/lit/ - Literature

Clash of the Titans would be nothing without special effects. It was a movie, not a story.

Write an actual piece of literature like this and it could be interesting.

Sounds interesting. Zeus would kill him pretty quickly, though.

>wannabe horrorfag
>I'm kicking around
>writing a Greek mythological horror story
>special effects
>similar to Clash of the Titans

prepare for incoming shitstorm

Having an original story fitting perfectly in Greek mythological canon would be awesome. Even more so if done right.

>>758912
I said "similar to Clash". I'm writing a story, not a movie.

>>758911
Yeah, Protagius will have his ass handed too him most of the story. Zeus would escalate his punishments, probably start with eagles, getting other people to hunt him, and finally a huge storm to finish the job.

>>758934
I'd probably use Edith Hamilton for most of the details, though a few liberties might be taken.

What I'm excited about is making Zeus's statue in the temple as scary as possible. I originally wanted to make it a huge one, like in Disney's Hercules, but decided against it for realism.

Any suggestions?

>>758949

>Protagius

If this is the best you can do, this is going to fail hard.

>>758957
make it come to life, once or maybe once in a while

You'll need to add lasers.

>>758958
That's a joking place-holder name until I come up with something better, derpa derp. I'm not quite that retarded.

>>758957
>What I'm excited about is making Zeus's statue in the temple as scary as possible.
Make it look REALLY pissed off a while after the blasphemy.

Zeus should kill the husband with handshake

>>758960
Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. The statue wouldn't move, but the eyes would glow, Zeus's voice would seem to be coming from it, it would storm a bit, etc. Other than that, Zeus wouldn't actually show up after the rape.

If you really want to make this authentic, make sure you read all the Greek fictions. All the plays, all the epic poems, all the comedies. Then read the Romans, because most of our knowledge of Greek culture came from them.

>>758974
I don't think I'm gonna go that far. This is only gonna be a short story and I'm gonna write other stuff this summer too. I'm not going to devote that much time to research for just one story.

No. Just....no.

>>758993
Why not? I think its a cool idea that hasn't been done yet, too my knowledge.

>>758957
You should probably go to Hamilton's source documents instead of relying on her book. Hamilton omitted a lot of things when compiling Mythology, and tends to bowdlerize the myths. If you're looking for details like temple construction and such, you'd probably be better suited reading Greek archaeology books.

>>759004
That sounds good. I studied Greek architecture, including temple design, in my Art History class. I'll dig up my book and look for Hamilton's source material. Thanks!

Pic unrelated.

Read Ovid's Metamorphosis, too. Hamilton takes a lot from that, as do most modern scholars of mythology.

>>759023
Sweet, thank you for the help! I actually own Metamorphosis, but didn't even think of it.

I was also thinking about doing one about a barghest in modern times. Any ideas?

>>759044

Not as original, stick with Zeus.

>>759044
Metamorphoses

>>759059
Yeah, I realized that after I posted.

>>759050
This. I think the Zeus idea is actually really interesting, and it sounds like something I would read if I came across it.

Metamorphoses would probably be your main source for material on the gods and their natures, but it might not be bad to go through the Iliad and the Odyssey again, either. Those works don't feature Zeus as prominently as some of the other gods, but they are good examples of the Greek deities behaving badly.

>>759050
>>759089
Really? Darn, that seemed like a really cool idea. I'll probably do it, if nothing else just to compare it to other black dog stories.

Zeus doesnt fuck around man, your dude would be dead by a massive bolt of lightning pretty quick

>>759112
Yeah, that'd be one of the liberties I'd be taking. Zeus underestimates the hero a bit, but eventually kills his ass.

Mythology just doesn't strike me as the appropriate setting for horror of any kind.

>>759151
All those monsters, ghosts, and mankind often weak by comparison? Sounds like it could work to me, but I do see your point.

Zeus raped young women in the form of a bull. That's pretty fucking scary.

>>759172
And as a swan. That's horrific also.

>>759172
I was thinking about having him be a bull, but decided against it. Not sure i want to write bestiality, divine or otherwise.

make zeus a vindictive, intangible, lovecraftian cosmic horror.

>>759184
Exactly, a cruel tyrant who takes whatever he wants. Think cold marble in the dark, that's the idea of what I want in the temple scene.

>>759151
have you ever heard of the minotaur, hydra, harpies, the abundance of dragons and otherwise vengeful spirits, angry immortal god-demons and their equally vengeful spawn, gorgons, griffins, and an angry mountain-sized god called Typhoeus who had a hundred dragons on his head?
Damn nigger, learn to mythology

>>758968

Try to throw in a hint of Dr Who's weeping angels, or something like that.

>>759191
missedthepoint.jpg

what about a god makes it a god? "zeus" is infinitely vast, indescribably terrifying, omnipotently powerful with omniscient vigilance. Its a lot more terrifying to have the threat of such a beast looming on the horizon than when it actually happens. Waiting is always the best part.

>>759202
Yeah, that's what gave me the idea.

>>759191
he raped whoever he wanted anyway..it was kind of like a privilege for human women. Hera was the jealous bitch that persecuted them all afterwards

>>759184
Don't do this. Lovecraftian horror works for Lovecraft, but I hate how it has become the standard. Best to give your evil a face (besides, the Greek gods are known for their distinct personalities compared to the gods of other religions).

you could have him secretly be the son of Zeus
and he could enlist the help of the titans to kill Olympus
and he could slowly kill them off one by one
only to discover that when the main character opened Pandora's box he infected all the gods with evilness.
you could call it War of God

>>759217
Except they never revealed themselves in their actual forms to humans, lest they be destroyed.

>>759217
so? I never said rip off lovecraft, but an intangible horror can be manifested in a very human personality.

One problem: Zeus went for virgins. He wouldn't bang some dude's wife.

holyshit this is a kickass idea

DO IT FUCKER

>>759246
Oh. That's probably fine then

>>759257
>recently married couple
>they haven't had sex yet
>right before she has a chance zeusrape

easy

>>758957
Uh that huge statue of Zeus in the Disney movie of Hercules actually existed. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Zeus_at_Olympia

It would probably be a good idea for the temple in your story.

Also if you intend to write horror and don't want it to be shitty read H.P Lovecraft's notes on how to write horror. DO IT!

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/nwwf.asp

As for the actual story I'd make it a short story. First off you have to remember that horror is all about atmosphere and to make something actually horrifying you want everything to seem perfectly realistic and normal except for the supernatural event itself. If you read H.P Lovecraft's notes he talks about this and this is perhaps the most important thing in writing good horror. If the story is unrealistic, if the characters do not behave as normal people would, if there is tons of action (special effects if it were a movie) and melodrama then the supernatural event will not be scary and come across campy. The reason you want everything to be as realistic as possible because if the person is reading through the story and everything is realistic they will believe it to be true, and so when they come to the supernatural event it will be that much more believable and thus actually scary because everything else was so believable.

>>759287

Now I've read a crapload of Lovecraft and I would just write it using the basic structure and pacing he does. (the structure of his stories is one of the reasons he is a master at what he does, horror is all about atmosphere and atmosphere is a basically description and pacing and timing of things) he does for all his stories. It would go something like this:

To do this I'd start off having the guy talk about the gods and how they can be horrible and powerful beings and how they are said to inhibit their temples. This will create a feeling of the weird and strange as we are not used to seeing the Greek gods this way. Then have Zeus rape his wife, but have the guy not see the rape and only suspect Zeus. This will make unsure if it is all in the guys head or not. The guy then goes to the temple over several days or weeks and gets more and more convinced that it was Zeus that rapped his wife cause the way Zeus seems to glare down at him, although we are sill not sure if it is all in his head.

>>759293
Then after a while he finally decides to deface the church or something in revenge and while doing it he hears some noise or something see's something out of the cor nor of his eyes etc. (try to build suspense by delaying revealing what exactly is going on and keeping the viewpoint limited) and then to his horror the statue moves and comes alive. This is your big reveal, this is the single supernatural event the story should be building too, this is the Oh Shit moment that occurs in all of Lovecrafts works (usually near the end) when we find out that the supernatural is real. In this case we find out that it was not in his head, that Zeus is infact an powerful and somewhat evil god and did indeed rape his wife. The man is horrified and tries to run away, drops to his knees, etc. (don't have him fight the statue, this is Zeus were talking about, if you saw the statue of God of a major religion come alive and was angry at you would you honestly think you stood a chance? You need your character to behave as realistically as possible). From there you could end it I guess however you want. I guess have the guy run away, or get killed or injured etc.

>>759287
Sweet! Thanks anon, these are some awesome links. This will be a great help.

However, I'm not sure if I want to go down this (>>759295
>>759293) path. It sounds really good and I like it, but I'm not sure if the build up would make it too long. Of course, there are no page limitations for me, but I'm still not sure. I kinda like the idea of knowing that' its Zeus, but having the protagonist completely unable to stop him.