10 Greatest Greek Mythology Movies Including The Odyssey, Ranked

Published Jul 19, 2026, 6:25 PM EDT Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more. Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor. He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre. To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The Odyssey might go down as Christopher Nolan's masterpiece when all is said and done, but it isn't the only great movie based on Greek mythology. Long before Nolan ever considered adapting Homer's poem, filmmakers spent nearly a century turning Greek gods, monsters, and doomed heroes into some of cinema's most enduring spectacles. Whether this was based on Homer's tales or it was based on the Greek gods themselves, these movies remain a strong mix of fantasy and classical war movies. These movies draw on a range of sources, including Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica, Ovid, and the Bibliotheca of pseudo-Apollodorus, plus modern sources like Frank Miller's 300 comic and DC Comics for Wonder Woman. These stories come from epic poems and plays and from real myths and stories handed down through the generations. Of course, there are also fictional stories in the world of Greek myths. These movies vary in quality, with some of the early masterpieces being Ray Harryhausen stop-motion classics, and others based on comic books, novels, and even one that was a Disney animated classic. These films also range from a classic 1954 Greek myth drama to the 2026 Christopher Nolan retelling of Homer's greatest story. 10 300 (2006) Directed by Zack Snyder, 300 is adapted from Frank Miller and Lynn Varley's 1998 Dark Horse comic of the same name. This is a fictionalized retelling of the historical Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). It is historical in nature and not a classical myth, although it is classified as a historical fantasy because Dilios is an unreliable narrator who adds fantastical elements to the battles. Instead of gods, there are other aspects of Greek myths, including a consulted Oracle, the diseased Ephor priests, and monsters in Xerxes' court. There are also real-life figures in the movie, including Leonidas I, Gorgo, Xerxes I, Ephialtes, and the Persian Immortals. 300 is the most tangential to actual Greek mythology, a history-based comic adaptation where myth appears only as stylized fantasy. 9 Helen of Troy (1956) Directed by Robert Wise and based on Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey, Helen of Troy dramatizes the Trojan War, a central Greek myth cycle. The story includes Helen's elopement, the decade-long siege, and the Trojan Horse. The items added to the movie from Greek mythology include Helen of Troy, Paris, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Achilles, Hector, Priam, Cassandra, and Aeneas, all climaxing in the Trojan Horse and the destruction of Troy. This movie takes major liberties with the actual myths, as it shows Paris as a heroic lover and the Greek kings as the villains who use Helen as a reason to attack Troy. Also, the Olympian gods are largely absent as active agents, making it more of a romantic drama than a divine Greek myth. 8 Ulysses (1954) Ulysses is an Italian film directed by Mario Camerini, produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti, directly adapting Homer's Odyssey. It follows Odysseus's decade-long journey home to Ithaca. Kirk Douglas stars in the movie as Ulysses (Odysseus), and this follows the main Homer story, including the battle with the Cyclops Polyphemus, the Sirens, the sorceress Circe turning his men into pigs, the Phaeacians and Nausicaa, and the climactic bow-stringing contest and slaughter of the suitors. Poseidon's wrath drives the plot. This movie is reasonably faithful, although it adds an amnesia framing device (which Nolan's The Odyssey also used) and uses the Roman name Neptune rather than Poseidon. Doubling Penelope and Circe in one actress is a cinematic invention. This is the most direct and complete adaptation of a canonical Greek epic, although Nolan's movie eclipses it in scope. 7 Immortals (2011) Immortals is a big-budget, action-packed retelling of the Greek myths. Directed by Tarsem Singh from an original screenplay by Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, this movie is loosely based on the myths of Theseus and the Minotaur and the Titanomachy. However, there is no single text source, and this was a mostly original script. The film features Theseus (Henry Cavill) as a Zeus-chosen mortal hero, the Twelve Olympians, the imprisoned Titans, Mount Tartarus, an Oracle, and a Minotaur-like Beast. The myth here indicates that the gods are forbidden to interfere directly with mortals, driving a free-will theme. The villain here, King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke), is a mortal king loosely based on King Minos, not the actual Titan Hyperion. The Epirus Bow is invented. Gods dying in battle is non-canonical. It also uses a real ancient torture device, the brazen bull. While awe-inspiring, its loose play with Greek mythos holds it down somewhat. 6 Troy (2004) Directed by Wolfgang Petersen and written by David Benioff, Troy is loosely based on Homer's Iliad but expands to cover the whole Trojan War. The destruction of Troy and the Trojan Horse come from material written after the Iliad. That material includes later accounts of the war's end, such as Quintus Smyrnaeus's Posthomerica. However, the basis of the movie is the full war, the sea-nymph goddess Thetis, and Achilles's death by an arrow to the heel. The big thing to note here is that the movie removes all Olympian gods as active characters in the story, whereas Homer used them in great detail. In fact, the accuracy is way off, as there are very few actual Homer lines in the movie. The film also makes several other changes, such as Hector killing Menelaus and Agamemnon dying at Troy, rather than returning home. 5 Wonder Woman (2017) via MovieStillsDB Wonder Woman is a 2017 movie based on the DC Comics character of the same name, and as with the comics, the film places her squarely in the confines of the Greek myths. Directed by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot as Diana, the Amazon warrior who leaves her island home of Themyscira to fight in World War I as she attempts to find a way to bring peace to the world. Unlike many movies using Greek myths, Wonder Woman is a comic-book reimagining layered onto Greek myth. Zeus creates the Amazons, Ares kills the other gods, and Diana herself is the true Godkiller demigod. This Ares-Zeus war is not classical, but Hippolyta and Antiope are real mythological figures with invented DCEU roles. The success of this movie brings Greek myths to the mainstream. 4 Hercules (1997) There have been several movies about Hercules throughout cinema history. There were even two that came out in the 2010s (one with Dwayne Johnson and one with Kellan Lutz). However, the best movie about Hercules and his legendary journeys was an animated movie from Disney. Released in 1997 and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Hercules is loosely based on the hero, drawn from multiple myth interpretations rather than one text. Since this is a kids' movie, the filmmakers dropped the darker material, including Hercules's birth from Zeus's affair with the mortal Alcmene. However, the Greek gods and monsters all play a role, including Zeus, Hera, Hades, Hermes, Apollo, Pegasus, the Muses, the Fates, the Titans, the Cyclopes, and Hercules's battle with the Hydra. This remains a beloved classic Disney movie that still holds up to this day. 3 Clash Of The Titans (1981) Credit: Everett Collection There were two stop-motion live-action movies based in the world of the Greek gods that sit near the top of every countdown of fantasy movies. Released in 1981, Clash of the Titans was directed by Desmond Davis, and it was loosely based on the myth of Perseus, best known from Ovid and the Bibliotheca of pseudo-Apollodorus. This was also the final film that stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen worked on. This Greek mythology movie features Perseus, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Thetis, Aphrodite, Medusa, Pegasus, Andromeda, the Stygian Witches, Charon, and the closing creation of constellations. It also dramatizes Perseus beheading Medusa with a reflective shield and using her head to save Andromeda. There are several changes from Greek mythology, with Calibos and Bubo as inventions with no myth basis. The Kraken is Norse, and the Greek sea monster in the Perseus myth is Cetus. 2 Jason And The Argonauts (1963) One of the best Greek mythology movies ever made, and a film that Tom Hanks calls the greatest movie of all time, is Jason and the Argonauts. Directed by Don Chaffey, this movie is loosely based on the 3rd-century BC Greek epic The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes. The film features Jason, the Argonauts and the ship Argo, Zeus and Hera on Olympus, the bronze giant Talos, the Harpies and blind seer Phineus, the Clashing Rocks, the sea god Triton, Medea, King Aeetes, and the Golden Fleece. The most memorable moment of the entire film is the skeleton fight, which was done with live-action and stop-motion skeletons, all created by Ray Harryhausen. The film does make changes to Greek myths by having Jason beat Talos, whereas in the classic tale, it was Medea's magic that won the day. This remained the most inspired film based on Greek myths until Nolan directed his masterpiece. 1 The Odyssey (2026) In 2026, Christopher Nolan set a new bar that no other Greek mythology movie will likely ever beat. In this film, Nolan adapts Homer's The Odyssey, while also adding in several things from The Iliad as well. Nolan uses the amnesia framing that was done before in movies, as Odysseus (Matt Damon) has no memories of how he gets to Calypso's island and where he came from. His story then spins out from him regaining his memories with Calypso and Athena's aid. The movie also goes into great detail on what happened at home, with Odysseus's son Telemachus (Tom Holland) and wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway), as well as the suitors pining for her. Several things were eliminated from Homer's tale, but those cuts were necessary for the runtime, and the Nolan movie also shows how Odysseus's observation that he is on the wrong side of history plays out with a brilliant ending that changed how Homer ended his tale. In all, The Odyssey is the new standard of excellence for Greek myth movies.