Mythic Warriors

Andromeda, the daughter of King Cepheus, longs to be a warrior in her father’s army, but women are not allowed to fight, and so the king forbids her. Instead, the king obliges the Queen’s wishes to marry Andromeda off to a wealthy prince. Desperate to make her dream come true, Andromeda appeals to the goddess, Athena, who gives her a spectacular suit of armor to hide her identity. Now disguised as the ‘Silver Warrior’, Andromeda challenges the best warriors in the kingdom and beats them all – that is until she meets the hero, Perseus, and falls in love with him. But conflicts of love are nothing compared to conflicts with the gods. For when the Queen brags that Andromeda is more beautiful than Poseidon’s daughters, the sea god unleashes the sea monster, Cetus, upon the kingdom. Only the ‘Silver Warrior’ is brave enough to fight the beast, and with the help of Perseus, defeats the monster. The Silver Warrior reveals his true identity and when the king sees it’s his daughter that has saved the kingdom, he is more than glad to have this warrior princess in his army.

As a small boy Theseus discovers a long kept secret – that he is the son of the King of Athens, and that on the day that he can lift a great boulder, he will be ready to take his place beside his royal father. Accomplishing the seemingly impossible task, Theseus discovers his father’s sword underneath the great rock. With the weapon in hand, he journeys to Athens where he re-unites with his long lost father. But the happy re-union is short-lived when Theseus discovers that his father, having been defeated in war by the evil King Minos of Crete, is being forced to sacrifice seven sons and seven daughters to the half-man, half-bull monster called the Minotaur. Determined to put a stop to this terrible tribute, Theseus volunteers to become one of the fourteen and sails off to Crete. But his attempt to overthrow King Minos is thwarted, and he and his fellow Athenians are imprisoned. Now it’s up to Theseus to enter alone into the ‘labyrinth’ (an enormous underground maze) and defeat the monstrous Minotaur if he is to save his people.

The young gods Prometheus and Epimetheus are sent by Zeus to endow Earth with some new creatures. While Epimetheus uses his godly powers to create ‘birds’ and ‘horses’, Prometheus stumbles upon primitive man. Seeing these intelligent beings toiling against the harsh environment, Prometheus decides to give them the gift of fire so that they can create a great civilization. When Zeus refuses Prometheus’ request to give fire, Prometheus disobeys, steals fire from the gods and gives it to man. Using the fire, man begins to flourish. But Zeus finds out that Prometheus disobeyed him and chains the young god to a cliff leaving eagles to peck at his body. Then, to punish man, Zeus creates Pandora and gives her a box that she is never to open. Hearing voices calling to her from inside the box, Pandora is overcome with curiosity and opens it, unleashing all the ills of mankind upon civilization. But just when it looks like Zeus has proven that man is not deserving of the gifts of gods, a despairing Pandora discovers one last ‘tiny voice’ emanating from inside the box, claiming to be ‘hope’. Pandora conquers her fear and releases ‘hope’ from the box, and ‘hope’ fills the hearts of man so that they can conquer all the ‘ills’ that Pandora had released before. Seeing Pandora’s selfless act, Zeus realizes that mortal man is deserving after all and frees Prometheus from his chains.

Atalanta, abandoned as a baby, is raised by bears and becomes the ‘wild girl’ protector of the animals. Though she hates man for his hunting ways, when Prince Meleager meets her, for the first time Atalanta begins to see her ‘human’ side. But while love is budding between Meleager and Atalanta, Artemis, goddess of the hunt, becomes jealous of this mortal girl who dares to challenge her rule over the hunting grounds of earth. Out of vengeance, Artemis creates the Calydonian Boar, a gigantic metal monster and sends it after Atalanta. The terrible boar wreaks havoc on the kingdom and Prince Meleager and his uncles are sent to kill the monster. When Atalanta tries to help Prince Meleager track the metal boar, the uncles shun her, being just as prejudiced against the uncouth ‘wild girl’ as the goddess Artemis. In the end, to Artemis’ dismay, it is Meleager, and not Atalanta, who is nearly killed by the boar, leaving the goddess to regret her jealousy. But Meleager survives, and accepting Atalanta for who she really is, wins her heart.

Young Bellerophon works in the stables of King Glaucus and loves horses more than anything in the world. One day, Pegasus, the great horse of the gods is seen soaring over the kingdom, and the selfish Glaucus decides he wants the flying horse for his own. Hating to see the great creature trapped, Bellerophon sets it free. Furious, the king tries to recapture it and is accidentally killed. Blamed for the king’s death, Bellerophon is banished. Undaunted, he soon finds work in another kingdom. But again, when our young hero tries to protect those less fortunate, he rouses the wrath of another monarch. This time, he is sent to yet another king, along with a letter requesting he be put to death. But this third king has a conflict. On one hand, he fears reprisal from the other king if he fails to carry out the demands of the letter. On the other hand, his daughter, Philonoe has fallen in love with Bellerophon. Wanting to wash his hands of the problem, the king sends Bellerophon off to defeat the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster that has been terrorizing his kingdom, certain the young hero will die in the attempt. But just as Bellerophon is about to set out to kill the monster, Philonoe reveals the letter. Even though he now knows he’s being sent to his death, Bellerophon decides to go on anyway, determined to free the citizens from the fire-breathing Chimera. For his brave and selfless efforts, the goddess, Athena gives Bellerophon a golden saddle. Putting it on Pegasus, Bellerophon becomes the first mortal ever to fly on the great horse and together they kill the Chimera.

While undertaking his famous ‘Twelve Labors’, imposed upon him by the vengeful goddess, Hera, Hercules saves a village from the Nemean Lion. Witnessing this, the young sheepherder, Iolas, who idolizes Hercules, decides to follow him and find out what makes such a great hero tick. But Hercules doesn’t consider himself a hero at all. He has done something long ago that is still haunting him now, and he fights Hera’s beasts to try to make up for what he has done. While Hera rejoices at Hercules sufferings, Iolas longs to help his hero free himself from this dark secret. Then, just before Hercules is to fight the nine-headed Hydra, he finally reveals his past to Iolas. When he was young and prideful, he challenged the gods of Olympus by claiming he could shoot an arrow all the way to the sun. With help from an angry Hera, the flaming arrow returned to earth and burned a village. Hercules feels he can never be forgiven for this deed. But before the Hydra can defeat Hercules, Iolas gets him to see that he must stop punishing himself for the past -- and to see that his worth as a hero is in helping those who need him now. Seeing the truth in this, a renewed Hercules defeats the Hydra. But his labors aren’t over yet.