User Reviews

I am a big fan of the Greek myths. I have been fascinated by them from a young age so when I discovered this series I couldn't wait to watch. I think the mix of animation with art and artefacts is brilliant. This is as far as my admiration goes for this series. Whilst I understand that in order to reduce the stories down to 25 minutes they have to miss out bits of the stories is fine. It becomes a problem when they rework the stories to fit their designs. You can open any book of Greek myths and find out these stories, so the potential claim to be making them easier for people to understand cannot be justified. I can't say whether it is down to the original French script or merely the English translation but nearly every episode in the first series has at least one error. The second series is a lot better. This review would be extremely long winded if I listed every single error in the first series so I'm just going to detail three errors, two of which constantly recur.

1. This series keeps misidentifying gods. In the myths you were only a god if you were either one of the 6 children of Cronus and Rhea or one of the children of the 6. Anyone else was either a titan, titaness, nymph, dryad, muse or mortal. The only exception to this is Aphrodite who was a Titan but was invited by Zeus to become a goddess.

2. This series constantly refers to Hades as an Olympian. This is incorrect as to be an Olympian you had to spend at least some time living on Mount Olympus. After being given the underworld Hades chose to reside there and occasionally visited the surface and would only ever visit Olympus is necessity arose.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

3. This series claims that not only did Zeus married Metis before marring Hera but his firstborn son Hephaestus existed before he was conceived. It is clear that whoever is behind the writing for this particular episode tried to give Zeus a better motive for philandering than sexual desire. According to this series Zeus married the titaness Metis and impregnated her only to discover the prophecy that his second child with Metis would be a son more powerful than Cronus and would overthrow Zeus. After hearing this prophecy Zeus challenges a heavily pregnant Metis to a metamorphosis competition to see how small she could become until she is small enough to be swallowed. A few days later he is stricken be an unbearable headache and is only relieved when his son Hephaestus whacks his head with his sledgehammer creating a gap from which Athena can be born. This version is completely wrong not least because Hera refused Zeus until they were married and Hephaestus is their first child.

Zeus did propose to Metis but she knew of this prophecy and refused him. Even after she informed him of the prophecy he still desired her. Zeus married Hera and whilst all were celebrating he slipped away with Metis and attempted to seduce her. She then ran transforming into various animals to escape. She then transformed into a lizard and hid an a cave only for Zeus to transform into a male lizard, enter the cave and force her to submit. After satisfying himself Zeus then asks her how small she can transform. Metis then changes from a lizard to a fly and Zeus (still a lizard) swallows her. Zeus then returns to Hera as if nothing happened and they proceeded to sire Hephaestus (who Hera believes to be so ugly she throws him off Olympus) and Aries. It is only after Hephaestus and Aries have grown up and Hephaestus returns to Olympus that Zeus's headaches begin. When he finds himself in unbearable pain and he requests one of the gods to kill him that Hephaestus hits him with his sledgehammer, releasing Athena.

There are far too many segments that are simply made up. Rather than teaching ancient mythology and understanding the Greek culture that created it, it weaves a story believed to appeal to a modern audience.

Show me anywhere in historical writings where Zeus turned into a snake and killed his mother, Rhea? Enough said.