after saving his nephew on the coast of macedonia, hercules celebrates with his team. as they drink in a tavern, the group are approached by ergenia (rebecca ferguson), the daughter of lord cotys (john hurt) who wants hercules to train the thracian armies to defend his kingdom from the warrior king rhesus, to which the hero accepts. the band are welcomed to thrace by cotys and general sitacles (peter mullan). however, rhesus has reached the bessi people cotys insists that hercules leads the army into battle to defend the tribe, despite their lack of training. however, they arrive too late as rhesus has cursed the bessi into turning against the thracians.