Evan Lu, Period 1, 10/11/2023

Evan Lu
Period 7
10/11/23
Seniors 2023


Modern Mythology 2024



“Clash of Titans” (1981) is a movie that follows Perseus and his story of marrying princess Andromeda, but Calibos, who previously intended to marry her, couldn’t because he has been punished by Zeus. Even though he can’t marry her, he gives every suitor a riddle through a vulture at night that takes Andromeda to give the riddle to her and if the suitor fails to solve it they die. Perseus gets teleported to Joppa where he meets an actor the gods give him a sword that can slice through marble easily, a shield that Zeus claims will one day save his life, and a helmet that grants invisibility. Perseus sneaks into Calibos lair and finds out the answer to his riddle using his helmet, but he gets found out and Calibos attacks him and he chops off Calibos hand. At the next suitor ceremony Perseus gives the right answer- gold rings with pearls and gets to marry Andromeda. Andromeda's mom called Andromeda prettier than Thetis, who was Calibos mom and so they wanted to kill Andromeda or they would release a kraken on Joppa kingdom. Perseus finds and kills Medusa to get her head, which turned anything that looked at her to stone. Calibos found out about this and went to attack Perseus and stabbed the bag which Medusa's head was in which dripped blood. This spawned 3 giant scorpions that Perseus fought off. Perseus kills Calibos. Then he turns the kraken to stone and then he successfully saves Andromeda and marries her. I thought this movie was interesting and I think Perseus was really tenacious and diligent. Perseus had to do everything he could in order to marry Andromeda. This was not easy because of the riddle and other things that Calibos was doing to try to mess with Andromeda just because he could not marry her anymore. During all of the fights I felt like Perseus never gave up and kept on fighting even if it was hard and persevered through everything diligently. I felt that Perseus could have done better and after he chopped off Calibos arm, he should have gone back and found the helmet as it would have helped in the fight against medusa.

I learned about Perseus, Thetis, Zeus, Athena, Hephaestus, Medusa, and Calibos. Perseus was Zeus’s son, Thetis was Calibos’s mom and she was the goddess of the sea. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and Hephaestus is the god of blacksmiths. Medusa is a mortal who was cursed by the gods to turn anyone who looked at her into stone and Calibos is a mortal who was punished by Zeus. This learning influences my critical perception because it teaches me about Greek mythology and Greek culture and beliefs. Through this movie I learned about what Greek culture is like, for example they were really religious and believed in many gods and each god was the god of something and Zeus was the ruler of the gods. Learning this influenced my critical perception by changing how I saw the ancient Greeks. I thought they were slightly religious but I did not know that they had this many gods and goddesses and that they were extremely religious. I also didn’t know why Medusa was killed and who Calibos and Andromeda were. This changed my critical perception because it gave a reason to why Medusa was killed, I always thought she was killed because she was a monster but she was actually a mortal who got killed so that Perseus could save his kingdom.
I have also learned that what we viewed in class was not entirely accurate and that in real Greek mythology, there were multiple versions of Medusa, one was where Medusa got raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple and got cursed by Athena. In another version, Medusa was born along with Stheno and Euryale who were her sisters. Out of the 3 sisters she was the only mortal and the other sisters were immortal. They were all monsters with snake hair. In Greek mythology, King of Argos heard a prophecy that his own grandson would kill him. He locked up his daughter Danae so she couldn’t have a child so he wouldn’t have a grandson. Zeus ended up having a kid with Danae anyway. When the king found out Danae was pregnant, he threw her and Perseusinto a chest and threw her and Perseus into the ocean. They land on the island of Serifos where a fisherman saves them. Dictys, the fisherman raises Perseus. The king of Serifos loved Danae but she didn’t reciprocate the feelings. Polydectes, the king of Serifos decided that Perseus was the reason and sent him on a quest to kill Medusa thinking he would die.The gods gave Perseus a sword, winged sandals (winged horse in some versions of the story), a mirror, and a invisibility cap. He killed her flying around invisible with a mirror to avoid looking at her. While flying home, he passed by Ethiopia where he saw a helpless girl named Andromeda. The queen bragged about her daughter (Andromeda) being prettier than the sea nymphs and Poseidon released a sea monster called Cetus To destroy Ethiopia. The king of Ethiopia told Zeus and Zeus told him to sacrifice his daughter to save his kingdom. Perseus fell in love with Andromeda and he killed Cetus the sea monster. Perseus came back to Serifos with Andromeda as his wife and turned the king of Serifos to stone because he was still pursuing Danae. Perseus made the fisherman the king of the island and went back to the kingdom of Argos. He participates in a sports competition and kills his grandfather accidentally while doing a discus throw and the prophecy becomes true.
The movie is inaccurate to Greek mythology in multiple ways as in Greek mythology there was no Calibos or kraken and in the movie Andromeda was accepting suitors. In actual Greek mythology there was the prophecy while in the movie there was no prophecy about Perseus killing his own grandfather. The movie also mentions Joppa and the gods transporting him to Joppa instead of Serifos and the movie does not mention Perseus being born or his grandfather. In the movie Perseus looks for Medusa of his own will because he needs it to kill the kraken while in Greek mythology the king challenges him to do it. Some similarities do exist such as the gods giving Perseus weapons and items, Perseus getting transported to a new kingdom/ island, Andromeda getting sacrificed to a sea monster/ kraken, Andromeda's mother insulting someone which causes their daughter to get sacrificed and lastly Perseus marrying Andromeda. While there were some similarities, the movie was inaccurate and the director changed a lot of the Greek mythology to create a better plot.

What I am learning can be applied to other classes and the world around me is that I can be tenacious and smart. Perseus is tenacious and smart. This movie kind of teaches me to be smarter and never give up. Perseus had to persevere through many obstacles in order to marry Andromeda. He had to be smart and come up with ways to get over the obstacles, one example being when he found out about the kraken that was going to be summoned if they didn't sacrifice Andromeda, he found a way to kill the kraken by killing medusa and turning the kraken to stone. This was smart because if it were me, I would have tried to kill the kraken using the sword the god gave me and probably would have failed. He is also tenacious as when he was fighting Medusa, he had to have gotten scared and wanted to give up but he came through and endured through the fight and finally beheaded medusa. I can learn to persevere throughout working out and being smart in school.