Clash of the Gods
Clash of the Gods is a documentary series that premiered in 2009 on the History channel. The program covers many of the ancient Greek and Norse Gods, monsters and heroes including Hades, Hercules, Medusa, Minotaur, Odysseus and Zeus.
1. Zeus - The story of Zeus and how he led the Olympians to defeat the Titans and gain control of the universe.
2. Hercules - Hercules, the strongest man in the world, murdered his family in a fit of rage. To atone for his sins, he is given 12 tasks to complete.
3. Hades - Hades is the lord of the underworld and the keeper of dead souls. This episode tells how Hades came to this position, why he was so feared, and what the Greeks thought awaited them after death.
4. Minotaur - The Minotaur was a flesh-eating, half-man, half-bull that lived in the labyrinth beneath the palace of Minos. Every 9 years, seven youths and seven maidens were chosen from Athens to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Until a brave man named Theseus braved the labyrinth and killed the beast.
5. Medusa - Medusa was once a beautiful priestess of Athena until her vow of chastity was broken by Poseidon raping her. Refusing to punish Poseidon, Athena turns her wrath on Medusa. She was transformed into a monster so hideous, it would turn any person who saw her gaze into stone. But she eventually meets her end at the hands of Perseus.
6. Odysseus: Curse of the Sea - Odysseus, king of Ithaca, leaves his wife and son to fight in the Trojan War. After destroying Troy, he attempts to sail home, but has to face many challenges. After defeating a cyclops on Sicily, the beast asks his father, Poseidon, to curse Odysseus.
7. Odysseus: Warrior's Revenge - Odysseus continues his journey across the chaotic sea, confronting sorceresses, sea monsters, and even a journey into death itself to reach his wife before she is forced to marry another.
8. Beowulf - The Norse saga of Beowulf and his battles with Grendel and other monsters.
9. Tolkien's Monsters - About J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and how real-life influenced it.
10. Thor - About the Norse god Thor.
I am new to this. Since many others pointed out many faults of this documentary, can anyone refer me any decent documentary about norse and greek mythology. thanks in advance !
A little story comes up, where Zeus eats his babies, A painting of it too, gnawing on a child. When the fact might be is that- The God Zeus was described inside of a space craft above Greece and his son ascended up towards the big ship with his ship and entered inside, they simply didn't know any other way to describe what they seen. So just maybe, it was a mistake in language transfer.. (Perhaps the same fable like mistakes reside all through the holy bible). But I'm no expert just sounds a little more logical then devowering the flesh of his own babies.
Poor Greek's so ignorant about religion....just like the rest of the world is to day, nothing has changed.
Can someone PEALSE get rid of the voice of Kristina Milnor, I can’t stand it any longer! Currently at part 5 and almost about to kill myself every time she starts to talk, AAAA!
All and all nice to hear all there story's, the reflections to "reality" don't sound always truth to me, more putting peaces of history together and make it work.
This was one of the better series History channel ran. It was slightly more in depth(like bubblegum cough syrup) about the myths, but my fav is still Evolve, though I still like watching Clash for its endearingly cheesy production values and cheap animatics.
i wanna know about Pan.
anything about poseidon god of the sea
So Awesome, this is a very well made playlist of the whole series
The doc is fixed now.
Can you please separate each episode?
It's because they're taking them down, yes.
Whats going on? I mean I just started watching this series yesterday and today it says that there is no embeddable videos. And lately it seems to be big problem with the newer docs you upload Vlatko. I mean one day you start watching and the other say there is no more. Is it because their taking the docs down or is there some other problem?
Point of order. Baby Hercules seems to face two pythons or other constrictors,
not poisonous serpents. On second viewing they do look like poisonous serpents,but of the prank variety.
Too bad it doesn't cover Mesopotamian (Sumerian, Babylonia, Akkadian, Assyrian, Hebrew, etc.) & Egyptian mythologies.
This was a good documentary series on many levels. There were novel variations on the classic myths and good links were established between one cultures myths and another's. For these reasons alone I rate this series very highly. The highlight's for me was the amazing story of the theft of Thor's hammer Mjollnir by the ogre king. On the negative side the generic American narrators voice was really annoying at times. 9/10 overall.
OK so I have decided when I die I want to buried in a replica Viking ship. Potential inheritors be dammed. We should all do this! Children need to find their own way in life. Infact if I had the money I`d build a pyramid!
youre the man! (or woman)
great retellings. christian references numerous. not their fault, every story comes from somewhere. but it didn't have to be the side-story in this series.
but this is more like what i imagined when i read this stuff. more than boring history teachers could tell.
loved it. enraged that more aren't out. more so that more won't be out.
i love this documentary site so much! but one thing, dates. every doc i watch, every single one, i wonder when it was made. it's an important thing with documentaries.
thats what search engines are for i guess
@Waldo
Spot on there about Tolkein.
Think I'm going to have to re-read Beowulf and LOTR sometime soon, its been too long. Decent enough series simply due to the subject matter. Dislike the whole dramatised scenes, pictures would have been enough.
History Channel has a tendency of distorting Greek History .... In this case the point is that the Greeks never accepted Christianity. It was enforced by law during Roman-Byzantine times.
All of you who are teachers at various universities that claim this
SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!!!!!
I think it is time to pay some respect to the victims of Christianity for example the 24 million Greeks that were beheaded in Minor Asia alone for their religious beliefs at the time that the destruction of the Greek world was decided , the burning of the Libraries and so many atrocities that this so called religion of LOVE brought upon the world.
Overall I only saw the first part of this series and I really enjoyed the Graphics and the concept .... despite the fact that Zeus was played by a really fat guy and Cronus by an ape - In contrast the art that is shown here shows clearly that the Gods were not couch potatoes ..... THEY WORKED OUT!
Furthermore, some 'experts' not all talk about the names of the Gods and try to explain everything according to their sexuality and Christian-Jewish beliefs .... for example .... Cronus had sex with Rhea because there was noone else to have sex with!!!
If you did your homework you would realise that Chronus means Time in Greek and he was married to Rhea which means Flow so Time and Flow created Zeus which means Fusion .... it is clearly a way of trying to explain the origins of the universe and it is very successful compared to Christian Jewish ideas of the earth being flat and all the other stupid ideas that come from these systems that destroyed humanity for 2000 years ..... Well Tartarus is waiting for you! Your days are numbered ......
I will not go on about Greek Myths because I will need a few thousand pages to analyze all the info that is hidden in the myths.
PS I'm not trying to insult anyone with this comment but bare in mind that people are not as stupid as some might want to believe...
wtf has Christianity got to do with Greek mythology... why keep comparing the a$$^&*(# Jesus everywhere... i@#$%^... all ya hooligans who posted such a biased article... thanks for letting me know on Greek mythology though!
the part about thor is 70% bullsh*t i cant understand how those people even got their jobs. Even i know more about Norse mythology than they do. It pissed me off greatly to hear them talk bullsh*t.
Have watched first 4 chapters so far.
Excellent documentary even if some of the dramatizations are a bit over done imo
Really appreciate the archeological and historical connections drawn every so often.
Fun tip: Do a shot every time the camera shows someone standing in front of a black background while dramatically raising their gaze to you.
Bjurne:
Thanks! That saves me a whole lot of trouble. Much appreciated.
gothnate:
Agree :)
connie:
I meant close, not pause, like till the next day after work. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that.
Very enjoyable Vlatko, thank you & thanks Connie for the popcorn once again. Got as far as Beowulf and am taking a break, will save some of the excitement for tomorrow. Well done. Love the archaeological finds mixed in with the stories.
I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far, but I just wish the Gods didn't have the light blue contacts. It's kind of distracting.
oh
@Mitsy: theres a button between the play- and the sound button, it allows you to choose chapter ;)
sorry about multi comments
"...They knew about Opium, and therefore (they knew about) Haschish."
-What know? Is cannabis the same thing as heroin now, or what am i missing? (and i know that opium is not pure heroin)
@ Mitsy
This may sound too simplistic or sarcastic, I don't mean it to be; but, when I want to pause something I just pause it.
Where the arrow turns it on. you also stop it there ,then minimize that page and open a new window on my puter if I want to do other things.
Later just maximize the window and hit the play button.
Hi all,
Question please.
I watched the first portion, Zeus, the stopped it and saved that page to my bookmarks.
Now when I opened it again to watch the next section, Hercules, it is starting from the beginning again.
How can I watch a portion, stop and the return to the same place that I halted it?
7 hours is just too much to watch all at once!
zeus is called indra in indian mythlogy. history is everywhere same. be what u r . only inner self works , its not a myth,
it works
jimmy
Excellent Doc Vlatko !!!
Wish school could have been as interesting. Great series. I don't want a TV in my home, after 6 years I still don't miss it and Top Doc is part of the reason why. Your site is TOPS!
This chick Kristina Milnor is SO F@#$%^& annoying WOW. Hearing her talk during this whole series makes me want to break things. Why the hell does she talk so loud and always over-emphasis her words. SO ANNOYING.
I wonder how long before the current religions become part of mythology?
The section on the lord of the rings trilogy is a prime example of how critics often put ideas and words into an authors mouth, so to speak. Tolkien himself stated emphatically that the Hobbit nor The Lord of the Rings was in any way an allegory. In fact here is what he said word for word in the foreword of the book:
"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."
Yet every time I here the books commented on by so called experts they draw direct allegorical connections to this or that.
Tolkien obviously drew on his knowledge of the Norse and and Anglo Saxon traditions to help build some of the peoples in his stories, for instance the people of Rohan have a very similar culture to that of the Anglo Saxon and the Norse as well. But this doesn't mean that he was trying to convey some kind of real world message with his work. In fact here is what he says about why he wrote the Lord of the Rings, "The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them."
He was not making an attempt to create a mythology for England, at least not in the sense these people seem to be trying to convey. He made several statements about how he disliked the fact that English mythology really originated from the Norman culture. Whether or not this is true, I have no idea. I have never studied Norman mythology enough to know. He also did jokingly tell his long time friend C.S. Lewis that if they wanted to read the types of stories they both liked, and have them be about an original English mythology they would have to write them themselves. But Tolkien was much too sophisticated to believe that the Lord of the Rings would be taken as true English mythology. After all thats not how mythology works.
Just goes to show you how the pundants, or professionals as they call themselves, often project their own interpretations on to a work to the point it loses its original intent, which may be nothing more than a desire to tell a good story. Some times a cigar is just a cigar folks. Thats not to say we shouldn't all get out of a work what we get out of it, like Tolkien says that resides in the freedom of the reader. But to call it allegory suggests that it was the puposed domination of the author for the reader to draw certain connections to the real world, and this was clearly not Tolkien's wish.
robert anton wilson is Zeus!
This was very interesting documentary, its amazing to see how much these myths and legends actually hold some truth in this modern age. Great infotainment!
This would have been even better if it would have a larger explanation of norse mithology and not only concentrate in greeks gods and thor.
But, except of that, this doc is great
@ Vlatko ! Awe some Thanks for this Doc. I have been wanting to see this. I see I am not the only one who cant wait to watch it... OK Its Popcorn time!
That'll be Beowulf the hero of an Anglo Saxon epic poem,not a God!
Awesome stuff.
To put it another way,ALL religions are Myths.Except YOUR particular religion,that is.N'est Pas?I enjoyed this a lot.The dramatisations are a bit silly,and made me feel as if I were in the 7th grade,but it's really well presented.Good stuff!
Actually, legally, I think 'we' could register a religion which practices the study of greek mythology. Seriously, if ' The Temple of the Jedi Order' based on Gearge Lucas' Star Wars movie, can be a recognized religion, we could start a greek mythology religion no problem, if there isn't one already. I'll sign up! Peace - and no offence to any Jedi's out there, without sarcasm.
if only i could listen to the banality of the state the obvious academics and their nasally nasalling- i keep thinking someones messing with the volume when they talk- why are they seemingly surPRISED! at everything they SAY?!
Great! I saw this series when it was first showed on the History Channel. I'll see it again now! It's amazing how creative those stories are and how many twists they have. They beat Hollywood movies easily given their predictable endings.
@ Magarac:
If enough people believe it, it's a religion. Otherwise, it's considered r "cult", a "myth" or a "legend".
Religion is part of greek mythology, but greek mythology is not Religion. ;)
Greek Mythology is somewhat a mix of religion, history and epic storytelling. Hercules and Medusa where not worshipped, they where simply viewed as historic figueres.
Why is it called greek mythology and the whole jesus stuff is called a religion?
Can´t see the difference between a guy that makes lightning and a magic carpenter.
WOW, I so curious about mythology and this is the perfect watch :D. Can't wait.