MovieChat Forums > Fantasia (1941) Discussion > The Olympus sequence

The Olympus sequence

posted 11 years ago by Mithrandir-Olorin2
2 replies | jump to latest

The presentations of Greek mythology here are flawed. besides the intro randomly mixing and matching when to use the Greek or Roman names, Apollo does not ride the Run Chariot, that's Helios.

I also don't think Unicorns actually existed in Greek mythology. At any rate I find it amusing how once it reaches the Bacchinal that all the mythical creature's we'd met basically play the roles of the Meaneds and Satyrs.

"When the chips are down... these Civilized people... will Eat each Other"

[–] DickyBettsBass 11 years ago

Yes, the English language is funny in that way, but it's similarly confusing in other languages. So we have Zeus as the standard term for the main god, which is appropriate, but he is accompanied, according to the narrator, by Bacchus, which should have been the Greek Dionysos or Dionysus, by Vulcan instead of Hephaestus, and not Artemis but Diana. And Morpheus is correctly identified as a man, but appears to be a woman in the movie!

The strangest clash in the English language we get is when the Odyssey is described as the Voyage of Ulysses, totally losing the linguistic connection between the terms!

At least according to Wikipedia, unicorns were described by ancient Greek authors.

Dicky

[–] Mithrandir-Olorin33 10 years ago

Bacchus as the Roman name of Dionysus is actually a misconception. Bacchus is probably in-fact Semitic in it's origin, and was used in both Rome and Greece. The Uniquely Roman identity of Dionysus was Liber.

"There's no art to this war Spencer"-Alison DiLaurentis