Lily Peng

JCL Co-President Ainslie Chen (12) explains the mythological inaccuracies in the movie “Clash of the Titans.” Ainslie highlighted how movies often distort classical myths to appeal to modern audiences.

Junior Classical League (JCL) hosted its first lecture of the year on the fallacies of classical mythology depictions in the movies “Hercules,” “Clash of Titans” and “300” on Tuesday.

In “Hercules,” which follows the demigod Hercules’ journey, Disney falsely depicted Zeus and Hera, both gods, as Hercules’ parents, when in reality Hercules’ mother was a mortal. JCL co-president Ainslie Chen (12) highlighted the idealized depiction of his parents’ relationship and the relationship between Hercules and his wife, Megara, whom he murders out of madness in the original Greek tale.

JCL Editor Shreyas Karnam (9) found interest in movies’ intentional deviations from classical myths to represent characters in certain ways.

“It’s really fun to see how people interpret myths because it’s such an important part of our culture,” Shreyas said. “It’s cool to see the revisions that people make to the stories to make them more accessible to a wider audience throughout history.”

“Clash of Titans,” which reimagined the Greek myth of Perseus, misrepresented the myth by changing Perseus’ grandfather Acrisius into his father. The movie also blended Greek and Norse mythology by featuring the Kraken as the main antagonist.

For the movie “300,” which dramatized the Battle of Thermopylae between the Spartans and Persians, Ainslie addressed the exaggeration of only 300 Spartans fighting, as the real number was closer to 7,000. Many of the movie’s historical deviations were intentional choices, including the portrayal of Ephialtes, the Greek traitor, as a hunchback to symbolize his betrayal of the Spartans.

“It’s very interesting how you can see both the legacy of the classical world and how these legacies can be misinterpreted based on creative direction or just simply ignorance,” Ainslie said. “In the future, I hope to keep holding these occasional lectures, and through these lectures, we can boost awareness about Latin’s legacy.”

Last year, Harker JCL entered a temporary hiatus because of student leadership issues. This year, Ainslie and co-president Suhana Bhandare (11) hope to spread Latin culture by consistently engaging members in similar lectures and activities.

“The talk was a real exposure to those of us at the JCL about how people can be ignorant to the work and the myths that we read,” Suhana said. “They can monetize it for their own benefit without even appreciating the culture that we’re trying to uphold. Ainslie reminded us of that capitalism, even though we know that everything is about education.”