Deity in film from Fantasia to Walt Disney's Hercules

I began to use film clips in teaching Greek and Roman mythology to take advantage of the appeal of visual images. I soon discovered that students understood them more easily than translations of Classical texts. They could point out differences between film and myth (which led to discussions of discrepancies in various ancient versions) and they noticed subtleties I had not recognized. My debt to them will be obvious. I set about using that awareness to get them to recognize their own attitudes, especially to divinity and heroism, and how they differed from ancient attitudes.

It is possible to produce a film of a Classical myth without including direct divine intervention. Helen of Troy (1959), for example, does not contain any scenes on Olympus or any epiphanies; Athena and Aphrodite appear only as marble statues in the court at Troy. Paris remembers the statue of Aphrodite when he is shipwrecked near Sparta; seeing Helen coming toward him along the shore, he briefly thinks she IS Aphrodite, but soon discovers that she is human.

It hardly needs to be said that nobody these days believes in the existence of the gods and goddesses of Greece. This gives the producers a free hand in representing them because it offends no one when they appear as comic figures like Dionysus in Disney's Fantasia or petulant and jealous like Hera in Jason and the Argonauts. Disbelief in them can be articulated as in the Star Trek episode "Who mourns for Adonais?" or forecast as inevitable progress in human society as Zeus does in Clash of the Titans. But most frequently they exist as a foil for human beings. Heroes of the cinema are not dependant on divine help and they show more honour, loyalty and courage than the Olympians who want to assist them. Mortals are morally better than gods and in Disney's Hercules, the hero who is entitled by both birth and merit to be on Olympus chooses instead to live on earth with his friends.

One segment of Fantasia animates Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony No. 6 in F Major (1808) which, according to the composer "expressed an aspect of rustic life." Beethoven's peasants become creatures from mythology: winged horses, centaurs, cupids and nature spirits, giving an air of unreality and romanticism to the landscape – an unreality also found in the deities who personify the forces of nature.

In the third movement, as putti gather grapes and pour them into a vine press, a jovial little Dionysus joins them with donkey and companions. Dionysus anticipates the fermentation process, becoming joyfully drunk on the juice of freshly picked grapes. He gives visual expression to the grape harvest as Zeus, in the fourth movement, gives visual expression to the storm. In the sky, the Cyclopes forge thunderbolts and lob them to Zeus who launches them at the creatures below. When he grows weary of the game, he kicks off his sandals and wraps himself in a cloud for a nap. The storm subsides and Iris trails a robe of six rainbow colours as she descends from sky to earth; a divine charioteer and galloping horses appear in the disk of the sun as it emerges from behind the storm clouds, watched by the respectful inhabitants of earth; a goddess shoots an arrow from the curved bow of the crescent moon and lets fly a shower of stars; night spreads her dark cloak across the land. All of these divine figures tell the storm story visually; the audience is not expected to take them literally.

Disney takes any sting out of the storm with his animations. Though the peasants are alarmed, Zeus does not hurt anyone with his lightning bolts but intentionally misses the fleeing figures. In both music and animation, nature is benign and everyone is happy. Fantasia was in production at the end of the Depression and released before the attack on Pearl Harbour. If we were to look for a message in this segment, it would seem that the gathering storm clouds of World War II will soon blow over and people will live simply and happily.

Charles H. Schneer had a very different purpose from Disney's. In both Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981) he showed the home of the gods as well as gods in the world of the hero and created two memorable images of Olympus. In Jason Zeus and Hera sit by a pool on Olympus which serves as a window into the world of mortals. Together they watch the progress of the Argo on its way to Colchis and Hera, who is the model for the figurehead on the ship, is permitted to respond to Jason's prayers (up to three times).

In Clash of the Titans, Olympus is a minimalist world of whiteness, mortals are clay figures set in recesses on the wall like figurines in a collector's cabinet, and the world below is a toy amphitheatre in which these clay figures can be placed (and played) like game pieces. The figurine of Danae's father Acrisius is crushed as the man himself is destroyed, the figurine of Calibus, an otherwise unknown son of Thetis, is deformed as Calibus himself is misshapen, and the figurine of the hero Perseus is picked up and moved as the hero himself is transported from Seriphus to Joppa, home of Andromeda.

Both Jason and Perseus are more responsible for their success than the gods. They make no sacrifices to gain divine support; the initiative comes from the gods rather than human prayers. Jason is transported to Olympus to meet the gods and goddesses and offered a ship and crew, but he rejects this, preferring to use his own strength and courage. To be sure, in this film he is assisted by Medea, whose dark side is well hidden.

In the traditional myth, nymphs gave Perseus gifts to help in his quest for Medusa's head: winged sandals, a cap of darkness and a wallet (kibisis) in which to carry Medusa's severed head. He showed his respect and gratitude by using them wisely, guarding them carefully and returning them to the nymphs. In the film, Perseus' three gifts come from three goddesses: from Athena a helmet which has the power to make him invisible, from Aphrodite a sword which can cut through anything and from Hera a shield with a mirrored inner surface. He loses the helmet in the swamp when he fights Calibus the first time, abandons the shield to melt in Medusa's corrosive blood and leaves the sword buried to the hilt in Calibus' stomach on their second encounter. By these actions, he refuses to depend on the gifts of the gods. In place of winged sandals, he hunts and captures the winged horse Pegasus who was born from the neck of the decapitated Medusa in the usual version of the myth.

Villains are needed for heroes to show their valour, friends for them to show loyalty and beautiful heroines to display their gallantry. Jason's enemy is Adrastus, son of Pelias, and Perseus' Calibus, who before his deforming, was suitor of the princess Andromeda. When they are finally defeated, the hero behaves honorably. Both appreciate their loyal friends (Jason's Argonauts and Perseus' band of supporters) and mourn any losses. Romance is a required element, whether Jason rescuing Medea from a shipwreck or Perseus freeing Andromeda from the sea monster.

At this point we watched a clip of Clash of the Titans, from the point when Perseus reached the rock where Andromeda was chained, held up the head of Medusa whose gaze turned the sea monster to stone, and released Andromeda. On Olympus Zeus and various goddesses fret about the effects of human heroism on belief in them, a fear which Zeus recognizes, but comforts the others by assuring them that this time is far in the future.

The film ends with Andromeda in Perseus' arms with the night sky as a backdrop. The constellations associated with the myth are picked out while in a voice-over Zeus says: "As long as man walks the earth and looks questioningly in the night sky in wonder, he will remember the courage of Perseus. For ever, even if we gods are abandoned and forgotten, for the stars will never fade."

If Jason and Perseus ignore the gods and put their trust in their own efforts, the crew of the Enterprise in the original Star Trek series, openly disbelieve in divine intervention. In the final scene of "Obsession", engineer Scotty comments in relief at the safe return of Captain Kirk and Officer Garrovick, "Thank God." Spock the rationalist retorts, "There was no deity involved, Mr. Scott. It was my cross-circuit to selector B that recovered them." To this Doctor McCoy replies "Well, thank pitchforks and pointed ears, then", a hint that Spock's ears are a sign of kinship with the devil (Star Trek 9 (1973) 124). There is no evidence that the crew of the Enterprise paid more than lip service to religion. Like those imagined by Zeus in Clash of the Titans, they have "learned to deal with the universe without gods."

What happens then when they come face to face with a god (or one who claims to be a god)? In "Who mourns for Adonais?" the Enterprise is held in orbit round a planet by a force depicted on the screen first by a disembodied hand, then by a laurel-wreathed head. The team of McCoy, Spock, Captain Kirk and a beautiful new crew member Carolyn Palamas beams down to the surface of the planet and there discovers a humanoid figure in a Greek tunic and sandals, seated in front of a Greek style temple against which rests a lyre. Apollo. This figure turns out to be both powerful and demanding; he expects the crew of the Enterprise to settle on this planet and herd flocks of sheep, - and to bring him offerings and worship him, as he says the Greeks once did. Apollo sets about to seduce Carolyn, comparing her to beautiful women he loved in the past.

There is a natural explanation for Apollo, as the crew discovers. The temple is really a power source which allows the frightening displays of force against the unwilling crew. Once it is destroyed, Apollo fades away as, he has told the visitors to his planet, Aphrodite, Hera, Athena and the others gradually faded away when there was no one to worship them.

Perhaps the oddest lines in this episode are Apollo's question "what else does mankind demand of its gods?" and Kirk's terse reply "We find one sufficient" (Star Trek 7 (1972) 18). Is this to be heard as a statement of the superiority of monotheism over polytheism – one god is enough for our needs - or is it a dismissal of religion – one god gives us enough trouble?

Star Trek was born at a time of optimism in the potential of human achievement "to boldly go where no man has gone before." The future will see conflicts between civilisations resolved and war a thing of the past - at least in the Federation. Apollo was just one more obstacle in the search for new worlds, able to delay the Enterprise for a while but not permanently. The deities worshipped by the Greeks (and others) were not truly divine – just very long lived. The gods needed human worship if they were to continue to exist; and if people ignored them, they eventually went away.

The last film in this study is Walt Disney's Hercules (1997). In this version Hercules is the son of both Zeus and Hera, kidnapped by the wicked Hades and unaware of his true nature. He must prove himself worthy of being a god and earn the right to live on Olympus by heroic deeds. Hercules falls in love with a mortal, Meg(ara), who has been forced by Hades to seduce the hero in order to free herself from enslavement.

One innovation in this film is the creation of Hades as a divine villain, whose blazing hair owes more to Christian imagery of the devil than Classical imagery of the god of the Underworld. (This demonizing of Hades moves Zeus closer to identification with God in a monotheistic system). Hades enters into two bargains with Hercules: he offers to free Meg if Hercules will give up his strength for twenty-four hours and he accepts Hercules' offer of his life in return for Meg's. When the first bargain is struck, Hades launches an unprovoked attack on Olympus and dethrones Zeus. Hercules whose strength has been taken from him nonetheless fights hard to rescue Zeus. The bargain he made with Hades is nullified and his strength regained when Meg is badly hurt, though Hades had promised that she would be safe.

Hades' second bargain is made after Meg dies and Hercules goes to the Underworld to bring her back as Orpheus descended to rescue Eurydice. (Heracles defeated death in myth, wrestling with Thanatos at the graveside to win back Alcestis, and in the labours which won him immortality). Hercules dives into the River of Death ready to die in Meg's place; but the Fates cannot cut the thread of his life because he has won immortality (shown by a total–body halo effect) by his heroic act. He hurls Hades into the abyss and reunites Meg's spirit with her body. Hercules has become a Christ figure, a son of God, who raises Meg from the dead and triumphs over the evil one.

But we are not finished with the love story yet. Hercules, now immortal, is whisked off to Olympus where mother Hera and father Zeus greet him warmly and welcome him home.

At this point we watched a clip from the film with Hades tumbling into the abyss, Hercules reuniting Meg's spirit with her body, the two carried on a cloud to the foot of the stairs leading up to Olympus, Hercules' reunion with his parents and his realization that he prefers mortal life on earth with Meg to immortal life on Olympus.

Other films showed mortals growing beyond their gods; this film shows a god giving up immortality to be with his friends and above all with the woman he loves. Like Odysseus who turned down Calypso's offer of immortality as her eternal boy-toy and chose to return to Penelope, Hercules feels more at home as a mortal (though in his case, he was entitled to immortality by birth as well as by deeds). "Finally I know where I belong," he says and Zeus smiles approvingly – and we approve too. What would Hercules do all day on Olympus?

It is the hero and not a god whom we admire, the hero who puts his strength and intelligence to work defeating evil doers, who values friendship and love above fame and even immortality – not the solitary hero of Classical myth but the social animal. Where there are no heroes, as in Fantasia, the "peasants" attribute causality to divine power and are grateful for divine intervention much as Apollo expected the crew of the Enterprise to be content to lead simple, dependant lives and bring him offerings.

M. Eleanor Irwin

University of Toronto at Scarborough

February 24, 2002.

Films and film scripts:

Fantasia (1941) Walt Disney Studios: section with animation of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony No. 6 in F Major (1808), specifically the third movement, the "Merrymaking of the Peasants", the fourth "The Storm" and the fifth, "Thanksgiving after the storm."

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) Charles H. Schneer production

Star Trek "Who mourns for Adonais" (air date September 22, 1967)

series created by Gene Roddenberry

episode written by Gilbert A. Ralston and Gene L. Coon;

Star Trek 7 adapted by James Blish, 1972, 1-27

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Charles H. Schneer production, screenplay by Beverley Cross

Special effects by Ray Harryhausen,

Lawrence Olivier as Zeus and Harry Hamlin as Perseus.

Clash of the Titans Alan Dean Foster, 1981.

Hercules (1997) Walt Disney Studios