Mythology's influence on Popular Fiction

What represents popular fiction better than movies. Therefore, here I am only going to refer to movies, as they are the most relatable. Fiction, although come from a writer’s imagination, they still bear the flavours of cultures that influence its writer. Mythologies are those stories that have a greater amount of influence on a culture’s psyche, and therefore we see elements of mythologies in movies, series and other popular fiction. This is at times a conscious decision, while many a-times it is subconscious. Most of the writers follow Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey – which is basically a prototype created by studying all the mythological stories.

Let us first talk about a direct influence or adaptation from mythologies.

Matrix 

Matrix is known for its direct mythological references. Neo is the one, symbolising Jesus Christ, Trinity is literally named after God, the son and the holy soul. Morpheus is named after a Greek god of sleep, which is an allegory to the simulated world they live in. Instead of putting him to sleep, Morpheus wakes up Neo, and make him realise that the world he lives in is just a simulation. A concept is taken from the Upanishads and Vedantic thoughts. This reference is so direct that the final movie has a soundtrack with hymns taken from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Baahubali

Now there are so many parallels between this movie and the two Indian epics. I will try to summarise it as short as possible. The characters and events of Baahubali are a very visible blend of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Bijjaladeva is an archetypical Dhitarashtra, Sivagami is an archetypical Kaikeyi, Bahubali Senior is an archetypical Rama, Devasena is a combination of Sita and Draupadi, Bhallaldeva is an archetypical Duryodhana, Kattappa is an archetypical Bhishma, Bahubali Junior is an archetypical Krishna, his adoptive mother is an archetypical Yashodha, and Avanthika is…. well, she is just there.

Now, let’s come to indirect references that are not easily pick up.

Batman V Superman

Superman is referred to ‘like a god’ who sacrifices his life for the people. He gets resurrected in Justice League. This classic motif is also found in comics and animated series. But it is directly or indirectly taken from Jesus Christ. Also, his real name is Kal El. His family name 'El' literally means god in the Phoenician Canaanite religion which influences Christianity via Judaism. You must have noticed that most of the angel names ending with el. (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael).

Game of Thrones 

Another example of a resurrected hero is Jon Snow from the series Game of Thrones. This recurring theme is clear influence of the Christian mythology.

Now let’s come to India. In this story our hero, a good man is exiled for some years, his love interest gets kidnapped by a villain, and a gang of good guys headed by his good friend goes to the villain’s location to rescue her and in-process burns down the whole place. Sounds similar? You may say it is Ramayana. But, this story is about the 1988 Bollywood movie Tezaab.

What I mean to say is that mythologies influence our stories more than we think it does because it is very much ingrained in our culture. That is why writers sometimes take a conscious decision to take a mythological trope for creating a fresh story to make it more relatable.

Let me know if you have noticed some similarities between modern fiction and some ancient mythologies.