Greek Mirthology

Directed by  |  Seymour Kneitel
Tom Golden
Produced by  |  Seymour Kneitel
Isadore Sparber
Written by  |  Isadore Klein
Starring  |  Jack Mercer
Jackson Beck
Music by  |  Winston Sharples
Animation by  |  Anton Loeb
George Germanetti
Tom Golden
Studio  |  Famous Studios
Distributed by  |  Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)  |  August 13, 1954
Running time  |  7:00
Country  |  USA
Language  |  English
Preceded by  |  Bride and Gloom
Followed by  |  Fright to the Finish
IMDb profile
Greek Mirthology is a Popeye the Sailor theatrical animated short produced by Famous Studios (the original animation unit of Paramount Pictures) and released on August 13, 1954.

## Plot[edit]

Popeye has prepared spinach for his nephews Pipeye, Pupeye, Poopeye and Peepeye for lunch, but the boys refuse to touch their plates because they claim they hate spinach, then push away their spinach and start eating ice cream cones. To convince his nephews to start eating spinach, Popeye tells them the tale of their distant ancestor Hercules, the world's strongest man (played by Popeye in the story). Hercules rescues a baby bird that fell from its nest high up in a tree by sniffing a clove of garlic (his original source of strength), then pushes the tree into the ground to bring the nest low enough to put the bird back in.

Soon after, a troublemaking bully (played by Bluto with a Russian-sounding accent) rides into town on an elephant and proclaims that Hercules is nothing compared to him. The bully then sends most of the townsfolk fleeing before calling out Hercules and challenging him to tests of strength, which Hercules accepts by yelling in the bully's ear. In the first test, the bully lifts his elephant in the air with one hand, but gets topped when Hercules (thanks to his garlic) lifts both him and the elephant up. In a tug-of-war at the tops of two mountains next, the bully tries to cheat by putting his end of the rope around a boulder and bracing his foot against it for added leverage, but Hercules breaks out his garlic again, then pulls the bully's mountain beside his and then twirls the rope around the bully and spins him like a top.

Showing himself as a sore loser, the bully slugs Hercules and sends him flying into a statue which then falls on him. The injured Hercules tries to regain his strength with his garlic, but the bully beats him to the punch by pouring a bottle of chlorophyll onto the garlic clove to neutralize it and take away Hercules' source of strength. The bully then takes a breath and blows the weakened Hercules into a spinach patch, which becomes the bully's mistake as Hercules swallows a mouthful of spinach and becomes far more powerful with it as he dispatches his astonished foe with one punch.

As Popeye finishes his tale, he discovers that his nephews have deserted their spinach and run out to get ice cream from an ice cream man (who resembles the Bluto-like bully from Popeye's story).

## Production notes[edit]

* Greek Mirthology is one of a number of Famous Studios-produced Popeye the Sailor cartoons in the public domain in the United States.

## External links[edit]

* Greek Mirthology public domain cartoon at the Internet Archive