Greek Myths: Still Entertaining after Three Thousand Years

Laurence Olivier as Zeus in the original Clash of the Titans.

With the release of a couple of recent movies and the success of the video game series God of War, it seems we are as fascinated by ancient Greek myths today as we were almost 3,000 years ago when the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey were written. The poem's authorship is attributed to Homer, but many of the stories in them are older than that. Thus it was Homer who at least put them all together, even if he did not create them himself. Both poems contain many of the Greek legends. Their vision of the Gods and mythological creatures are the basis of how we still view them today.

The ancient Greek Gods were adopted by the Romans with only a change of names. The religion eventually gave way to Christianity, but the characters and myths lived on. They continued to appear in literature. Shakespeare makes reference to them in his work. A Midsummer Night's Dream mentions Pan and Cupid. The all knowing three witches in Macbeth are a nod to the three all knowing Stygian witches.

Pop culture has continued to keep the Greek myths alive. Frankie Avalon's plea to "Venus" was a number one hit for 5 weeks in 1959. Comic book superheroes Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel constantly make references to the Greek gods and goddesses. It has been movies though, that have milked the old characters for all they are worth.

The Odyssey and The Iliad have inspired many movies. The most famous being Troy (2004), with Brad Pitt as Achilles. It follows the plot of The Iliad, only it left out the Gods. It was hardly Hollywood's first use of ancient Greek characters. Disney's Fantasia (1940) makes reference to the Greek gods. Rita Hayworth plays a Muse who comes down from Mount Olympus to inspire a director in Down to Earth (1947).

It was the late 1950s and early 60s that really brought out the movies based on old Greek myths. With the fad of body building just hitting it's stride, premiere body builder Steve Reeves played demi-god Hercules in a series of Italian films. The character of Hercules went on to appear in many movies and television shows. Everything from The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962), to television's Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995-1999) have kept Hercules a pop culture icon. Even Disney got in the act with their 1997 animated feature, Hercules. Talk of a new film version has been on the web for a few years, but nothing has yet to be set in stone.

The Steve Reeves' films inspired many low budget movies at the time, and created its own genre. Most featured a muscle bound sword wielding hero and a sexy girl in a toga. Jayne Mansfield and her body builder husband; Mickey Hargitay, starred in the low budget Italian made Hercules Versus the Hydra (1960). One of the better known of the genre, as well as last, was Jason and the Argonauts (1963), in which the legendary Greek hero goes on a quest for the Golden Fleece.

Those ancient Greek characters seemed to go away until 1981's The Clash of the Titans was released to box office success. It was made with a large budget for the time. It featured a famous cast, including Sir Laurence Olivier as Zeus. It suffered however, from the lack of advanced special effects. It unfortunately resembles those earlier sword and sandal films that were made on the cheap. The 2010 remake takes advantage of CGI, and thus brings those ancient characters visually to life for perhaps the first time.

Also taking advantage of computer special effects is Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010). Based on a young adult novel by Rick Riordan, it tells the story of a teenage demi-god living in our modern world. It features the gods of Olympus as well as many ancient mythological creatures.

Steve Reeves as Hercules

The ancient Greek characters are still being written about for very obvious reasons. They were, and are exciting. In their stories they had battles with wondrous monsters. They had lots of sex. Zeus and the other gods were always knocking up human women. Demi-gods are the product of gods mating with humans. The ancient stories are soap operas. Zeus was married to Hera, but cheated on her constantly. Troy was attacked because of an unloyal wife. The gods were all related, and thus were constantly jealous of each other. These gods knew how to have a good time. Aphrodite/Venus was the Goddess of love and beauty. Mars/Ares was the God of war. Dionysus was the god of wine and revelry (parties).

Christianity states that God created man in his own image, but the ancient Greeks created Gods in man's image. They gave their Gods all the weaknesses and flaws that they themselves possessed but then also gave them amazing powers. Their Gods controlled nature and motivated man to do good and evil, with very little self control themselves. They were the superheros of their time, only they were far more flawed than Superman or Spiderman. You would need to combine The Godfather saga with The Justice League of America to produce something close to a modern day equivalent of the Ancient Greek Myths. They were and still are quite simply some of the most entertaining stories and characters ever created.