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Greek epic in film


Greek mythology has consistently served as a source for many filmmakers due to its artistic appeal. Antiquity has been reimagined in many ways and these recreations have been met with great public success regardless of their individual achievements. The plot lines of epic poetry are even more appealing with their enthralling battles, heroic characters, monsters, and gods. And now, with modern technology and computer-generated imagery (CGI), our ability as a society to recreate greek mythology on screen has improved greatly.

As a scholar of Homer put it,

"At the beginning of literature, when heroic poetry reach society as a whole...society listened; in the twentieth century society views... the modern heroic medium is film, and not necessarily the productions that are held in highest critical regard."

The ancient Greek epic poem the Iliad (Ἰλιάς) details the final year of the decade-long Trojan War. The war began due to divine interaction with mortals: Eris, personification of strife and discord, presented a golden apple to the goddesses Aphrodite, Athena and Hera but instructed that only the fairest of them could keep it. Zeus sends the three women to Paris, the prince of Troy, who decides to award the apple to Aphrodite, who promises to make the beautiful Helen – wife of Greek King Menelaus – his wife. Paris' taking of Helen begins the fighting between the Greeks and Trojans. Although the initial rivalry exists between King Menelaus and Paris, the epic poem highlights the argument between Greek hero Achilles and the Greek King Agamemnon, Achilles' inner turmoil about whether or not he wants to engage in the fighting, and the overall heroic desire for kleos (κλέος, "glory, fame") and eventual nostos (νόστος, "homecoming").


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Wikipedia

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