# Movies about classical gods (Greek and Norse, mostly) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202 "2004-12-16T20:30:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/1 "2004-12-16T20:30:17Z")
I can’t really think of many movies that featured the well known exploits of the classical gods. There was _Clash of the Titans_ (Unicorns kick ass!), the recent _Troy_ (just barely qualifies, if at all), and that made for tv _Hulk_ movie that featured Thor running around in tights with a serious mad-on. Can you guys recommend some others while simultaneously discussing why there haven’t been more? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/2 "2004-12-16T20:38:23Z")
There was the Disney cartoon **Hercules** , the Harryhausen FX film _Jason and the Argonauts_, and the Pythonesque **Erik the Viking**. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/3 "2004-12-16T20:39:13Z")
Well, the gods figure tangentally in _Ulysses_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/4 "2004-12-16T20:42:48Z")
“Hercules Goes Bananas”? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/5 "2004-12-16T21:01:42Z")
Sci-Fi or USA recently did _The Oddysey_. Should be in video stores. If the Lady in the Lake counts, _Excalibur_. _The Mummy_ might also qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/6 "2004-12-16T21:05:38Z")
There’s Jason and the Argonauts and several Hercules movies (one awful one starring Lou Ferrigno) ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/7 "2004-12-16T21:08:12Z")
Clash of the Titans. Killer cast, cheeeeeeeeeesy movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/8 "2004-12-16T21:09:27Z")
**Hercules in New York** , Arnold Strong’s first starring role. 😉 As a side note, I saw the actress who played Hera on stage a couple of years ago in Michael Frayn’s **Copenhagen**. She’s a much better actress than the movie would indicate (but then, so’s Arnie). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/9 "2004-12-16T21:19:34Z")
One of the classics—and it still exists, thank goodness!—is the German silent [Die Nibelungen](http://imdb.com/title/tt0015175/), directed by Fritz Lang. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/10 "2004-12-17T00:51:08Z")
No unicorns in **Clash of the Titans** – there’s Pegasus though. And **The Odyssey** was a Hallmark production. They just ended up showing it later on USA and the Sci-Fi channel. One of the producers was Nicholas Meyer, the unsung _king_ of TV-movies. As mentioned above, the Harryhausen flicks **Clash of the Titans** and **Jason and the Argonauts** feature the Gods - pretty much an all-star cast in CotT. And I’ll take issue with the cheesy – screenwtriter Beverly Cross was a classical education. **The Odyssey** was pretty good. I bought it on DVD and have re-watched it several times. I’ll even defend Disney’s version of **Hercules** , which depicted the gods (and the underapreciated TV series based on it, which was written by some truly twisted writers. On Prometheus Day at Hercules’ ancient Greek high school, they served Liver and Onions.) A lot of moves about Greek mths sidestep the gods, though. Besides the recent **Troy** , there’s also Kirk Douglas’ version of the Odyssey, not to mention several of those early 1960s Hercules films and their imitators.No gods in most, if not all, of them. The recent animated **Sinbad** movie featured Eris, the goddess of Discord. Th seems pretty twisted – Eris was never anybody’s major deity, and Sinbad was supposed to be Arabic. In the film **Atlantis, the Lost Continent** (the George Pal 1960 film, not he recent animated Disney film) there’s a brief dream sequence with, apparently, **Poseidon**. You’d have better luck seeing the gods on TV They show up in **Hercules** (The animated Disney series **Hercules** the Kevin Sorbo series, with Anthony Quinn playing Zeus **The Mighty Hercules** an early 1960s made-for-TV independent effort. If you wonder why I support the Disney version, look no further than this – it makes a real muddle of Greek mythology. There was a series about the Gods coming to Earth starring Robert Morse. I didn’t watch it, but t reminded me of Thorne Smith’s “Night Life of the Gods”. And wasn’t there a Tv series **Cupid**? As for the Norse gods – I didn’t see Fritz Langs films {I thought he did a **Siegfried** , too, otr as that part of the \*\* Nibelungen\*\*?) I can’t recall any other examples, except that the Marvel character **Thor** shows up in a TV movie “The TRial of Spider-Man”, and Vincent D’Onofrio (!) plays someone who looks like him in **adventures in Babysitting**. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/11 "2004-12-17T04:44:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As for the Norse gods – I didn’t see Fritz Langs films {I thought he did a **Siegfried** , too, otr as that part of the \*\* Nibelungen\*\*?) I can’t recall any other examples, except that the Marvel character **Thor** shows up in a TV movie “The TRial of Spider-Man”, and Vincent D’Onofrio (!) plays someone who looks like him in **adventures in Babysitting**. Check out **Erik the Viking** as mentioned by **ArchiveGuy**. I thought it was the best representation of classical gods I’d ever seen. Plus, the movie is funny as hell, if you like Norse mythology and Terry Gilliam. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/12 "2004-12-17T04:48:10Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Check out **Erik the Viking** as mentioned by **ArchiveGuy**. I thought it was the best representation of classical gods I’d ever seen. Plus, the movie is funny as hell, if you like Norse mythology and Terry Gilliam. Which reminds me of another Gilliam flick, **Baron von Munchausen** , which has several classical gods in it. Terry must be a fan. This makes the second time I’ve referenced Baron von Munchausen here on the SDMB tonight, and for completely different reasons. Odd, that. (The little girl’s hair is red, right?) ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/13 "2004-12-17T10:29:27Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Check out **Erik the Viking** as mentioned by **ArchiveGuy**. I thought it was the best representation of classical gods I’d ever seen. Plus, the movie is funny as hell, if you like Norse mythology and Terry Gilliam. And Eartha Kitt. I always liked the depiction of the Olympian gods in Harryhausen movies: not quite as petty and snarky as in the myths, but they basically play chess with mortals for kicks, which isn’t too far from how Homer depicted them. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/14 "2004-12-17T11:39:49Z")
Hmmm… A flick depicting the Norse gods’ adventures would be a great opportunity to depict scenes of breathtaking wintry beauty as well as rippling musculature. If the Nazis just hadn’t ruined it all by sticking their overtones in. ---
**Author:** ![blinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@blinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinx)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/15 "2004-12-17T14:50:49Z")
Well there is this one: > **[Valhalla (1986) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094238/)** > > Valhalla: Directed by Peter Madsen, Jeffrey James Varab. With Dick Kaysø, Preben Kristensen, Laura Bro, Marie Ingerslev. Through Loki's treachery, two children in the Viking age find themselves spirited away into the world of Norse Mythology. It’s a cartoon and proberly quite hard to find, but imho it’s really good. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/16 "2004-12-17T15:21:03Z")
Apparently, SON OF THE MASK has Odin & Loki in it. Alan Cummings plays Loki. In the comic, is the Mask really a creation/tool of Loki? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/17 "2004-12-17T15:56:48Z")
[Sampo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053240/) AKA “The Day the Earth Froze”. Famously lampooned on MST3K. Lots of Norse mythology. Also, [The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052156/). ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/18 "2004-12-17T17:41:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As mentioned above, the Harryhausen flicks **Clash of the Titans** and **Jason and the Argonauts** feature the Gods - pretty much an all-star cast in CotT. And I’ll take issue with the cheesy – screenwtriter Beverly Cross was a classical education.\*\*. _shrug_ Lots of people have classical educations. I don’t have an issue with the script, but all mythology movies are cheesy to some extent. Not that I’m complaining; I happen to like cheese. (We need look no further than Krull; good goddess, what a cheesy movie. My favorite when I was a kid, though) In this case, it’s a combination of the claymation and somewhat over the top acting on the part of Sir Laurence et al. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/19 "2004-12-17T18:14:55Z")
> **[Metamorphoses (1978) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078495/)** > > Metamorphoses: Directed by Takashi. With Peter Ustinov. Several animated stories from "Metamorphoses", Roman poet Ovid's narrative of legends, are presented. _Winds of Change._ A Japanese animated version of several Greek myths, with a disco soundtrack. The music will frequently make you cringe, but the film itself is not bad. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202/20 "2004-12-17T23:35:59Z")
> [@](#): > > [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078495/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078495/) > > Winds of Change. A Japanese animated version of several Greek myths, with a disco soundtrack. The music will frequently make you cringe, but the film itself is not bad. Damn! I forgot this one – and I mentioned it in my book, too. It was originally titled [BMetamorphoses\*\*, since it was inspired by Ovid’s poem of that name. And it’s extremely difficult to find. I have a copy of the Perseus and JMedusa segment, which has the goddess Athena. The film is pretty bad, unfortunately. It was Japanese-American co-production, ad the heros are all little-kid-with-oversized-head people. The animation is disappointing and frequently boring, the sound quality abysmal (although that might be due in part to the copy I have), and Peter Ustinov provides uninspired narration. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. This was _supposed_ to be the modern response to _Fantasia_, with a rock score featuring THe Rolling Sones and other heavy hitters. There wasn’t supposed to be any narration, and some of the animators ctually _had_ worked on Fantasia. Others were modern comics artists, like Mike Ploog. Somehow, it all got messed up. The score desn’t feature any original good music by noted artists, the storytelling is substandard and so is the animation (watch how many times they repeat the same action, pointlessly. Look at the fact that they had to have narration, because they couldn’t _show_ you what was going on. hey needed Ustinov to make the story intelligible.) Other candidates: **Fantasia** , of course – Zeus and Hephaestus and Dionysus and Artemis and Iris and Night. The **Star Trek – TOS** episode “Who Mourns for Adonis?” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-classical-gods-greek-and-norse-mostly/280202.md?page=2)