h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh ye who are so bound to your own time...

can't you see that it was not the bleedin' television series that made the mythical characters so well-known, but the epic, no the very civilisations of the greeks and romans themselves that made way for the bloomin' television series?

Unless... unless you know this all very well, and just write it so to raise a laugh... in which case, you succeeded.

Of course I am aware that it is texts such as the Homeric Epics, along with others such as the plays of Sophocles and Aeschylus which introduced Greek myths to the world. However, what I was attempting to convey was the way in which modern popular culture has ensured that the characters appearing in these myths remain well known. Basically, I feel it likely that more people will have seen "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" than will have read the "Iliad". I think it's marvellous that these stories, written as entertainment in their own time, should be rewritten and represented to provide the same amount of enjoyment in our time.

But I'm glad I raised a laugh, anyway!

Hercules: The LEgendary Journeys is a the biggest piece of crap. The whole show is different myths thrown in a blender and put to liquify. Case in point: In one episode the greeks who fought at troy have a reunion party, and one of the charecters who died in the trojan war is there.

Well, yes, of course it's crap, but that's not the point I was making. Am I being naive in hoping that one of the functions of a programme like this is to make people interested in the real stories and literature behind the spurious nonsense of the TV show?

Another argument, of course, might be that a lot of ancient literature is "myths put thrown into a blender". Almost every ancient writer adapted myths and legends for his won use. Virgil, for example, introduced the Dido myth into the story of Aeneas, for various literary purposes. Perhaps people at the time were saying "What a load of crap - he's just taking any myths he likes and mixing them up to make his own story"?

Hell, I've just realised that the last post sounds like a defence of "Hercules...". Not meant to be!!

I don't think the makers of the series have any educational goal...
if they had they'd have probably been a little more true to the thing?
...and being true and precise is booooring... and boring is bad for ratings.