Atlantis

I got around to watching the first episode of this last night, having previously recorded it, so I had already seen a few of the comments and reviews. They seemed to be pretty evenly split between those who loved it, and those who were spitting feathers about the liberties taken with the ancient myths. What the majority of them failed to take into account was the target audience. Only one – that I have seen so there may be others – pointed out that the audience was definitely NOT the classicist, but the couch potato sitting on the sofa filling in the time between Strictly and Casualty. These people would not know the difference between one myth or another, so mixing them up for entertainment value is certainly not a cardinal sin. And boy, was it good entertainment! The three leads are a wonderful mix, Jason, as handsome and buff as any other hero, Pythagoras as nerdy as they come, but brave when needed,  and Hercules run to fat and cowardly! If the programme sold itself as a documentary that would be different, but it has never purported to be anything of the sort. The series is produced by the same company that brought us Merlin, and that, also based on a well-known myth, passed almost without comment. They have taken a story where the character names would be familiar, and played around with them to fabulous effect. One problem is that the world of the classicist is a fairly narrow one, and has a tendency towards navel gazing. Why should the ancient world be exempt from ‘historical tampering’? Myths are, after all, just that, stories with little basis in fact and interpreted even in  ancient times in many different ways. If you give it some thought, Hollywood blockbusters have been driving a coach and horses through history for years. You only have to think about Mel Gibson as William Wallace! And what about all those WWll  films with the good ol’ US Marine Corps riding to the rescue before they had even entered the war! My husband, who is interested in maritime history, tells me that the film Master and Commander also had liberties taken with it. The supposedly unsinkable ship was, in fact, American, and the action took place during the war against America in 1812. The timescale was moved so the ship could be French because the filmmakers decided it wasn’t a good idea to have the English fighting the Americans. Why is anybody’s guess.

Having said all that, in my humble opinion, even as an ancient historian (I have never called myself a classicist) I loved this episode, and hope that the rest of the run is even half as good. It has that appearance of a stonking great hit, and more power to it’s elbow.

On a different subject, this weekend sees the start of the Cheltenham LitFest. We are going on three different days, the first one being this Sunday, to see something completely for the fun of it, Armstrong and Osman of Pointless fame. Okay, not very erudite, but we do also have tickets for Mary Beard, a session on reading Ovid – in Latin, Max Hastings on WWl, and other more serious offerings. As with the Atlantis production, sometimes something is good enough just because it is fun, not because it is boringly historically accurate, and worthy! A smile is priceless.