The influences behind Conan the Barbarian

1982

Conan the Barbarian

Film by John Milius

New Hollywood. United States. In English.

John Milius's 1982 sword-and-sorcery epic, co-written with Oliver Stone, follows a Cimmerian enslaved as a boy who grows into a warrior and takes revenge on the serpent-cult leader Thulsa Doom. It builds its episodes from Robert E. Howard's Weird Tales stories, opens with an epigraph from Nietzsche, and stages its battles with the Kurosawa films Milius admired in mind.

Where it came from

Where to watch

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1889

Twilight of the Idols

Friedrich Nietzsche

Late 19th century. Germany. Written in German.

A short polemical book of aphorisms attacking Socratic rationalism and Christian morality.

What it handed down

To Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Direct source, well documented.

The film opens on the epigraph 'That which does not kill us makes us stronger,' credited to Nietzsche, from the 'Maxims and Arrows' section of this book. Milius made the line the frame for Conan's survival of slavery and the crucifixion.

Where it came from

Odes, Horace 23 BCE
The Conspiracy of Catiline, Sallust c. 42 BCE follow this thread
History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides c. 400 BCE follow this thread

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23 BCE

Odes

Horace

Augustan Rome. Augustan Rome. Written in Latin.

Four books of lyric poems adapting Greek meters to Latin.

What it handed down

To Twilight of the Idols (1889)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Nietzsche writes that no poet gave him the same artistic delight as a Horatian ode, praising its 'mosaic of words' in which every word radiates force. He held this up as the model of concentrated expression.

Where it came from

Poems of Alcaeus, Alcaeus of Mytilene c. 600 BCE

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Poems of AlcaeusAlcaeus of Mytilene

c. 600 BCE

Poems of Alcaeus

Alcaeus of Mytilene

Archaic Greece. Lesbos. Written in Ancient Greek.

Fragmentary lyric poems on war, politics and drinking, the source of the Alcaic stanza.

What it handed down

To Odes (23 BCE)

Structural model, well documented.

Horace claimed to be the first to bring Aeolian song into Latin. He took the Alcaic stanza from Alcaeus and opened several odes by translating or adapting his lines.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

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Where it came from

What it handed down

To Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Twilight of the Idols (1889)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Odes (23 BCE)

Where it came from

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