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By Root 846 0

wind with Troy. Although moviegoers saw more of Brad Pitt’s butt than Achilles’ heel,* the success of the movie sparked lively new interest in a story that comes from the misty dawn of history. It is a story that still seems to speak volumes about men, women, and war. That said, the film Troy had about as much to do with Homer’s epic Iliad as Gone With the Wind had to do with the real Civil War. We might start with the presentation of Patroclus, who is identified as the “cousin” of Achilles in the film. Homer’s Achilles and Patroclus were “good friends,” very possibly in the way Greek comrades-in-arms often were. But Hollywood wasn’t having Brad Pitt do a gay Achilles.

Couple these recent Hollywood offerings with other successes, such as E.T., a Disney—animated and very sanitized—version of Hercules, the Civil War romance Cold Mountain, and the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou (both works loosely based on the Odyssey), and, above all, the Star Wars saga, and you see even more evidence of the enduring appeal of ancient myths.

All of these films draw on mythic themes and often include very specific mythical references. (In The Matrix trilogy, for instance, the names Morpheus, Niobe, and Oracle are all drawn directly from mythic Greek characters.) Perhaps it is no accident that some of them are among the highest-grossing films worldwide. Throw in the extraordinary Harry Potter phenomenon—another spin on the mythic quest of an ordinary boy who learns to fly and has miraculous powers, like Luke Skywalker of Star Wars and Neo of The Matrix—and you have yet another powerful piece of evidence that we still love myths.

And it’s not just the myths of Greece and Rome. Among the popular attractions at Disney World is a ride based on the 1946 film Song of the South. Perhaps best known for the famed Disney song “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” this cartoon was inspired by the “Br’er Rabbit” stories, popular among African-American slaves. These stories, in turn, came from ancient tales of a mythic African Hare, a trickster god who crossed the Atlantic in the terrible Middle Passage and found new life in the American South. Tricksters, one of the most popular types of gods found in many societies, were greedy, mischievous, evil—kind of like the Joker in Batman—and sexually aggressive. Often, they took animal form, like the African Hare or Native American Coyote.

Hmmm. A mischievous rabbit and a greedy coyote trying to outsmart other animals. Sounds a little like Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner’s tireless nemesis Wile E. Coyote. And you thought myths were dead.

Just smartly packaged mass media, you say? I don’t think so. Many of these films, cartoons, or books are well made and highly entertaining. But their broad, international popularity crosses the boundaries of age and sex, tapping into our basic human need for myth. As Homer—the poet, not the father of Bart Simpson—put it, “All men have need of the gods.”

And it’s not just entertainment. Do you like Halloween and its Hispanic equivalent, Día de los Muertos (“the day of the dead”)? Both are modern vestiges of ancient mythical celebrations. Or perhaps you celebrate Christmas and Easter? With its candles and gift-giving, Christmas is based on old pagan Roman holidays, including the Saturnalia, a weeklong festival of the winter solstice dedicated to the god of agriculture. Many of the trappings of modern Christmas, including Christmas trees, wreaths, mistletoe, holly, and ivy, are borrowed from ancient druidic traditions from northern Europe in which the evergreen symbolized the hope for new life in the dead of winter. The Easter celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is closely associated with pagan festivals celebrating the coming of spring. Early Christians appropriated this familiar mythic notion to celebrate the new life Christians gain through Jesus’s death and resurrection. The word “Easter” itself may have come from an early-English word Eastre, possibly the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. (Other scholars believe the word “Easter” comes from the early German word