There are many ways that the things the Greeks did that we still use to this day. These things do include their art, culture, stories, and so much more. I think out of all of them the stories have been the biggest impact on the modern world. I think it has because we learn about the myths in schools, read historical fiction books, and watch movies as well.
Greek mythology is taught in middle school and in high school. At least that’s where I learned about these fascinating myths. I do think that some of the stories have been modernized to make them more kid-friendly and/or school appropriate. As we know, some of the stories are very intense in many ways. An example of this would be Zeus and his many wives. That obviously should not be read in the eyes of a sixth grader. If I remember right, in sixth grade we only really touched upon the basics of Greek mythology like who the Gods were and who/what the monsters were.
Greek mythology always amused me. I was so amazed by what I learned, so much so that my teacher told me about Rick Riordan. He is an author best known for his historical fiction books, books with fictional characters told during true events. Riordan’s books involved ancient mythology including Greek mythology. He is probably best known for his Percy Jackson series. Two of his books were turned into movies. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. The movies were totally different from Riordan’s books and not as good, but I still enjoy them for what they are worth. There have also been other movies not based on Riordan’s books that had Greek mythology in them.
These movies were called: Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans. There are two versions of Clash, but I’ve only seen the 2010 one, so I don’t know how close the 1981 one is to the real stories. Those movies were pretty good in my opinion and depicted the Greek gods quite well. The events in the films however were not as accurate as the stories told in the mythology books, but in Hollywood you have to Hollywoodize everything to make it more appealing to the audiences. With that being said, I do not think that the Greeks who created and/or told these stories would be impressed with our modernized work of their stories.
I think that because we have took their stories and changed them for entertainment purposes. As we do with most true story adaptations. However, I think in today’s society you kind of have to change things up to make them modern. If you keep it old school or too true to the real stories in every single adaptation (book or film) then people will get bored with them and not be entertained. It’s like anything, you have to bring new ideas to the table to make it different. If you tell the same exact Zeus story in every single movie or book then it would be boring and these stories may not live on as the Greeks would have hoped for.
So with that said, I think where we are now with their stories is a good point to be. We learn about the myths in schools, read historical fiction books about them, and watch sort of true movies about them. Their stories can still entertain us today, if they are done right. The question is now, if the real Greeks came to the future and read or saw our modern materials, would they like them? I think that’s a question that may never have an accurate answer.
