Hespera and Kalypso have more than one origin narrative; discover them all before checking out ‘Shazam! The Fury of the Gods’
DC’s new film, “Shazam! God’s Wrath” follows the Shazam family facing a great divine threat formed by Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), the daughters of the God Atlas, who believe that the team of heroes does not deserve the superpowers they hold, and are ready to express all their anger in a great battle.
That’s because, Shazam’s powers are granted by Atlas and four other important men, where his initials form the name that Billy Batson evokes to stop being a teenager and turn into a superhero. Are they:
salomon: son of David and important king of Israel who bestows wisdom
Hercules: son of Zeus, Hercules represents strength
Atlas: The great titan grants vitality
Zeus: The god of Olympus is responsible for the power
Achyles: The Greek hero is the representation of courage
MMercury: Messenger of Zeus grants super speed
But, what is the story of Hespera and Kalypso?
Fleeing from tradition, the characters that in the first sequence of ‘Shazam’ appear as villains were created exclusively for the film, so there is no mention of the duo in the DC comics that can explain their origin stories.
But even if there is no background narrative in the studio’s pages, Hespera and Kalypso have been told through ancient texts and word-of-mouth communication for years, gaining some versions of where they came from through Greek myths.
Starting with Hespera, the goddess is presented as the representation of twilight, which alongside her sisters, Egle, in the early afternoon; and Erythia, the light of midday, formed the trio which is named after the Hesperides.
The versions that try to explain who the fathers of the three divinities are are diverse, but the most popular among them claim that they are daughters of the night (Nix) and darkness (Erebro); or again, results of the love that arose between the celestial light (Ether) and the light of day (Hemera).
There are reports that also claim that Hespera and her sisters are the daughters of Atlas, a titan that appears frequently in DC comics, and that in mythology, was condemned by Zeus to sustain the heavens forever, even though he is constantly represented holding on to the heavens. your shoulders to the earth.
As for Kalypso, she is commonly described as the daughter of the titans Ocean and Tethys, being known as the nymph of the sea, although there are versions (such as the one in the film) that place her as the heiress of Atlas and the nymph Pleione.
The goddess has her story covered in ‘Odyssey’, a poem written by Homer. In the text, the protagonist of the plot, Ulysses, is shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Ogygia, where he is rescued by Kalypso, who ends up falling in love with the hero. Passionate and willing not to lose her great love, the goddess keeps Ulysses imprisoned for 7 years, until Zeus forces her to release him, and as a result, she ends up almost going crazy with longing.
Source: Recreio
