Blog Entry 4.1

After spending a week trying to put together a list of monsters and their abilities I've decided to take a different path. I've decided to analyze the movie Clash of the Titans. Clash of the Titans was started when the titans were overruled by their sons Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Zeus became the ruler of the heavens, Poseidon became king of the seas, and Hades was left to rule the dreadful underworld. Clash of the Titans is about the greek mythology of the demigod named Perseus who is one of Zeus’s son.

Zeus whom created mankind was questioned by mortals on their abilities and their rights to rule over them, so to teach the rebellious king Acrisius a lesson Zeus impersonated Acrisius and slept with his wife Danae. This is the result of Perseus’s birth. As Perseus is born, Acrisius condemns the execution of Danae and her newborn child into the sea. This caused Zeus to zap thunder on Acrisius leaving him hideous for life. Thunder is the symbol of power and anger from Zeus.

Perseus’s life starts when he is founded and adopted by a fisherman named Spyros. He is known to be born so that he can defeat the Kraken. Perseus’s hero quest starts when his family and he were floating by Argos. As they are floating by Argos, they start to envy the statue of the Greek god Zeus. However, as they are envying the statue, soldiers of Argos are also declaring war against the gods, by destroying the statue of Zeus. This causes the underworld god to rise up to land in form of black pixies called Harpies to eliminate the Argo soldiers. When Hades finishes killing off the soldiers, he stares into Perseus’s face with a fierce look, Hades then turns into a fireball and strikes the boat which leads to the death of Perseus’s family.

Perseus is rescued by the remaining soldiers in Argos, whom are celebrating their act upon revolt. Hades returns once again in the shape of a smoky fog like hurricane. The wind in the hurricane symbolizes violence because wind is very active and can do rapid damage to mother earth. The smoky color that Hades gives off is the symbol of evil, unhappiness, sadness and fear. The reason behind this is because when the gods overthrown the titans, Zeus tricked Hades into becoming the underworld god. The Underworld god is an outcast to Olympus because he is to watch over the underworld and does not belong in the heavens with others. Hades comes just when Queen Cassiopeia finishes her speech on how her daughter Andromeda is more beautiful than Aphrodite. Hades makes the people of Argos fearful of him by killing off the soldiers around Perseus and aging Queen Cassiopeia to death. Hades warns Argos if princess Andromeda is not sacrificed the Kraken will rise up in ten days when the sun is eclipsed. Hades leaves by facing Perseus with the finishing quote, “this is the will of Zeus, the will of your father.” Another symbolism for Hades is when he appears in front of Perseus there is sparks around his aura which symbolizes chaos and war. This causes the villagers to plead for Perseus’ help in defeating the Kraken. Perseus refuses to help the villagers and the princess because he does not believe he is a demigod since his father is a fisherman. Perseus is locked up in a dungeon where Io finally introduces herself. Io who also is a demigoddess (part women and part goddess) reveals Perseus’s true identity about his mother and father. During Io’s image of the story of Zeus and Danae, Zeus appears in a shape of an eagle, while he is seducing Danae, it is thundering and raining outside. The eagle signifies inspiration, ruler, power, authority, community, masculinity, and guardianship. Io continues to meantion that Perseus was destined to defeat the Kraken. Perseus’ state of mind sets only to seek revenge for his family. Io helps determine Perseus decision on his adventure for vengeance.

While resting in the forest one of the Argo soliders tries to bring out the “god” out of Perseus by training him in using a sword. After Perseus’s training, Perseus encounters a series of items such as a shiny sword that only he can use and a flying black horse named Pegasus. A few seconds later Perseus hears two of his Argo comrades yelling out for help. Calibos also known as Acrisius appears to exterminate Perseus and the others. Calibos the demon like human being kills off most of the Argo soldiers and takes a bite out of Perseus’ flesh. Just then, Draco one of the praetorian guards, finds an opportunity to cut off Calibos’ hand, causing his blood to form giant scorpions. The scorpions in this film symbolize death, control, isolation, protection, and defense. Calibos is hung up on the fact that he is still defeated by Zeus because he murdered his wife for nothing. Being that Perseus is still alive, destroys his pride on what he fought for in the past. Calibos decides to flee because he is outnumbered with only one hand and six men. Perseus soon meets the guardian of the desert known as a Djinn. Perseus wants to thank the Djinn but cannot take another step due to the posion from Calibos. One of the Argo solider tells him to pray to his father. However Perseus does not believe he needs any of the help or gifts from the gods. He still thinks that he is a mere mortal man who can take on this adventure by himself. The Djinn helps heal Perseus’s venomous wound and controls the rest of the scorpions. The Djinn believes that the gods should be overthrown and in order to stand up to them they should all work together.