All language subtitles for 6-Les.Grands.Mythes-FRENCH.WEBRip.x264-ION10

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Mine be the
deer, lyre and bended bow,

and I will utter to men the
unerring council of Zeus.

Such are the first words
of Apollo hardly out

of his mother's womb.

Apollo, God of light,
protector of the arts,

patron of the divine and of the prophets.

The sun beats down on the
newborn babe, or rather babes,

for next to Apollo sleeps
his twin sister Artemis.

All around them in the
arid and desolate landscape

this island where their mother Leto,

the Goddess of the night,

finally found refuge is truly a stone.

Just a single tree,

a palm tree, the silence, and the sea

stretching out to infinity.

Leto's face relaxes nine days,

nine days before deliverance came.

Nine days of suffering after
seven months of wandering.

And all that was whose fault?

Zeus of course.

Zeus who might have been
called the God of adultery

if he hadn't already
been given the title of

Master of Olympus.

Zeus and his innumerable
feminine conquests.

Poor Leto, for how long
did the king of the Gods

harass her before stealing her virtue?

Indeed she might have
guessed that this affair

would end badly.

Leto pulls her twins to her side.

She remembers, how could she forget.

A few months earlier she announces to Zeus

that she if pregnant.

The master of the Gods explodes with joy.

This boy, for it will no doubt be a boy,

will be the most valiant
of all his children,

the most handsome.

Leto does not share
her lover's exuberance.

Indeed she is very worried,
for Zeus is married,

and not to just anybody.

His spouse his called Hera,
and she shares his sovereignty

over heaven and Earth.

Not only is she the greatest
of all the Olympian Goddesses,

but she is the protecting
divinity of marriage,

and infidelity is something
Hera doesn't like in the least.

Deception is no joking matter for her.

Pitiless not only with her rivals,

but also with the children
they bring into the world.

(dramatic music)

Of course Leto could've
pointed out that she hadn't

wreaked havoc in an other
wise untroubled union.

A short time earlier the
heavens had been witness

to another clash.

(thunder)

Having learnt that Zeus
was on the point of

committing a new infidelity
Hera had called upon

Athena, Poseidon, and numerous
other divinities for help.

Together they had tried to chain Zeus.

Alas the project failed,
and it didn't take long

for the Master of Olympus to retaliate.

As Hera was at the
origin of the conspiracy

Zeus suspended her over the clouds,

an anvil attached to each ankle.

Despite her cries no God
dared come to her aid.

Zeus only accepted to
release her on condition that

all the conspirators vow never
to rise up against him again.

Leto's fears turned out to be justified.

Zeus' cries of joy upon
learning that his mistress

is pregnant have reached
as far as Hera's chamber,

right up there on Olympus.

Yet more deceit.

This time the Goddess' promises her anger

will know no bounds.

To start with she
threatens bloody reprisals

against anyone who offers Leto asylum.

Next she calls up a monster
from the depths of the Earth,

Python the serpent,

and she sets it on the heels
of the unfortunate woman.

And so begins weeks of
wandering for poor Leto.

Abandoned by all, desperate,
she goes from land to land

and from town to town looking for a place

where she can bring her
twins into the world

in all safety.

(quiet music)

But her path is strewn with closed doors

and evasive glances.

No one dare brave the anger of Hera.

Leto struggles on begging
until, already stricken

by the first pains, she
reaches a little island

in the Aegean sea by the name os Asteria.

Asteria, that was the name of her sister.

She too had once suffered Zeus' advances,

but rather than give in she had
thrown herself into the sea.

(eerie music)

At the place where she fell
had appeared the island

of Asteria.

Leto seeks refuge on the island
which was once her sister.

She lies down at the foot of a palm tree.

She first gives birth to a girl, Artemis,

and then a boy, Apollo.

So here he is this magnificent God.

This God of light, of
music, and of poetry.

Seven days later and he's
already out of nappies.

He's already a superb boy
with extraordinary strength.

Zeus sends him a seven
stringed lyre, a chariot

pulled by two powerful
swans, a bow and arrows

specially made for him by
Haphaestus the God of blacksmiths.

Immediately Apollo decides to leave.

He has a fixed purpose in
mind, to be the one who reveals

to mortals their destiny,
as well as the intentions

of his father, the mighty Zeus,

but for that he must find a place.

A place where he can build his temple.

Apollo climbs onto his
chariot, leaves the island

which suddenly becoming fertile and green

takes the name of Delos the resplendent.

But the swans who pull
his chariot see things

in a different way.

They carry their passenger
off to their own country

beyond the north wind, the
land of they Hyperboreans.

It's a magic country.

The gold that is found here
is guarded by griffins.

The people here are rich,
happy, and never grow old.

Here Apollo is initiated
into the mysteries of Zeus.

(wistful music)

Then he continues his journey.

He arrives at a splendid
spring lost in the middle

of a deep forest.

The place is guarded by a nymph.

Her name is Telphusa.

When Apollo informs her
that he intends to build

a magnificent temple here the nymph,

offended that a greater
divinity has come to compete

with her, persuades him that
the place though beautiful

is terribly noisy.

She sings the praises of
another sight very close by

at the foot of the gorge
of Mount Parnassus.

Apollo sets off again.

He doesn't know it,

but the nymph has just
laid a trap for him.

(dramatic music)

A few hours later Apollo
discovers a magnificent valley.

The place does indeed seem
perfect, but hardly has he

started to mark out the
foundations of his temple

than a shadow silently
slides up behind him.

Python, the terrible serpent
who was already hunting him

in his mother's womb, Python had been here

awaiting his hour of revenge.

The combat is incredibly violent.

(dramatic music)

Apollo's triumph is absolute.

Yes, but he killed a God all the same.

Gaea, the Mother Earth who
gave birth to this monster

is furious.

She immediately reports
this offense to Zeus.

Zeus orders his son to
go to the vail of Tempe

to purify himself.

Apollo does more than this.

He establishes the Pythic games in memory

of his beaten adversary.

But what is a sanctuary without a priest?

While looking out to sea in meditation

Apollo suddenly notices a vessel

which seems to be in trouble.

He leaps into action, takes
the form of a dolphin,

and reaches the boat.

Onboard he finds that the
Cretin sailors are half dead

from hunger, thirst, and fatigue.

He promises to save them on condition

that they accept never to go home,

and to faithfully serve him.

Apollo leads the boat to shore
and initiates the sailors

into the divine secrets.

On the pediment of the
temple he has the words

"know thyself" engraved.

An errant God roaming the
countryside, Apollo undoubtedly

understands better than
most the profound meaning

of this maxim.

(soft music)

It remains to find a name for the place.

The sailors turned priest
remarked that it was

in the form of a dolphin that
Apollo had appeared to them.

Dolphin, Delphis in Greek.

Apollo approves.

The site will be called Delphi.

Delphi is soon to become the
most venerated place of worship

in all Greece.

People hasten there from the
four corners of the Earth

to know the destiny reserved
for mortals by the Gods.

For that one needs to
question the oracle of Delphi.

The famous Pythia.

It is through the mouth of
this oracle that the God

is supposed to express himself.

(angelic music)

For the moment the time
of wandering is over,

and the time of power can begin.

Apollo makes a triumphant
arrival on Olympus

at the assembly of the Gods.

He is at the height of his glory.

Alas everyone has their
dark side, even the Gods.

And although with his lyre Apollo enchants

the immortals stay,

with his bow he renders
men's lives impossible,

and one quickly discovers
that behind the delightful

poet who frolics with the muses hides

a bloody and violent archer.

A Queen, the arrogant Niobe,
will learn this to her cost,

and she won't be the only one.

Niobe rains over the town of Thebes.

She had once been loved by
Zeus, but had not deigned

to give him children.

However, Niobe was fertile.

With her husband Amphion she
had brought into the world

no less than fourteen children.

One day spurred on by
jealousy and grievance

Niobe boasts of her prodigious fertility,

and taunts the Goddess Leto
who only has two twins,

Artemis and Apollo.

An unpardonable offense in Apollo's eyes.

While Niobe's children are
accompanying their mother

on Mount Sipylus Apollo approaches them,

and without any qualms

bends his bow and lets fly his arrows.

Fourteen arrows, fourteen
children, total carnage.

We can only imagine the immense sadness

of the unfortunate Niobe.

(sad music)

Prostrate she refuses to leave the tomb

of her assassinated children,
and bewails them day and night

until Zeus taking pity on
her turns her into a rock

streaming with tears.

A paradox of this
strikingly beautiful God,

he is always disappointed in love.

The women to whom he is most attached

always escape him inexorably.

The most famous of these unconquered women

is the nymph Daphne.

Daphne spends most of her time hunting.

However, one day Eros
the young God of Love

who Apollo constantly teases
for his weak archery skills

decides to play a game
on the proud seducer.

He pierces Apollo's
heart with a golden arrow

which makes him fall in love with Daphne.

Then he strikes Daphne
with an arrow of lead

which renders her insensible to love.

Apollo tries to court Daphne,

but she obstinately refuses him.

To avoid the God's persistent
advances she flees.

Apollo chases after her.

(quick music)

The nymph plunges
through the forest until,

as her strength fails her,
she collapses onto the bank

of the great river Peneus.

With Apollo only a few steps behind her

Daphne fervently calls upon her father,

the God of the river Peneus,

and the God hears her.

In a thunder of water and spray

Peneus surges out of the water,

and with the point of his
scepter touches her breast

just at the level of her heart,

right where Eros' arrow had struck.

The beautiful Daphne
feels her members stiffen.

Her fine tunic slides from her haunches,

and her body suddenly becomes
covered with rough gray bark.

Her arms stretch out into branches,

her hands become vines,
her blood turns into sap,

and her ankles enroot themselves

in the warm grass of the riverbank.

Her father has just changed her

into a magnificent moral tree.

Apollo rushes to her, but too late.

(sad music)

He can only grasp the smooth frozen trunk.

Under the bark he feels
Daphne's living heart beating.

Beaten, broken, Apollo picks
a branch from this laurel

and decides that from now on
a branch of this sacred tree

will decorate his lyre, and
adorn the heads of poets.

Turbulent, violent, it is
time for somebody to bring

this overtly impulsive God to heel.

Who could be better placed
than his father Zeus?

Apollo has just fallen in love once again.

Her name is Coronis,

she's the daughter of the King of Thesime.

Apollo and Coronis are happy.

Coronis carries the God's child,

but the princess still
pregnant unfortunately falls

under the charm of a simple mortal.

A certain Ischys.

It's a raven, who the God has employed

to watch over this beauty,

who informs Apollo of this treason.

His anger is as always implacable.

Apollo starts by killing the poor raven

who originally white becomes black.

Then he kills Ischys and Coronis.

At the moment when the body of Coronis

laid out on the funeral
pyre is about to be consumed

by flames Apollo snatches from her breast

the still living child.

This child is Asclepius.

Apollo is shaken by this fresh tragedy.

Once again he has lost the woman he loved,

but he still has the child.

Asclepius learns the
greatest secrets of medicine,

and soon he proves to be os
gifted that he personally

discovers the most
incredible and insane remedy,

the dream of humanity.

How to resuscitate the dead.

And he doesn't hesitate to use it.

Asclepius resuscitates
Orion, Hippolytus, Tyndareus,

and then Lycurgus.

Hades the master of the
Underworld is furious.

What is happening is very serious.

Asclepius is shaking
the order which reigns

between the Gods and men.

It is out of the question
to let him carry on.

Hades protests to Zeus.

The master of Olympus shares his anger.

Asclepius has gone much to
far, so without hesitation

Zeus strikes down the medical
genius with a thunderbolt.

(thunder)

Apollo is in despair.

His own father has dared to take his son.

To take vengeance on Zeus
Apollo targets the cyclops,

those one eyed creatures
who had forged the thunder

for the mater of Olympus,
and assassinates them

one by one.

(dramatic music)

Zeus is furious.

This son is clearly uncontrollable.

Zeus dreams up the
worst way to punish him.

Throw him into Tartarus,

that accursed corner of the Underworld,

but when Leto intercedes Zeus
agrees to soften the sentence.

Apollo will become the slave of a mortal.

For one year he will
serve the King of Thecilly

as a simple shepard.

(eerie music)

All is tragedy in the life of this God.

All is complexity.

Even in his loves, which are not limited

to the feminine gender,
for Apollo also loves men.

Two of his lovers come to dreadful ends.

Hyacinth and Cyparissus.

Hyacinth is accidentally
killed by Apollo who,

to honor him, turns him into the flower.

As for Cyparissus, in despair at the death

of his favorite animal, he begs
Apollo to put him to death.

The God refuses, but faced
with his friends insistence

turns him into a cypress tree.

One has to recognize that
there's a certain genius

in this God, who though unhappy
still finds the strength

to lend beauty to sorrow.

(quick dramatic music)

So far from the cliches which
depict him as a solo God,

a God of purity and of beauty,
Apollo cultivates paradoxes

in the same way as mortals do.

He is both shadow and light.

Apollo is the God of many faces.

(dramatic music)