30 Best Movies About Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was always an excellent source of various interesting stories and myths. Mythical warriors and beings long forgotten, are now brought to life on screen. So, if you are looking for the best movies about ancient Greece you can watch today, look no further.
In our article, we are bringing you the best movies which either take place in ancient Greece or are inspired by it. Some of the movies on our list are more of fantasy movies, while others are more true to real historical events.
Still, whichever you decide to choose from our list, we are sure you can’t go wrong with any, as we have pulled out the best movies about ancient Greece you can find out there. Check them out below.
300 (2006)
The Persian king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) gathers an army of two million soldiers, which he brought from Asia and Africa, and in 481 BC. attacked and conquered the small and divided Greek nation. However, when the Persian force penetrates the dangerous mountain pass of Thermopylae, it encounters the Spartan king Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and his royal guard of only 300 soldiers. According to legend, their courage and self-sacrifice encouraged all Greeks to unite against the Persian enemy, which sowed the seeds of democracy and heralded the golden age of the Greek state.
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
The sequel revolves around the Greek general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton), who fights against a massive invasion of Persian forces led by Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), a mortal turned god, and Artemisia (Eva Green), a vengeful sergeant in the Persian navy.
Immortals (2011)
Even before the appearance of humans and animals, the gods waged war against the Titans. After the victory, they imprisoned the surviving titans under Mount Tartarus, while the Epirus bow, a weapon of incredible power was lost in the middle of the battle somewhere on Earth.
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Today, after an epic battle, a new danger threatens Earth. King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) has declared war on humanity and is searching for the bow, which he intends to use to free the titans and take revenge on the gods for not saving his family. Hyperion captures the prophetess Phaedra (Freida Pinto) in her desire to help him find Epirus.
The Legend of Hercules (2014)
The film brings to the big screen a rarely seen background to the story of Hercules (Lutz): after the love of his life Heba (Weiss) is promised to his brother, he rebels and is banished from the family home (Adkins).
Abandoned by his family, he ends up as a slave and is sold to the Colosseum where, after delighting the entire crowd, he discovers that he is a demigod.
Orpheus (1950)
At the Café des Poètes in Paris, a fight breaks out between the poet Orphée and a group of resentful upstarts. A rival poet, Cègeste, is killed, and a mysterious princess insists on taking Orpheus and the body away in her Rolls-Royce. Orphée soon finds himself in the underworld, where the Princess announces that she is, in fact, Death. Orpheus escapes in the car back to the land of the living, only to become obsessed with the car radio.
This film is the central part of Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy, which consists of The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orpheus (1950) and Testament of Orpheus (1960).
Troy (2004)
The Mycenaean king Agamemnon (B. Cox) is with his army in Thessaly, preoccupied with plans to expand his empire and how to conduct the upcoming battle. At the same time, the Trojan prince Hector (E. Bana) and his brother Paris (O. Bloom) discuss the war between Troy and Sparta. Namely, Paris came up with a cunning plan to take advantage of the enemy’s festival day and kidnap the Spartan Helen (D. Kruger), which is why the Greeks will start a war. Her husband Menelaus (B. Gleeson), Agamemnon’s brother, has vowed revenge on Paris.
For years, Agamemnon planned the conquest of Troy, which would give him complete control over the Aegean Sea. Now he felt that he had a good opportunity – to use Menelaus’ anger as an excuse to attack. His general Nestor (J. Shrapnel) will propose to him Achilles (B. Pitt), an excellent warrior, to lead the battle, who himself is furious with the Trojans for personal reasons.
Hercules (2014)
Dwayne Johnson as the strongest man in the history of mankind! The historical-action film Hercules is based on the popular comic by Radical Comics. Along with Dwayne Johnson, we will see Golden Globe winner Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan and Oscar nominee John Hurt in Hercules.
Medea (1969)
To win the kingdom his uncle took from his father, Jason must steal the golden fleece from the land of barbarians, where Medea is royalty and a powerful sorceress, where human sacrifice helps crops to grow. Medea sees Jason and swoons, then enlists her brother’s aid to take the fleece. She then murders her brother and becomes Jason’s lover.
Back in Greece, the king keeps the throne, the fleece has no power, and Medea lives an exile’s life, respected but feared, abandoned by Jason. When she learns he’s to marry the king’s daughter, Medea tames her emotions and sends gifts via her sons; then, loss overwhelms her and she unleashes a firestorm on the king, the bride, and Jason.
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Having successfully solved a seemingly impossible riddle, Perseus, son of Zeus, wins the hand of Princess Andromeda. Problems arise when the princess’ former love, Calibos, and his mother, the goddess Thetis, appear. They decide to sacrifice the princess to the monster Kraken, but Perseus does not intend to give up so easily and sets out in search of a weapon that can stop the Kraken.
Clash of the Titans (2010)
Born a god but raised a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is powerless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), the vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission against Hades before he tries to take over from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and literally unleash hell on Earth.
Wrath of the Titans (2012)
Dangerously weakened by a lack of human loyalty, the gods lose control over the imprisoned Titans and their savage leader Kronos. Hades (Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston) long ago overthrew the powerful father and left him to rot in the abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon deep underground. When Hades and Zeus’ divine son Ares (Edgar RamÃrez) make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus, Perseus cannot fight his own nature. The power of the Titans grows, and hell begins to spread across the land.
Perseus enlists the help of Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon’s semi-divine son Agenor (Toby Kebbell) and the fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) and bravely ventures into the underworld to save Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save humanity.
Antigone (1961)
In Thebes in ancient Greece, King Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother Jocasta, having two sons – Eteocles and Polyneices – and two daughters – Ismene and Antigone. King Oedipus dies a beggar in exile after gouging out his own eye, and Eteocles agrees to reign in Thebes in alternating years with Polynices.
However, he refuses to resign after the first year and Polynices raises an army and attacks Thebes, and they kill each other. The ruler of Thebes Creon decrees that Eteocles should have an honorable burial while the body of the traitor Polyneices should be left on the battlefield to be eaten by the jackals and vultures. However, Antigone, who was betrothed to Creon’s surviving son Haemon, defies Creon’s orders and buries her brother.
When Creon is reported Antigone’s attitude, he sentences her to be placed in a tomb alive. Antigone hangs herself in the tomb and Haemon tries to kill his father first and then he kills himself with his sword…
Agora (2009)
In the fourth century AD, Egypt is ruled by the Roman Empire, and the country is rocked by strong religious conflicts. The Alexandrian library is managed by the classy, ​​wise and extremely educated Hypatia (R. Weisz). While fighting to preserve the ancient books in which the wisdom of the ancestors is stored, Hypatia investigates the possible heliocentricity of the solar system, which brings her into conflict with church dogmas and Christian leader Cyril (S. Samir).
Hypatia’s closest collaborators are the shrewd and privileged Orestes (O. Issacs), one of her students, and the young slave Davus (M. Minghella), who, just like Orestes, is in love with her. But Davus is torn between his loyalty to Hypatia and his longing for the freedom he could achieve by joining the Christians. After the library is looted, the conflict between Jews and Christians will escalate, and when the Christians rule the city, the Christianization of the rulers and all the more influential people will be immediately ordered, including the indomitable and determined Hypatia…
The Odyssey (1997)
Homer’s epic, which describes the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus, was adapted into this TV movie. After the end of the ten-year Trojan War, Odysseus returns home. After being imprisoned on an island for ten years, he sails the seas trying to reach the shores of his homeland. Odysseus and his crew are protected by the goddess Athena, but the sea god Poseidon destroys his boat and Odysseus barely survives…
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief & Sea of Monsters
Percy Jackson & the Olympians (also known as Percy Jackson) is a two-film series based on the novel series of the same name by the author Rick Riordan.
The first film, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), was directed by Chris Columbus and was released on February 12, 2010. The second installment, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, was originally intended to be released in March 2013 but was instead pushed back to August 7, 2013, and was directed by Thor Freudenthal.
The films follow the adventures of the demigod Percy Jackson and his comrades at the demigod training ground of Camp Half-Blood. In the first film, Percy must go on a quest to save his mother from the underworld and prove his innocence when he is accused of stealing lightning from Zeus. The second film revolves around Percy’s escapades as he must retrieve the legendary Golden Fleece from the Sea of Monsters, or the Bermuda triangle, which is the only thing that will save the camp from the forces of darkness.
Alexander (2004)
The Greek general Ptolemy (A. Hopkins) decides to tell his students the story of the life and work of the famous Alexander the Great. The legendary Macedonian king, military leader and conqueror is the son of the daring King Philip II (V. Kilmer) and the beautiful Epirus princess Olympias (A. Jolie).
Despite mutual intolerance, the parents provided the boy with the best education under the tutelage of the famous Athenian philosopher Aristotle (C. Plummer), who instilled in Alexander a taste for music and poetry, and developed feelings of courage and honor in him. Over the years, young Alexander (C. Farrell) acquires an intimate friend and ally in the sensitive Hephaestion (J. Leto), and after his father’s death, as a 20-year-old, he takes over the country, which is almost in ruins.
Having decisively launched an army and extinguished several rebellions, Alexander the Great eventually became an advocate of the brotherhood of different peoples and the unification of the cultures of the East and the West. Having married the attractive Roxana (R. Dawson), he soon goes to war with an army of 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry against the ten times larger Persian empire, and fights against the powerful Persian ruler Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela. (R. Degan).
Alexander will end his conquest campaign after a full 8 years, after subduing Asia Minor and conquering Egypt in distant India, on the territory of today’s Pakistan, clashing with King Porus (B. Bunluerit)….
Minotaur (2006)
Once upon a time, the world was ruled by a dark empire, and people worshiped Taurus. An ambitious queen became pregnant with him and gave birth to the half-bull, half-man Minotaur. People had to give him eight young girls every year. But the shepherd Theo, son of Cyrnan, missed the girl who was taken away a few years ago and he decides to kill the beast.
Oedipus Rex (1967)
Rescued from abandonment and raised by the King and Queen, Oedipus is still haunted by a prophecy–he’ll murder his father and marry his mother.
Helena (1924)
Helena is a 1924 German silent drama film directed by Manfred Noa and starring Edy Darclea, Vladimir Gajdarov and Albert Steinrück.
Odissea (1968)
Odysseus’ journey told in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. After fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus spends years trying to return home to Itaka.
The Trojan Women (1971)
The Trojan Women was one of a trilogy of plays dealing with the suffering created by the Trojan Wars. Hecuba (Katharine Hepburn), Queen of the Trojans and mother of Hector, one of Troy’s most fearsome warriors, looks upon the remains of her kingdom; Andromache (Vanessa Redgrave), the widow of the slain Hector and mother of his son Astyanax, believes that she must raise her son in the war’s aftermath; however, Talthybius (Brian Blessed), the messenger of the Greeks, comes to the ruined city, and tells them that King Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus have decreed that Hector’s son Astyanax must die — the last of the male royalty of Troy must be executed to ensure the extinction of the line.
Cassandra (Geneviève Bujold), Hecuba’s daughter who has been driven insane by the ravages of war, waits to see if King Agamemnon will send her into concubinage, while Helen of Troy (Irene Papas), waits to see if she will live.
Iphigenia (1977)
To appease offended gods before going to war, a commander must sacrifice his favorite daughter to them but does so under the pretext of marrying her off.
Hercules (1997)
Walt Disney Pictures’ thirty-fifth full-length animated feature tells the story of “Herc”, the mighty son of Zeus, who is kidnapped from Mount Olympus and raised as a demi-man/demi-god. The fierce figure behind the disappearance of Heracles is Hades, the wicked god of the Underworld, who is fed up with “heaps of dead blowers” and sees the son of Zeus as an obstacle to his plan to rule the universe.
When Herc discovers the truth about his origins, he sets out to prove himself a hero (with the help of veteran hero-training satyr Phil) in order to return to his mythological home. Hades has other plans for our hero and sends him a whole series of troubles (the multi-headed Hydra, the Minotaur, the Cyclops and the Titan army). Along the way, Herc discovers that a true hero is not measured by how strong he is, but by how strong his heart is.
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Ancient Greece. The evil Pelias conquered Thessaly and became a cruel ruler, but according to legend, a young man will dethrone him. That young man is Jason, so Pelias sends him to Colchis to get the legendary golden fleece, hoping that he will die on his impossible mission. Jason hires the ship Argo and brave sailors, among them Hercules, Castro and Orpheus.
On their journey, they reach an island where they are attacked by a huge statue of Talos, pass the sea passage of death, defeat the Harps, but also meet Medea, with whom Jason falls in love. Finally, they reach the place where the golden fleece is…
Jason and the Argonauts (2000)
This is a screen adaptation of one of the most famous adventures from the complete mythology, about Jason and the Argonauts and their search for the Golden Fleece. Jason (Jason London), the heir to the Greek throne, as a boy watched his cruel uncle Pelias (Dennis Hopper) kill his father. Having been close to death himself, Jason leaves his homeland and returns after 20 years in the hope of regaining the throne.
As soon as he finds out that Jason has returned, Pelias will sentence him to death. In order to save his own life, Jason will suggest that his uncle bring him something that is almost impossible to get, the most precious gift – the golden fleece. With the help of the Argonauts, brave sailors, he embarks on a legendary journey in search of the golden fleece and the realization of his dreams.
Wonder Woman (2017)
Before she became Wonder Women, she was Diana, the princess of the Amazons, trained to be an invincible warrior. She grew up on the protected paradise island of Themyscira, where only women live.
However, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells the story of a massive conflict in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced that she can stop the conflict. Fighting men in a war to end all conflict, Diana will discover her greatest strength and her destiny.
Time Bandits (1981)
The young boy’s clothes contain a time hole. A whole gallery of dwarves fleeing from the Superior Being passes through it. They take Kevin with them on various adventures through time, from the time of Napoleon, through the Middle Ages to the early nineties, and again in the time of legends, great forts and ultimate darkness, where they face the primordial evil itself.
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Spartacus (1960)
Spartacus (K. Douglas) is the legendary leader of the slave uprising that took place in 73 BC. Spartacus is originally a Thracian, who in 80 B.C. is captured by the Roman legions and then sold as a slave. He escaped from slavery, joined the Thracian troops again, but was caught and sold as a gladiator in Capua, where, due to his courage, strength and exceptional dexterity, he was freed and in 73 BC. Kr. became a gladiator teacher.
In the same year, he escaped with a group of slaves and started a fight against the Roman army to bring most of the gladiators back to Gaul, the country where most of them were born. He died in 71 BC. in the decisive battle in Lucania.
The Colossus of Rhodes (1961)
Starring Rory Calhoun, it is a fictional account of the island of Rhodes during its Classical period in the late third century before coming under Roman control, using the Colossus of Rhodes as a backdrop for the story of a war hero who becomes involved in two different plots to overthrow a tyrannical king: one by Rhodian patriots and the other by Phoenician agents.
Ulysses (1954)
In the ancient Greek city of Ithaca, many impatiently await the return of their king Ulysses and his warriors from the Trojan War. Among these, Ulysses’ devoted wife Penelope and his grown son Telemachus. But Ulysses’ return is not eagerly awaited by everyone, especially by his enemies. They openly court Penelope and ask her to give her husband up for dead and re-marry one of the rowdy suitors who have taken up residence in her home since her husband’s departure. However, Penelope clings to her belief that Ulysses will soon return.
To appease the aggressive suitors, Penelope promises that she would re-marry as soon as she finishes weaving a large tapestry depicting Ulysses’ deeds of bravery. In secret, she’s unraveling the day’s weaving, thus delaying the tapestry’s completion. Penelope knows that her trick won’t work forever. In Troy, Ulysses and his warriors use the Trojan Horse ruse to conquer the city. In his fervor, Ulysses destroys the Trojans’ temple to Neptune, god of the sea,…
