Epiphanies

Closely related, in cinematic terms at least, to the notion of shape-shifting is the concept of the epiphany - the god’s appearance (through voice or physical manifestation: Burkert 1997) to mortals. Epiphanies have an irresistible draw for the filmmaker since, like metamorphoses, they afford an opportunity for special effects and the furtherance of cinematic narration. They can take an overt form of display or a more subtle form of manifestation. A particularly popular tradition is that whereby an inanimate statue (or other artifact) takes on a living shape or else acquires the ability to speak. In the opening scene of Jason and the Argonauts the hero’s eldest sister, fleeing from Pelias’ persecution, takes refuge in the temple of Hera and throws herself at the feet of her xoanon, beseeching the goddess’ aid. Hera appears on screen in shadow, swathed in black veils and standing behind the statue, whence she promises the girl help. While she does not inhabit the statue, she is identified as the power the statue represents. Later, however, when Jason builds the Argo, he places a similar wooden image of the goddess at the stern of the ship. This time the goddess’ essence enters into the statue and animates it: Hera’s great ox-eyes open and her voice, heard (at first) only by Jason and the audience, resonates from within the painted figurine. This conceptualization of Hera caused Harryhausen some disquiet:

The Hera figurehead, located at the stern of the vessel, was designed so that the eyelids opened and the eyes moved, but I drew back from making the mouth move, as I felt most audiences would liken it to a ventriloquist’s dummy, and it would then become borderline comedy. In the end we decided that Hera would communicate with Jason in his mind. (Harryhausen and Dalton 2003:153)

In The Clash of the Titans, when Calibos enters the temple of Thetis and prays before an enormous white-marble seated statue of his goddess-mother (‘‘Beg your beloved lord Poseidon to let loose the Kraken,’’ he pleads), she responds to his prayer by appearing in the statue - a projection of Maggie Smith’s animated features thrown onto the white face of the statue. Later, when angered by Cassiopeia’s insistence that Andromeda is ‘‘even more lovely than the goddess Thetis herself,’’ Thetis smashes her cult statue, and the huge stone head, collapsed from its body, rolls forward to become animated once more as Thetis threatens to destroy the kingdom of Joppa unless it sacrifices the virginal Andromeda to the Kraken:

Hear me, vain and foolish mortal woman: you dare compare your daughter’s beauty to mine, and in my own sacred sanctuary? You will repent your boast and the cruel injury you have inflicted on my poor Calibos.... For the insult you have given me, I demand the life of Andromeda!

And with that the statue collapses and the gods reveal their real powers.

Even Zeus opts to show himself to mortals: in The Clash of the Titans he appears to Perseus reflected in the gleam of a golden shield, a gift to the hero from the gods. ‘‘Who are you?’’ asks Perseus. But Zeus gives nothing away: ‘‘Find and fulfill your destiny’’ is all he has to say, leaving it up to the wise old Ammon to comment, ‘‘The gods indeed move in mysterious ways.’’

Besides physical epiphanies, the device of dreams is used at several important junctures within the movies. In The Clash of the Titans Andromeda’s dream-double leaves her body each night and is taken to the lair of Calibos, where nightly she learns a new riddle to test her suitors. Likewise, the adventure begins when, in sleep, Thetis visits Perseus and instructs him that his future lies in Joppa. Thetis also dictates the course of the story through her epiphanies in dreams. She declares: ‘‘If my son is not to marry [Andromeda] then no man will. My priests of Joppa are loyal. I will speak to them in dreams and omens. As my Calibos suffers, so shall Andromeda!’’