Perseus The God Helped Essay, Research Paper
In the Clash of the Titans, Perseus, the protagonist, is an epic hero. Perseus is to be married to Andromeda. During their wedding ceremony, her mother, foolishly, says that Andromeda’s beauty is “greater than Aphrodite,” the goddess of love and beauty. Furious at this mortal and her people, Aphrodite says, through the head of her statue, that Andromeda is to be sacrificed to the Crakin in thirty days. Because Perseus loves Andromeda, he decides to find a way to kill the prodigious creature that will come in less than a month. In his quest, Perseus shows that he is an epic hero by displaying bravery, showing intelligence, and being worthy of receiving help from the gods.
The first aspect of Perseus’ self that makes him an epic hero is his valor. It does so in Perseus’ fight with the freak Callibus. Callibus, the recently deformed man, is bigger and stronger than any normal man. The theater master tells the protagonist that “no man has fought with him and lived!” Callibus has Andromeda and the rest of the city under a spell and Perseus makes it his business to release them from it. He defeats the monster and takes his hand. Doing so, Perseus makes clear his courage. Truly, it is a scary and risky thing to fight a monster such as the one in the story. Any normal man would cringe at the though and promptly back away. Unlike a mare commoner, the epic hero, Perseus, goes into battle with his sward high. This displays an enormous amount of courage. Such bravery can only be classified as epic. But Medusa puts Perseus’s courage to an even greater test. Any man, having only “a glimpse” of this snake-woman, will turn to stone. Because of this and Medusa’s bow and arrow, men fear to enter the cave where she dwells. In the story, Perseus requires the head of the creature to stone the Crakin and save his love, Andromeda. The fact that he goes to Medusa and wins, shows he is exceedingly brave. It takes one who is able to control his anxieties so as to function normally in a stressful and frightening situation to fight a creature so powerful. Another words, only a brave man can do what does Perseus in the story. Because the protagonist possesses this quality, he can be considered an epic hero. Bravery is a common trait of the hero all throughout the movie, but it is mostly visible in the parts where he fights Callibus and Medusa.
Besides pure strength and bravery, an epic hero must have a highly evolved imagination. The protagonist goes to the “Three Sisters” to find a way to beat the Crakin. Because the witched are blind, they must use a magic ball to see. Their innocence, however, hides the fact that they, as they plan to do with the protagonist, eat men. Upon entrance into the cavern where they live, Perseus orders Bobo, the all-knowing owl, to snatch they eye from the Sisters, rendering them blind and helpless. After doing this, he says that he “will only give the ball back if they promise not to eat” him. The protagonist displays imaginative skills in this incident. Here, he shows that he is able to come up with answers to puzzles in a fast and creative way and by using only the few tools his has. The ability to do this is the trait of a great hero. Thus, the protagonist can be given the title of an epic hero. In an earlier part of the movie, Perseus again uses his imagination to save his life. In order to marry Andromeda, he must answer the question that she asks him. The question is “what is it: a large sun and two small moons.” Perseus remembers the hand he takes from Callibus and the ring upon it. Proudly, the protagonist announces that this thing is the ring that Callibus wears. His ability to connect an abstract idea with a real object in this incident is evidence of imaginative powers. One has to train his mind to get to mental point where he can automatically solve problems as the one that is given to Perseus. Because, in the movie, Perseus does not even hesitate in answering, one can see that he has a gargantuan imagination clearly worthy of epic hero rank. The protagonist’s imagination underlines further his epic hero status.
As any epic hero, Persues receives a great deal of help from the gods. First he receives magic armor. His helmet renders the wearer invisible; the sward can cut through anything, and the shield, the final gift, promises to “save your life.” The fact that the gods give these tools to Perseus makes him an epic hero. Usually, gods do not aid the common man. Mostly, they concentrate on heroes such as Perseus. Obviously, the protagonist is worth enough of their attention and therefore must be considered a hero in the epic story. At another point in the story, Perseus is once again helped. This time, the all-knowing owl, Bobo, is sent to his aid from the heavens. In the remainder of the quest, the owl guides and advises Perseus. Because the protagonist is blessed with this gift, one can deduce that the gods must see him as an epic hero. They would not give such a thing to a man not worthy of it. The standards of the gods are high and the only men of epic standards are deserving of their favors. Since the gods seem to care about Perseus and therefore help him, it is clear that he is an epic hero.
With courage, imagination and help from the gods, Persues, the protagonist in the Clash of the Titans, becomes an epic hero. Despite all his personal traits, however, he would be nothing without help. Surviving the things he must put up with is impossible without the gods. It is proven again and again that an epic hero is nothing without supernatural aid.