Currently I am rewatching Legend of Korra, and I’ve gotten to the final season. I considered a Note about that but I already did one recently, so put that on the backburner. I’m also rewatching Justice League (the animated series) which is great fun!
I wasn’t sure if there even would be a Saturday Note this week, but we’re going to give it a go!
On Greek Mythology Adaptations
This was something I thought about a while back, and now we’re back!
Lately I’ve been watching The Chosen, and it struck me that this is a show that adapts Biblical characters, without actually changing the overall story. It takes liberties, and it makes things up, but it doesn’t deviate from the narrative of the Gospels in huge ways. The point is not necessarily to make the story different (although in some ways it does), but to make it so that modern audiences might relate to these ancient people and figure out why they dropped everything and followed Jesus.
And I thought, “Greek mythology adaptations… don’t really do that very often.”
Okay, I realize that comparing the Gospel to Greek mythology without really in-depth discussion isn’t necessarily wise outside of, like, a freshman English class in high school, and we can debate how much of the Greek mythology texts we have today are actually religious texts in the way that we think of them. But they’re both mythological traditions so screw it, we’re moving forward!
I thought about this because I recently read David Gemmell’s Troy trilogy, which is about the Trojan War but changes almost every aspect of the character arcs and traits from Greek mythology. Seriously, Helen is a minor character described as not being very attractive, and our leads are Aeneas and Andromache, who are star-crossed lovers. It’s not a bad story, but it’s an odd choice to adapt the story when you’re going to change everything about it.
And Gemmell was hardly alone in this! I keep thinking back to Rise of the Argonauts. It’s a game I love (despite what I’m about to say), even if no one else has heard of it, but I am frustrated because it changes Jason’s motivation to get the Golden Fleece from, “Quest to prove myself,” to “I’ve got to bring back my recently murdered wife.” Essentially, it invents a new female character to fridge so that we have character motivation.
That’s… not great. Remember how I said introducing a love interest is often the quick and easy way of building character likability or motivation? This is that.
[I’m also not a huge fan of how small a role Medea has in the game’s story, but I suspect that might be because the game’s like half-finished. Seriously, this was meant to be Greek mythology Mass Effect when you look at the initial demos!]
There’s the miniseries Jason and the Argonauts, which is in some ways more faithful to the myths, but in others kind of baffling? Instead of the Argonauts being warriors, champions, and athletes, they’re just… random guys. The only people Jason could rustle up (despite having the same names as mythological figures).
Or heck, Disney’s Hercules. As Lindsay Ellis points out in her video on the topic, it’s a movie that tries to be both Superman and Rocky, instead of telling a story based entirely in Greco-Roman myth. And sure, yeah, telling the entirety of Heracles’s story is probably not great for Disney’s family-friendly image, but one could easily invent a fictional story with a mostly mythologically-accurate Heracles as a lead character. That’s what Moana aimed to do with Maui, after all (YMMV on how well it did that, though).
Instead of taking the characters and story, and saying, “How do I tell this story to make it relatable to a modern audience?”, writers are saying, “How do I change this story to make it into a modern story with ancient Greek dressing?” I’m sure plenty of writers think they’re asking the former question, too, but the results say otherwise. This isn’t just about applying modern moral ideals on Greek mythology–although that happens a lot, too–but more about ignoring the actual story, as it exists, to tell one that feels more Hollywood.
You could easily take the character of Jason and ask, “Okay, why is this guy so ready to prove himself? How does he lead this crew of heroes?” You can take Heracles, as he exists in the myths, and ask, “What kind of psychology drives this guy? Why does he act the way that he does and deal with what he’s done?” Look at Atalanta and say, “How does she feel about her achievements in a fiercely patriarchal society? What is her motivation?”
Now to be fair, I know a lot of more recent books are doing this–Circe is the famous one, but I know there are others. Goodreads keeps recommending them to me. They’re mostly about Greek mythology from the point of view of the female characters. And that’s good! Diversity of viewpoints is excellent. I’d like to see this extend to mainstream adaptations though, on screen and in games. We’ll start to see more and more people look at mythology–ACTUAL Greco-Roman mythology–and see how they can relate (or not!) to those characters and stories, rather than versions of the stories that have very little to do with the ones on record.
I’m not one who believes ‘everything cool HAS to be a movie or television show’, but gosh, how cool would it be to have a big budget Greek mythology movie that actually followed the myths?
—
Okay, I realize that comparing the Gospel to Greek mythology without really in-depth discussion isn’t necessarily wise outside of, like, a freshman English class in high school, and we can debate how much of the Greek mythology texts we have today are actually religious texts in the way that we think of them. But they’re both mythological traditions so screw it, we’re moving forward!
I thought about this because I recently read David Gemmell’s Troy trilogy, which is about the Trojan War but changes almost every aspect of the character arcs and traits from Greek mythology. Seriously, Helen is a minor character described as not being very attractive, and our leads are Aeneas and Andromache, who are star-crossed lovers. It’s not a bad story, but it’s an odd choice to adapt the story when you’re going to change everything about it.
And Gemmell was hardly alone in this! I keep thinking back to Rise of the Argonauts. It’s a game I love (despite what I’m about to say), even if no one else has heard of it, but I am frustrated because it changes Jason’s motivation to get the Golden Fleece from, “Quest to prove myself,” to “I’ve got to bring back my recently murdered wife.” Essentially, it invents a new female character to fridge so that we have character motivation.
That’s… not great. Remember how I said introducing a love interest is often the quick and easy way of building character likability or motivation? This is that.
[I’m also not a huge fan of how small a role Medea has in the game’s story, but I suspect that might be because the game’s like half-finished. Seriously, this was meant to be Greek mythology Mass Effect when you look at the initial demos!]
There’s the miniseries Jason and the Argonauts, which is in some ways more faithful to the myths, but in others kind of baffling? Instead of the Argonauts being warriors, champions, and athletes, they’re just… random guys. The only people Jason could rustle up (despite having the same names as mythological figures).
Or heck, Disney’s Hercules. As Lindsay Ellis points out in her video on the topic, it’s a movie that tries to be both Superman and Rocky, instead of telling a story based entirely in Greco-Roman myth. And sure, yeah, telling the entirety of Heracles’s story is probably not great for Disney’s family-friendly image, but one could easily invent a fictional story with a mostly mythologically-accurate Heracles as a lead character. That’s what Moana aimed to do with Maui, after all (YMMV on how well it did that, though).
Instead of taking the characters and story, and saying, “How do I tell this story to make it relatable to a modern audience?”, writers are saying, “How do I change this story to make it into a modern story with ancient Greek dressing?” I’m sure plenty of writers think they’re asking the former question, too, but the results say otherwise. This isn’t just about applying modern moral ideals on Greek mythology–although that happens a lot, too–but more about ignoring the actual story, as it exists, to tell one that feels more Hollywood.
You could easily take the character of Jason and ask, “Okay, why is this guy so ready to prove himself? How does he lead this crew of heroes?” You can take Heracles, as he exists in the myths, and ask, “What kind of psychology drives this guy? Why does he act the way that he does and deal with what he’s done?” Look at Atalanta and say, “How does she feel about her achievements in a fiercely patriarchal society? What is her motivation?”
Now to be fair, I know a lot of more recent books are doing this–Circe is the famous one, but I know there are others. Goodreads keeps recommending them to me. They’re mostly about Greek mythology from the point of view of the female characters. And that’s good! Diversity of viewpoints is excellent. I’d like to see this extend to mainstream adaptations though, on screen and in games. We’ll start to see more and more people look at mythology–ACTUAL Greco-Roman mythology–and see how they can relate (or not!) to those characters and stories, rather than versions of the stories that have very little to do with the ones on record.
I’m not one who believes ‘everything cool HAS to be a movie or television show’, but gosh, how cool would it be to have a big budget Greek mythology movie that actually followed the myths?
—
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