 |
| Gladiator fights at "Brot und Spiele", Germany's biggest Roman festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Everytime I think I'm starting to get a handle on things, I come across a new source that forces me to rethink everything I thought I had resolved. This time, it's my mom. I was talking to her yesterday about how much work this is turning out to be, and she wanted to know all about it. When I told her about my neo-mythology idea, she said, "you mean like gladiator movies?" Aargh! So, I had to ask what that meant, and I'll just summarize her explanation.
Gladiator movies, according to Mom, were all over the place in the '50s and '60s, especially at drive-ins and on late-night television. The hero was obviously a bodybuilder and was usually dressed in a way that exposed his chest and most of his legs. He always won his fights through his superior strength, and you could never remember the storyline afterwards.
This sounds to me like what they call pepla, and I'll have more to say about that next time.
