Superhuman strength to uproot mountains.

Hercules was born to Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. Hera hated her husband's illegitimate son all his life, and one day she breathed madness into him, driving him to kill his own wife Megara and their children. When he came to his senses, Hercules consulted the oracle at Delphi and resolved to cleanse his guilt by performing twelve labors (δώδεκα ἆθλοι) under his cousin, King Eurystheus. The Nemean Lion, the Lernaean Hydra, the Ceryneian Hind, the Erymanthian Boar, the cleansing of the Augean stables, the Stymphalian man-eating birds, the Cretan Bull, the man-eating Mares of Diomedes, the girdle of the Amazon queen, the cattle of Geryon, the golden apples of the Hesperides, and finally Cerberus of Hades — every one a trial beyond human limits. Cut off one of the Hydra's heads and two grew back; the lion's hide could be pierced by no weapon. Yet Hercules saw all twelve through to the end. In the 1590s, in Shakespeare's age, the adjective herculean appeared in English and settled into the meaning "requiring superhuman effort."

Yeokbalsan (力拔山) comes from the final song of Xiang Yu, the Conqueror-King of Chu, recorded in the "Basic Annals of Xiang Yu" in the Records of the Grand Historian. "力拔山兮氣蓋世 (My strength could uproot mountains, my spirit could cover the world), 時不利兮騅不逝 (but the times turn against me, and even Zhui, my horse, will not go on), 騅不逝兮可奈何 (Zhui will not go on — what can I do?), 虞兮虞兮奈若何 (Yu, my Yu, what is to become of you?)." Xiang Yu, who had toppled the Qin and commanded the realm, was surrounded at Gaixia by the army of Liu Bang, founder of the Han. When the songs of Chu rose from every direction (the famous "songs of Chu on all sides," samyeoncho), Xiang Yu realized that his entire army had surrendered. That night, before his beloved Consort Yu and his horse Zhui, he sang this song. Even a conqueror-king strong enough to uproot mountains could not defy the turning of the times. Consort Yu, so as not to shake his resolve, took her own life, and Xiang Yu, after fighting to the last, killed himself at the Wu River. He was thirty-one. By recording the end of this tragic hero in the Benji (Basic Annals) — a form reserved for emperors alone — Sima Qian paid the conqueror-king, who had never been emperor, the highest possible honor.