Escape From The Underworld Analysis

The video I used for the myth retelling portion of the exam comes from the BBC 6-episode series “Myths Switch”. It is the fifth episode of the series and is titled “Escape from the underworld”. The overarching contrast between the retold and original version is the mood of the story. The first contrasting element is shown by the setting. In the video, the Underworld is portrayed as an underground bar/club with Hades being the owner of the bar. To supplement this observation, the bar has an electronic banner saying “UNDERWORLD” on it. The fact that the bar is located below where people stay during the day illustrates the theme of boundaries that is important in ancient Greek Myths. The idea of an underground club does in fact relate to the underworld due to how it is below ground level. In addition, Orpheus’ cautious journey down the dark entrance leading to the club should be thought of as the modern illustration of the “Taenarian gate down to the Gloomy styx” as told in the original myth. He had to dodge the iron bar and depicts the level of difficulty. The sight of happy people buying alcohol and having fun is different from the account of “pale-glimmering phantoms” and ghosts as told in the original myth. Bars are places people spend their evenings relieving pressure whereas the underworld is a place of desperation and horrifying ghosts. However, the puny presence of light at a club does resemble the glimmering hope that foreshadows Orpheus’ momentary success. Next, in the video, Orpheus asks for Hades and sees Hades throwing out a foreign man in frustration. This portrays the boundary between a customer and an owner, and ultimately juxtaposes the mortality of humans with the divinity of gods. The theme is again shown as Hades ...

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...es gave verbal permission for Orpheus to take back Eurydice whereas the video employs a more physical sign of permission. Eurydice then tells Orpheus that he must not let Hades see us and do not look behind you. This against contrasts from the original version as it is Hades that mentions he cannot look back at Eurydice as they exit the underworld. Without doubt, Orpheus looks back and catches Hades’ eye. As they exit the club and begin to enter civilization, the lovers run down a series of step that represent the division of the underworld and the mortal world. Thus, the video retold version emphasizes on the theme of hubris and boundaries. The theme of boundaries is coherent to the original story whereas hubris is not mentioned. Moreover, the mood also sets a great divide because the original is much more focused on the grief of losing Eurydice twice instead.