Oh, you'll want volume 2 of Top Ten for that. It's fantastic, don't worry. :) Read vol. 1 to figure out where you are first, though, and look out for all kinds of cameos in the interdimensional train station.
Classics and Sandman is a pretty obvious connection. Gaiman's got a story about a kidnapped muse, and more pointedly the central mechanic of the plot revolves around Morpheus' fated suicide/murder at the hands of the Furies because he killed his son, Orpheus. It's pretty nakedly a classical tragedy in genealogy, in mechanic, and in fate, with the modern twist that Morpheus didn't have to go, but succombs to his depression deliberately in allowing fate and the story to take him. I mean, I'm assuming you've read Sandman, but the essential books if you haven't are Brief Lives and The Kindly Ones.
There are, in fact, cameos throughout the entire series. I always had a lot of fun re-reading each issue just to look through the backgrounds and crowd scenes and spot all the cameos.
I agree that it is an obvious candidate, but I note that The 300 also has a problem, which is that it sucks.
I actually think that somebody should do an old school comics approach. Hercules (who amusingly has the secret identity of Herakles), etc. were staples of Marvel comics for years. Not as prominent as the Norse gods, who are probably out of scope, but trips to Olympos by groups that in some ways parallel notions of heroism straight from myth... The link between hero teams and concepts like the Argonauts is well-worn. I think there is a parallel sort of thing with Wonder Woman, but I don't know DC well.
oh yeah-- and something monkeygod used to read, shit, what's it called... "Mage". The first series is pure Arthuriana, but the second series also has a reincarnation of Hercules.
Wonder Woman is originally conceived as from the Greek amazons, and her canon in just filled with Greek mythology-- Ares, Hades, Circe are all villains for her. Hermes shows up too. But that's rather more than 20 minutes and would require re-reading tons of old wonder woman that's probably quite hard to find.
The second series of Mage, sadly, is also not as good as the first. :/ But I feel like it has actually more classical stuff in it than just Hercules... maybe his girlfriend was a Muse or... something?
Re: Herakles versus Hercules: There is some inconsistency there, because there are also the Eternals running around (I think it's the Eternals-- aren't the Celestials the totally bizarre giant robot like people? But whatever.) But IIRC, the Olympian gods in the Marvelverse are the Greek gods (Zeus, Hera, Ares, etc.), but Hercules uses the Roman name, with the rationale being more or less that his real name is Herakles, but among the humans it's easier to use the identity of Hercules. But it's not a big deal.
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Oh, you'll want volume 2 of Top Ten for that. It's fantastic, don't worry. :) Read vol. 1 to figure out where you are first, though, and look out for all kinds of cameos in the interdimensional train station.
The other obvious candidate is The 300 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(comic_book)
Hm... manga and classics? I just don't know. I fail!
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I mean, I'm assuming you've read Sandman, but the essential books if you haven't are Brief Lives and The Kindly Ones.
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I actually think that somebody should do an old school comics approach. Hercules (who amusingly has the secret identity of Herakles), etc. were staples of Marvel comics for years. Not as prominent as the Norse gods, who are probably out of scope, but trips to Olympos by groups that in some ways parallel notions of heroism straight from myth... The link between hero teams and concepts like the Argonauts is well-worn. I think there is a parallel sort of thing with Wonder Woman, but I don't know DC well.
--Adam
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Wonder Woman is originally conceived as from the Greek amazons, and her canon in just filled with Greek mythology-- Ares, Hades, Circe are all villains for her. Hermes shows up too. But that's rather more than 20 minutes and would require re-reading tons of old wonder woman that's probably quite hard to find.
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Wonder Woman is in fact empowered by the Greek Gods and (under the better writers) draws upon classics all the time.
I thought that Herakles was the Eternal and Hercules was the Greek God under that bizare Celestials/Greek God alliance (Sersi/Circe, etc.) thing.
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Re: The 300: We'll just have to disagree.