Year: | Our Mythical Childhood Survey

Ivan Aksenchuk

A Great Relay [Большая эстафета (Bol’shaia ėstafeta)]

The film presents the history of the Olympic Games as bringing peace to the nations. The animation starts with a story of a nice woman being kidnapped by a handsome Greek soldier. Helen (it is apparently she) agrees with kidnapping after a while and takes her belongings with her.There is a pursuit across the sea, and the couple hides behind a city wall. A great war starts. We see also the Olympic gods watching the war. Some of them want to participate in it, but Zeus asks Apollo to pla(...)

audiovisual

YEAR: 1979

COUNTRY: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

TAGS: Apollo Ares Athena Helen Olympic Games Paris (Trojan Prince) Trojan War Zeus

Eduard Artemyev, Valentin Berestov, Leonid Likhodeev, Viktor Omelchenko

Heron of Alexandria [Герон (Geron)]

The film is made as a cutout animation with elements of collage and hand-drawn animation. It describes the story of the mathematician Heron of Alexandria presenting him as a person ahead of his time. In the centre of the plot, there is an invention of a steam-powered device (aeolipile). The story is told by a narrator (the authors used the voice of Leonid Likhodeev, i.e., the actual script-writer of the film), who alternates it with fragments of poetry of Valentin Berestov. The main emphasis is (...)

audiovisual

YEAR: 1979

COUNTRY: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

TAGS: Greek Science Heron of Alexandria

Adam Bahdaj

Telemachus in Jeans [Telemach w dżinsach]

Based on: Katarzyna Marciniak, Elżbieta Olechowska, Joanna Kłos, Michał Kucharski (eds.), Polish Literature for Children & Young Adults Inspired by Classical Antiquity: A Catalogue, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2013, 444 pp.A 15-year-old boy Maciek Łańko starts a journey in search of his father Waldemar, who abandoned his family when Maciek was three. The boy sets out from Jerzmanów, a small town near Warsaw, and goes to Ełk in the North, whe(...)

literary

YEAR: 1979

COUNTRY: Poland

TAGS: Homer Odyssey Telemachus Trojan War

Michael Ende , Roswitha Quadflieg

The Neverending Story [Die Unendliche Geschichte]

This novel tells the coming-of-age story of 11 year old Bastian Balthasar Bux, an introvert, timid, slightly overweight and un-sporty boy who is bullied at school. Bastian’s mother has died and his grieving father has lost any interest in him. When Bastian reads a mysterious book called Die Unendliche Geschichte (which he steals from a local book shop), he becomes so absorbed in the story that he is drawn into the parallel world of Phantásien (Fantastica). Fantastica is be(...)

literary

YEAR: 1979

COUNTRY: Germany

TAGS: Centaur(s) Dragons Griffins / Gryphons Pegasus Phoenix (Bird)

Natalia Rolleczek, Zbigniew Łoskot

The Splendid and the Most Splendid [Świetna i najświetniejsza]

Based on: Katarzyna Marciniak, Elżbieta Olechowska, Joanna Kłos, Michał Kucharski (eds.), Polish Literature for Children & Young Adults Inspired by Classical Antiquity: A Catalogue, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2013, 444 pp.Tyche, the goddess of destiny plays with the fate of two Greek siblings, Apion and Ammonia who meet two young Egyptian boys Enum and Uni; the former is the son of a distressed dignitary Theta, the latter lives his life in poverty(...)

literary

YEAR: 1979

COUNTRY: Poland

TAGS: Aeneid Alexandria Anagnorisis Aphrodite Apollo Arachne Caesar Circe Cleopatra VII Egypt Herodotus Homer Horace Iliad Library of Alexandria Mark Antony Mercury Odysseus / Ulysses Odyssey Orpheus Poseidon Tyche