page_title: Greek mythology in popular culture
section_title: Film
hierarchical_section_title: Greek mythology in popular culture / In film and television / Film
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Holzschnitt aus der Schedel'schen Weltchronik, Blatt 28 verso English: Woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle
context_page_description: Elements of Greek mythology appear many times in culture, including pop culture. The Greek myths spread beyond the Hellenistic world when adopted into the culture of ancient Rome, and Western cultural movements have frequently incorporated them ever since, particularly since the Renaissance. Mythological elements feature in Renaissance art and in English poems, as well as in film and in other literature, and in songs and commercials. Along with the Bible and the classics-saturated works of Shakespeare, the myths of Greece and Rome have been the major "touchstone" in Western culture for the past 500 years.
  Elements appropriated or incorporated include the gods of varying stature, humans, demigods, titans, giants, monsters, nymphs, and famed locations. Their use can range from a brief allusion to the use of an actual Greek character as a character in a work. Some types of creatures—such as centaurs and nymphs—are used as a generic type rather than individuated characters out of myth.
context_section_description: Amazons, prior to their appearance in American Hollywood films where they have been presented in "swimsuit-style costume without armor" and "western lingerie combined with various styles of 'tough' male" clothing, had been traditionally depicted in classical Greek warrior armor.
  Jean Cocteau regarded Orpheus as "his myth," and used it as the basis for many projects, including Orphée.
  The film Orfeu Negro is Marcel Camus' reworking of the Cocteau film.
  The 2001 film Moulin Rouge! is also based on the Orpheus story, but set in 1899, and containing modern pop music.
  The Disney production of Hercules (1997) was inspired by Greek myths, but "greatly modernizes the narrative" as it goes "to great lengths to spice up its mythic materials with wacky comedy and cheerfully anachronistic dialogue," which, Keith Booker says, is playing a part in the "slow erosion of historical sense." Moreover, though the film depicts Greek mythology, the title character is named after the Roman hero, rather than the Greek "Heracles".
caption: A 15th century depiction of Amazons in battle armor
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