to offer our best, transformed selves to a world in need of light!

Recommended Reading

For readers interested in further exploring the historical, theological, and cultural layers of the Wise Men motif, here are the following resources.

On the Biblical Magi & Tradition:

1. Gideon Bohak, Magic in the First-Century World
Link: https://www.bibleodyssey.org/people/main-articles/magi/

2. The Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12 NRSV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202&version=NRSVUE

3. Tim Hegedus. “The Magi and the star in the Gospel of Matthew and early Christian tradition.” Laval théologique et philosophique 59, n° 1 (2003): 81-95. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ltp/2003-v59-n1-ltp477/000790ar.pdf

4. Adriana Destro and Pesce Mauro. “The Cultural Structure of the Infancy Narrative in the Gospel of Matthew.” Infancy gospels: stories and identities (2011): 94-115. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/8598669/Infancy_Destro20-20Pesce20-20Formatted-libre.pdf?

5. George Van Kooten, “Matthew, the Parthians, and the Magi: A Contextualisation of Matthew’s Gospel in Roman-Parthian Relations of the First Centuries BCE and CE.” The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Experts on the Ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman World, and Modern Astronomy (2015): 496-646. https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/697737680/Matthew_the_Parthians_and_the_Magi.pdf

6. Roy Kotansky, “The Star of the Magi: Lore and Science in Ancient Zoroastrianism, the Greek Magical Papyri, and St. Matthew’s Gospel.” Annali di storia dell’exegesi 24 (2007): 379-421...

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