"Clash of the Gods"
Sep. 23rd, 2009 04:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polutropeOMG "Clash of the Gods" is not a good TV show for me to watch at 4:30 in the morning, as it makes me laugh much too hard. In any case, reactions as I go along. Silly and serious.
-"For the Ancient Greeks, it was reality." Well yes and no but mainly no and aaaargh.
-Awesome CGI, there.
-They keep showing the ocean and talking about Zeus' power. Poseidon is really pissed now. :(
-"This is the myth in its original form..."
-"What we know of Zeus starts with Hesiod..." and Homer* says, "Fuck you!"
-HIGHLY INFLUENCED BY NEAR EASTERN MYTHOLOGY (of course this is not mentioned. Hesiod was probably not recording native mythology.)
-Re: The Titans: "They're not too bright." Prometheus joins Homer. And Metis is too polite to, but she's thinking it.
-Way to not mention Uranus at all.
-Oh god there's a shot of the gods in Cronos' stomache
-He doesn't want to let the Olympians "build a power base." AMONG WHO?
-Discussion of Greek taboo on human sacrifice. Debatable; see Walter Bukert, Homo Necans.
-They just animated a frieze of Rhea giving Cronos a rock.
-"Could that cave really exist? The Greeks certainly thought so." Um, they also located the Cyclops' cave. Polyphemus is totally historical, guys!
-OMG, the birthplace of Zeus was a cult location? I never would have guessed. (Also, trying to make controversy from it makes no sense.)
-"Now he is ready to begin the epic power struggle he was born to wage"
-what is Hestia going to do, shake her head disapprovingly at the Titans? (Talking about Zeus getting allies from his flesh and blood.)
-(Not about the show, but oh geez when they said "most sacred place in Greece I was totally thinking Elusis. Cultist right here!)
-You do not know how much I wish I could screen capture the CGI of Zeus with lightning in his hands. :(
-"And to this day a real place may bear the scars" of Zeus' lightning. OKAY!
-THERA. REALLY. you cannot bring Thera into frickin' everything.
-UM. I am pretty sure that not all the Titans can be in Tartarus because many of them marry Olympians, and give birth to Olympians (MAIA!)
-"But what is the link to reality?"
-"He may be the only one that mattered." uh, too bad he couldn't convince Demeter to come out of hiding without lots of bargaining.*
"Zeus will stop at nothing to get his conquests. He even uses disguise." send help i can't stop laughing*
-wait, when did we get up to mortal women? what happened to the giants?
-"He swallows his wife. Alive." Um, as a fly? that's kind of important?
-Oh god this woman wants to use phren so hard and she can't.
-Also Hera looks exactly like Natalie Dessay.
-Aw, poor Thetis gets left out of her part in telling the Hundred-Handed about Zeus being chained up.
-OMG, there's more than one flood myth? You don't say.
-Yeah, there was really no challenge at all to Zeus and the Olympians until Christianity. And none of the cults promised life after death.
-LOL "Zeus' stranglehold on humankind." because "humankind"="the Mediterranean world"
I know that logically, the show's for entertainment, and I guess cheesy CGI of Cronos throwing lightning provides that - but "drink deep or not at all." Or, to revise, make sure the water you're drinking from the Pierian Spring is filtered.* It's fine to have a little knowledge on a subject, as long as it's correct, but this isn't. Some of it is simplification, sure, but it's so simplified that it's wrong.* I am being elitist at the base of this - but there cannot be anything more annoying than arguing with someone who's had the equivalent of this show and thinks that makes them an expert.
Something like "For the Ancient Greeks, it was reality" is of course in there for drama. But. That's one of the things I want to study and can't really, because whether or not Sophocles* believed in the gods he wrote about, and if so did he do so literally, can't be gleaned from writing. So reducing the subject to a dramatic quote is quite frustrating.
They claim that people thought Zeus was the single god, which I am pretty sure is not true. I think Dionysus, or a general nameless "theos." But not Zeus.
Wait a second. They found a statue that says "Zeus the highest" and they think it might be a "missing link" between Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions? That makes no sense at all. 1. Homer uses "most powerful" all the time. 2. the superlative implies a comparison. If Zeus is the highest, there are other gods who are not quite so high. 3. Thou shalt worship no other god above me implies other gods.
Ugh, "the Greeks" as a monolith. Greek religion was very customizable; if some accepted Zeus as the one god, plenty of others continued to go to Elusis up to the 2nd century AD*.
"After all, the name Zeus is where we get divinity, so there's an etymological reason to make him the highest god..." It's the other way around! also it means sky and is the same name as Tyr, which does not mean divine.
They're presenting Zeus and Hera as having equal power, which I have never felt. I really don't know where they're getting that from; except for her interference with his love affairs, she really seems to recede into the background.
--
*Also the authors of the Homeric Hymns, but nobody knows who they are so who cares.
*Seriously you can probably get giardiasis from that stuff now.
*This footnote is purely because I ramble: while their saying that the Titans are "sort of rough-hewn" is totally wrong, they are all third function and war of the Aesir and Vanir I hate you so much M. Dumézil.
*Ha ha ha not using Euripides for a very good reason.
*I probably should use CE, but I like AD.
*Oh man, I have no idea why I'm referencing Demeter and Persephone/Kore so much.
*Ce qui prouve ces metamorphoses/c'est que tu te trouves si laid/que pour faire aimer tu n'oses/apparer tel que l'on t'a fait
-"For the Ancient Greeks, it was reality." Well yes and no but mainly no and aaaargh.
-Awesome CGI, there.
-They keep showing the ocean and talking about Zeus' power. Poseidon is really pissed now. :(
-"This is the myth in its original form..."
-"What we know of Zeus starts with Hesiod..." and Homer* says, "Fuck you!"
-HIGHLY INFLUENCED BY NEAR EASTERN MYTHOLOGY (of course this is not mentioned. Hesiod was probably not recording native mythology.)
-Re: The Titans: "They're not too bright." Prometheus joins Homer. And Metis is too polite to, but she's thinking it.
-Way to not mention Uranus at all.
-Oh god there's a shot of the gods in Cronos' stomache
-He doesn't want to let the Olympians "build a power base." AMONG WHO?
-Discussion of Greek taboo on human sacrifice. Debatable; see Walter Bukert, Homo Necans.
-They just animated a frieze of Rhea giving Cronos a rock.
-"Could that cave really exist? The Greeks certainly thought so." Um, they also located the Cyclops' cave. Polyphemus is totally historical, guys!
-OMG, the birthplace of Zeus was a cult location? I never would have guessed. (Also, trying to make controversy from it makes no sense.)
-"Now he is ready to begin the epic power struggle he was born to wage"
-what is Hestia going to do, shake her head disapprovingly at the Titans? (Talking about Zeus getting allies from his flesh and blood.)
-(Not about the show, but oh geez when they said "most sacred place in Greece I was totally thinking Elusis. Cultist right here!)
-You do not know how much I wish I could screen capture the CGI of Zeus with lightning in his hands. :(
-"And to this day a real place may bear the scars" of Zeus' lightning. OKAY!
-THERA. REALLY. you cannot bring Thera into frickin' everything.
-UM. I am pretty sure that not all the Titans can be in Tartarus because many of them marry Olympians, and give birth to Olympians (MAIA!)
-"But what is the link to reality?"
-"He may be the only one that mattered." uh, too bad he couldn't convince Demeter to come out of hiding without lots of bargaining.*
"Zeus will stop at nothing to get his conquests. He even uses disguise." send help i can't stop laughing*
-wait, when did we get up to mortal women? what happened to the giants?
-"He swallows his wife. Alive." Um, as a fly? that's kind of important?
-Oh god this woman wants to use phren so hard and she can't.
-Also Hera looks exactly like Natalie Dessay.
-Aw, poor Thetis gets left out of her part in telling the Hundred-Handed about Zeus being chained up.
-OMG, there's more than one flood myth? You don't say.
-Yeah, there was really no challenge at all to Zeus and the Olympians until Christianity. And none of the cults promised life after death.
-LOL "Zeus' stranglehold on humankind." because "humankind"="the Mediterranean world"
I know that logically, the show's for entertainment, and I guess cheesy CGI of Cronos throwing lightning provides that - but "drink deep or not at all." Or, to revise, make sure the water you're drinking from the Pierian Spring is filtered.* It's fine to have a little knowledge on a subject, as long as it's correct, but this isn't. Some of it is simplification, sure, but it's so simplified that it's wrong.* I am being elitist at the base of this - but there cannot be anything more annoying than arguing with someone who's had the equivalent of this show and thinks that makes them an expert.
Something like "For the Ancient Greeks, it was reality" is of course in there for drama. But. That's one of the things I want to study and can't really, because whether or not Sophocles* believed in the gods he wrote about, and if so did he do so literally, can't be gleaned from writing. So reducing the subject to a dramatic quote is quite frustrating.
They claim that people thought Zeus was the single god, which I am pretty sure is not true. I think Dionysus, or a general nameless "theos." But not Zeus.
Wait a second. They found a statue that says "Zeus the highest" and they think it might be a "missing link" between Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions? That makes no sense at all. 1. Homer uses "most powerful" all the time. 2. the superlative implies a comparison. If Zeus is the highest, there are other gods who are not quite so high. 3. Thou shalt worship no other god above me implies other gods.
Ugh, "the Greeks" as a monolith. Greek religion was very customizable; if some accepted Zeus as the one god, plenty of others continued to go to Elusis up to the 2nd century AD*.
"After all, the name Zeus is where we get divinity, so there's an etymological reason to make him the highest god..." It's the other way around! also it means sky and is the same name as Tyr, which does not mean divine.
They're presenting Zeus and Hera as having equal power, which I have never felt. I really don't know where they're getting that from; except for her interference with his love affairs, she really seems to recede into the background.
--
*Also the authors of the Homeric Hymns, but nobody knows who they are so who cares.
*Seriously you can probably get giardiasis from that stuff now.
*This footnote is purely because I ramble: while their saying that the Titans are "sort of rough-hewn" is totally wrong, they are all third function and war of the Aesir and Vanir I hate you so much M. Dumézil.
*Ha ha ha not using Euripides for a very good reason.
*I probably should use CE, but I like AD.
*Oh man, I have no idea why I'm referencing Demeter and Persephone/Kore so much.
*Ce qui prouve ces metamorphoses/c'est que tu te trouves si laid/que pour faire aimer tu n'oses/apparer tel que l'on t'a fait
