We conclude with an epilogue on the contemporary popular reception of ancient
Greek religion.Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones(Chapter 27) analyzes the silver screen’s
response to classical mythological subjects. Mass-market movies often respond to
ancient myths in a more vital fashion than does art-house cinema: they are more
inclined to appropriate the myths and creatively rework them in the spirit familiar in
antiquity itself. The study focuses on the projection of the gods and their differenti-
ation from mortals in two mass-market Ray Harryhausen films,Jason and the Argo-
nautsandClash of the Titans. A basically Homeric Olympus is extended from the tales
of Achilles and Odysseus into those of Jason and Perseus. Imagined as a cross
between the Acropolis and a nineteenth-century neoclassical fantasy, it is separated
from the mortal world by a cloud layer. Here the gods can observe the mortals from
whom they live distantly by means of a viewing screen in the form of a pool. The gods
are distinguished from mortals by size, by shape-shifting and epiphanic powers, and
by dress. They wear white robes that appeal to the image we (misleadingly) derive of
them from the marble sculptures antiquity has bequeathed us. But the gods are also
differentiated from mortals through the semiotics of casting: gods are played by
international stars, mortals by (then) relative unknowns. More subtly, casting is also
used to convey the Homeric personalities of the various gods and the relationships
between them to an untutored audience in an efficient way. Zeus is taken by the great
theatrical lord, Laurence Olivier, his wife Hera by Olivier’s familiar ‘‘stage wife’’
Claire Bloom, and Aphrodite by the cinematic ‘‘love goddess’’ Ursula Andress,
already known for her iconic salute to Aphrodite’s birth from the waves inDr No.
The gods are also distinguished by the clever superimposition of differentiated time-
tracks: mortal heroes are shown growing to manhood within the span of a brief divine
conversation. The ultimate triviality of mortal life to the gods, and their fickleness in
interacting with it, is well conveyed by the mortal world’s embodiment in an Olym-
pian chess game or a toy gladiatorial arena.
Introduction 17