Greek Mythology

So... while I'm crazy about The Matter of Britain (or part of it), I have one other point that really, really makes me happy when I see it used in new ways in books and movies.  Yup, it's Greek Mythology.  Now, a lot of people just look at Greek Mythology and go, "Those crazy pagans..." others look at it and think, "Such nice and interesting archetypes..."

I look at Greek Mythology and I think, "WOW! Look at all the stories! This shit is crazy awesome! What if you applied the story of Artemis and Orion to a modern setting? Or Zeus and his philandering ways to Victorian England?  Or what if Jesus was a child of Zeus? Wouldn't that be awesome?"

Yeah... I get really excited by Greek Mythology.

Don't get me wrong, I get the whole archetype thing too. Sometimes I want to use archetypes mined from Greek Mythology in stories, like do a story about Muses reborn or something. I think it'd be really neat.  But the meat of Greek Mythology is the stories!  These were the ways people taught each other lessons and news in those days.  I like listening to Greek stories as much as I like reading the Bible because some of the stories are quite similar.

For example, did you know there's a Greek version of the flood that seems to combine Noah and the story of Lot?  It's out there.

Basically, Zeus got sick of humans being so rotten after having Pandora unleash the horrors from within her box on the populace. He was a dick like that. So, he decided to destroy them all.  However, feeling magnanimous, he either sent two gods down to find a sign that goodness still existed in the world or he went down with another god. Either way, every house he came to turned him away or were downright rude.  The world had gone so evil, it seemed hospitality no longer existed, you see.  Then, the two gods came upon an old couple who were so hospitable, they shared what little food they had and gave the gods their own bed and were just really nice.  So, Zeus decided to spare them and drown everyone else.

For those of you who don't know, before hotels and hospitals were common, hospitality was a very big thing.  If you broke bread or shared salt with another human being, harming them was tantamount to raping a child today.  It was beyond evil. If you saw a stranger, you were supposed to invite them in and be hospitable. That's just the way things were supposed to be done.  And if you broke the laws of hospitality, no one would ever trust you again. You lost all street cred.  So, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and this little story about Zeus isn't about male-on-male sex, it's about following the laws of hospitality.  You break it, the gods themselves will break you.

And that's what I love, love, love about Greek Mythology!  There's so much depth!

So, when I find a book or movie or series of books or movies that does something different with Greek Mythology, I get really, really excited.  When I see a book or movie that completely ruins it, the exact opposite happens. I get really, really pissed off. For example, I loved Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.  I hated the movie, but the books were wonderful.  All of them!  They were new and in a way original while pulling on something classical in the Western world.  It was beautiful! And he managed to find a villain who wasn't Hades!  I was dancing a naked samba in my head the whole time I read those books.

Granted, I was a little disappointed in Cronos being the villain, but I'm pretty sure his sons just killed him or sent him to Tartarus.  At least they didn't cut his balls off like he did to his father. Uranus should've helped Percy and company along.  I bet he was cheering the whole time... when he wasn't crying over his lost junk.

I also have liked a number of the Syfy miniseries made based off Greek mythology. Sure they play fast and loose with the mythology itself, but they usually make it interesting. Though Jason and the Argonauts may as well have been played by planks of wood. That would've probably made it better.

I didn't like Troy with Brad Pitt and I'm pretty sure that movie doesn't count because it tried to cut the mythology out completely. That's also why I never mentioned King Arthur in my last post. It had nothing to do with Arthurian myth as it tried to excise it from the movie and add Keira Knightly in her underwear (something I'm sure many people appreciated).

I despise Clash of the Titans, the new one. I love the old one.  I watch it every time it's on AMC or TCM. I haven't seen the sequel and I don't plan to.  The first movie made little sense, the sequel isn't worth getting bent out of shape over.  I also hate that Disney monstrosity.  It's only good for the Nostalgia Chick's drinking game.

What is my favorite Greek Mythology story?  Hades and Persephone.  Why?  Because I have a thing for gods of the underworld.  Oh yeah, and why not?  The story of Dionysus's birth grosses me out, though.

Sweet Dreams!