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Greek Mythology


tom

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That was Hercules? I thought that was Thor.

Not in Jason and the Argonauts. I don't think Hercules is in it either.

 

 

I was talking about the drinking from a cup story.

 

Yeah Thor drank the sea.

 

Woah, woah, woah. Thats thrown me now, because it was when we were learning about ancient Greece but at that age I doubt we would have noticed and were just stoked to be watching a video so they could have shown something else or we watched a few and they merged in my memory.

 

I'll have to go looking into that, see if my memory's thrown me off. Many thanks for the help.

 

I watched Jason and the Argonauts in high school, it was an ace film and I intend to pick it up but I was hoping to try and pick up a few films in a bundle to work through, so any other recommendations would be grand.

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Just found the Thor story the drinking came from.

 

Thor and his companions arrived at Utgard. Utgarda-Loki was the king of the giants.

 

Utgarda-Loki told them he would allow them stay at Utgard, if they had any special skill. Loki declared he could out-eat any giant. Loki ate all of the meat from the bone, but his rival named Logi, ate meat, bone and even the trencher. Obviously Loki lost to Logi.

 

Then Thialfi challenged the giant in a foot race, but he lost all three races against the giant named Hugi, each time doing worse than the last time.

 

Next, Thor challenged them a drinking contest. Utgarda-Loki had a servant bring out a long drinking horn. Anyone able to empty the horn in one draught would be considered a great drinker, and a good drinker in two draughts.

 

Try as he might, Thor could not empty the horn in one draught. The frustrated thunder-god couldn't even finish it in two or even three draughts.

 

Thor was becoming quite belligerent, preferring to fight someone. Utgarda-Loki challenged Thor if could lift a large cat. Thor struggled and tried to lift the large cat off the ground, but failed. All he succeeded was lifting one of the cat's legs.

 

Thor insisted on fighting someone. Utgarda-Loki, however, sent an old crone named Elli to wrestle with Thor. Thor could not even move the crone, but the old woman managed to pull him off balance.

 

Thor was ready to bash the giant for the embarrassment, but Utgarda-Loki placating offered the angry god and his companions a place to sleep.

 

In the morning, after Thor and his friends ate their breakfast, the king of the giants took them outside of Utgard.

 

Utgarda-Loki revealed the truth of the events of the last few days. Utgarda-Loki told Thor that he was Skrymir, the giant they met in the forest.

 

Skrymir was actually an illusion. Had Thor struck right on the mark, he would have killed Utgarda-Loki. The contestants that Thor and his companions had compete against, were also illusions.

 

Loki did not lose the eating contest to a giant (Logi), but to a wildfire. While Thialfi raced against Utgarda-Loki's thought, not the giant Hugi.

 

The other end of drinking horn was out in the sea. What Thor was drinking was the sea. The level of the sea had actually dropped considerably from Thor's deep draughts.

 

As for the cat. Well, one of the cat's legs, Thor managed to lift off the ground was actually the tail of the Midgard Serpent. And the old crone (Elli) Thor was wrestling with, was nothing but "old age" itself.

 

Utgarda-Loki was really quite amazed what Thor managed to achieve. Utgarda-Loki told Thor to leave J

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ROTM, that sounds about right, its certainly familiar. It must have been a film about Thor. Its odd how you remember things.

 

Many thanks again, really good of you.

 

A lot of mythology movies "borrow" from other stories. Jason And The Argonauts for example: the famous scene where skeleton warriors emerge from the ground is actually from the story of Cadmus, when he founded Thebes. Also, Hercules' companion, Hylas, wasn't crushed by the fall of Talos, he was abducted by a gang of lake nymphs who'd fallen in love with him, the dirty bitches.

 

Clash Of The Titans is barely the story of Perseus at all - visiting the underworld, riding Pegasus, the Kraken, Kalibos, the giant vulture, none of these featured in the original story. Perseus was able to fly because of a gift of winged sandals from Hermes, and Pegasus was actually born from the blood of Medusa when Perseus killed her - the only human ever storied to have ridden Pegasus was Bellerophon, who killed the Chimaera. Also, they left out how Medusa was actually one of three gorgon "sisters", the other two of whom were immortal and couldn't be killed. Kalibos was the son of Thetis, but he had nothing to do with Perseus' story, and wasn't deformed by Zeus. And, obviously, the Kraken was a creature of Viking myth, not Greek.

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Growing Up, Tony Robinson did a fantastic at the time series Odysseus: The Greatest Hero of Them All. We also did bits and bats a junior school but after that all things Greek died on their arse as was all modern history largely, which is a shame

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Yeah, in fact right now Im studying it through the Open University. A not horrible place to start would be if you could find a cheap copy of Ovids Metamorphoses. Its in poetic form, but it covers the creation of the world through to Julius Ceasar. Obviously the Gods and heroes are given their Roman names rather than the Greek, but in fairness the differences are fairly minimal.

 

 

I just found a PDF for you, if you fancy it.

 

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/klineasovid.htm

Thanks for the PDF, it looks top notch. I'm certainly going to be busy! :thumbsup:

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Homer's works about Odysseus have spawned some good fiction over time, can't think of any great movies around it tho.

O Brother where art thou.

 

Oh, and yeah, I studied it at university. I love this shit

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