“…barking commands to the girls he fashioned from gold…”
Tag: Hephaestus
Greek Mythology 201: What the Movies Miss
This. SO this.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve likely noticed this by now. Flashy visuals, postmodern takes on how god (or in this case the gods) don’t care/may as well be dead, trying to be hyper historical without a sense of what makes the story what it is, extreme fashion choices or drab all-white ensembles that look like they came directly out of Party City, and twenty new takes on Zeus that all seem to ignore one of the most fundamental (and disturbing and thus understandingly ignorable) pieces of his character.
The Greek Myth movie.
Between every strange, well-meaning, or outright deviating interpretation, Hollywood has hit the books again and again with entirely mixed results. I hesitate to say that there have been any interpretations of film myth that have really hit the mark, but there are things heading in the right direction, and things I wish we’d avoided entirely.
So…
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Giveaway going on right meow:
Giveaway for THE AUTOMATION (print edition) going on now: http://t.co/5wtGxWloxf #BooksBooksBooks pic.twitter.com/QEoT6L0KtU
— GB Gabbler & BLA (@CircoFootnotes) October 25, 2014
It fits and it ships:
*Maru not included
GABBLER RECOMMENDS: Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes
Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology by Cory O’Brien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of the most hilarious things I have ever read.
Doing some research to better understand those Automata-creatures that BLA created:
Reading Explorations in the History of Machines and Mechanisms by Teun Koetsier and Marco Ceccarelli (Editors):
“Automata make their first appearance in Homer, in a form that is strikingly similar to those described in On Automaton-Making. Hephaestus is depicted creating self-moving tripods to serve the gods on Olympus (Homer Iliad 18.373-381 [16]). This passage from the Iliad is the inspiration for the later automaton, when what was once impossible and divine becomes possible through the human application of mechanics [17]. Certainly, the form of automaton seen in Heron and Philon would seem to be a conscious emulation of this passage…The most likely context for the display of the automata described in On Automaton-Making, given their size, is that of a symposium, particularly in the case of the moving automaton described in the first book, especially considering its Dionysian theme. There is also a clear parallel created between the three wheeled automata of Heron and the tripods of Hephaestus [16] when they are presented in a sympotic context.”
BLA just gave a shake of the head and told me, “You want to know why some of Heron’s automata theories and musings don’t make much sense? Because Vulcan wouldn’t let such secrets be spread so easily. The exactness of machines now is nothing compared to what the gods once allowed. And I’m not talking about divine machines here. I’m talking about man-made things. Even if made from god-made secrets.”