Gaia
Spiteful, spiteful, spiteful.
I guess I would be, too, if I’d been dealt the face of La Regina Gaia in The Giants of Thessaly (1960), a sword-and-sandal chestnut based more or less on the classic tale of Jason and the Argonauts.
In traditional Greek mythology, Gaia is the Mother Earth goddess. In Giants, she’s queen of an island of witches who seduce men and turn them into sheep. Talking sheep. Seems Zeus promised Gaia that if she could ever rope in a certain Jason of Thessaly, she’d be granted eternal beauty. As it is, she’s only allowed to be a stunner during daylight hours; the minute the sun goes down it’s hagtime.
Alas, that reversion happens just as Gaia (Nadia Sanders, billed as Nadine Duca) is putting the moves on Jason (Roland Carey) in her palace. (Her sisters in spite meanwhile are making mutton of Jason’s crew elsewhere.) Gaia flees to get an assist from Zeus while her ticket to perpetual pulchritude wanders away in bafflement.
As fortune would have it, the hapless sailor ends up in the cave where Queen Gaia has chained her ravishing sister Olivia (Maria Teresa Vianello) for eternity. Blabby Olivia spells out the situation in an hilarious speech in which she outs sis as “a monster with an appearance as frightening as the terrible things she does.” To make sure Jason doesn’t miss the point, she goes on to describe Gaia as “disfigured,” “terrifying,” “hideous” (twice), and “horrible to see.” She also lets drop that the men who “flee at the sight of her” just happen to seek out ... Olivia herself.
Small wonder Gaia’s next move is this:
Now doomed to never-ending repulsiveness (Zeus forbade sistercide, it seems), Gaia curses Jason and all his kindred—a plot point conveniently forgotten by movie’s end.
In all honesty, I’d argue there are worse fates than Gaia’s.
I guess I would be, too, if I’d been dealt the face of La Regina Gaia in The Giants of Thessaly (1960), a sword-and-sandal chestnut based more or less on the classic tale of Jason and the Argonauts.
In traditional Greek mythology, Gaia is the Mother Earth goddess. In Giants, she’s queen of an island of witches who seduce men and turn them into sheep. Talking sheep. Seems Zeus promised Gaia that if she could ever rope in a certain Jason of Thessaly, she’d be granted eternal beauty. As it is, she’s only allowed to be a stunner during daylight hours; the minute the sun goes down it’s hagtime.
Alas, that reversion happens just as Gaia (Nadia Sanders, billed as Nadine Duca) is putting the moves on Jason (Roland Carey) in her palace. (Her sisters in spite meanwhile are making mutton of Jason’s crew elsewhere.) Gaia flees to get an assist from Zeus while her ticket to perpetual pulchritude wanders away in bafflement.
As fortune would have it, the hapless sailor ends up in the cave where Queen Gaia has chained her ravishing sister Olivia (Maria Teresa Vianello) for eternity. Blabby Olivia spells out the situation in an hilarious speech in which she outs sis as “a monster with an appearance as frightening as the terrible things she does.” To make sure Jason doesn’t miss the point, she goes on to describe Gaia as “disfigured,” “terrifying,” “hideous” (twice), and “horrible to see.” She also lets drop that the men who “flee at the sight of her” just happen to seek out ... Olivia herself.
Small wonder Gaia’s next move is this:
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| Blabbermouth. |
Now doomed to never-ending repulsiveness (Zeus forbade sistercide, it seems), Gaia curses Jason and all his kindred—a plot point conveniently forgotten by movie’s end.
In all honesty, I’d argue there are worse fates than Gaia’s.
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| A little tweezing, some rouge and lipstick—done! |
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