6 movies you didn’t know were inspired by Greek mythology

Greek mythology has inspired entertainment through poetry, novels, songs, and plays since time immemorial, and this influence endures in the age of film. While some movies, such as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, attempt to retell ancient tales faithfully, others borrow their characters, themes, and structures, transplanting them into wildly different settings. So wild, in fact, that they are sometimes difficult to spot.

The Lighthouse

A nightmare inspired by Prometheus and Proteus

Even without the connection to Greek mythology, Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse contains enough strange imagery to hold the audience’s attention. However, when you liken it to the tale of Prometheus and Proteus, a Titan and a sea god who represent rebellion and transformation, respectively, the story becomes more fascinating.

Robert Pattinson's Ephraim Winslow resembles Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and was punished by having his (magically regenerating) liver repeatedly eaten by an eagle. Willem Dafoe's Thomas Wake, meanwhile, has elements of Proteus, the shape-shifting sea god with prophetic powers.

The result is a powerful tale in which the lighthouse itself resembles a forbidden and divine object, and the closer Winslow gets to it, the more disastrous the consequences.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Homer's Odyssey during the Great Depression

For anyone vaguely familiar with Homer’s epic poem, the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? is unmistakably based on the voyage of Odysseus, despite the fact that it’s set in deepest Mississippi in the 1930s. Even the name of George Clooney’s character, Ulysses Everett McGill, is a nod to the Roman equivalent of The Odyssey’s protagonist. And, like his namesake, he also meets a succession of bizarre characters and obstacles in his desperate attempt to get home.

Among McGill’s strange encounters are three seductive Sirens and a one-eyed antagonist (played by John Goodman) standing in for the Cyclops. This is one of Clooney’s most endearing roles, as he struggles to outwit those more powerful than himself, all the while trying to maintain his impeccable hair. It's essentially The Odyssey with chain gangs, political rallies, and an unforgettable Delta Blues soundtrack.

Oldboy

A twisted modern Oedipus

Oldboy is one of cinema's most brutal revenge stories. Yet lurking beneath its violence and mystery lies the ancient Greek tragedy of Oedipus. South Korean director and co-writer Park Chan-wook has discussed the film's mythological qualities, explaining that he wanted his story to be rooted in something more primordial and universal than another contemporary social issue.

As the film progresses, the similarities become horrifyingly clear when the protagonist, Oh Dae-su, realizes that the truth he has spent years pursuing is even more terrible than he could have imagined. With themes of incest, fate, guilt, and destructive consequences, the film bears more than a passing resemblance to the legend at its core. And while it’s not a straightforward adaptation like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, it features all the elements of a classic Greek tragedy with a deeply disturbing twist.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

An unsettling take on Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis

Anyone familiar with Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ movies will be well aware of his dark comedies and distinct absurdist, surreal style. The Killing of a Sacred Deer falls into the dark, unsettling category, and that’s something of an understatement. In it, surgeon Steven Murphy's life begins to collapse after he becomes involved with a mysterious teenager, ultimately forcing him to make an impossible choice involving his own family.

That premise is directly connected to Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, in which the Greek commander Agamemnon is forced to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease the goddess Artemis (also briefly covered in Nolan’s The Odyssey). While the wholly unpleasant subject of child sacrifice is a common theme here, the film also explores the horrifying question of whether one life should be surrendered for the sake of everyone else.

Moulin Rouge!

Orpheus and Eurydice meet in Montmartre

On a lighter note is Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! It may surprise some to learn that beneath this Parisian musical, littered with pop songs, cabaret, and romance, lies one of the most famous love stories in Greek mythology: Orpheus and Eurydice.

Ewan McGregor’s character, Christian, is deliberately written as an Orpheus-like character: a struggling yet gifted musician who falls in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman), a beautiful woman who, like Eurydice, is doomed to die young. As in the ancient fable, the artist attempts to defeat death through the power of love and music, but fate ultimately prevails.

What makes the film interesting is that, despite all the doom and gloom, it is dressed up in sequins and can-can dancers and set to an upbeat, contemporary soundtrack, with enough jokes and spectacle to almost cancel out the underlying tragic theme.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

The Odyssey in a silly, subaquatic setting

I have to admit this one took even me by surprise. And yet, having watched The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, in which SpongeBob and Patrick travel across the ocean in a giant hamburger-shaped vehicle, there are clear connections to Homer's Odyssey.

Creator Stephen Hillenburg himself described the story as an "incredibly dangerous heroic odyssey." In this case, the mythical hero's quest involves a stolen crown and a voyage to the surface. The similarities soon become apparent as SpongeBob and Patrick embark on a perilous journey, encounter monsters and supernatural obstacles, visit strange locations, and ultimately try to return home.

While this is intended more for laughs than for epic drama, the timeless tale of an unlikely hero who must survive a series of increasingly ridiculous challenges before finally making it home is evident throughout.

Greek mythology is everywhere in movies

Greek mythology isn’t limited to sword-and-sandal epics and Ray Harryhausen classics. The stories of Prometheus, Odysseus, Oedipus, Iphigenia, Orpheus, and others regularly crop up in cinema due to their timeless, universal themes of revenge, sacrifice, forbidden knowledge, doomed love, and the struggle to return home.

In some cases, such as with Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy and Nolan’s recent Odyssey iteration, filmmakers recreate these stories almost directly. However, as these six examples demonstrate, some conceal their mythological roots behind horror, comedy, romance, or even a talking sponge.