What’s the Deal with Swords and Sandals?

It’s only the first week of March and already we are getting our third sword-and-sandal movie.  In January, there was The Legend of Hercules.  February was Pompeii.  This week is the follow-up to 300, based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, “300: Rise of an Empire.”  “Son of God” is the story of the life of Jesus, set near the same time period.

Oh, and “Mr. Peabody and Sherman,” the story of a time-traveling dog and his adopted human son, ends up in sword-and-sandal days, too, with trips to ancient Egypt and ancient Greece.  Coming up, the Biblical stories “Noah” and “Exodus” take us back thousands of years as well.

Those days continue to play a vital role in our imagination and our literature.  Just as Shakespeare wrote about Julius Ceasar, Freud wrote about Oedipus, and PBS and HBO have had hit series set in ancient Rome, we will continue to be enthralled by the battles, the poetry, and the grand dreams (and grand mistakes) of people who lived more than two thousand years ago.