Tag: danny and his romans

(Ancient Greek) men suck. Here’s who doesn’t!

I don’t know if you guys know this about me but. I like Greek mythology. Surprise!! Shocking, right? No one knew this! Anyways, this is another Greek Mythology blog except it’s just going to be me bashing the same two guys over and over because they’re everyones favorites and then I’m going to tell you the ONLY correct answer for who your favorite (male) Greek god should be, out of the main 7~ ish.

Most of the time, when people hear “evil death guy, god of the underworld” they get scared. And, don’t let me lie to you, my dude Hades gets a bad name most of the time. He is actually NOT death, that is a separate entity known as Thanatos. Hades isn’t even the god of the dead. He’s the god of the underworld. Not just the bad parts but the ENTIRE underworld, including the Greek equivalent of heaven, Elysium. This makes Hades the god of not only the scary fire torture place, but the place where they feast and party and have fun for the rest of forever and literally everything good ever happens. He, in his roman form of Pluto, actually receives a lot more credit regarding this aspect of him because of how militarized the romans were. They didn’t want to fear death, not how the greeks did, so he morphed into a GOOD guy who… kinda also was super duper death or whatever. And also riches. Shouts out to Pluto, by far my favorite Roman God (somewhere near hygiea)

On the flip side of the same coin, hehe get it because riches, Hades is absolutely NOT a “good” guy by moral standards. It’s impossible to hold a god, if you believe they are real, or metaphorical beings, if you don’t, to OUR mortal standards. However, people do. People LOVE to bash on deities like Poseidon and Zeus for their actions, and then don’t extend the same ideas over to HADES. Who’s most known myth is HADES and PERSEPHONE. Like. THE myth Greek mythology was so popularized by.

(Hades, Persephone, and little tiny cerberus)

Y’know, the general myth in which Hades sees the beautiful Persephone in demeter’s garden, decides he wants her for a wife and opens up the ground to catch her, brings her down to the underworld refuses to let her leave. She gets super hungry, goes out and finds a pomegranate and eats like six seeds, leads to us and the changing of our seasons because something something deal with Zeus. Kind of the blueprint for most “Dark” (read: kidnapping) romance these days. Bad boy who really wants you but you cant have him because of some external force (usually the law).

Yeah, shut up. Hades Kidnapped and, LITERALLY, assaulted Persephone. In ALL tellings of the myth. He literally snatches my girl out of her garden. The OG myth was actually more focused on Demeter, and her journey in finding her daughter and how different seasons were divided into where, blah  blah. But, no. It’s all about hades and Persephone. People like to call them some big metaphor for devotion and unconditional love, rebelling for what you want, but no one has been able to explain to me how they are a metaphor for that.  Because they aren’t. Most tellings of the myth have Hades putting the pomegranate tree out there to entice Persephone because she was refusing to eat for him, because he was trying to trap her down there, and some have him plain deceiving her because she’s, get this, young and doesn’t know. People tend to villainize every other male deiety for the exact same thing, but somehow hades gets a pass?? Somehow?? Also somehow theres a telling of the myth ive heard in which he was DEVASTATED that Persephone ate the seeds and was now forced to be with him, as he wanted her to “choose” him. That telling was GREATLY popularized my Dark Romance today. That literally would not ever happen ever. Where are you guys getting your information.

I’m sick of the hades glazing. Theres a few other bad things here and there, though most of those were “but zeus told me to!!” and not of his own free will, so whatever. A god that is NOT bound by anothers free will but is still so deeply loved and adored by all is APOLLO.

(Apollo and Daphne)

Apollo is a JERK. He’s an INCEL. He’s TERRIBLE (not really ily apollo). Most of his myths, if not pertaining to prophecy in some way, is him screwing up so bad with the ladies (and men, on occasion) that they beg to be turned into trees, throw themselves off cliffs, turn themselves into plants (happens like 3 times) and genuinely so much more. The amount of minor myths that are just “apollo wants girl. Girl says no. Apollo then chases girl. Girl then finds some new insane way to die just to get away from him.” I actually cant believe I just called a god an incel im giggling. Apollo in most media is perceived as this “great happy sunny poetry and music” guy. He was initially the god of PLAGE. And DEATH. And TERROR. The music and poetry and all that other good stuff, like medicine, came WAY after his origins.

You know who you SHOULD like though? Who your favorite male god SHOULD be, if you want to hold ANY of them to mortal standards? Not Hades. Not apollo. Not Poseidon, or Hermes. DEFINITELY not zeus.

(My goat Ares bowing to his girlfriend Aphrodite)

Ares. ARES is one of the only gods who, as far as im aware, has NOT greatly wronged a woman. Googled it just now. He’s like an angel. Also, he is younger than Athena and not a technical biological child of Zeus (or something, probably a Romanized myth). Which makes sense, weirdly. Anyways. Just a few points on why Ares should be your favorite.

  • Is the father of the first amazonian queen and patron god of the amazon warriors
  • Had it out for Heracles for years after he killed said amazonian queen, and when a later amazonian queen died in battle (some time during the iliad im pretty sure) he came down and actually just. Killed an entire army. Love you Ares.
  • One of his daughters, alcippe, was bathing by a river when a son of Poseidon came and tried to assault her. Literally took that guy out on sight. No hesitation.
  • He, as far as im aware, has a VERY clean record of ONLY consensual relationships with EVERYONE.
  • In reference to the last point, Aphrodite is his most known lover, and in almost all tellings of it he is referred to as “Aphrodite’s Lover”, instead of the other way around, which absolutely flips Greek gender and intimacy roles.
  • The entire cult of Ares Gynaecothoenas
  • Actually never read this one, one of his daugthers died during childbirth and he saved her baby by allowing him to breastfeed from her, uh, body, which is kinda gross and dark but he didn’t want his daughter to die AND for it to be in vain
  • Yeah no EVERY relationship he’s had is consensual. Shouts out ares for the bare minimum among modern men, above and beyond for Greek men.

This is really long.. I’ve been cutting it up for like 10 minutes.. guys… I love ares… he isn’t even my favorite god… the god of medicine is. Oh, that guys really cool too. Sigh. Someone buy me a “I ❤️ Ares” t-shirt for my birthday. July 19th. I want it in the style of those “I ❤️ my girlfriend” t-shirts. Ares is my girlfriend.

Greek Myths!!

I’mmmmm gonna talk about Greek mythology.

(TRIGGER WARNING: a VERY brief mention of abuse, Everything that goes along with the Medusa Myth (Sexual Assault), and generally just stuff that happens in Greek mythology. Please read at your own risk.)

This is going to be a very very unorganized post about how to properly interpret myths, or at least the way EYE interpret myths because that is the only possible correct way because I am always right and everyone should listen to me!

READ THE OLDEST VERSION OF THE MYTH.

A LOT of myths have lost their meanings over time, including figures throughout the story, meanings, details that change the ENTIRETY of the myth, they’ve been romanized (heracles/Hercules, and MEDUSA, for example), or they’ve been changed to fit perspectives for modern retellings (Icarus, Hades and Persephone, the Minotaur… ect, ect.) A good rule of thumb (not-so-fun fact: the term ‘rule of thumb’ comes from either an old law or just a general rule from the olden days, when women were more objects than people, that a husband could not beat his wife with a switch thicker than his thumb, lest it be unlawful/cruel (more cruel than unlawful)) is to just look for the oldest version you can find, because that’s. like. The source material, and you can do whatever you want with that.

I’m going to go over a few (ish) myths and MY interpretations of them, vs. what people get wrong in general.

My personal favorite: The Myth of Icarus

(I had to give my girl a shirt, but this is my FAVORITE piece of icarus. it’s called Icarus’ lament, or the lament of icarus or something like that. It’s so good. Please look it up.)

People LOVE to throw my boy’s good name around when talking about a fall from greatness, or your ‘pride getting the best of you’. I hate this. I actually despise this.

The myth of Icarus (Ἴκαρος (Ikaros) is his original name. Fun Fact: Greeks did not have a letter for C. they used S or K. Be more like the greeks.) follows a young boy, who people depict being from literally age 8 to 17. The only source I could find that could possibly talk about his age said he was 7, but it was also a deepdive into how the myth of Icarus relates to gaming and how we should all play valorant because of it. I’ll pass.0

Icarus’ father, Deadalus, was a great inventor trapped in a tower by king Minos, ruler of Crete, because something something labyrinth, something something Minotaur. Don’t care. Irrelevant (extremely relevant). Long story short, Daedalus fashions wings of feathers and wax, a pair for both him and icarus, and he and Icarus jump from the top of the tower to escape. They manage to fly with the wings. it’s more like gliding but I digress. He tells icarus not to fly too close to the sun or too close to the sea, because the wax would melt or the wings would get too heavy to fly with.

This, of course, is where the myth splits off. Most Greek myths are cautionary tales, yes, to warn of the Gods’ wrath. Fire. Love to see it. The most common telling of this myth is that, when Icarus gets out there, he gets so excited and overcome with joy for being free that he feels like a god. He looks at the sun and flies to it, believing that he is better than the gods. He scorns them. But as he flies to the sun the wax begins to melt and he falls, laughing the whole time. He dies, and Daedalus had to keep flying knowing that his son has died. This is a cautionary tale to warn against  believing you are better than the gods, “flying too close to the sun” aka aiming too high and falling hard. It warns against hubris and unchecked ambition.

That’s literally not what happens. That’s the ROMAN version of the myth. Ancient Romans ruin everything.

What REALLY happened (Homer told me guys, trust) is that, while Icarus was flying, he was so overcome with joy that he felt the best he ever had. That’s, like, it. However, while Daedalus warns him not to fly too high or too low, he also warns Icarus not to fly too slow. The sky is like the gods’ airspace. They’ll be really mad. Daedalus was right, of course, because Zeus sees them flying and gets REALLY mad. He sees Icarus being happy, sure, but it’s Daedalus who has violated him and the gods by fashioning those wings. Zeus, set out to punish Daedalus, either gets Aphrodite to curse Icarus or Zeus does it himself.

They curse him to fall in love with the sun.

“IT’S GAY!!” I scream as they drag me to the padded room. “IT’S ALWAYS GAY!!” I scream as they put me in the straight jacket.

Not only is the sun, like, a male god (Both Apollo, the god of the sun, and Helios, the embodiment of the sun, are male) but that has NOTHING to do with pride. Icarus flies up to the sun, because he’s enchanted by it’s beauty and in love or whatever, and eventually crashes and burns and dies. The end!! Proper punishment for his father, because he, like, still has to live with knowing his son’s death is his fault AND fly back alone. This is me paraphrasing like crazy, the actual myth is incredibly beautiful, but this is a LOT of words as is.

Next myth, actual most popular: Medusa.

(I cannot find a picture of a statue of her that isn’t her beheaded, naked, being attacked, or AI. I am so sorry. However, the most popular statue of her is one where she’s been beheaded by perseus, and it’s SO beautiful. one of the pieces i’d love to see in real life one day. An artist made a parody of it where Medusa is holding perseus’ head as well and it’s just beautiful art. Beautiful art. oh em gosh.)

She was a gorgon. She was. Like. Born a gorgon.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Medusa myth. I love how we have, in modern times, changed it to make it better and more heartwarming. Pretty sure everyone knows the Medusa Myth. Poseidon, in his anger towards Athena and in some tellings after rejection of his advancements by the virgin priestess of athena, medusa, begins chasing after the priestess. Medusa, in fear, runs to temple of Athena and begins praying for protection, but Poseidon enters and sexually assaults her anyways. Athena, having been prayed to, sees this and curses Medusa to be a gorgon who turns anyone who looks at her to stone.

That’s a really horrible myth, and Medusa has become a symbol of sexual assault survivors worldwide. That, however, is the ROMAN version of the myth. Again. The writer of that myth was a man, who I’m pretty sure was post cathlioc takeover of rome, who wanted to scorn paganism in all forms by depicting all of the Greek gods in horrible ways. Like Athena punishing one of her own priestesses for being assaulted. Or Poseidon raping a woman. Though, I personally enjoy the modern telling of the myth as well, In which Athena sees what man does to woman uses the “Curse” more like a blessing, allowing Medusa to protect herself. And, in the original telling either way, Medusa’s ability only worked on men or whatever.

The GREEK version, though, she was just born a gorgon. And could turn people to stone. She had, like, two gorgon sisters. Perseus really killed her for points. The ability still worked only on men, though.

That’s two myths of, like, four that I mentioned? You get the rest next week. Bye bye!!! PLEASE ask me questions, literally ANY question!!!! I HEART INFODUMPING!!!!

Greek Mythology (again) and acceptable ways to get into it through different medias!!

Greek mythology is my special interest, and I’m okay to admit that now. I remember when I first heard about it, I was probably six or seven and had just watched that horrendous Percy Jackson movie with my mom. I then, somehow, got my grubby little paws on a device and googled the only name I really remembered: Athena.

This opened a whole world for me to explore, with things that happened over two thousand years ago that I never thought could exist! There were multiple gods that I was introduced to, hundred of stories and names and places and even animals to learn about and experience and I was excited. I then remember my teacher, Mrs. Young from East Flora, asking my pathways class “what do you want to learn about?”

I had the conscious thought, then. “I can’t teach this to myself.” I knew that I would need to have someone else guide me and tell me who, what, when, where, etc. So, I suggested we learn about Greek Mythology. She loved the idea, and so for the next two months we studied different (age appropriate) myths, built The Parthenon out of toilet paper rolls and masking tape, learned names and correlations, we even looked a little bit into the stars and constellations!

I’m extremely thankful to my teacher, then. I’m glad there was an adult who asked what I wanted to learn, instead of teaching me what she was told to. I had an amazing gateway to Greek Mythology, even if the original source wasn’t so good. So today I want to talk about good, acceptable sources for younger kids to get into Greek mythology, and a few good ways I’ve expanded my knowledge of it as I’ve gotten older.

First and foremost: Percy Jackson

When talking about Greek Mythology in media, Percy Jackson is the first place my brain goes to. It has wonderful modern adaptations of the Gods into an easy to digest, true-to-myth form. The intepretaions of each god that Rick portrays is almost always interesting, fun, and doesn’t take away from the original concept of each god. While in the first series Rick does make some.. choice mistakes, especially regarding the myth of Medusa, he manages to fix his mistakes in a way that doesn’t completely override any horrible storyline.

Percy Jackon, a young boy and the demigod son of Poseidon, is being hunted by called by Mount Olympus and the Olympian Gods, as Zeus’ weapon, the lightning bolt, is missing; They believe he is the thief, when he didn’t even know that he was a demigod until, like, a week before. This book, and the following books, explores Percy’s story in navigating familiar and unfamiliar myths (Some I hadn’t even heard of until I read the books when I was fourteen!)

Overall, the series is one of my favorites. As a gateway into further interest in Greek Mythology all one has to do is consider that his is a children’s book and has to be dumbed down or explained differently for entertainment purposes. 10/10.

Second: The Song of Achillies (And other works by Madeline Miller)

Madeline Miller is such a talented author, from her writing style to how well she captures the parts of myths that we don’t really see. It’s true that we have little, if any, information on Circe besides what is gathered within the Odyssey, even though she is a recurring figure throughout several myths. Consider Madeline Miller’s work as a sort of in-between, and an amazing one at that. Her storytelling with the upbringing of Patroclus is so beautifully told, especially since he is a figure often overlooked despite being so pivotal for Achillies’ story in the Iliad. With both of her books being a kind of in-between, it is entirely possible to read them and get into Greek Mythology that way, by exploring three characters deeply then going into the much broader myths.. even if the ending of Circe is quite odd. Her books are such a creative take on the Iliad and a telling of Circe’s story that I will always ALWAYS recommend these books to people. 10/10

Third: EPIC THE MUSICAL

Just like the last section, Epic the Musical is written and directed (? I’m not sure, I don’t know musicals or music in general) Jorge Rivera-Herrans, which released over two years, each song coming out one at a time from 2022 through to 2024. The musical follows Odysseus, using wonderful modern storytelling to re-tell the odyssey in way it’s meant to be told. I genuinely have no words for how good this musical is. The only complaint I have about it is that, well, Odysseus does cheat on his wife. Sorry not sorry. Greeks had much different standards than we do today.

That being said, I have NOT touched on some of the.. worse ways people have gotten into greek mythology cough Lore Olympus cough cough really bad webtoon cough cough ANYWAYS!!!!!

This is the end of the blog!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!! If anyone else likes Greek mythology, how did you discover it? and let me know if you’d want to learn anything about Greek mythology because I know TOO much!!! Blog ideas are welcomed because I need them, lol.

Greek vs. Roman Mythology

Okay, I lied. I said in my last blog post that I was going to continue my incoherent ramblings about Katara and Avatar: The Last Airbender as a whole, but I’ve decided that i need to get something out of the way instead, which is how i feel about Greek Mythology and Roman Mythology.

Anyone who’s had more than one conversation with me might be aware of how passionate I get over a certain empire, which starts with R and ends with oman. I’ve been known to yell, hit things, stand in chairs, and leave groupchats in the past. Is it that serious? No. Do i care? Also no!!

(There is, quite literally, a running gag between my friends to randomly text me “The Romans” and watch to see how mad I get — it has been described as a trigger word of mine multiple times)

Roman Mythology and Greek Mythology are often used interchangeably, like they are counterparts or equals. Now, do not get me wrong. Roman mythology (though i know nothing about it besides the creation myth) is just as complex, but in the end, they ARE separate things. This is just information off of the top of my head, mostly from my understanding of greek mythology and how it differs from roman mythology in those big ways that MEAN something. Even though they were adjacent (watch me make myself mad) they are NOT the same, most importantly in how they portray certain gods.

Am i going to start talking about myths? No! I dont know anything about them, and if i refuse to learn more than what is absolutely necessary (Read: I’m too lazy.) I do, however, know about the pantheon itself.

The Greek pantheon was very heavily focused on “Hey, you guys are messed up, but we’re MORE messed up, so be scared of us.” The Greeks, with what their pantheon represented, was very arts and emotions focused. They interpret things like hubris, defiance against the gods, lust, ect. Hubris is a big one, most commonly portrayed with Achillies. He believed that he could live, and deny the fate which was set out for him, if he avoided following his whole prophecy “ur gonna die bro” thing. The gods didn’t like that!!

The greeks were very insistent on their idea of fate, which is what most myths follow. Gods deliver a prophecy, the guy who’s the butt of the joke in the prophecy tries to avoid prophecy, ends up butt of the joke. (Seriously, you think they’d stop warning them, right?)

The romans are different. Extremely different. Again, this is my throwaway “here’s what i think 🤓☝️!!!” because i admit that i do not know that much about roman mythology, entirely because it makes me so upset. Many myths from Greek times are so Romanized we get left with our current version of Medusa, who, in the original myth, was born a gorgon. Or Achillies, who, in his original myth, never had invulnerability. He was just quick yall.. 

The romans were very victory, war, order and rule-based, rather than the emotional and theatrical Greeks. This is best portrayed by their goddess of love, Venus. She represented, obviously, love; beauty; prosperity; fertility; and VICTORY. She also mothered Aeneas, who is a direct ancestor of the founders of rome. Romans held her in such a high regard because of this. They had a goddess literally named victory and they still worshiped her and prayed to her in hopes of a victory in battle. Her greek counterpart(??? cousin. They’re cousins now.) Her greek cousin, Aphrodite, more so represents Beauty, (beauty over love, that’s important) Love, PLEASURE, and procreation. See how those differ? Similar, but important differences. 

None of this is even mentioning MYCENEAN Greece (dear gods, Mycenean Greece :/) which had nearly *checks notes* 600 years of a nearly entirely different pantheon that the Classical greek pantheon is based on, plus those 200 or so years of the greek dark ages? There’s just so much more rich, complex history behind the greek pantheon. And, yes, the romans were heavily influenced; And, yes, they carry a lot of similarities. However, the romans were after, with influence from more places than the greeks had. It’s kind of like when you take a character from a show and change him so much that he’s pretty much an OC now and you could write your own story with it and no one would ever notice. 

Okay, this is getting long but i am also talking about my special interest (greek mythology) and my special dislike (roman mythology) and i haven’t gotten up and screamed from the rooftops yet, so i’m doing better than i normally would. She’s getting long, so i’ll see you next week!!!! I will (likely) either be speaking on the same topic or going back to Avatar.. undecided. Kiss kiss!! Byee!!