The recent film Immortals is one which angers ancient historians and experts of Greek mythology. There is so much of the plot which either ignores or outright contradicts the original mythology that I could spend hours – and thousands of words – outlining them. But I won’t. Instead, let's talk about what the film does right.
Directed by Tarsem Singh, Immortals is the tale of Theseus (Henry Cavill), a young warrior with little going for him. When his home is attacked by the tyrannical king Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his army, Theseus decides he's going to stop Hyperion, who wishes to free the Titans and start a new war in the heavens. Travelling with virgin seer Phaedra (Freida Pinto) and others, and with a little help from the gods themselves, Theseus finds the Epirus bow - only to have Hyperion to catch up and steal it. Travelling to the city which stands beside the mountain prison of the Titans, Theseus helps defend it, but the defenders are overwhelmed. While the gods fight the Titans, Theseus fights and eventually kills Hyperion, and is made a god right before the collapsing mountain crushes him.
What Immortals does manage to do successfully is highlight very revealing things about modern culture. The differences between the original myths and the Immortals version are telling.
Let’s start with the hero, Theseus. In Greek myth, Theseus is a prince and a demi-god; his mother, Aethra, slept with both Poseidon and her husband Aegeus in the same night. Indeed, the Aegean Sea is named for Aegeus – the story goes that, upon leaving for Crete with the intention of slaying the Minotaur, Theseus promised to change the sails of his boat from black to white on his return if he is successful. He was successful, but forgot to change the sails, and seeing the black sail, Aegeus threw himself into the sea, believing Theseus to be dead. Theseus later founded Athens. That, in essence, is the myth of Theseus.
Since the ancient Greeks did not understand genetics or questionable fatherhood, as far as they were concerned, both Poseidon AND Aegeus were Theseus’ father. This is an important point. All of the heroes of Greek mythology were of either royal blood or divine blood, and often both. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, descended from Aeolus, god of winds, and watched over by Athena. Achilles was the son of a nymph and a king. Perseus’ father was Zeus (not, as the Percy Jackson books and films would have it, Poseidon), and his mother was a princess. Aeneas, the Trojan whose descendants went on to found the city of Rome, was the son of a prince, Anchises, the second cousin of Priam, and the goddess Aphrodite/Venus.
The ancient Greeks had a strong tradition of heroes being divine and connected to royalty. It was, in all likelihood, a method of social control: keep the unequal status quo by reminding everyone that the kings won the right to rule by being heroes, or the descendants of heroes or gods, and pointing out that acting against your rightful betters would thus anger their ancestors, the gods themselves.
But the Theseus of Immortals is no son of Poseidon. His mother is the victim of rape, and he is thus considered a bastard, a peasant, an outcast even. Zeus watches over him, certainly, though the film never explains why. It is this kind of character who appeals to the modern audience. Why? Because there is nothing special about him. Because he is not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Because, in short, people can identify with a character who comes from the lower rungs of society. It’s almost like the famous American Dream – the concept that anyone, regardless of who their parents were or what they were born to, can claw their way up and be successful. This is a concept which inspires many stories in the modern world, and what makes its use in Immortals so utterly jarring is the fact that it would be a completely alien concept to the ancient Greeks.
Next I'll examine the romantic interest, Phaedra. In Greek mythology, Phaedra is only ever identified as Theseus’ wife. Not his first wife, either, but his second wife, who does not love him, but falls for her step-son, Hippolytus, and rather than sleep with him, because that would be adultery, she tells Theseus that Hippolytus raped her. Depending on the version, Hippolytus is then either killed by a curse Theseus was gifted by Poseidon, or by Theseus himself, or by Dionysus, and in some versions, Phaedra commits suicide. The whole relationship between Theseus and Phaedra is a tragedy, not a romance by any stretch of the imagination. The Greeks loved tragedy. There are plays about this very story, and the surviving version, written by Euripides, won a prize for tragedy in 428BC at the Athenian Dionysia, an annual competition for plays, where the prize for tragedy was more prestigious than that for comedy.
But for Immortals the story is, well, confused. I wouldn’t describe it quite as a romance, because if it was intended to be romance, it was rushed, probably heavily cut, and rather abrupt. In essence, Phaedra sleeps with Theseus to rid herself of her visions, and has a son as a result.
I don’t know what to make of this. It’s certainly not the tragedy of the original mythologies. But neither is it quite the clichéd romances of some of the bad films of the past. It seems that the film makers decided they needed a female lead to avoid accusations of sexism, called her Phaedra because that’s a female name associated with Theseus, and then proceeded to make sure she slept with the hero, because that’s what always happens in action films. What’s the point of having an attractive female lead if she doesn’t have sex with the attractive male lead? So while nominally concerned about sexism, the film makers nevertheless walked right into one of the most prevalent sexist clichés in modern cinema, because that’s what modern audiences expect.
Furthermore, the idea that Phaedra would cease getting visions of the future by simply losing her virginity is not in line with ancient Greek beliefs. The most famous female seer of ancient Greece, the Pythia, or Oracle of Delphi, merely had to be a woman of good reputation who was already a priestess; she might well be married and have children, though upon becoming the Pythia (at the death of the previous one), she would no longer have any domestic obligations, including having sex with her husband.
I don’t know where the concept of virgin seers losing their gift along with their virginity came from – though I recall mention of the concept in The Scorpion King, if not, ultimately, the reality of it. I suspect it is a far more recent invention, and it is certainly one which appeals to the modern audience, for the virgin seer is representative of the forbidden and unattainable becoming attainable, if not allowable, in modern cinema.
Moving on, now, to the gods. Considering that Immortals is a film which treats the Greek gods as real, there seems to be a lot of Christian influence in the way they and the other characters are treated by the creators. There is, in Zeus’s rule that the gods should not interfere directly with mortals (Poseidon using a wave to save the main characters is acceptable, Ares going in there himself is not), a reflection of the Christian perception that God does not directly interfere, but acts, as it were, along the diagonal. Of course, the idea that the gods don’t mess with humanity would be laughable to the Greeks. Often the heroes of Greek myth speak directly to, and receive gifts directly from, their patron gods. In the Odyssey, for example, the hero Odysseus speaks directly to Athena on many occasions, and even sleeps with the nymph Calypso.
The idea that a god should be perfect, pure and noble also comes from Christianity. The gods of Immortals are literally shining gold (and don’t get me started on the stupid hats), watching humanity and wanting to make everything right again, in spite of the rules preventing them from doing so. The gods of Greek mythology squabbled and argued and played tricks on each other: Aphrodite was married to Hephaistos but was having an affair with Ares; goddess of discord Eris, after being snubbed, threw an apple with "to the fairest" carved into it amongst Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, jeading to them asking the mortal prince Paris of Troy to judge which should have it; Poseidon and Athena competed for the patronage of the city of Athens. The gods were many things, but harmonious, pure and noble they were certainly not.
The idea that the gods should be mortal, that it should be possible for them to be killed, even by each other, indeed even by the Titans, is really stretching the mythology. For a start, the Titans were defeated by Zeus, who was hidden in a cave by his mother Rhea to save him from being eaten by his father, Kronos. Zeus then freed his brothers, Hades and Poseidon, and only after that were other gods, such as Zeus’s daughter Athena, even born. And while the gods bickered, they did not, indeed could not, harm one another. As far as the Greeks were concerned, their gods remained alive and well right up until Christianity came along and became the dominant religion.
Ironically, the aspect of the film which most closely resembles ancient Greek attitudes is one of the least obvious. There are two characters in particular who embody this: Hyperion, the evil antagonist, and Cassander, the foolish king. Both express disbelief in the gods and both are shown negatively and end up dead. It is this lack of faith that condemns them, and finding faith which leads to Theseus discovering the Epirus bow.
This is certainly a theme the ancient Greeks would recognise. In Athens there was an altar to the unknown god; Paul even mentions it in the Bible. The Greeks believed that impiety was one of the greatest crimes imaginable, and that the gods would punish them for it. Returning to Euripides’s Hippolytus, it is the title character’s reluctance to worship Aphrodite that leads to his downfall, the jealous and vengeful goddess using Phaedra to bring about his death. Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the minds of the Athenian youth and for impiety. Any ancient Greek king or notable who publicly claimed disbelief in the gods would quickly be removed from his office, forcibly, with a sword. Thus while the idea that atheism is evil is equally shared by a significant proportion of American audiences and by the ancient Greeks who knew the original myths, the suggestion that Cassander could remain king while professing atheism is definitely not in line with the reality in ancient Greece.
The conclusion of all this, the disparity between Immortals and the Greek myths it purports to be based upon, is that, in short, Hollywood makes the films which appeal to its audiences, and makes sure people watch it by creating tenuous links with something already established; and what could be more established than Greek mythology? So in the wake of the hugely popular films Troy and 300, Greek mythology is the obvious choice. Hollywood is an entertainment industry; they will make what sells, what appeals to audiences, even if it means some, uh, creative re-imaginings of very old tales.
Alice Leiper - I have a masters degree in the archaeology of the Classical Mediterranean, and a decade of experience writing fiction.
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