A Quick and Biased Guide to Greek Mythology

Before I move on to other media I have one last screen gem to point out, The Storyteller: Greek Myths was the second series of Jim Henson’s absolutely fantastic Storyteller. The first series had featured John Hurt as a storytelling narrating gorgeous retellings of European folk tales, and is well worth tracking down if you haven’t seen it (a lot of it is now on youtube) but the second series, now narrated by Michael Gambon, focused, surprise, surprise, on Greek mythology. Our Underworld link is again Orpheus, Charon turns up and gets a few lines, the Underworld looks a lot like Asphodel (all mists and darkness, very atmospheric) and we have a particularly cold-hearted Hades and Persephone (with a very snazzy crown of sticks) for our sweet-voiced hero to barter with. What I really like about this series (aside from the nice acting and the Jim Henson Creature Shop monsters) is the sense of an oral narrative in that fine Homeric tradition. Plus, there’s an episode based on the Daedelus and Icarus myth in which Derek Jacobi pulls a really heart-rending performance, well worth seeking out.

Now, I realise I’ve been rambling a bit, so I’ll cut past comics and websites and turn to the combination of the two: webcomics. Now this is a medium that’s very new and very creator-orientated so it’s a great illustration of my point earlier that slightly-geeky artists of my generation love the Hades and Persephone myth. My personal favourite is Dis: Life is Hell an ongoing piece by a very talented artist named JoJo Seames. It’s very funny, combining the trappings of the modern world with a detailed knowledge of myth and history. Her interpretations of the characters are great; Hades is a caffeine-addicted, ineffective bureaucrat while Persephone is a plump, cheerful hippie chick. Her version of Hermes is a scream too (and be sure to check out all her galleries, some very witty stuff there). A completely different, but still modernised version, comes with deviantartist a-gnosis’ Greek Mythology series. Not strictly a webcomic, but a series of minicomics on the web so yes I’m cheating again, but it’s fun work. Her comics are ancient in clothing and setting, but modern in attitude, here we have Hades and Persephone as a pair of misanthropic misfits.

And that’s it for my little ramble about Greek myths. Thanks for reading. Normal service of relatively-well-informed pieces on archaeology will return shortly, and in the meantime, I’ll leave you with one more little treat below. Io Aidoneos!

“Land of the Dead” by Voltaire, Greek mythological references galore!