0170NOTApollo_Méliès

George Méliès, The Oracle of Delphi (1903), a one-minute film

For YouTube, see http://youtu.be/xZJ7B2fKqnA

In this modern story, i.e. with no classical antecedant, Méliès himself plays the role of a thief who steals treasure from the oracular god’s treasury. As soon as the crime is perpetrated, the god Apollo emerges from the treasury and curses the criminal by transforming him into a man-ass.

M. Winkler, Cinema and Classical Texts: Apollo’s new light (Cambridge 2009), p. 81: “Méliès pioneered an exuberant use of trick cinematography such as double and multiple exposure, usually to comic effect. Special effect and other forms of trickery well serve filmmakers to present the supernatural phenomena that are part and parcel of ancient myths. So it is no surprise that science-fiction and fantasy films [such as Star Trek’s Who Mourns for Adonais and the present film] should have oracular moments.”

For additonal information on this film, see

Kemp Niver, in Early Motion Pictures: the paper print collection in the Library of Congress, ed. by B. Bergsten (Washington, DC, 1985), 232.

B. and L. Duca 1961 point out that Méliès often included Apollonian details in his films.