Not so long ago I decided I was going to watch “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief”. While watching this movie I discovered that there were quite a lot more mythological archetypes in this movie than I had originally thought there were going to be.
For those of you who don't know the movie, here is a summary of the movie.
Because so many of the aspects within this movie are important, it was hard to paraphrase the movie into a few simple paragraphs.
Movie Summary:
The movie “Percy Jackson & The Olympians; The Lightning Thief” is about a teenager named Percy who happens to be the son of the god Poseidon and a human mother.
The movie begins with the god of the sea, Poseidon, and the Zeus having an argument about Zeus's missing lightning bolt, in which Zeus claims that Poseidon's son Percy has stolen. Without the bolt, large storms build over the Earth below from Zeus's anger and no lightning is visible. The in the argument Zeus demands that Percy returns the bolt within a set amount of days or there will be a 'war of the gods”.
While the storm clouds accumulate, Percy attends school and does not know that his father is the god of the sea, however this would explain his miraculous ability to hold his breath under water for four minutes at a time and his gift of being able to read ancient Greek.
One day while on a school field trip, Percy is attacked by his teacher, who turns into a winged creature called a Furi and demands Percy to hand over the bolt. Coming to his rescue, the leader of the field trip and his best friend end up scarring away the beast, and the leader gives Percy a magical pen that he says will keep him safe.
Along the car ride to the “safe place”, a training camp for Demigods (the children of a god and a mortal), Percy's mother and best friend explain who his father is and the whole situation. Once at the site, the three of them are attacked by a vicious beast sent by Hades to capture Percy to find the bolt, however the beast ends up taking Percy's mom and Percy fights his first battle with the magical pen that can turn into a sword.
During his first fight, Percy his hurt and when he wakes, he is inside the training camp. He soon discovers his best friend is a Satyr (Half goat, half man), who is his protector.
In the camp Percy fights in his first capture the flag training battle and discovers his magical healing powers when he touches water to heal his wound. At a celebration party for Percy, the long awaited demigod, Hades erupts from the bonfire and demands to know where the lightning bolt is. After hearing that Percy does not have the bolt, Hades becomes mad and tells Percy he will never see his mother again.
Seeing that his mother has been trapped by Hades, Percy sets out with another demigod, Anabeth (The daughter of Athena), and his protector to go on a quest to get to the underworld an back to save his mother. Taking with them a map of where pearls to escape the underworld are held, a shield and flying shoes, all given to him by Luke (the son of the messenger of the gods), the trio sets out to find the pearls.
The first pearl was in a sculpture yard, home of Medusa. After killing Medusa and receiving the first of three pearls needed, they continued on to the second, a statue of Athena protected by a Hydra (a dragon like creature who can grow 3 more heads in replace of one, if chopped off), and then on to Las Vegas for the third.
After finding all three of the pearls, the trio then descended into the underworld. Only two of original people who entered could leave, while taking Percy's mother with them, because there were only three pearls for four people. In the Underworld is also where Percy discovers the lightning bolt was hiding in the shield given to him by Luke. Rushing to hand in the bolt before the war of the gods takes place, Percy lands himself in a fight between himself and Luke for the bolt.
In the end of the movie, Percy returns the bolt to Zeus, meets his dad, and returns back tot eh training camp safely.
The movie “Percy Jackson and the Olympians; The Lightning Thief' contains many mythological archetypes, including:
Heroic Archetypes
Hero as a Warrior: Percy would be this type of hero because he battles for his mother against Hades' minions and Hades himself.
Archetypal Journeys
The Fools Errand: This is shown in the movie when Percy enters the Underworld to save his mother, not knowing if he will ever be able to make it back out.
Stages of a Hero's Journey
Departure: Percy is thrust into the world of Greek gods as he becomes the prime suspect for stealing Zeus's lightning bolt. Percy is reluctant to leave his family for something he only just found out about.
Initiation: Percy trades in his quiet, normal life for the life of a Demigod. By doing this he enters into a world of war and tactics, as he soon learns in the camp.
The Road of Trials: There are many aspects from the movie that fit into this category. First, Percy breaks the rules and leaves the safety of the camp to find his mother, defeats Medusa, Defeats the Hydra, and escapes from the Lotus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. After all of these things, Percy also had to choose who to leave in the Underworld as there were only three pearls, but four people.
The Innermost Cave: Percy enters the Underworld and has to face off against Hades.
Return and Reintegration with Society: Having found the bolt, Percy returns it to Zeus, prevents a war of the gods and restores the world to it's natural state.
Characteristics of a Hero's Journey
The Hero is naive and inexperienced: Percy only just heard of his powers within one day of being in the Demigod camp and sets off to save the world and his mother.
The Hero meets monsters or monstrous men: Along his journey, Percy meets many monsters. These monsters include; Medusa, Hades (in dragon form), a Furi (winged demon), Satyrs (half goat, half man creatures), Centaurs (Half horse, half man creatures), a Minotaur, and a Hydra (a three headed, fire breathing lizard who grows three more heads when one is chopped off.
The Hero has a strange, wise being as a mentor: Percy has two mentors in this movie, his father, Poseidon, and his protector and best friend, the Satyr.
The Hero struggles for something valuable or important: There are a few very important things Percy battles for in this movie; First Percy battles with himself for Anabeth's love, second he battles with Hades for his mother, and last, he battles for peace to gain the lightning bolt to return it to Zeus
The Hero has help from divine or supernatural forces: Percy's father Poseidon helps Percy throughout his task to find the bolt.
The Hero has a guide or guides: Percy has the help of his protector (the Satyr), who shows Percy his options and helps show him around.
The Hero has a loyal band of companions: Anabeth and his protector are the main people in Percy's loyal band of companions
Situational Archetypes
The Initiation: This occurs for Percy at his party when Hades shows up with a threat and shows him that his captured mother is still alive
The Task: Percy, his protector, and Anabeth must go to Hades in the Underworld to save Percy's mom, come back to give the lightning bolt to Zeus, and battle numerous mystical creatures on their way.
The Battle Between Good and Evil: Percy, his protector and the majority of the gods and demigods represent good, and Hades and Luke represent evil. During this movie, Percy or someone from the good side is battling someone from the evil side. In the end good ended up winning, as the bolt made it back to safe hands.
The Magic Weapon: The pen that turns into a sword, that Percy received from the leader at his school field trip and used to defeat the Minotaur, is the magical weapon that exists within this movie.
Father- Son Conflict: This conflict is seen between Percy and his father, Poseidon, because Poseidon came to Earth and married a woman, who had Percy, and the god was not allowed to stay to watch him grow up, so Percy feels abandoned by his father.
Symbolic Archetypes
Heaven vs. Hell: This is seen as Heaven is located High in the air, by taking the Empire State Building's elevator, to the top of Mount. Olympus and Hell is located at the center of the Earth.
Haven vs. Wilderness: This symbolic archetype is seen as Percy enters from the outer world, which is dangerous for him, supported by the fact that he had just been attacked by a demon, into the Demigod camp where he is protected from any dangers that roam outside the arches tot eh camp.
Supernatural intervention: In the movie, this archetype is shown when the gods help their Demigod children through bad situations
Colours
Black- Hades is seen wearing all black when Percy enters the underworld, suggesting that he is an evil person
Blue- Percy is seen wearing blue throughout the movie, which pushes the viewer to believe that he is innocent and truthful.
Numbers
Three- The Number three often stands for life, death, the trinity and birth. In the movie there are three pearls that Percy obtain in order to leave the Underworld. This idea of the number three suggests that the process to get the pearls is a life or death situations. This idea holds true in that is the did not get the pearls and went straight to the Underworld they would be stuck there and essentially be dead, so they need to get each pearl in order to be alive in the end of their mission.
Nature
Lightning- Lightning is usually used to show inspiration in a character. In this movie, Percy and his friends are inspired to go on their task after hearing that Zeus has lost his lightning bolt and seeing how the results of this could have a great impact on the world.
Character Archetypes
The Hero: Percy is the hero in this movie, because he sets out to save his mother and the world and aims to return the world to its natural setting by giving Zeus his Lightning bolt back.
The Initiates: Anabeth and Percy are the initiates, as they all had to go through battle and tactic training before they go off to complete their task.
The Mentors: Poseidon and Percy's protector are both mentors for Percy, because they offer him helpful hints and tips for him that help him with his task.
The Loyal Retainers: Percy has his protector and Anabeth who are always with him and helping him throughout the movie.
The Devil Figure: Hades the god of the underworld is the “devil figure”. In most modern movies, the “devil figure” will not actually be the devil, but rather an evil person, however this is not the case in this movie.
The Star-Crossed Lovers: The two characters who fit into this category are Percy and Anabeth because their parents hate each other, yet they love each other and still have some of their parents powers, so in all actuality they should hate each other.
“Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief” presents the idea that demigods were more human than god. This was shown in that all of the demigods were in human form and mortal, however, they did have some magical powers that were given to them by their mom or dad who happens to be a Greek god.
This idea surprised me because I had always imagined the demigods to be more godly than they were human.
Confused about how the demigods were viewed centuries ago by the Greek humans and the Greek gods, I decided to look up a myth about a demigod, so that I would be able to conclude how the demigods were viewed back then.
Hercules is an example of a demigod, being the son of Zeus and a woman named Alcmene. Hercules is said to have superhuman strength, and be at the stature of a god. Although still human, Hercules completed extreme tasks that were valued at the level of the gods by the Greeks. In the myth of Hercules, Zeus's wife Hera becomes very angry with Zeus and, taking her revenge, made Hercules become crazy. In his craziness he killed his wife and children and after coming to his scenes, he repented. In order for the gods to forgive him, they set up “Twelve Labours” for him to complete in order to gain their forgiveness. Hercules was able to complete the tasks and with doing so he was guaranteed to become a god when he died, which turned out to be not so long after he remarried.
Although Hercules had superhuman strength, it seems as though he was more human than god, in that he was able to be tempted to kill his wife and children. As a contrast, he seem to be more godly due to the fact that he had very god like views in that he wanted to make everything right again and regain his respect. But then again don't all humans try to regain their respect after losing it?
Could Hercules had just been trying to become a god by repenting and regaining his respect out of greed?
Do you think that Demigods were meant to be seen as more human or god?
Why do you think that the Greek gods were portrayed as oh so human-like in their actions?
Some examples of this from Greek mythology are Hera getting revenge on Zeus and Zeus giving in to the temptation of having an affair with another woman, a human woman. In this movie, this is seen by the gods fighting with each other.
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