The Next Epic...

[duckie]

PoolMan said:

Wow, new people popping up everywhere! Welcome! Stay a while, and listen!

Yea, if you listen really close, you might even hear a cow mooing in some faraway thread...

[awesomecolin]

I think they should make a movie based on the Mario games for Nintendo. Oh, wait... They've done that already, and it was a "ba-bomb"! Muah-ha-ha! My wit scares me some times.

[zappakub]

Well I think an adaptation of The Dark Tower series might be interesting.

I also hope Disney doesn't screw up Clive Barker'S Aaabarat.

[DARTHMADLER]

A real shame that Peter Jackson didn't direct Troy, might have made something interesting from it. Could even have moved on and done The Odyssey too.

[DocD83]

I wonder if anyone will do the Aeniad.

Someone on another board commented that the first episode of Deep Space Nine is essentially the Aeniad. I don't know though, since I never read it.

[Magill]

I remember I watched the premier of DS9, but don't actually remember what happened. I took Classical Mythology in college, let's see if I can remember the gist of things. Then you can tell me if you see the parallels.

Aeneas was the son of a Trojan prince, Anchises, and Venus (the Aeneid was written in Latin, hence the Roman names of the gods). During the sack of Troy (sorry if that was a spoiler for anyone) Aeneas flees Troy, carrying his crippled father on his back and leading his young son by the hand. He was taking his wife, too, but she got separated from him in the panic. The Greeks are so impressed by his bravery that they let him go.

They visit a few places (Thrace, Crete, etc.). His dad dies. Juno (aka Hera) is pissed off at Aeneas and blows his ship off course. They end up in Carthage (rival city-state to Rome and said to be a favorite of Juno), which is under the rule of a queen named Dido. Venus is concerned for her son, so she makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas. They have some good times (make of that what you will) but then Jupiter has to go and get involved. He basically tells Aeneas that he has a destiny to fulfil and to stop wasting time with Dido. Dido pleads with him not to go but Aeneas goes anyway. She's so upset that she curses Aeneas and kills herself. As the ship is losing sight of Carthage, Aeneas sees the smoke from her funeral pyre, but has no idea what has happened.

Aeneas lands in Italy. He goes to visit the Sibyl. He asks her to take him to the underworld so he can talk to his father. She makes him go on a series of quests, including getting a golden bough (which is where the title of Frazer's book on myth and religion comes from). They take it with them to the underworld. Aeneas sees Dido, but she's still pissed off at him and won't talk to him (a similar thing happens to Odysseus in the Odyssey, but it's Ajax, not a former lover who won't speak). He meets up with his father, who shows him the spirits of the yet-to be born Romans (and descendants of Aeneas).

They return to the world of the living. Aeneas meets the old king of the Latins, Latinus. He proposes that his daughter, Lavinia, and Aeneas get hitched to unite the 2 peoples and fulfil a prophecy. Still being a b***h, Juno intervenes with Latinus's wife and makes her refuse the engagement (she likes a warrior named Turnus better). This, plus Aeneas's son accidentally killing a royal stag sets off a war.

Aeneas goes to the location that will eventually be Rome and meets with a king there. He has visions of future Roman monuments. The king likes him so he lets his son Pallas join Aeneas in battle. Bad idea, as Pallas is killed by Turnus shortly after that. There are councils and a tentative peace agreement, but Turnus is still pissed off. There's a battle, Aeneas is wounded, but his mom fixes him up. Turnus challenges Aeneas to a duel, but when his [Turnus's] sword shatters, he scampers away. Aeneas promises that his men will call themselves Latins instead of Trojans. Turnus shows his sorry face again. Aeneas wounds him and says he'll be merciful, but then he sees Turnus wearing something of Pallas's and kills him in a rage.

Basically, Virgil was writing propaganda about how all that Rome was. Since the Romans had ripped off so many of the other Greek myths, it has very similar elements to The Illiad and The Odyssey. As added trivia, The Illiad only covers a few months worth of the 10 year Trojan War. At the end of it, Troy is still standing. It's only from other works that we find out how it was sacked.

[DocD83]

Well, the first ep of DS9 has a flashback to the battle of Wolf 359 (the big defeat of the Federation by the Borg cube), where Sisko was an officer onboard one of the ships in the fleet. He and his son get away before the ship explodes, but Sisko's wife dies. Later, Sisko is given an assignment to bring the Bajorans out of their long occupation and ultimately into the Federation--an assignment Sisko hates, but there is a lot of drivel about destiny from the Kai (spiritual leader of Bajor).

Hmm, it's not so persuasive when I say it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

[Magill]

That's bringing back memories. Sisko hated Picard because Picard as Locutus was with the Borg when Sisko's wife died, right.

I can definitely see parallels--the saving of the son but not the wife, the "higher destiny" of the hero, and the bringing together of 2 cultures.

Man, I'm a geek. I should put an entry in the Geek Aptitude Quiz that goes "when you compare Greek mythology to a Star Wars episode."

[duckie]

Magill said:

Man, I'm a geek. I should put an entry in the Geek Aptitude Quiz that goes "when you compare Greek mythology to a Star Wars episode."

Uh-oh, I can see a battle at the next Star Wars - Star Trek convention for this faux pas

[Magill]

Doh! I guess that's what I get for posting with a few beers in me.

[duckie]

Magill said:

Doh! I guess that's what I get for posting with a few beers in me.

well, at least you didn't "moo", like some others have been known to do...

[Head Mutant]

_moo

[PoolMan]

Well, that's what Justin gets for occasionally posting sober.

[Ms. Jellybean]

Cows go moo. Tipped cows go meeerrrr. But what sound does a penguin make?

I think that any book from Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series would be good. Except for the one about Good and/or Evil, because that might stir up as much controversy as The Passion of the Christ. But prolly not.