Clash Of The Titans: A Hero's Journey

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Hero journey’s throughout all forms of mythology is common from every culture. Joseph Campbell is an American scholar that specialized in mythology. Mr. Campbell developed a theory he called monomyth. He realized that several hero stories share common themes throughout the stories. Three main functions existed in these stories and are referred to as the departure, initiation and return. There were also several lesser functions within the three major themes of all hero stories. Not all of these stories contain all the functions, but a majority of them contain the three major ones. The 1981 film Clash of the Titans, produced by MGM Studios is a perfect example of Joseph Campbell’s theory on a hero’s journey. This film is focused on the hero …show more content…

Perseus does not know what his destiny is so he decides to visit the Kingdom of Joppa. This is where he finds out that Andromeda is the princess of the kingdom and cannot marry a suitor unless they answer her riddle. Perseus falls in love with Andromeda and seeks assistance with solving the riddle. This is when he finds his first animal helper in Pegasus. Pegasus is a flying horse and he uses it to follow the giant vulture that transports Andromeda’s soul to a swamp. Perseus then battles his first beast Calibos, which is a deformed human and the son of the Goddess Thetis. This is essential because this battle leads to Perseus’s ability to solve the riddle. Perseus loses his first gift, the helmet, and cuts of Calibos’s hand. This is how he is able to solve the riddle for Andromeda’s hand in marriage. He solves the riddle when he returns to Joppa but Andromeda’s mother insults the Goddess Thetis and she demands that Andromeda is sacrificed to the Kraken. This is another threshold to the second part of Perseus’s hero journey and continues his initiation. Perseus seeks the aid of the Stygian Witches and they inform him that he must defeat Medusa in order to battle the Kraken. He is once again aided by Ammon, a Greek warrior named Thallo and a mechanical owl called Buba. Perseus eventually defeats Medusa with the shield given to him and this is also sacrificed in the battle. Medusa’s head is …show more content…

During his return, they are attacked by Calibos and several giant scorpions. During this battle, Perseus manages to kill Calibos but he is exhausted from the battle and cannot continue with his journey to save Andromeda. He sends Buba to find Pegasus to assist him once again with returning to Joppa. At this point of the film, Zeus returns Perseus strength to continue on with his quest to save Andromeda. Eventually Perseus returns in time to save Andromeda from the Kraken. The boon he received from the initiation is used to defeat the Kraken. After the Kraken is defeated, Perseus has fulfilled his destiny and marries Andromeda. He then becomes king of Joppa. In honor of his deeds, Zeus creates several constellations to honor Perseus, Pegasus and Andromeda. This concludes Perseus’s hero

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