Happy #MythMonday, everyone! The pilot episode of Greeced Lightning released January 9th, and Episode 2 dropped today. If you haven’t checked us out yet, you can have your own personal Homerathon today with these first two episodes!
In the first episode, Luke and Sam and I chat about the legends and myths around the Trojan War — the identity of Homer, the epic cycle of which the Iliad is just one part, Heinrich Schliemann and his questionable excavation methods, and whether the Trojan War could have really happened.
Then we talk about the most famous retelling of the Iliad’s story: the 2004 blockbuster Troy. Spoiler alert: Troy gets a lot of things wrong. We talk about turning the most famous Greek couple into aggressively hetero dudes, removing the gods and injecting romance tales, and whether this movie is actually one big shampoo commercial.
In our second episode, we talk about the other Greek epic attributed to Homer, the Odyssey. We cover Greek poetic meter, what an unreliable narrator Odysseus is (and how many years he spent crying), trips to the Underworld, and more. Then we turn to the 2000 Coen Brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which presents itself as an adaptation of the Odyssey. Unlike with Troy, we have a lot of good things to say about this movie, which takes its inspiration from both Homer and the American South to create a unique and delightful story.
Give us a listen: you can find us on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher! And if you like it, be sure to share and follow us on social media so you don’t miss our next episode, where we’ll be talking about the story of Pygmalion and watching one of my favorite movies, Lars and the Real Girl!
Medea Palatina 