Plot
An elderly Homer (Perry Long) sits down in his home and begins writing a lost installment of the Odyssey, the tale of the Isle of the Mists, a story he felt was too terrible to tell before.
Years prior, Homer (Randal Edwards) is a member of Odysseus's (Arnold Vosloo) crew as they sail back to Ithaca following the Trojan War. The crew also includes Perimedes (JR Bourne), Eurylochus (Steve Bacic), Christos (Michael Antonakos) and others. During their travels, they become lost in a deep fog and encounter strange flying creatures who kill several men and drink their blood. The only thing that can kill the creatures is a wooden stake through the heart. In disarray, the crew lands at an island, the fabled Isle of the Mists, to repair their ships and recover from the attack.
After more encounters with the winged creatures, the crew meets a mysterious woman (Stefanie von Pfetten) who takes them to her refuge in the woods. Much to their surprise, the creatures seemingly ignore her and do not invade her sanctuary. Some of the crew remains suspicious even as they accept food and shelter from the woman. They learn of the Hellfire Cross, a mystical sword sealed by the gods on the island, that they come to believe can help them survive. The remaining crew decide to recover the Hellfire Cross as part of their plan to relaunch their ship.
After receiving visions from Athena (Sonya Salomaa), Odysseus realizes the mysterious woman is not what she seems. She uses her powers to transform into Odysseus's wife Penelope (Leah Gibson) and seduces him. Her failure to account for Penelope aging since the last time Odysseus saw her makes him realize the illusion, but only after he has sex with her. Odysseus and his remaining men realize her true identity: Persephone, the wife of Hades who has been banished to the Isle of the Mists and sealed there by the Hellfire Cross. Persephone reveals that the winged creatures are her children by Hades, and that she plans to escape the island with them to rule the world. Furthermore, she is now pregnant with a son by Odysseus.
Odysseus and his men escape to the cave where the Hellfire Cross is sealed and obtain it, but all except Odysseus and Homer die. They are confronted by Persephone, who thanks them for her freedom and attempts to convince Odysseus to serve her, as the Hellfire Cross cannot be wielded by a god. When he refuses, she tells them she will merely wait until her mortal son is born and ages instead. She starts to set the winged creatures free on the world and attempts to force Odysseus to cut his own throat, but he overcomes her power and impales her through the stomach, killing Persephone, their son and all the creatures. Some time after Persephone's death, Odysseus and Homer return to the sea and continue back to Ithaca.
Completing his story, the aged Homer muses about the origins of the winged creatures, how they could only be killed by a stake through the heart, and how they fear the sign of the cross. On the Isle of the Mists, Eurylochus - who was attacked by the creatures in the cave - has transformed into one of the creatures and flies off freely into the world.
Hades, in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed joint rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side.
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Iliad, the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey from Troy to Ithaca, via Africa and southern Europe, lasted for ten additional years during which time he encountered many perils and all of his crewmates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
In Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.
Penelope is a character in Homer's Odyssey. She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and Asterodia. Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus, despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence. In one source, Penelope's original name was Arnacia or Arnaea.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the founder and king of Ephyra. He was a devious tyrant who killed visitors to show off his power. This violation of the sacred hospitality tradition greatly angered the gods. They punished him for trickery of others, including his cheating death twice. The gods forced him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Through the classical influence on modern culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean.
In Greek mythology, Eurylochus appears in Homer's Odyssey as second-in-command of Odysseus' ship during the return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. He is portrayed as an unpleasant, cowardly individual who undermines Odysseus and stirs up trouble.
In Greek mythology, the Laestrygonians or Laestrygones were a tribe of man-eating giants. They were said to have sprung from Laestrygon, son of Poseidon.
Aeaea, Ææa or Eëä was a mythological island said to be the home of the goddess-sorceress Circe.
"Circe would fain have held me back in her halls, the guileful lady of Aeaea, yearning that I should be her husband"..
The Telemachy is a term traditionally applied to the first four books of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. They are named so because, just as the Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, they tell the story of Odysseus's son Telemachus as he journeys from home for the first time in search of news about his missing father.
A katabasis or catabasis is a journey to the underworld. Its original sense is usually associated with Greek mythology and Classical mythology more broadly, where the protagonist visits the Greek underworld, also known as Hades. The term is also used in a broad sense of any journey to the realm of the dead in other mythological and religious traditions. A katabasis is similar to a nekyia or necromancy, where one experiences a vision of the underworld or its inhabitants; a nekyia does not generally involve a physical visit, however. One of the most famous examples is that of Odysseus, who performs something on the border of a nekyia and a katabasis in book 11 of the Odyssey; he visits the border of the realms before calling the dead to him using a blood rite, with it being disputed whether he was at the highest realm of the underworld or the lowest edge of the living world where he performed this.
The Odyssey is a 1997 American mythology–adventure television miniseries based on the ancient Greek epic poem by Homer, the Odyssey. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the miniseries aired in two parts beginning on May 18, 1997, on NBC. It was filmed in Malta, Turkey, parts of England and many other places around the Mediterranean, where the story takes place. The cast includes Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Bernadette Peters, Eric Roberts, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeroen Krabbé, Christopher Lee and Vanessa Williams.
Class of the Titans is a Canadian animated television series produced by Studio B Productions and Nelvana Limited. It premiered on December 31, 2005, at 5 pm ET/PT on Teletoon with a special 90-minute presentation of the first three episodes. The series aired in the United States on Qubo from September 19, 2009, to October 24, 2009. On April 1, 2012, the series returned to Qubo as part of its Qubo Night Owl block replacing "Spliced" where it remained until July 25, 2020.
The Penelopiad is a novella by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It was published in 2005 as part of the first set of books in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths. In The Penelopiad, Penelope reminisces on the events of the Odyssey, life in Hades, Odysseus, Helen of Troy, and her relationships with her parents. A Greek chorus of the twelve maids, who Odysseus believed were disloyal and whom Telemachus hanged, interrupt Penelope's narrative to express their view on events. The maids' interludes use a new genre each time, including a jump-rope rhyme, a lament, an idyll, a ballad, a lecture, a court trial and several types of songs.
In Greek mythology, the Greek underworld, or Hades, is a distinct realm where an individual goes after death. The earliest idea of afterlife in Greek myth is that, at the moment of death, an individual's essence (psyche) is separated from the corpse and transported to the underworld. In early mythology the dead were indiscriminately grouped together and led a shadowy post-existence; however, in later mythology elements of post-mortem judgment began to emerge with good and bad people being separated.
The Odyssean gods are the ancient Greek gods referenced in Homer's Odyssey.
The Returns from Troy are the stories of how the Greek leaders returned after their victory in the Trojan War. Many Achaean heroes did not return to their homes, but died or founded colonies outside the Greek mainland. The most famous returns are those of Odysseus, whose wanderings are narrated in the Odyssey, and Agamemnon, whose murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra was portrayed in Greek tragedy.
Mythic Warriors is a 1998-2000 anthology animated television series, which featured retellings of popular Greek myths that were altered so as to be appropriate for younger audiences, produced by Nelvana and Marathon Media. Two seasons of episodes were produced in February 8, 1998 and March 14, 1999; then aired as reruns until May 21, 2000, when CBS' abolition of its Nelvana-produced children's programming in favor of Nick Jr. and later, Nickelodeon content resulted in its cancellation. The series was based on the book series Myth Men Guardians of the Legend written in 1996 and 1997 by Laura Geringer and illustrated by Peter Bollinger.
Christmas Caper is an ABC Family Original Movie. It aired on November 25, 2007 on ABC Family as part of their 25 Days of Christmas. The film stars Shannen Doherty, Ty Olsson, Sonya Salomaa and Stefanie von Pfetten.
In Greek mythology, the suitors of Penelope are one of the main subjects of Homer's Odyssey.
Mission Odyssey is a French-German animated TV series about the adventures of the ancient Greek hero Ulysses. The series is a production of BAF Berlin Animation Film GmbH & Co. Productions KG, Marathon Filmproduction, Marathon Animation, and M6 Metropole Television. Character design was created by David Gilson. Distributional rights were acquired in 2009 by the Your Family Entertainment AG, which is now holding indefinite broadcast rights including ancillary rights for almost all countries. Its global premiere took place on the French network M6 on 6 September 2002. In Germany, the show was launched on 22 February 2008 on KIKA.
