Satyrs In Modern Culture
The satyr is a popular character in fiction, whether in literature or film, in modern culture he is often portrayed as mostly benevolent, though still a fan of wine and women. However, in ancient Greek mythology, a satyr was just as dangerous as he was shy. There were not naturally malicious, but had very few morals, and lacked in discretion. However, they were most innocuous in their own medium, and certainly not the evil being that the character Darkness, played by Tim Curry, resembled in the movie Legend, directed by Ridley Scott. The director claimed that he wanted Darkness to retain a character of highly obvious sexuality, and so merged his character with that of a satyr. The director does not specifically say that it was the image of the Christian Satan that he wanted to portray. In Robert Zelazny’s novel, This Immortal, a satyr is just one of the many different mutated species found on Earth. In Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, satyrs appear often as made in reference to the Dionysian.
Baby satyrs are included in the Disney film Fantasia, during the sections which contains the Pastoral Symphony. Satyrs also appear in the novel Baudolino, by Umberto Eco, written in 2000, and translated into English in 2001. It’s the story of a wandering boy named Baudolino, and his adventures in the mythologically active world of the medieval 12th century. Oddly enough, the translation was difficult, because although the book was written in Italian, it contained several pages of a supposedly made up language. Satyrs are also benevolent in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. In the Disney film Hercules, from 1997 the character of Hercules’ mentor Philoctetes, and a satyr are melted together to become “Phil”, an ultimately benevolent character, though at times bawdy and cranky. The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen occasionally contained mean spirited satyrs, although they were antagonists, they were not exactly evil.