Dear Cinemythologists,
On Thursday, September 17, our survey of Perseus movies comes to a close, even as we look ahead to our unit on Hercules. No viewing for today, only reading.
READING
- Ogden, Daniel. 2008. “Medusa and the Gorgons.” Perseus (chapter 3), 34–66. London and New York: Routledge.
We’ve had a chance to discuss Perseus in some detail. Ogden’s chapter will start our conversation on Perseus’ arch-nemesis.
- Chapman, David. 2002. “In the Beginning…” Retro Stud: Muscle Movie Posters from around the World (chapter 1), 4–37. Portland, OR: Collectors Press.
Chapman, through a bright and breezy survey of classic movie posters, will introduce us to peplum, the movie genre in which we most often find Hercules and other Greco-Roman heroes. Put it this way: All peplums are sword-and-sandal movies, but not all sword-and-sandal movies are peplum.
In class we’ll survey visual representations of Medusa and her fellow Gorgons from antiquity to modernity. And we’ll bid Perseus farewell by surveying some scenes from the 1963 classic, Perseo l’invincibile, which will also introduce us to the conventions of peplum.
DC
