Now that we have that large piece of philosophy under out belts more or less, it's time to move on to a few of my other favorite gods: Artemis and Apollo! These two are both very fun (and a bit scary!), and I really love them. They also, like Athena, have quite the origin story! So let's get started.
Artemis and Apollo are the twin children of Leto. You remember Leto? Daughter of the Titans Coeus (Polaris) and Pheobe? Their names mean Questioning and The Shining One (Pheobe is often associated with the moon). Leto’s sister is Asteria, the stars. Leto, on the other hand, is the hidden one. And hide away she must! As with Metis, Leto was a lover of Zeus, and one whom had to hide away from Hera’s wrath. Luckily for Leto, this did not involve being swallowed! Unluckily for Leto, it meant something possibly worse.
When Hera found out that Leto was pregnant by Zeus she was furious, and pronounced a curse against Leto: No land - not mainland, not island, not even the bottom of the sea - was to shelter Leto or give her harbor. Effectively, Leto was forbidden from giving birth (yikes!). She was to wander the earth eternally, unable to rest, and unable to deliver her ill-begotten children. Hera also sent a great serpent after her - Python - to chase poor Leto constantly, that she might never stop anywhere for too long. Leto wandered for months, struggling to survive. It is said that at one point, to travel more easily and to hide from Python, Leto lived disguised as a great She-Wolf. (This is sounding almost Norse! Interestingly, Leto is also often associated with Hyperborea, that is “North of the North Wind” basically, and it's said that she comes from there. I’ve always wondered if it meant to indicate a place like what we now call Russia, or the Nordic lands, etc.). But no matter where Leto went - however far north, south, east, or west, she found nowhere she could rest and give birth.
Finally, Poseidon took pity on Leto, and helped her come to Delos. Now Delos was a special place. It was neither land nor island, for it floated in the sea, not tethered to the sea floor. It was not “terra firma” (or whatever the greek form of that would be). And as such, it was not bound by Hera’s curse. Leto was finally able to rest on the floating rock, under a palm tree which grew there. There she finally went into labor.
After so long wandering, the first of Leto’s children was born without trial; painless and quick. This was Artemis. Her birth was in itself miraculous, as Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, was not at Leto’s side (prevented from attending her by Hera). Leto, however, was pregnant with twins. And the second twin’s birth was long and terrible. Nine days and nine nights Leto was in labor with her son. Her daughter Artemis, newborn but a goddess in her own right, held her mother’s hand, and was her only aide and midwife in that barren not-quite-land. This is why Artemis, though a virgin, is called a goddess of childbirth - assisting in childbirth, that is. When Artemis was nine days old, her brother was finally born: Apollo, shining like the brilliant sun, came squealing out into its light.
After these divine births, the island of Delos was anchored to the sea, to stop its wandering around the Aegean, and became a holy shrine to the Twin Gods, and especially Apollo. An ancient law of that place states that no one else is permitted be born on Delos, or to die in that holy place. Instead, they must go to the nearby Mykonos if they want to do these bloody things.
After Artemis and Apollo were born Hera could no longer stop them from joining their father on Olympus. As a birthday/welcoming gift, Zeus gave them each a mighty bow made by Hephaestus. Apollo’s bow is made of gold and shines bright, his arrows swift and violent, tearing through anything he aims them at like fire. Artemis’ bow is made of silver, and is swift, sure, and silent. It’s arrows fly true and take life with mercy and reverence, painless and instant. These bows feature in many mythic stories, and are often associated with sickness. When someone dies in their sleep, it may have been Artemis' revenge, or if they die of the plague, it might have been Apollo's wrath. The Iliad begins the the Greek army trying to recover from upsetting Apollo and thus being beset by sickness and death.
Artemis and Apollo have always intrigued me because they are such compliments: Sun and Moon, Male and Female, etc. Yet unlike so many other couples in mythology, there are no myths of the two ever joining and having a child (don't act like you would be surprised by a myth about twins having a child together. That's exactly something mythology would do). They are compliments, but are also very VERY different, and could easily exist outside of each other. They mostly have their own stories and do their own thing.
One thing that unites them however is their fierce loyalty to their mother. After receiving their bows, Artemis and Apollo hunted down and killed the mighty Python which had pursued her during her months wandering. And after this they became just as fiercely defendant of her honor. Once, a mortal woman with seven sons and seven daughters boasted that she was greater than the revered mother Leto, since Leto only had one son and one daughter. Leto never lifted a hand against the mortal mother, but Artemis and Apollo’s vengeance was swift. Apollo fired his fiery bow in quick succession, and soon all seven of the woman’s sons were dead, shot from their mounts while out hunting and toppled to the ground, their horses to return without their masters. Artemis fired next, her arrows quieter than the wind. In a breathless moment, all seven of the woman’s daughters were dead, fallen asleep never to rise again. The woman was distraught to lose all 14 of her children in one day and one night, and as Arachne, learned better than to boast. They say she turned to stone, and her tears became a great river. I don't remember which one.
But that's most of the similarities these two have in common. So let's look at each of them a bit more in depth. And as has proven the pattern in myth, let's look at the younger of the two first:
Upon coming to their new home in Olympus Apollo took to the life of a God instantly. He takes after his father in many ways including his womanizing, or woman-terrorizing maybe. Apollo is most definitely bisexual, though (not that Zeus isn't), so men are far from except from all this. Apollo spends most of his time composing music and pursuing athletes or wood nymphs, things of that nature. Apollo is the ideal Greek young man - beautiful, youthful, talented, creative, active, knowledgeable, and very sexually active too.
There are many MANY tales of Apollo's sexual escapades. Far too many to recount. Some of these stories resemble his father's, but Apollo is at least a little bit more likely to honestly woo his lovers than to rape them. Beauty over power and all that. There is one notable exception. Once Apollo and Eros (Cupid. We'll get to him when we discuss his mother Aphrodite) got into a bit of a fight. You see they were both terrific archers, but Eros boasted that his arrows, which planted love, were more powerful than Apollo's, which planted death. To prove this, Eros struck Apollo with an arrow of love, causing him to fall head over heels with a nymph named Daphne. Daphne, however, wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. Some even say that Eros has another arrow - the arrow of hatred - and that he shot Daphne through with this as well. Apollo pursued Daphne, who avoided him in every available manner, until finally she could not escape. Rather than consenting, however, Daphne called to Gaia for aide, and turned herself into a tree, to end Apollo's advances forever. She turned into a Laurel tree. And Apollo, still in love with her, made wreaths out of her branches and wore them as a crown.
There were many others. It was said that Apollo, the god of music, was a lover of all nine muses, but could not choose between them, and so never married. He took various women to bed, including several mortals and nymphs, but never stayed long. He was somewhat more faithful to his male lovers. For instance, a few times through his life Apollo was exiled from Olympus for a time, and sentenced to servitude under a certain king, named Admetus. And although it sounds degrading for a god, Apollo was fine with it mostly because he and Admetus were lovers for years.
Then there was Hyacinth, perhaps the most famous of Apollo's lovers. He and Apollo were happy together for some time, but unfortunately, any time someone is too happy in Ancient Greek mythology, someone else has to get jealous and ruin it for them. In this case the jealous party was Zephyrus, the West Wind. He also loved Hyacinth, and was jealous of Apollo. And he took it out in the worst way possible: One day while Apollo and his lover were out practicing discus, Zephyrus blew one of the discus' which Apollo had thrown off course, killing Hyacinth. Apollo was distraught to have slain his love even by accident, and transformed him into the flower we still know today.
It wasn't all love and sex, though. As with Athena, Apollo was challenged a few times to musical duels by mortals - mainly satyrs and the like, not humans - who claimed to be better at music than he. These usually ended with the opponent dead or, in one memorable case, with one of the judges sprouting a new pair of donkey's ears.
Out of all of this, though, Apollo is perhaps best known for his role as the god of Prophesy. Or at least, he was the most influential in this regard, for Apollo spoke to the people of Greece and beyond through his Oracle at Delphi. If you've never heard of the Oracles before, they were like Prophets of the Greek world. They predicted the future, or spoke on behalf of the gods - they gave divine advice and wisdom, and answered questions, that sort of thing. Delphi was far from the only oracle, and not even the only one who claimed to speak for Apollo, but was by FAR the most revered. Set high up on Mount Parnassus in Phokis, the Oracle of Delphi was a place of worship and also a person - the Oracle herself, called the Pythia (Called so because the Oracle was said to be where Apollo killed the great serpent Python). Pilgrims came to Delphi from all over to offer sacrifice and seek the god's wisdom. And because of this, the Pythia had immense power. Wars were fought and peace was brokered because of the Pythia's words. People were saved or executed, fleets were raised, alliances forged, etc. All by the will of Apollo, spoken through his Oracle. And every day matters too: Farms were sold, inheritance decided, arguments settled, marriages arranged, etc. It was said that a friend of Socrates once visited Delphi and asked Apollo who the wisest man in Athens was - and the Oracle told him: Socrates. Socrates respected the god's judgement, but spent the rest of his life purportedly attempting to prove the god wrong, by trying to find someone wiser than he. Where did these messages come from? Possibly Apollo. Possibly the copious amount of drugs and smoke and fumes involved in the Pythia's secretive rituals. They say that the temple was built on a great vent in the earth, and that sage and other incense was always burnt there. So yeah. No one is to say that Apollo wasn't also the god of mind altering drugs. (Say No to drugs, kids.)
Apollo also had several famous children, but I think I'll hold off on them until we get to the tales of mortal heroes. Because we still need to talk about his elder sister, Artemis!
Unlike her brother, Artemis never took to the Olympian life as well. Apprehensive, she asked her mighty father Zeus to promise her one thing: That he would never ask or force her to marry a man, but let her always live her life free and her own. Zeus agreed, and Artemis took to the woodlands. There she stays with her entourage of nymphs - all sworn to celibacy.
Now, the Greek ideal of celibacy is interesting, and not the same as the modern/Christian idea of 'no sex ever, period'. Sometimes it did, but more often is seems that in Greece, celibacy/"maidenhood" means that a person would 1.) Remain unwed, and 2.) Never do anything that could result in pregnancy. Which is not the same thing as no sex ever (there are in fact several types of sex which don't involve pregnancy). Sometimes maidenhood did mean a woman never having any kind of sex with a man, but again, this didn't mean not having sex period. Like I said: Lesbians. Lesbian sex didn't "count" as sex in the greek mindset. But neither did certain other sex acts. It's a whole lot. Just know that if anyone tries to tell you that Artemis was a fertility goddess (people say this a lot about Artemis of Ephesus, mentioned in the Biblical book of Acts) This is incorrect. She is a goddess of Maidenhood. Many young women chose to follow Artemis’ way of life, either to escape marriage or just to live on their own terms. Many joined her cult and her temples. Some, though, doubtless, followed her into the woods, where she is said to run naked through the trees and hunt by moonlight.
One story in particular about Artemis stands out: The story of Akteaon, a foolish man who once, while hunting, stumbled upon the grove where lady Artemis and her followers bathed. Aktaeon, instead of covering his eyes or turning away, stopped his hunting to come have a good look at the naked goddess. Artemis saw him and was outraged, and in recompense turned the young hunter into a stag, the very beast he had set out from home to hunt. When Akteaon’s hounds caught the smell of the beast, they no longer recognized their master, and chased the stag down, killed, and ate it. All because Akteaon wished to boast he had seen Artemis bathing. So the moral of that story is Don’t be A Creep.
What other stories can I tell about Artemis? She has several which involve the Constellations. These are stories of mortals, but here's a good a place as any.
Artemis mostly went about with her band of young nymphs and oceanids (river and sea goddesses). There were a few men who earned her favor and friendship though. Orion was one, the great hunter. His life was one self inflicted tragedy after another (most Greek stories are). It was said he was a son of Poseidon, and could walk on water because of this, and walk from island to island across the Aegean. He has two major myths: The first, that one day on the isle of Chios he got drunk and attacked a woman, whose father struck Orion blind and sent him away. Orion wandered then, blind, all around the Greek world, lost at sea until finally he heard someone who could help. He heard the mighty hammers of Hephaestus' forge under the isle of Lemnos, and followed the sound. Hepheastus helped him, guiding him to the farthest eastern lands where Helios, the Sun, healed him and restored his sight (we will get to Helios and others after we're done with the pantheon). After this Orion turned to hunting, and spent time on Crete with Artemis. He was said to be the only man Artemis ever loved. Unfortunately, being so good a hunter that he gained Artemis' favor gave Orion a big head. He boasted that he would hunt and kill every animal in the world! And this, combined with his great power for a mortal and also his history, gave Mother Gaia a Concern. She sent a Challenger to Orion, a great Scorpion, which stung the mighty hunter and killed him. Artemis was distraught to loose such a companion, and helped to install Orion in the sky, so that he might never be forgotten. Thus the constellations of both Orion and Scorpius.
Unfortunately, a lot of Artemis' other myths aren't super savory. You see, when you run a band of Maidens, and someone is rendered no longer a maiden (pregnant), you have to kick them out. Even, apparently, if they are pregnant due to rape. So that sucks. Way to shame the victim, Artemis. One of these stories in particular is especially sad. The story of Kallisto, one of Artemis' maidens, whom Zeus seduced IN THE FORM OF ARTEMIS. Like this woman thought she was going to bed with Lady Artemis, but no, it was Zeus The Rapist the whole time. And she became pregnant with a son, Arkas. Artemis was furious, and so was Hera. Artemis was forced to expel the pregnant woman from her troupe, and when she was no longer under Artemis' protection, Hera took the opportunity to avenge her husband's bad behavior on Kallisto too. She turned the woman into a bear. Years later, Kallisto's son Arkas was out hunting, and nearly killed his own mother, the bear. At the last moment, tho, Zeus intervened, installing both the bear and her child into the heavens: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (the big and little dippers). Both "Ursa" (latin) and "Arkas" (greek) mean Bear (which is why the brown bear being called Ursus Arctos is hilarious).
But Artemis' stories aren't always cruel. For instance, once Agamemnon (we'll get to him) killed a sacred deer, and claimed to be a better hunter than Artemis (seriously people, STOP doing this!!). Artemis took her revenge subtly. When Agamemnon was attempting to sail home after 10 years at war, Artemis becalmed all the winds of the sea, leaving him stranded and far from home. Agamemnon - who hadn't proven himself enough of an idiot yet - swore that if the goddess would forgive him and help him home, he would sacrifice to her whatever was the first thing he saw when he reached home, no matter how precious or expensive. Unfortunately, the first thing Agamemnon saw was his daughter, Iphigenia, who had rushed to the shore to welcome him home. Agamemnon, grief stricken that after a decade of war he would be forced to kill his only daughter, nonetheless readied made good on his promise. But at the last moment, Artemis intervened. She did not want the young maiden killed, but merely dedicated to her service as a maiden forever. Artemis spirited Iphigenia away, leaving a deer in her place to be sacrificed. Unfortunately, this didn't stop Agamemnon's wife from despising him, and that's a whoooole other story we may get to later.
I feel like I should have more good stories of Artemis? I am quite the fan. But perhaps I just have a thing for maiden goddesses. Artemis does her own thing and spends time with animals. What more could you want?
Oh! I almost forgot. I alluded to a story about Artemis earlier when I wrote about Ares - remember those two giants who attacked Olympus, and Ares tried to fight them but he ended up imprisoned in a bronze urn? Yeah. So one of their demands on Olympus was the hand of Artemis in marriage. So Artemis played a trick on them. Knowing they were keen hunters and wished to prove themselves to her, she transformed herself into a beautiful, majestic doe, the most wonderful ever seen, and she leapt between them. Each of the brothers was so eager to bring down the doe for Artemis, and do so first and so win her hand, and Artemis was so clever and agile, that when each of the giant brother let loose his javelin they brought down one another instead, each pierced by his brother's thrown spear. Artemis was able to free the very upset Ares, as the danger was no more.
Ok. This post is long enough. What analysis can I do? One interesting thing about these two is that in Greek myth at least (can't speak for Roman), Artemis and Apollo are not physically the Sun and Moon themselves - that's Helios and Selene - but they are OF the Sun and Moon. They are also not the children of the Sun or Moon. It's complicated. I've always thought it interesting that the two are so tied and so different. It's kind of refreshing. A lot of the time twins in myth are basically the same person, but these two are definitely not.
There's a lot of critique I could offer here, mostly about sexual ethics (why is Apollo allowed to have a lot of lovers, male and female, while Artemis has to kick out a lover of hers because she was raped (by Zeus no less)? What's with all the victim blaming and rape in myth anyway? Was this a problem in historical Greece? (it undoubtedly was). But even despite all of this, I like the twins. They are lovely; ideals of youthful beauty, without being bland or even cliche. They have so much character! And I hope I was able to get some of that across.
And where are they today? It's kind of hard to say. Artemis you could say is another idol of self-reliance. The idol of Independence. Of never asking for help, of pushing others away of being an Island, as it were (perhaps like Delos; floating from place to place, never tied down). The Idol of Freedom. Interestingly, the people who seem most culturally primed for this are young men, bachelors who don't want to be tied down, etc. But I think it's deeper than that. This is the Idol of the self-made, self-sufficient life. Of thinking we have to do it all, and that it's good to do it all and never let anyone help or let anyone close. I think we all fall into that from time to time - some more than others. Be it college students, single moms, men who think they have to be The Man Of The Home, kids who grew up without support systems, people who are estranged from their family for one reason or another, and everyone in between.
But what light of truth does Artemis reflect? Freedom. If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed. Artemis is not cowed by cultural norms - and neither should we be. SO much of Christian history has been marred by the Church trying to enforce cultural norms as if they were essential to the Christian faith - I'm talking everything from gender norms to colonialism. It's bad. And this is a reminder that Different can be Good. Whether that Different can be chose chastity or something else. Artemis can serve as a reminder to us that we are to live lives free of shame. We are not slaves to sin.
This is important in several regards, but to me the most personally impact has been in regard to gender. I struggled to come to terms with my gender a lot growing up, and I still do, and the most powerful message I have encountered to help me in this was this: There are only two people who get to dictate what it means for me to be a woman: Me, and God. And God hasn't said very much. Every other message about what it means for me to be a woman, I can take or leave. Society doesn't get to tell me what it means, how I ought to act, who I ought to be, etc. I am a woman, so anything that I do is now a womanly thing. If i cut my hair short and don't shave my legs, then it is now a womanly thing to do so, for I, a woman, and doing it. I'm not being 'masculine'. It just turns out that those things were never masculine to begin with. Just human. Does that make sense? I could talk about this for ages. But it is part of the glorious freedom to which we are called, and which we are often so afraid to enter.
Artemis also brings out the love of Nature - and I think God definitely wants us to appreciate and care for and spend time in his Created world more. But I think a lot of Greek gods shine forth this light. When every tree and flower (such as Laurel and Hyacinth) has a story, when every river and glade is a nymph or naiad, you look at nature differently. And while nature may not be divine, as the Greeks believed, it was shaped by divine hands, and for God's glory.
As for Apollo, the man is a mess. He's got so much going on. Prophesy, Music, Archery, Sunlight, it just goes on and on doesn't it? Apollo has been called the "most greek god" in that he represents so much of the ideals which Greece held. He is young, athletic, intelligent, cultured, skilled, bisexual - all very greek things to be. Apollo IS Greek Culture in a lot of way. And he had a huge impact on it, especially through the Pythia/Oracle of Delphi. But where is he in the modern world? It's a lot harder to say. I've been pretty much making these up on the fly, but Apollo I've had to give more thought to. There are a couple routes to take. Apollo may be the Idolization of Youth, both in beauty and in ability/skill. The idea that our additions to culture is all that matters. Even if the production isn't "practical" (it's art), the equation of art produced with self worth is dangerous. Perhaps he is the idolization of art in general. Or we could try something on the prophesy route and align Apollo with some new age mysticism, etc, idk, the horoscopes or something. All of this seems kind of half-assed though. I'm not sure who Apollo's modern followers are, honestly. It seems like they would be the kind of people going through life just LOOKING for something to give them meaning, and believing that the little things they do will one day be enough to fill that void. Whether it's art or exercise or culture or travel or spirituality. He's not an idol so much as the search for one.
As for the truth of Apollo - all beauty is God's beauty, and Apollo and Artemis are both beautiful. Apollo's finest quality is Excellence - dedication to doing something as best you can, which is God honoring in a way that many people wish to belittle. Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might, right? and do it as unto the Lord. Apollo's miscellaneous nature can help incarnate to us how every thing we do can be done well, and that is is morally good for us to strive for excellence in our endeavors. It is laudable and praiseworthy to do things well - whether they are art or sport or more practical endeavors. We shine forth God's beauty when we participate in his creation and use well all the gifts he's given us. I once gave a whole talk on this to a bunch of college freshmen. It was one of the greatest lessons I myself learned at JBU: EVERY subject is objectively worth studying. Whether it's something I find interesting or not. Microbiology? Worth studying. Linguistics? Worth studying. Calculus? Worth studying. Business? Worth studying. Now I don't have to be the one to DO the studying in every area, but there are no areas we should feel like are a waste of time. It reminds me of something Chesterton wrote, "There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person" (Heretics, Chapter 3).
With this I may leave you. This post has gotten long enough already. I wish I could better express how much I like Artemis and Apollo, and had better stories to tell of them. I'm sure they will come up again soon!
Thanks for reading
Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly host, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
R
Monday, September 30, 2019
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Pallas Athena, the Grey Eyed Goddess, Aegis Bearer, Lady of My Heart
Sing, Muse, of Athena, greatest of Olympians!
I don't fear Zeus' wrath in saying such things. He's a pillock anyway and he's dead. (If you can't tell this entire series is just a long con to let me insult Zeus as much as possible).
Athena is the third born child of Zeus, after Ares and Hephaestus, and hers is where the origin stories get buck wild!
Athena is NOT a child of Hera. Which, since she is a child of Zeus, and Hera is Zeus' wife, caused no little amount of tension. She might have been the first in this regard, but she is far from the last. Athena is sometimes said to be the daughter of Zeus alone - who conjured her as it was from his mind. Like some kind of backwards immaculate conception. But there’s nothing immaculate about Zeus. More often Athena is known as the daughter of Zeus and his first-love-but-not-wife, Metis, the Titaness you may remember who helped Zeus defeat Kronos. Hera knew that her husband was sleeping with Metis though, and she was not. Having it. So Zeus needed to hide Metis away where Hera could not find her (this is like. The theme of Zeus' life). Metis was proud, though, and did not wish to hide, so Zeus decided to trick her.
According to some stories, Zeus' fear was not of Hera, but rather that any child he sired by Metis would eventually overthrow him, as he had Kronos, and Kronos had his own father Ouranos. In those stories, Zeus tricked Metis out of fear of her unborn child. I guess he thought that Ares and Hephaestus were too wimpy to overthrow him, but Metis' child wouldn't be? In any case...
One day after he had been with Metis, Zeus proposed they play a game. Zeus was a master at changing forms, and invited Metis to a small competition. He shape-shifted into an animal - a cow maybe, or a horse, I don't recall - and Metis would follow suit, shifting her form to match his. Zeus next transformed into a mighty eagle, and Metis did as well. Finally Zeus transformed himself into a tiny little fly. And so did Metis. Once she was a tiny fly, however, Zeus changed the game. He transformed back into his normal form and before Metis could follow suit he... swallowed her. Because… because he could, I guess. Because he’s Zeus. You’ll see that this is far from the last time that Zeus turns himself or a lady into an animal to hide her from Hera. It’s a whole kink of his, I swear.
Anyway so Zeus swallowed Metis - not unlike how Kronos had swallowed his own children, just this time Zeus managed it before the kid was even born by swallowing her mother whole. But somehow instead of taking up residence in his stomach, you know, like how the digestive track works? No, Metis set up shop in Zeus’ head. She was the wisest among the Titans after all. And she got to work. You see, Metis was already pregnant. And she took this whole being swallowed thing pretty well in stride. She decided to go ahead and prepare for her child’s arrival by making them a set of clothes. I don’t know where she got the materials, but she spun and wove and sewed clothing - adult sizes because gods age differently, you know. And then she crafted armor - a huge, shining shield and a brilliant helmet. And a spear, to arm her child. She made them from scratch, I guess, all inside of Zeus’ head, and all while pregnant. Metis is terrific.
If you’ve ever watched a blacksmith at work, though, you know that there’s a lot of pounding hammers and heat and noise. Metis' diligent work gave Zeus a terrible, terrible headache (serves him right for swallowing a woman). The pounding, piercing pain in Zeus’ head grew worse and worse day after day as time went on, until he could no longer stand it. His head was in such pain that he asked his son, Hephaestus, to take a chisel and a hammer and just split his head open, to let the terrible pain out. With the help of his Cyclopes to hold his father down, Zeus’ son did as he was told, splitting Zeus’ skull open with one mighty blow. And, miracle of miracles, out stepped a woman! Clothed, armored, and armed magnificently (Hopefully her mother came out too). For it was Athena, daughter of Zeus, ready to take on the world. Gives a new meaning to ‘’Brainchild’ eh? Ok I’ll… I’ll show myself out.
Ever since then, Athena hasn’t stopped being awesome, and everyone loves her. And when people love a god, they give them many, many names. Athena has a lot of them, and they all have some stories. Pallas is one, meaning either ‘weapon brandisher’ or ‘young woman’. Or both! There are lots of stories about how she got this name, some sadder than others, but she definitely took it from someone. Sometimes Pallas is the name of a man who tried to assault her, whom Athena killed and took the skin and name of as a trophy. In another myth, Athena and Pallas were childhood friends, and Athena accidentally killed Pallas during a sparring match, and was so distraught that she took on Pallas’ name, to honor her friend, that the name Pallas might live forever (and it has). Other names for Athena include “Grey-eyed goddess”, which is pretty self explanatory, and “Aegis-bearer” - which is from a story I will tell later, but has to do with a unique piece of armor Athena always wears. It's why one of her symbols (which I failed to include on the earlier list) is the Gorgoneion (like a medusa face, normally worn on the chest). These are just a few of Athena's names.
And Athena has, of course, also given her name to others, including Athens itself. That too is a tale. For when great Athens was built - an as yet unnamed city on a hill in wild Attika, overlooking the Saronic Gulf - both Poseidon and Athena wished to claim it for their own. The people of the city honored the gods, and Athena and Poseidon agreed that whichever of them could give to people a better gift, would claim patronage of the city. Poseidon for his part struck the ground with his mighty trident, and a spring of water welled up from the earth! The people praised Poseidon, but when they came to the new spring in their city, they found that the water was not the fresh water they had imagined, but salty water from the sea, of which Poseidon was God and King. Next it was Athena’s turn. She, unlike Poseidon, knew what a people needed to grow. They needed lumber, strong wood to build and to keep them warm. They needed oil, and industry, and FOOD. And so Athena created the world’s first Olive Tree, domesticated and ready to sustain all of Attika with its wealth. This was a fine gift indeed, and the people agreed that they would be Athenians - named for Athena - and she would be their god.
What other tales can I tell of Athena? Not all of them end so happily. You mad have heard the tale of Arachne (Not to be confused with Ariadne). Arachne was a mortal woman, and was an artist and weaver. in some stories, she was in fact a student of Athena herself, whose domain of craft includes weaving. Arachne is a classic tale of hubris and pride, as she proudly claimed that she was the best weaver in all of Greece - and was in fact greater at the art than Athena herself! A god cannot ignore such a claim. Athena came down and at first she gracefully allowed Arachne a chance at redemption, to take back the foolish things she had said. The goddess arrived disguised as an old woman and told Arachne not to dishonor the gods. But Arachne would not recant. She repeated her blasphemy and wished to prove her skill. And so Athena revealed herself, and accepted the challenge with Arachne had laid down. The two would both weave a tapestry each, and weave all day long. At the end of the day, whoever had the better tapestry would win.
Athena wove a tapestry of the utmost quality, a beautiful depiction of her victory over Poseidon and the founding of her city, Athens. And Arachne, for her part, wove a tapestry just as well made, her technique flawless. But the scenes she chose to depict were just as dishonoring of the gods as her words: scenes of Zeus' many scandals and indecencies. Twenty-one of them, in fact. True or no, the depiction of the gods - and Athena's father - as lewd and base enraged Athena, who destroyed the blasphemous work and cursed Arachne for her insolence, striking her with the butt of her spear. Arachne finally relented before the goddess, and it is said that she attempted to kill herself in her despair at being forsaken by the gods. But Athena took pity and brought her back to life as the world's greatest spinner of webs and tapestries - a spider. Thus derives the names Arachnid. (If I get into Ovid's Metomorphoses you will see that this is a pattern in Greek/Roman myth, that of someone who dies or almost dies but is instead changed into an animal, plant, river, etc. More on that later.)
So yes. Athena is not above vengeance, especially on those who claim her glory as their own. But her patronage is something which should be sought, for she gives good gifts. Another famous hero who gained Athena's favor was the famed strategist Odysseus, who will need his own post eventually.
Athena is a defender of women, a master craftsman, the goddess of strategy, and of wisdom. She was claimed by Athens, who valued democracy and rational thought, philosophy, and politics. And Athena lives on to this day. She is one of the longest lasting symbols of the Greek world, largely become Christendom also fell in love with her.
A few summers ago, I got the chance to travel around Europe for about a month. I did not unfortunately visit Greece, but I did visit Rome. It was a terrific trip, but one of the things that has stuck in my mind the most was my visit to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It is a really wonderful place, with so much astounding art and beauty inside. Most people remember seeing Michoangelo's Pieta when they think of art inside the Basilica, but the one that caught my eye the most was this:
It's a statue of... some Pope. I don't know which one. There is text underneath but it's not in the picture I took. As you can see, though, there are two people backing this Pope up. And they appear to me at least to be the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ (or some other female saint?), and across from her, Athena - or at least, the embodiment of Wisdom, who looks just like Athena. Gorgoneion and all! It really stuck me, seeing an actual carving of an actual pagan god inside a church building - THE church building as far as some people are concerned. Of all of the Greek gods, Athena was found to be the good one, the safe one, the clean one, the acceptable one. She is Wisdom, which is important to all things, including the pursuit of Theology and of God. St. Thomas Aquinas does not, to my knowledge, mention Athena by name, but his work - in which Philosophy stands hand in hand with Theology - works along this same vein. The same could be said of Boethius, if I am recalling him correctly.
Athena came to represent an idea which I definitely stand for - that sometimes, by God's grace through his general revelation, that is, his creation of this world and of mankind, the pagans Get Something Right about God, and their powerful mastery of image and imagination makes this POWERFUL in a way that the Christian tradition often lacks. I said last time that the gods are shadows of God. The real God has all of their goodness and more beyond. Well, Athena is one of the best of these shadows the Greeks have to offer. She is beauty, grace, truth, wisdom, virtue, strength, intelligence, power, safety, purity, she is war and peace, she is Athena.
But again, as with all gods. The worship of Athena herself - either as a person or as an ideal - is folly. Athena is an excellent example of virtue, but she is not Virtue itself. She is not Wisdom itself, but merely the best of man's wisdom. She may be a Paragon, but she is a human paragon, a paragon made by human hands. And that paragon may reflect something truly divine, greater than humans can reach, but it is still a reflection, it is still not whole.
Where is the danger of Athena today? Hers may be the most insidious and hidden of all. The Idol of Athena is an idol of relying on one's own reason and wisdom. Of believing too strongly in one's own rightness, and of thinking that mankind's wisdom is all that there is. Anyone who says that Science is the only authority - that if you cannot prove it empirically than it does not exist - may have fallen into this trap. Anyone who believes that Mankind can Save Themselves, and that Progress is the Answer. It's very Existentialist in a way, and Romantic. People like Rousseau were of the cult of Athena. Even Nietzsche. In everyday life Dark Side of Athena is pretension, exclusion of others, the assumption that one knows what is right, and the unwillingness to entertain other opinions. It is a violation of the Ethics of Debate. It is Pride. It is reading the Truth of Scripture and thinking you know better than what you read. Another Dark Side can simply be intellect used for the wrong ends. Or Intellect allowed to take control of one's time and effort, to the expense of life and love. There are a lot of ways that all of this can go wrong, some more subtle than others. All come back to the order of things: If the love of Athena is put anywhere other than BELOW and a part of the love of God - the TRUE font of Wisdom, the True Warrior, the True Defender of Women, the True Holy One, the True Creative Genius, etc. - then it is in vain.
Have I fallen victim to all of this myself? Almost undoubtedly, yes. I am quite sure that I have, and probably continue to in ways I don't even see. But I do not conflate my love of the character of Athena with the ways in which I have fallen victim to all of this. I should have made this more clear in my Ares and Hephaestus post but the two are quite separate these days. Athena is the best and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. And I don't think that my taking that stance is morally bad or dangerous. But at the same time, analyzing Athena as a deity can help point out things in my own life which have gone wrong, priorities and beliefs I have which may be perverted, etc.
I'm going to try to give the good and bad of each god I touch on, and sometimes there's gonna be more or less in each degree. I hope that I do not tarnish your view of these characters through this analysis, for that is the opposite of my goal. There is so much of Athena which reflects the truth about God in so many ways.
This is as good a time as any to get into some of my Philosophy of Mythology, I think. I started writing this up as it's own thing, but I want to put it here.
This bit is a Long. Time. In the making. (To be read in Treebeard's voice). And it is a culmination of MANY attempts to explain my thoughts on this subject - or maybe less of a culmination and more of the most recent attempt in a long line which are hopefully improving each time.
There are many, many different reasons why I love mythology, and if you've read any of these posts hopefully you've gotten a taste of that. But I want to put some language behind my thoughts. Mythology deals with big idea, and what it does is "incarnate" them.
I said a few posts ago that "In Greek, every noun is also a Proper Noun". But what does this actually do for us, besides get confusing? To answer this, I want to share an idea from - who else? - C. S. Lewis.
I stumbled upon this passage several years ago, and even though for Lewis it seemed a comment made in passing, the idea has not let me go. It's from a chapter of his The Four Loves which isn't even about one of the titular loves. The chapter is on "Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human", specifically his section on the love of nature. I'm just going to quote from it (emphasis added):
What do I mean by that? I mean that just how Nature never taught Lewis that God was glorious, so Nature never taught me. We both had to learn these elsewhere. But just as Nature gave the word "glory" meaning for Lewis, so Athena has given the word "glory" meaning for me. And she's not the only one, of course. I have encountered many incarnations of Glory, and of Wisdom - countless, even, all of which help combine into my own understanding of what the word means. When I apply the word "wise" to God, I mean something by it - and what it means to be is shaped by my understanding of Wisdom. Which in turn has been shaped by my experiences, including of Athena. Do you see?
Perhaps Love is a better example. My understanding of Love is shaped by SO MANY different things in my life. From the love I myself receive and experience and give, to the love I see in others, to the love I read about in stories. And all of this feeds into my understanding of what "Love" means. So that when God says "I love you", I know what love means - what it looks like, feels like, smells like, tastes like, etc. (I don't mean that just in a physical sense. I mean it in the way you recognize something by smell or by taste, because you've smelled or tasted it before. So with things like Love).
Of course it's possible for these understandings to get messed up - for instance, if I allowed Zeus or Aphrodite to shape my view of love, I would have a skewed understanding of it. There is a measure to which I can give my assent - or withhold it - from the stories which might shape my understanding. But it is stories which shape our ideas. So we need to be careful of what it is we accept.
When I say I love Athena, it is because she helps incarnate to me certain aspects which she has in common with both myself and with God. She is not the be all and end all of these things. God is. She is not an Incarnation of God Himself - Jesus is. But she is a reflection that is tangible to me. In the same way, Aslan is more tangible to me. And Saint Joan of Arc is more tangible to me.
In his play Saint Joan Bernard Shaw has this line, "Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?" - and while I do not agree with him about everything this entails (one may be saved without relying on imagination. It is not, as Shaw seems to think, the strength of one's faith that saves them, but the strength of their Savior, the one whom that faith is in.) But there is weight to this idea. That one of the reasons God wishes his children to emulate Christ, to be Christs to each other, is to constantly help Incarnate himself to us in more tangible ways. It is why we the Church are called the Body of Christ.
I could go on and on about this. But the idea I want to share is that in a similar way, fictional characters - like Athena, like Aslan, like Samwise Gamgee, like Wonder Woman, etc. - can play a part in "incarnating" certain things to us, like Wisdom or Compassion or Bravery or Sacrifice - in a way that we might not ever encounter elsewhere. And of course we don't worship these incarnations. They are human and incomplete. But we can love them, and love the one whom they reflect and teach us of.
All truth is God's truth, all goodness God's goodness, all beauty God's beauty.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Thank you for reading. I am sure I will continue more of this soon.
R
I don't fear Zeus' wrath in saying such things. He's a pillock anyway and he's dead. (If you can't tell this entire series is just a long con to let me insult Zeus as much as possible).
Athena is the third born child of Zeus, after Ares and Hephaestus, and hers is where the origin stories get buck wild!
Athena is NOT a child of Hera. Which, since she is a child of Zeus, and Hera is Zeus' wife, caused no little amount of tension. She might have been the first in this regard, but she is far from the last. Athena is sometimes said to be the daughter of Zeus alone - who conjured her as it was from his mind. Like some kind of backwards immaculate conception. But there’s nothing immaculate about Zeus. More often Athena is known as the daughter of Zeus and his first-love-but-not-wife, Metis, the Titaness you may remember who helped Zeus defeat Kronos. Hera knew that her husband was sleeping with Metis though, and she was not. Having it. So Zeus needed to hide Metis away where Hera could not find her (this is like. The theme of Zeus' life). Metis was proud, though, and did not wish to hide, so Zeus decided to trick her.
According to some stories, Zeus' fear was not of Hera, but rather that any child he sired by Metis would eventually overthrow him, as he had Kronos, and Kronos had his own father Ouranos. In those stories, Zeus tricked Metis out of fear of her unborn child. I guess he thought that Ares and Hephaestus were too wimpy to overthrow him, but Metis' child wouldn't be? In any case...
One day after he had been with Metis, Zeus proposed they play a game. Zeus was a master at changing forms, and invited Metis to a small competition. He shape-shifted into an animal - a cow maybe, or a horse, I don't recall - and Metis would follow suit, shifting her form to match his. Zeus next transformed into a mighty eagle, and Metis did as well. Finally Zeus transformed himself into a tiny little fly. And so did Metis. Once she was a tiny fly, however, Zeus changed the game. He transformed back into his normal form and before Metis could follow suit he... swallowed her. Because… because he could, I guess. Because he’s Zeus. You’ll see that this is far from the last time that Zeus turns himself or a lady into an animal to hide her from Hera. It’s a whole kink of his, I swear.
Anyway so Zeus swallowed Metis - not unlike how Kronos had swallowed his own children, just this time Zeus managed it before the kid was even born by swallowing her mother whole. But somehow instead of taking up residence in his stomach, you know, like how the digestive track works? No, Metis set up shop in Zeus’ head. She was the wisest among the Titans after all. And she got to work. You see, Metis was already pregnant. And she took this whole being swallowed thing pretty well in stride. She decided to go ahead and prepare for her child’s arrival by making them a set of clothes. I don’t know where she got the materials, but she spun and wove and sewed clothing - adult sizes because gods age differently, you know. And then she crafted armor - a huge, shining shield and a brilliant helmet. And a spear, to arm her child. She made them from scratch, I guess, all inside of Zeus’ head, and all while pregnant. Metis is terrific.
If you’ve ever watched a blacksmith at work, though, you know that there’s a lot of pounding hammers and heat and noise. Metis' diligent work gave Zeus a terrible, terrible headache (serves him right for swallowing a woman). The pounding, piercing pain in Zeus’ head grew worse and worse day after day as time went on, until he could no longer stand it. His head was in such pain that he asked his son, Hephaestus, to take a chisel and a hammer and just split his head open, to let the terrible pain out. With the help of his Cyclopes to hold his father down, Zeus’ son did as he was told, splitting Zeus’ skull open with one mighty blow. And, miracle of miracles, out stepped a woman! Clothed, armored, and armed magnificently (Hopefully her mother came out too). For it was Athena, daughter of Zeus, ready to take on the world. Gives a new meaning to ‘’Brainchild’ eh? Ok I’ll… I’ll show myself out.
Ever since then, Athena hasn’t stopped being awesome, and everyone loves her. And when people love a god, they give them many, many names. Athena has a lot of them, and they all have some stories. Pallas is one, meaning either ‘weapon brandisher’ or ‘young woman’. Or both! There are lots of stories about how she got this name, some sadder than others, but she definitely took it from someone. Sometimes Pallas is the name of a man who tried to assault her, whom Athena killed and took the skin and name of as a trophy. In another myth, Athena and Pallas were childhood friends, and Athena accidentally killed Pallas during a sparring match, and was so distraught that she took on Pallas’ name, to honor her friend, that the name Pallas might live forever (and it has). Other names for Athena include “Grey-eyed goddess”, which is pretty self explanatory, and “Aegis-bearer” - which is from a story I will tell later, but has to do with a unique piece of armor Athena always wears. It's why one of her symbols (which I failed to include on the earlier list) is the Gorgoneion (like a medusa face, normally worn on the chest). These are just a few of Athena's names.
And Athena has, of course, also given her name to others, including Athens itself. That too is a tale. For when great Athens was built - an as yet unnamed city on a hill in wild Attika, overlooking the Saronic Gulf - both Poseidon and Athena wished to claim it for their own. The people of the city honored the gods, and Athena and Poseidon agreed that whichever of them could give to people a better gift, would claim patronage of the city. Poseidon for his part struck the ground with his mighty trident, and a spring of water welled up from the earth! The people praised Poseidon, but when they came to the new spring in their city, they found that the water was not the fresh water they had imagined, but salty water from the sea, of which Poseidon was God and King. Next it was Athena’s turn. She, unlike Poseidon, knew what a people needed to grow. They needed lumber, strong wood to build and to keep them warm. They needed oil, and industry, and FOOD. And so Athena created the world’s first Olive Tree, domesticated and ready to sustain all of Attika with its wealth. This was a fine gift indeed, and the people agreed that they would be Athenians - named for Athena - and she would be their god.
What other tales can I tell of Athena? Not all of them end so happily. You mad have heard the tale of Arachne (Not to be confused with Ariadne). Arachne was a mortal woman, and was an artist and weaver. in some stories, she was in fact a student of Athena herself, whose domain of craft includes weaving. Arachne is a classic tale of hubris and pride, as she proudly claimed that she was the best weaver in all of Greece - and was in fact greater at the art than Athena herself! A god cannot ignore such a claim. Athena came down and at first she gracefully allowed Arachne a chance at redemption, to take back the foolish things she had said. The goddess arrived disguised as an old woman and told Arachne not to dishonor the gods. But Arachne would not recant. She repeated her blasphemy and wished to prove her skill. And so Athena revealed herself, and accepted the challenge with Arachne had laid down. The two would both weave a tapestry each, and weave all day long. At the end of the day, whoever had the better tapestry would win.
Athena wove a tapestry of the utmost quality, a beautiful depiction of her victory over Poseidon and the founding of her city, Athens. And Arachne, for her part, wove a tapestry just as well made, her technique flawless. But the scenes she chose to depict were just as dishonoring of the gods as her words: scenes of Zeus' many scandals and indecencies. Twenty-one of them, in fact. True or no, the depiction of the gods - and Athena's father - as lewd and base enraged Athena, who destroyed the blasphemous work and cursed Arachne for her insolence, striking her with the butt of her spear. Arachne finally relented before the goddess, and it is said that she attempted to kill herself in her despair at being forsaken by the gods. But Athena took pity and brought her back to life as the world's greatest spinner of webs and tapestries - a spider. Thus derives the names Arachnid. (If I get into Ovid's Metomorphoses you will see that this is a pattern in Greek/Roman myth, that of someone who dies or almost dies but is instead changed into an animal, plant, river, etc. More on that later.)
So yes. Athena is not above vengeance, especially on those who claim her glory as their own. But her patronage is something which should be sought, for she gives good gifts. Another famous hero who gained Athena's favor was the famed strategist Odysseus, who will need his own post eventually.
Athena is a defender of women, a master craftsman, the goddess of strategy, and of wisdom. She was claimed by Athens, who valued democracy and rational thought, philosophy, and politics. And Athena lives on to this day. She is one of the longest lasting symbols of the Greek world, largely become Christendom also fell in love with her.
A few summers ago, I got the chance to travel around Europe for about a month. I did not unfortunately visit Greece, but I did visit Rome. It was a terrific trip, but one of the things that has stuck in my mind the most was my visit to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It is a really wonderful place, with so much astounding art and beauty inside. Most people remember seeing Michoangelo's Pieta when they think of art inside the Basilica, but the one that caught my eye the most was this:
It's a statue of... some Pope. I don't know which one. There is text underneath but it's not in the picture I took. As you can see, though, there are two people backing this Pope up. And they appear to me at least to be the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ (or some other female saint?), and across from her, Athena - or at least, the embodiment of Wisdom, who looks just like Athena. Gorgoneion and all! It really stuck me, seeing an actual carving of an actual pagan god inside a church building - THE church building as far as some people are concerned. Of all of the Greek gods, Athena was found to be the good one, the safe one, the clean one, the acceptable one. She is Wisdom, which is important to all things, including the pursuit of Theology and of God. St. Thomas Aquinas does not, to my knowledge, mention Athena by name, but his work - in which Philosophy stands hand in hand with Theology - works along this same vein. The same could be said of Boethius, if I am recalling him correctly.
Athena came to represent an idea which I definitely stand for - that sometimes, by God's grace through his general revelation, that is, his creation of this world and of mankind, the pagans Get Something Right about God, and their powerful mastery of image and imagination makes this POWERFUL in a way that the Christian tradition often lacks. I said last time that the gods are shadows of God. The real God has all of their goodness and more beyond. Well, Athena is one of the best of these shadows the Greeks have to offer. She is beauty, grace, truth, wisdom, virtue, strength, intelligence, power, safety, purity, she is war and peace, she is Athena.
But again, as with all gods. The worship of Athena herself - either as a person or as an ideal - is folly. Athena is an excellent example of virtue, but she is not Virtue itself. She is not Wisdom itself, but merely the best of man's wisdom. She may be a Paragon, but she is a human paragon, a paragon made by human hands. And that paragon may reflect something truly divine, greater than humans can reach, but it is still a reflection, it is still not whole.
Where is the danger of Athena today? Hers may be the most insidious and hidden of all. The Idol of Athena is an idol of relying on one's own reason and wisdom. Of believing too strongly in one's own rightness, and of thinking that mankind's wisdom is all that there is. Anyone who says that Science is the only authority - that if you cannot prove it empirically than it does not exist - may have fallen into this trap. Anyone who believes that Mankind can Save Themselves, and that Progress is the Answer. It's very Existentialist in a way, and Romantic. People like Rousseau were of the cult of Athena. Even Nietzsche. In everyday life Dark Side of Athena is pretension, exclusion of others, the assumption that one knows what is right, and the unwillingness to entertain other opinions. It is a violation of the Ethics of Debate. It is Pride. It is reading the Truth of Scripture and thinking you know better than what you read. Another Dark Side can simply be intellect used for the wrong ends. Or Intellect allowed to take control of one's time and effort, to the expense of life and love. There are a lot of ways that all of this can go wrong, some more subtle than others. All come back to the order of things: If the love of Athena is put anywhere other than BELOW and a part of the love of God - the TRUE font of Wisdom, the True Warrior, the True Defender of Women, the True Holy One, the True Creative Genius, etc. - then it is in vain.
Have I fallen victim to all of this myself? Almost undoubtedly, yes. I am quite sure that I have, and probably continue to in ways I don't even see. But I do not conflate my love of the character of Athena with the ways in which I have fallen victim to all of this. I should have made this more clear in my Ares and Hephaestus post but the two are quite separate these days. Athena is the best and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. And I don't think that my taking that stance is morally bad or dangerous. But at the same time, analyzing Athena as a deity can help point out things in my own life which have gone wrong, priorities and beliefs I have which may be perverted, etc.
I'm going to try to give the good and bad of each god I touch on, and sometimes there's gonna be more or less in each degree. I hope that I do not tarnish your view of these characters through this analysis, for that is the opposite of my goal. There is so much of Athena which reflects the truth about God in so many ways.
This is as good a time as any to get into some of my Philosophy of Mythology, I think. I started writing this up as it's own thing, but I want to put it here.
This bit is a Long. Time. In the making. (To be read in Treebeard's voice). And it is a culmination of MANY attempts to explain my thoughts on this subject - or maybe less of a culmination and more of the most recent attempt in a long line which are hopefully improving each time.
There are many, many different reasons why I love mythology, and if you've read any of these posts hopefully you've gotten a taste of that. But I want to put some language behind my thoughts. Mythology deals with big idea, and what it does is "incarnate" them.
I said a few posts ago that "In Greek, every noun is also a Proper Noun". But what does this actually do for us, besides get confusing? To answer this, I want to share an idea from - who else? - C. S. Lewis.
I stumbled upon this passage several years ago, and even though for Lewis it seemed a comment made in passing, the idea has not let me go. It's from a chapter of his The Four Loves which isn't even about one of the titular loves. The chapter is on "Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human", specifically his section on the love of nature. I'm just going to quote from it (emphasis added):
What nature-lovers--whether they are Wordsworthians or people with "dark gods in their blood"--get from nature is an iconography, a language of images. I do not mean simply visual images; it is the "moods" or "spirits" themselves--the powerful expositions of terror, gloom, jocundity, cruelty, lust, innocence, purity--that are the images. In them each man can clothe his own belief. We must learn our theology or philosophy elsewhere (not surprisingly, we often learn them from theologians and philosophers).
But when I speak of "clothing" our belief in such images I do not mean anything like using nature for similes or metaphors in the manner of the poets. Indeed I might have said "filling" or "incarnating" rather than clothing. Many people--I am one myself--would never, but for what nature does to us, have had any content to put into the words we must use in confessing our faith. Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the "fear" of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the "love" of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed.This is the passage which has in a way changed my life. And to which I keep returning again and again. Because I think Lewis hit something right on the head here. And I think it's bigger even than nature. I've tried putting this into academic writing but it has never turned out. But the idea I want to get at is that Nature is not the only one who can do this kind of thing. Fiction can be just as if not more effective a teacher, and functions as a pseudo-experience of nature.
What do I mean by that? I mean that just how Nature never taught Lewis that God was glorious, so Nature never taught me. We both had to learn these elsewhere. But just as Nature gave the word "glory" meaning for Lewis, so Athena has given the word "glory" meaning for me. And she's not the only one, of course. I have encountered many incarnations of Glory, and of Wisdom - countless, even, all of which help combine into my own understanding of what the word means. When I apply the word "wise" to God, I mean something by it - and what it means to be is shaped by my understanding of Wisdom. Which in turn has been shaped by my experiences, including of Athena. Do you see?
Perhaps Love is a better example. My understanding of Love is shaped by SO MANY different things in my life. From the love I myself receive and experience and give, to the love I see in others, to the love I read about in stories. And all of this feeds into my understanding of what "Love" means. So that when God says "I love you", I know what love means - what it looks like, feels like, smells like, tastes like, etc. (I don't mean that just in a physical sense. I mean it in the way you recognize something by smell or by taste, because you've smelled or tasted it before. So with things like Love).
Of course it's possible for these understandings to get messed up - for instance, if I allowed Zeus or Aphrodite to shape my view of love, I would have a skewed understanding of it. There is a measure to which I can give my assent - or withhold it - from the stories which might shape my understanding. But it is stories which shape our ideas. So we need to be careful of what it is we accept.
When I say I love Athena, it is because she helps incarnate to me certain aspects which she has in common with both myself and with God. She is not the be all and end all of these things. God is. She is not an Incarnation of God Himself - Jesus is. But she is a reflection that is tangible to me. In the same way, Aslan is more tangible to me. And Saint Joan of Arc is more tangible to me.
In his play Saint Joan Bernard Shaw has this line, "Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?" - and while I do not agree with him about everything this entails (one may be saved without relying on imagination. It is not, as Shaw seems to think, the strength of one's faith that saves them, but the strength of their Savior, the one whom that faith is in.) But there is weight to this idea. That one of the reasons God wishes his children to emulate Christ, to be Christs to each other, is to constantly help Incarnate himself to us in more tangible ways. It is why we the Church are called the Body of Christ.
I could go on and on about this. But the idea I want to share is that in a similar way, fictional characters - like Athena, like Aslan, like Samwise Gamgee, like Wonder Woman, etc. - can play a part in "incarnating" certain things to us, like Wisdom or Compassion or Bravery or Sacrifice - in a way that we might not ever encounter elsewhere. And of course we don't worship these incarnations. They are human and incomplete. But we can love them, and love the one whom they reflect and teach us of.
All truth is God's truth, all goodness God's goodness, all beauty God's beauty.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Thank you for reading. I am sure I will continue more of this soon.
R
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
The Sons of Hera, or On The Jock and The Nerd
Accounting for Zeus' many, many, MANY illegitimate children is going to be what most of this entire series is spent talking about. So let's start with his two actually legitimate kids, shall we?
By legitimate I of course mean Zeus' children by his wife, Hera: Ares and Hephaestus (Hephaistos? I'm gonna go with the more recognizable, Hephaestus). It may be that Zeus and Hera had other children together. But these are the two who are part of the circle of 12 Olympians (even tho we both know there are 13/14 of them).
Ares and Hephaestus aren't actual opposites. But they're close. Hephaestus is a god of creativity and order, while Ares is a god of chaos and destruction. You'd think that a great warrior would want to be good to the person who makes all of the armor and weapons, right? And not sleep with his wife? But then this is Ares we're talking about. He's not the sharpest knife in the kitchen.
I don't actually have many stories about Ares. He kind of just does his own thing. And his thing is carnage. And the funny thing is? Ares isn't even the actual best at it. Sure he might be the best fighter, might be the best in a battle (even this is debatable), but he's not the best at WAR. He is too chaotic, too bloodthirsty, too hot headed. Ares rushes in. And it's gotten him into trouble before. One story in particular I remember, two mighty giants called Otus and Ephialtes came to challenge the gods and attacked Olympus. Ares, confident in his own ability, went out to fight them. But his headlong rush didn't end well, as Otus and his brother were ready for Ares. They captured him, and shoved him inside a bronze urn, where he stayed trapped for an entire year! More on this story later, when we get to the goddess who got him out...
As for Hephaestus, the first thing to know about Hephaestus is that he’s a stand up guy, and a good son. And he’s got a severely crippled leg because of this. I don’t remember the exact context, but once when Zeus was being his usual jerk self toward his wife, Hephaestus’ mother, Hera (He was probably trying to rape her because of course he was). Hephaestus wasn’t having it, and tried to get between them. Zeus, in his rage, threw his son out of Olympus. And I don’t mean he told him to leave. I mean he picked the boy up and tossed him off a cliff. Hephaestus fell down and down, he fell for an entire day, all the way down until he landed with a crash on earth, on the isle of Lemnos in the northern Aegean. There he was cared for and made his way back, but because of the fall has always been crippled on his left side. (Some people say he’s been crippled since birth). But Hephaestus is nothing if nor resourceful. He built himself a couple of Automatons of gold and silver to help. They are his mobility robots. I told you there would be robots, didn’t I? Gotta love them robots.
Hephaestus isn’t as reclusive as Hades, but he does tend to hide away in his forge, where he works with the Cyclopes (yes that is the proper plural, I checked this time) to make amazing weapons and defenses for the gods, and occasionally for mortals too. He’s a guy you definitely want on your side. He’s also… not the best to look at. Which is probably why he and the “monstrous” children of Gaia work together so well. Hephaestus doesn’t judge. He’s a good dude.
Possibly out of pity for all this (his being ugly, and also the whole thrown out of heaven bit), Hephaestus was given in marriage to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty. Which sounds like a wonderful person to be wed to, like a ‘trophy wife’, except that Aphrodite wasn’t thrilled about the match herself, and she’s got loads of options, including several who are “more of a man” than her husband (boo). Which is how it came to pass that Aphrodite (Hephaestus’ wife) and Ares (Hephaestus’ brother) were definitely having an affair. And they were getting it on in Hephaestus’ bed, too. Which turned out to be a really stupid idea.
Hephaestus knew that this was going on. It was a bit of an open secret, because you see the Sun, Helios, sees ALL. And gossip spreads fast. Also this wasn't a short affair. Ares and Aphrodite actually produced SEVERAL children, who we'll discuss when we get to Aphrodite. Hephaestus suffered this shame in relative silence for a long time, until he finally got fed up and found revenge in the most Hephaestus way he could. He built something! Specifically, he made a net. A net of chains in which to catch his wife red handed. Or red something anyway. A net made of such fine yet unbreakable strands that it could not even be seen, but could not be escaped. He made this net and suspended it above his bed - the bed he knew his wife would take Ares to while he was away at work. So when those two came back, and were in the throes of passion, as it were, in the middle of their intercourse, Hephaestus’ net came down, catching them both in their rather compromising position. Hephaestus then dragged the lovers in their naked shame in front of all Olympus to see. After this, some say that Hephaestus divorced Aphrodite, but who really knows?
These days Hephaestus mainly keeps to himself. There aren't a load of stories of him interacting with mortals besides the times when he gives them gifts of armor or weapons (he makes a magnificent shield that basically an entire book of the Iliad is spent describing). There aren't even that many stories of his interactions with other gods, unless they want him to make things. He keeps to his foundry and workshop - which are inside of a volcano, btw - with his friends (and uncles?) the Cyclopes.
Another really interesting aspect of Hephaestus and Ares is their relationship with their eldest sister - Athena. Ares and Athena are both gods of War. And Hephaestus and Athena are both gods of craft. She is the best of them combined and more.
Some even go so far as to say that Athena is Hephaestus' soulmate. She's not his wife, nor would she be, since she's a sacred virgin. So some people paint them as like, Hephaestus being in love with Athena and she not returning his advances. But I’ve always thought of them as very good friends. Because that’s definitely something that a soul mate can be (that wasn't sarcasm, I mean that genuinely). There’s a story worth writing! Best Buds Hephaestus and Athena! I need a buddy cop drama. Stat.
As for Athena and Ares, they are almost always opposed. If Ares picks a side in a battle, Athena will likely pick the other, and vice versa. They are Athens and Sparta, Greece and Troy. My next post is going to be all about Athena, so I'll get more into this. But it's always interested and baffled me that the Greeks have two such different ideas of War. Ares is the strength of the best soldier. He is the ideal Infantryman. The ideal Hoplite. He is fearless, tireless, crushing. He is at home on the battlefield, and gives his all. But he is at home almost nowhere else. His children include Phobos (Fear), and Deimos (Terror), and his partners in crime are the sisters Nemesis (Retribution) and Eris (Strife/Discord), daughters of Nyx (Night/Darkness).
So that's it for Ares and Hephaestus. I'm sure they will come up again later, but this hopefully gives you an idea as to their origin and personality.
Ares and Hephaestus are certainly some of the archetypes who have lived on. I mentioned a few posts ago about the worship of Ares and Aphrodite in modern day. And I definitely hold to this. America in particular - especially the culture of the south, but just in general - seems particularly devoted to the worship of Ares. At first, this might just seem to be me slamming America's obsession with guns and it's over funded military. And quite frankly it is. But it's more than that. I mentioned the modern worship of Ares to a friend the other day and his knowing response was "Oh yeah, Crossfit!" And it opened my eyes to even more ways in which Ares' worship continues on. Ares and Aphrodite are both ideals of the perfected Body. Aphrodite for love, and Ares for war. Ares is and has become the ideal of "the good man with a gun". He is heroism through military strength or training. He is "come and take it". But he can also be seen in the idolization of sports - especially violent ones like American football.
Now don't get me wrong. I am NOT saying that these things are bad. I am saying that they are of Ares. And that when they - like all things! - can become idols. The fact that Ares is and was and will be a god worshiped by humans tells us something about human nature. It's not something we're going to escape. But it's something we can be watchful of.
And this isn't just Anti-Ares either! I can do the same thing for Hephaestus. We idolize tech just as much as muscles. Look at Apple, or Google for instance. Silicon Valley is Hephaestus' newest forge. Everyone works hard to keep up to date with the newest, coolest technology, and some fine identity and status there. The "Nerd" is just as much of an archetype as the "Jock". And even if they are honored by different groups - different cults as it were - they each have their followers.
I honestly don't think there is much harm in knowing and identifying with the gods like this. I'm not trying to shame anyone who would identify with any of this - you'll see in my next post that I am a bit of a modern devotee of Athena myself - but it's certainly something to keep an eye on.
One of the reasons I love the gods so much is how much I learn about God through them. You've probably heard the idea that human beings have a "god shaped hole in their hearts" or some such. Well, the gods are mankind's attempts to fill that hole as blatantly as possible. They are the incarnation of humanity's desires and fears. And we can learn from them not only in how they resemble or shadow the real God, but also in how they differ from him. Our God is a mighty warrior, and a master creator - he can beat both Ares and Hephaestus at their own game. And in a world rightly ordered, they are shadows of him. In a world wrongly ordered, they are thieves of his glory. As are we all.
I hope you enjoyed these stories of Hera's sons. Next time, as I've said, it's time to discuss the love of my life, Athena. And I even have pictures for that one!
Thank you for reading
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
R
P.S. I'm still looking for a title for this series!
Hephaestus knew that this was going on. It was a bit of an open secret, because you see the Sun, Helios, sees ALL. And gossip spreads fast. Also this wasn't a short affair. Ares and Aphrodite actually produced SEVERAL children, who we'll discuss when we get to Aphrodite. Hephaestus suffered this shame in relative silence for a long time, until he finally got fed up and found revenge in the most Hephaestus way he could. He built something! Specifically, he made a net. A net of chains in which to catch his wife red handed. Or red something anyway. A net made of such fine yet unbreakable strands that it could not even be seen, but could not be escaped. He made this net and suspended it above his bed - the bed he knew his wife would take Ares to while he was away at work. So when those two came back, and were in the throes of passion, as it were, in the middle of their intercourse, Hephaestus’ net came down, catching them both in their rather compromising position. Hephaestus then dragged the lovers in their naked shame in front of all Olympus to see. After this, some say that Hephaestus divorced Aphrodite, but who really knows?
These days Hephaestus mainly keeps to himself. There aren't a load of stories of him interacting with mortals besides the times when he gives them gifts of armor or weapons (he makes a magnificent shield that basically an entire book of the Iliad is spent describing). There aren't even that many stories of his interactions with other gods, unless they want him to make things. He keeps to his foundry and workshop - which are inside of a volcano, btw - with his friends (and uncles?) the Cyclopes.
Another really interesting aspect of Hephaestus and Ares is their relationship with their eldest sister - Athena. Ares and Athena are both gods of War. And Hephaestus and Athena are both gods of craft. She is the best of them combined and more.
Some even go so far as to say that Athena is Hephaestus' soulmate. She's not his wife, nor would she be, since she's a sacred virgin. So some people paint them as like, Hephaestus being in love with Athena and she not returning his advances. But I’ve always thought of them as very good friends. Because that’s definitely something that a soul mate can be (that wasn't sarcasm, I mean that genuinely). There’s a story worth writing! Best Buds Hephaestus and Athena! I need a buddy cop drama. Stat.
As for Athena and Ares, they are almost always opposed. If Ares picks a side in a battle, Athena will likely pick the other, and vice versa. They are Athens and Sparta, Greece and Troy. My next post is going to be all about Athena, so I'll get more into this. But it's always interested and baffled me that the Greeks have two such different ideas of War. Ares is the strength of the best soldier. He is the ideal Infantryman. The ideal Hoplite. He is fearless, tireless, crushing. He is at home on the battlefield, and gives his all. But he is at home almost nowhere else. His children include Phobos (Fear), and Deimos (Terror), and his partners in crime are the sisters Nemesis (Retribution) and Eris (Strife/Discord), daughters of Nyx (Night/Darkness).
So that's it for Ares and Hephaestus. I'm sure they will come up again later, but this hopefully gives you an idea as to their origin and personality.
Ares and Hephaestus are certainly some of the archetypes who have lived on. I mentioned a few posts ago about the worship of Ares and Aphrodite in modern day. And I definitely hold to this. America in particular - especially the culture of the south, but just in general - seems particularly devoted to the worship of Ares. At first, this might just seem to be me slamming America's obsession with guns and it's over funded military. And quite frankly it is. But it's more than that. I mentioned the modern worship of Ares to a friend the other day and his knowing response was "Oh yeah, Crossfit!" And it opened my eyes to even more ways in which Ares' worship continues on. Ares and Aphrodite are both ideals of the perfected Body. Aphrodite for love, and Ares for war. Ares is and has become the ideal of "the good man with a gun". He is heroism through military strength or training. He is "come and take it". But he can also be seen in the idolization of sports - especially violent ones like American football.
Now don't get me wrong. I am NOT saying that these things are bad. I am saying that they are of Ares. And that when they - like all things! - can become idols. The fact that Ares is and was and will be a god worshiped by humans tells us something about human nature. It's not something we're going to escape. But it's something we can be watchful of.
And this isn't just Anti-Ares either! I can do the same thing for Hephaestus. We idolize tech just as much as muscles. Look at Apple, or Google for instance. Silicon Valley is Hephaestus' newest forge. Everyone works hard to keep up to date with the newest, coolest technology, and some fine identity and status there. The "Nerd" is just as much of an archetype as the "Jock". And even if they are honored by different groups - different cults as it were - they each have their followers.
I honestly don't think there is much harm in knowing and identifying with the gods like this. I'm not trying to shame anyone who would identify with any of this - you'll see in my next post that I am a bit of a modern devotee of Athena myself - but it's certainly something to keep an eye on.
One of the reasons I love the gods so much is how much I learn about God through them. You've probably heard the idea that human beings have a "god shaped hole in their hearts" or some such. Well, the gods are mankind's attempts to fill that hole as blatantly as possible. They are the incarnation of humanity's desires and fears. And we can learn from them not only in how they resemble or shadow the real God, but also in how they differ from him. Our God is a mighty warrior, and a master creator - he can beat both Ares and Hephaestus at their own game. And in a world rightly ordered, they are shadows of him. In a world wrongly ordered, they are thieves of his glory. As are we all.
I hope you enjoyed these stories of Hera's sons. Next time, as I've said, it's time to discuss the love of my life, Athena. And I even have pictures for that one!
Thank you for reading
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
R
P.S. I'm still looking for a title for this series!
Monday, September 23, 2019
Dramatis Personae
Last Time On… whatever we’re calling this.
Gaia (Earth) married Ouranos (Heaven), Ouranos mistreated Gaia, Gaia’s youngest son Kronos came and castrated his father, making himself King. Kronos married Rhea, Kronos mistreated Rhea by eating all her kids, and Rhea’s youngest son Zeus came back and made his father vomit, then beat him in a war, making himself King. (And Zeus still didn’t do right by Gaia because poor Gaia is the best but has never been treated right in her entire life).
Now it's time to discuss the Pantheon. Which literally means “all-gods” but really is used to refer to like… 12 of them. Wait, 13. Okay 14. Fourteen of them. Another term we could use is the Olympians, but this is also problematic because not all of them live in Olympus (which is either a mountain or a city in the clouds or both). It’s a whole long story. And it's gonna take WAY more than one post to talk about them all.
First, though, this post is just a quick Dramatis Personae. An introduction to "my" version of the gods, if you will. If you're new to Greek Myth, you can use this as a reference post.
I’ve put Greek names in bold and the Roman in italics. For the most part, I’m only going to be including Roman names elsewhere if it’s a name you’re more likely to have heard than the Greek names. Like the planets, etc.
Up in Olympus we’ve got:
Zeus = Sky
Hera = Marriage
Poseidon = Sea
Demeter = Harvest
Hestia = Hearth
Hades = Underworld
Ares = War
Hephaestus = Forge
Athena = Wisdom
Artemis = Hunt
Apollo = Music
Hermes = Travelers
Dionysus = Wine
Aphrodite = Beauty
This is the basic language of Greek Mythology.
Originally, I had a HUGE GIGANTIC post talking about all 14 of these suckers, but I think it might be better to space this out. I've got time right? Yeah. I've got time.
The next few posts I'm going to make will deal with the Olympians who are NOT Children of Kronos, either on their own or in pairs, (Ares and Hephaestus, Athena, Artemis and Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, and Aphrodite). Some will be longer than others, and none will come close to telling all of their stories!
For now, I'm going to be focusing on stories which mostly involve the gods, and not their interactions with mortals. But a few stories with mortals will sneak in here and there if they are the type which are especially good at establishing the god's character.
I hope you enjoy the posts which are to come! If you have any questions, want to hear a specific story, or have a suggestion for a title for this mess, please let me know!
Thanks for reading.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
R
Gaia (Earth) married Ouranos (Heaven), Ouranos mistreated Gaia, Gaia’s youngest son Kronos came and castrated his father, making himself King. Kronos married Rhea, Kronos mistreated Rhea by eating all her kids, and Rhea’s youngest son Zeus came back and made his father vomit, then beat him in a war, making himself King. (And Zeus still didn’t do right by Gaia because poor Gaia is the best but has never been treated right in her entire life).
Now it's time to discuss the Pantheon. Which literally means “all-gods” but really is used to refer to like… 12 of them. Wait, 13. Okay 14. Fourteen of them. Another term we could use is the Olympians, but this is also problematic because not all of them live in Olympus (which is either a mountain or a city in the clouds or both). It’s a whole long story. And it's gonna take WAY more than one post to talk about them all.
First, though, this post is just a quick Dramatis Personae. An introduction to "my" version of the gods, if you will. If you're new to Greek Myth, you can use this as a reference post.
I’ve put Greek names in bold and the Roman in italics. For the most part, I’m only going to be including Roman names elsewhere if it’s a name you’re more likely to have heard than the Greek names. Like the planets, etc.
Up in Olympus we’ve got:
- Zeus (Jupiter). King of Gods and of the Sky. Lightning bringer. An absolute, utter dick. Do not applaud this man. Serial Rapist. Cannot keep it in his pants even if the world depends on it. His symbol is lightning. Boo this man!
- Hera (Juno). Wife of Zeus and Goddess of Marriage and Women. Oft villainized and always longsuffering, she has a justified temper. Her symbol is the peacock.
- Poseidon (Neptune). God and King of the Sea. Also Horses, because reasons. His symbol is the trident. Pretty much just Aquaman.
- Demeter (Ceres). Goddess of Harvest. Due a LOT more credit than she gets. Her symbol is grain. Or cereal, I guess.
- Hestia (Vesta). Goddess of the Hearth and Hospitality. And Self-Care, probably. Stepped down from the “12” when Dionysus showed up. Perfect Cinnamon Roll, Too Good For This World, Too Pure. Her symbol is a torch, or fire contained in a bowl. Sacred Virgin.
- Hades (Pluto). God and King of the Underworld. The Hot One, Probably. Not technically an Olympian because he doesn’t live there, but still in the Greek Pantheon. The only married God besides Hera who knows what Fidelity means. His symbol is a bident (like a trident but with just two prongs), or a dark helmet, or a three headed dog.
- Ares (Mars). Son of Zeus and Hera. God of War. Also Dogs. An absolute animal. Nasty, rowdy boy. Bad Man. His symbol is drawn swords/spears or maned helm.
- Hephaestus (Vulcan). Son of Zeus and Hera. God of Fire, Craftsmanship, the Forge, etc. Also Disabled people. And Robots (no joke). A Good Boy, but not a Handsome Lad. His symbol is the hammer and anvil.
- Athena (Minerva). Daughter of Zeus and Metis (not Hera). Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. Also crafting skills, etc. The actual Best. What a Legend. Patron of my heart. Perfect. Magnanimous. Amazing. Her symbol is the Owl. Sacred Virgin.
- Artemis (Diana). Daughter of Zeus and Leto (not Hera). Elder twin of Apollo. Goddess of the Hunt, of Virginity, of the Moon, and of Lesbians (le’s be honest).The Orginal Gay Icon. Her symbol is the Moon, often in crescent, her silver bow, or a deer. Sacred Virgin.
- Apollo (Apollo). Son of Zeus and Leto (not Hera). Younger twin of Artemis. God of Music, Medicine, Prophesy, the Sun, and basically every other Miscellaneous thing he could get his hands on. Takes after his father but is slightly less of a dick (slightly). His symbol is the Sun, the Lyre, and also snakes, specifically Pythons. Bisexual disaster.
- Hermes (Mercury). Son of Zeus and Maia (not Hera). God of Travellers, Trade, Trickery, things that start with T (just kidding). Messenger of the Gods. A busy man. A Good boy. His symbol is his winged feet and hat, and also the Caduceus
- Dionysus (Bacchus). Son of Zeus and Semele (DEFINITELY not Hera). God of Wine and of Madness, Ecstacy, and fun times. Also Dolphins. Because why not? A late addition to the “12”. Good at Parties. Basically the God of Orgies. A good boy, and a pretty boy too. His symbol is wine, and grapes
- Aphrodite (Venus). Daughter of… it’s a long story. Ouranos. Kind of. You’ll see. Goddess of Love and Beauty and Sexy Times. Less of a bitch than she’s made out to be. Probably… But maybe not. Her symbol is flowers, or sea foam, or sea shells, or doves.
These are the children of Kronos, minus
Joining the rest in Olympus are some the children of Zeus:
Zeus = Sky
Hera = Marriage
Poseidon = Sea
Demeter = Harvest
Hestia = Hearth
Hades = Underworld
Ares = War
Hephaestus = Forge
Athena = Wisdom
Artemis = Hunt
Apollo = Music
Hermes = Travelers
Dionysus = Wine
Aphrodite = Beauty
This is the basic language of Greek Mythology.
Originally, I had a HUGE GIGANTIC post talking about all 14 of these suckers, but I think it might be better to space this out. I've got time right? Yeah. I've got time.
The next few posts I'm going to make will deal with the Olympians who are NOT Children of Kronos, either on their own or in pairs, (Ares and Hephaestus, Athena, Artemis and Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, and Aphrodite). Some will be longer than others, and none will come close to telling all of their stories!
For now, I'm going to be focusing on stories which mostly involve the gods, and not their interactions with mortals. But a few stories with mortals will sneak in here and there if they are the type which are especially good at establishing the god's character.
I hope you enjoy the posts which are to come! If you have any questions, want to hear a specific story, or have a suggestion for a title for this mess, please let me know!
Thanks for reading.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
R
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Way Down in Hadestown
We interrupt your regularly scheduled mythology posting to bring you this important announcement!
Hadestown is the actual best.
But you already knew that. Or at least I hope you did. You certainly knew that I think so, if you've been reading these posts.
The reason I want to write specifically about Hadestown today though is because it KEEPS. BEING. APPLICABLE. To every lesson I hear. Every church service/meeting/group I've been to over the past two weeks (if you're counting that's like... six things) I have been hearing a messaged shared and thought "oh! Like in Hadestown!"
I know that sounds cheesy, but I mean it! Hearing this taught six times is great, but knowing it - FEELING IT - from a musical? From a story? From a myth? That sends a message home.
There are several messages from Hadestown. The one that I mean the most is the lesson learned from Hades' relationship with Persephone, and the way he reacts to her. And the lesson I keep hearing over and over which allies to this is about trusting in the love of God, and resting therein.
Let me explain. In Hadestown, Hades and Persephone have been married for years and decades and centuries, and recently that relationship has been on the rocks. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, Hades' paranoia, and secondly Persephone's avoidance. As my therapist once told me, we often have one of three responses to Shame and Fear: to fight, to flee, or to appease. In this case Persephone flees and Hades fights.
For the seasons to function normally, Hades and Persephone have an agreement. For six months, Persephone will live with Hades, and for the other six, she will live on Earth under the sun. And Hades must trust that in six months time she will return. In Hadestown Hades has lost this trust. Not because Persephone has ever proven unfaithful or failed to return, but because Hades - in my interpretation - is insecure. He's insecure that she really loves him, him, because how could she? He's Hades, it's the Underworld. And she belongs in the sun.
And so Hades fights this feeling of shame by trying to make sure that Persephone stays with him as much as possible - he tries to keep her in Hadestown longer than he ought, and comes to bring her back himself, and does so early. It causes chaos on earth, and only further damages the couple's relationship. On top of this, Hades fills the absence of Persephone in his life with Industry - something which makes him more rich and powerful, but makes his wife like the Underworld even less.
Hades is a hoarder. He builds a wall to keep out Poverty, and tries to keep everything he owns - including Persephone - under lock and key, because he cannot trust that if he loosens his grip it will not all abandon him. And what's worse? He really does thing that what he's doing, he's doing out of love. He has an entire song about it! Two songs! More! But it's not love. It's not trust. It's covetousness. It's Fear.
And what has this to do with God? I think a lot of us want to act the same way. We don't know why God would love us - us? - and no matter what we say, we don't REALLY trust that he's going to keep coming back time and time again. So we try to put as many "bonds" on him as we possibly can, to put him in a little box that we can take hold of, and we fill every void (which he wishes to fill but we don't trust him with) with Industry - which may be good or bad, but certainly isn't why he's here. We are misers, and are covetous and greedy and untrusting, just like Hades.
If you're familiar with any of the modern retellings of Hades and Persephone, you know that they Love each other in a way truly rare for Greek myth. Not like Zeus and Hera, not like Aphrodite and Hephaestus, not like Ariadne and Theseus, not like anyone else (except, perhaps, Orpheus and Eurydice. And maybe Cupid and Psyche, depending on the telling). And the whole point of Hadestown is that Hades is the only one who can't see it.
That's not to lay all the blame on Hades, though. Persephone also willingly harms the situation by drawing herself further and further away, drowning her sorrows and trying her best not to engage with Hades more than she needs to - because of his suffocating "affection". Sometimes we do this too when we are unwilling to participate in what Love has for us.
It's late, and I'm rambling. But I wanted to get some of this down on paper.
I've actually already written up the next Greek Myth post - it's all about the Pantheon and it's REALLY LONG. But I'm going to post this one now, because it's all I've been thinking about of late. I have a lot more thoughts here I can't get on paper. I will probably post about this again.
Thanks for reading. Please come back soon for more Story Time! You will hear of the 7 most important children of Zeus!
Thanks again
R
Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Hadestown is the actual best.
But you already knew that. Or at least I hope you did. You certainly knew that I think so, if you've been reading these posts.
The reason I want to write specifically about Hadestown today though is because it KEEPS. BEING. APPLICABLE. To every lesson I hear. Every church service/meeting/group I've been to over the past two weeks (if you're counting that's like... six things) I have been hearing a messaged shared and thought "oh! Like in Hadestown!"
I know that sounds cheesy, but I mean it! Hearing this taught six times is great, but knowing it - FEELING IT - from a musical? From a story? From a myth? That sends a message home.
There are several messages from Hadestown. The one that I mean the most is the lesson learned from Hades' relationship with Persephone, and the way he reacts to her. And the lesson I keep hearing over and over which allies to this is about trusting in the love of God, and resting therein.
Let me explain. In Hadestown, Hades and Persephone have been married for years and decades and centuries, and recently that relationship has been on the rocks. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, Hades' paranoia, and secondly Persephone's avoidance. As my therapist once told me, we often have one of three responses to Shame and Fear: to fight, to flee, or to appease. In this case Persephone flees and Hades fights.
For the seasons to function normally, Hades and Persephone have an agreement. For six months, Persephone will live with Hades, and for the other six, she will live on Earth under the sun. And Hades must trust that in six months time she will return. In Hadestown Hades has lost this trust. Not because Persephone has ever proven unfaithful or failed to return, but because Hades - in my interpretation - is insecure. He's insecure that she really loves him, him, because how could she? He's Hades, it's the Underworld. And she belongs in the sun.
And so Hades fights this feeling of shame by trying to make sure that Persephone stays with him as much as possible - he tries to keep her in Hadestown longer than he ought, and comes to bring her back himself, and does so early. It causes chaos on earth, and only further damages the couple's relationship. On top of this, Hades fills the absence of Persephone in his life with Industry - something which makes him more rich and powerful, but makes his wife like the Underworld even less.
Hades is a hoarder. He builds a wall to keep out Poverty, and tries to keep everything he owns - including Persephone - under lock and key, because he cannot trust that if he loosens his grip it will not all abandon him. And what's worse? He really does thing that what he's doing, he's doing out of love. He has an entire song about it! Two songs! More! But it's not love. It's not trust. It's covetousness. It's Fear.
And what has this to do with God? I think a lot of us want to act the same way. We don't know why God would love us - us? - and no matter what we say, we don't REALLY trust that he's going to keep coming back time and time again. So we try to put as many "bonds" on him as we possibly can, to put him in a little box that we can take hold of, and we fill every void (which he wishes to fill but we don't trust him with) with Industry - which may be good or bad, but certainly isn't why he's here. We are misers, and are covetous and greedy and untrusting, just like Hades.
If you're familiar with any of the modern retellings of Hades and Persephone, you know that they Love each other in a way truly rare for Greek myth. Not like Zeus and Hera, not like Aphrodite and Hephaestus, not like Ariadne and Theseus, not like anyone else (except, perhaps, Orpheus and Eurydice. And maybe Cupid and Psyche, depending on the telling). And the whole point of Hadestown is that Hades is the only one who can't see it.
That's not to lay all the blame on Hades, though. Persephone also willingly harms the situation by drawing herself further and further away, drowning her sorrows and trying her best not to engage with Hades more than she needs to - because of his suffocating "affection". Sometimes we do this too when we are unwilling to participate in what Love has for us.
It's late, and I'm rambling. But I wanted to get some of this down on paper.
I've actually already written up the next Greek Myth post - it's all about the Pantheon and it's REALLY LONG. But I'm going to post this one now, because it's all I've been thinking about of late. I have a lot more thoughts here I can't get on paper. I will probably post about this again.
Thanks for reading. Please come back soon for more Story Time! You will hear of the 7 most important children of Zeus!
Thanks again
R
Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Ἐν ἀρχη ἡν ἡ Γη και ὁ Οὐρανος
So it turns out that having a job where a large part of your responsibility is maintaining a quiet working space gives you a lot of time to think and to write. Thank you so much to everyone who read and responded to my last post about mythology. And a special thank you to everyone who asked for more! I hope you know what you’re getting into. I think I do want to start telling these stories. Even if they’ve been told before. And even if I could tell them better. The key is to start.
Because I cannot begin any project without a few caveats, let’s start with those. One: I can promise you right now that these stories are NOT “e for everyone” or “g for general audience”. Mythology is PG-13 at BEST and XXX at worst. There’s gonna be rape, incest, beastiality, violence, language, sex, all of it. Personally, I do believe that myths should be tales we tell to children - that’s where I learned them! - but I also believe in talking to kids like they are adults. And that it’s up to parents how and when you cover these sorts of subjects (but you definitely should!) I'm trying my best to make this the LEAST rape-filled version I can, because I want to believe in love. Just… know that literally anyone Zeus sleeps with including his wife may or may not be a willing participant in the encounter. Zeus is a serial rapist. Those he didn’t rape he seduced. And it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. So it's not a great start. Just bear in mind the general 18+ rating of some of this stuff. Also sorry in advance for any vulgar language on my part. Two: What I’m publishing here is going to be a REAL rough cut. Because if I try spending time polishing it, I will never publish it. So it’s gonna be a bit stream of conscious like the rest of my stuff. If I ever edit it, it might become a podcast or something, who knows. Three: This is going to be 90% from memory! I may be looking up a few details, but I’m really trying to make this my own telling. So I’m not going to be citing sources or any of that. Maybe I totally made some of this stuff up! Who knows? The only thing I will be looking up is some of the name meanings, esp for the Titans. Because my greek is not that good. (Oh and four: I may get a bit buckwild with the spelling of names. Specifically, all c's should be k's. But sometimes I forget to change them. Bear with. A lot of the names we know have been first 'latinized' and then Anglicized.)
Remember that you asked for this, and know that it’s going to be a buck wild ride.
There are a few places I could start. Because of my work in The Liberal Aren’ts, I actually have an entire speech about My Philosophy of Mythology, which I think is actually really interesting and good. But it might be better to just try and mix that in as we go. And I don’t want any more ado. So. Are you ready for a story? It’s a tale of long, long ago in Hellas (Greece). Or, perhaps, in the whole world. Maybe Hellas is the whole world. Who knows.
We’ll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). In the beginning was Gaia, or as she was otherwise known, Mother Earth. Where Gaia came from, no one knows. Perhaps she has always been here. But she found that she was not alone. Far above her, yet close enough to touch, ever constant and ever changing, shining beautifully was Ouranos (Also known as Uranus), or Heaven. We could call him Father Sky. Father Heaven? Whatever. Ouranos and Gaia fell in love, and by Heaven the Earth bore many mighty children. They had six daughter and six sons, and as no one else was around, these twelve children each mostly wed one another. (We’re starting the incest early. It will continue, I warn you now). Gaia's children were the Titans. And each of these Titans bore mighty children of their own, whom we know as the Gods.
Of the Titans there was deep dwelling Oceanus and Tethys - whose children are the many oceans and rivers of the world. There was astral Coeus and Pheobe - whose children are Asteria and Leto (she’ll come back later). There was celestial Hyperion and Theia, whose three children, Helios (sun), Selene (moon), and Eos (dawn) traverse the sky every day and give light to those below. There was Iaptus, who married one of Oceanus’ daughters and sired Atlas, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, among others (we’ll get to these rowdy boys soon). And most importantly, there was Kronos and Rhea.
There were also a few Titans who wed others. For Gaia took another lover, as primordial and eternal as herself and the sky (or quite possibly her own son. Mythology is weird like that), Pontus, the sea. With him she had other children, each sea gods in turn, who in their own turn had children of the sea. One of these was Eurybia, who married the Titan Crius. Their children and grandchildren are an interesting crew with a lot of intermarriage with other Titans and Gods, and includes the four Winds; Boreas (N), Notus (S), Eurus (E), and Zephyrus (W), the goddess of witchcraft, Hekate, and several warlike gods like Kratos (Strength), Nike (Victory), Zelus (Zeal), and Bia (Rage). This mix also includes Styx, possibly the most important River in the Greek world, which flows through Hades, the underworld. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves in all this…
You don't have to remember all of these names, of course. These Titans, as you can see, tend to be more ideas than people. And most of them, while divine, are not part of the Pantheon. You’re probably wondering when we get to the “important” ones.
Well, youngest of the sons of Gaia by Ouranos was Kronos (Sometimes spelled Cronus - Roman name: Saturn), or Time. (Unfortunately this isn’t about to turn into a cool time travel story). Kronos took as his wife Rhea, who would come to be known as the Mother of Gods. This is because her children by Kronos include Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, and last of all Zeus.
Now there are two notable things about Kronos: First, He was a terrible son, and second, he was a terrible father. The first of these is debatable. The second is DEFINITELY not.
This story starts with the THIRD set of Children which Gaia had (the second set by Ouranos). You see, after giving birth to the many Titans by both Ouranos and Pontus, Gaia had a few more kids by Ouranos. But these were… different. They were not tall and noble Stars and Oceans, not astral like their father but earthy like their mother, and, well, “monstrous”. They were the Hekatoncheires, so called because each of them had fifty heads and one hundred arms! And the Cyclops... Cyclopses? Cyclopoi? Whatever. You know the ones: Giants who had only one great eye. Gaia loved all of her children including these, but her husband Ouranos could not stand to look at them. He trapped them - within Gaia more or less. There is a sense in which he prevented them from being born, trapping them in her womb. Which sounds extremely uncomfortable for both them and for Gaia. Definitely a form of torture. Anyway, Gaia needed help, both to save her children and free her from Ouranos’ grasp. And who stepped up? Kronos.
Now Kronos’ job was simple, but gruesome. And it was not to kill Ouranos as you might guess. Instead he was given a giant sickle, and with it he was to castrate his father. I’m not going to speculate on how this was to free Gaia. But that was her plan: Have her husband’s genitals cut off and thrown into the sea. (Remember these. They are a secret tool that will help us later). And Kronos, although he was youngest, was the only one brave enough to attempt the task and rebel against mighty Heaven. He was successful. And apparently, having your dick and balls cut off and thrown into the sea means you can’t be king of the universe anymore. And we are playing by Elder Wand rules I guess, which made his son Kronos king! But unfortunately he wasn’t a very good one. Remember the entire reason Gaia wanted her sons help? To free the Hekatoncheires and Cyclops? Well, Kronos did… And then immediately re-imprisoned them, because he couldn’t stand them either, and he even stationed a dragon to guard them all. This, understandably, made Gaia. Really. Mad.
So let’s review. The man castrated his father and deposed him, and then did the exact opposite of what his mother wanted him to do and imprisoned his ugliest siblings. So bad son, all around.
Kronos was also the world’s actual worst father. He had six children by Rhea, and you know what he did with them, as soon as they were born? He ate them. Whole. Just swallowed the suckers. You see, as it turns out, committing an act of treason and also patri… well it wasn’t patricide. But basically. Doing horrible things to your father, it turns out, can make one VERY scared of having children of their own who might do the same to you. Especially with Gaia still mad at him. Kronos knew that if anyone could depose him in turn, it would be a child of his own. (Why he kept having kids is beyond me. Like. That's preventable, Kronos. Guess he was hungry. Uhg. I’m gonna go vomit now). Speaking of vomiting…
Rhea, the mother of Kronos’ rather edible children, was understandably distraught by all of this. And she made it her life goal to have a kid who didn’t get eaten (doesn't seem like too much to ask). She tried a few tricks in this regard. At one point, when her second son Poseidon was born, she presented her husband instead with a newborn foal, like an actual baby horse, and was like well here’s the kid… turns out he’s a horse. And Kronos was like ‘Huh...yeah guess that checks out as a thing which could be true. Why not? Gonna eat him now.” and he did. But he must have found out later, and heard the cries of a baby not too skilfully hidden, because Poseidon got eaten too not long after. Finally, though, when Zeus was born, Rhea managed to really trick her husband. Instead of a baby, she gave him a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, and told him that it was his son. Kronos - who somehow hadn’t learned to CHECK these things even after the stunt with the horse - swallowed the rock, and Rhea hid Zeus away (and did a better job this time) by sending the child to be raised elsewhere. Specifically, in Crete. There he was raised in a cave by a goat… who apparently did an okay job. And when he was old enough, Zeus came back to FIGHT his father on Rhea’s behalf, just as Kronos had fought Uranus.
Helping him along with this task was Zeus’ first lover, Metis, a Titaness, who gave him some stuff that would make Kronos throw up (one of the oldest ‘medicines’ known to man). Remember Metis, as she’ll be back.
Zeus needed Kronos to throw up because you see, it’s not that easy to kill a god. Those four infants he had swallowed? They weren’t dead. So when Metis and Zeus made Kronos vomit, back came Poseidon, back came Hades, back came Hera, Demeter, and Hestia too. And with the help of his late-born yet older siblings, Zeus then finally freed the Hekatoncheires and Cyclops, who joined them in a rebellion against Kronos and the Titans. The Cyclops and Hekatoncheires, it turned out, were very good with their hands, and made for the gods mighty weapons, including Zeus’ lightning bolts, Poseidon's trident, and Hades’ helm of darkness (invisibility). They waged a war, one generation against another, and the gods, Gaia’s grandchildren, though younger, won.
Zeus, then, having learned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from the errors of his father and grandfather’s ways, imprisoned the Titans (most of them, or at least Kronos anyway) in Tartarus (like the lowest level of Hell). Forever. And he set their former prisoners, the Hekatoncheires, as their prison guards. He did all of this forgetting, of course, that Mother Gaia loves all of her children, no matter how naughty, and doesn’t want any of them locked away. After this, all of Gaia’s children grew increasingly monstrous, like Typhoon, the storm, and increasingly bent on resisting Zeus’ reign. But none ever managed to overthrow him.
There are of course a ton of other stories I could tell about these Titans and their godly spawn. And we’re certainly not done with them. But I think the origins of the world and it’s ruler are enough for now.
One of the most interesting things to me about these myths is the message they give, and how at odds they seem already to the culture which produced them. The gods, it can already be seen, are very very far away from moral Paragons. And they were never assumed to be so. The idea that the gods define what is right and wrong is not largely a part of paganism. Of course the gods aren’t good. But they are gods. Sometimes might makes right. Zeus’ action does not make it morally right for a man to rebel against and overthrow his father. But it doesn’t make Zeus wrong either. The gods have their own morals. It’s also interesting that one of the things this myth did NOT lead to was the primacy of youngest sons. Both Zeus and Kronos were youngest sons, but Grecian culture still honored the Firstborn above all.
The other thing that is really notable about these opening myths is how… I don’t know the word. Universal? Natural? Detailed? What i mean is… Greek Myths cover EVERY aspect of greek life. Rivers? Gods. Stars? Gods. Time? God. Sun? God. Moon? God. Dawn? God. Ocean? Like a million gods. Strength and Victory are gods too - it is as if every important Noun in the Greek language is also a Proper Noun, and has a story. Every concept can be honored, and the Hellenistic people could see gods everywhere, every time they opened their eyes or closed them. We’ll get even more into this if I go into Ovid’s Metamorphoses. But it’s something I love about mythology, Greek and otherwise. Everything has a story. Everything can honor the gods, or offend them. Everything matters, divinely matters, and should be honored as such.
This idea gets really interesting in how it impacted culture. Not only were there little shrines and prayers everywhere and to everything - you may remember the Biblical reference where Paul, in Athens, finds a shrine “to an unknown god” - because there’s such a big possibility of leaving one out, or there being more than you know. But also, when big ideas were talked about, those ideas were gods. It’s why Socrates was put on trial for impiety. It’s also why Plato (well, Plato’s Socrates), in his dialog with Phaedrus, after theorizing much on the evils of love stops, chides himself, and does an about face because he realizes that while he has been talking on the nature of love he has forgotten that Love is a God, and must be honored as such. (Socrates’ views on the gods are super interesting and not ones shared by many Athenians, if his death is anything to go by. Because Socrates wanted to believe that the gods were in fact good. But that’s hard when you’re starting with Zeus).
I hope you have enjoyed this first addition of Story Time. I should probably think of a nice title for this. If I ever do make a podcast or something that’s just me telling these stories, what should I name it? Because Rissa’s Ramblings is all I’ve got right now.
I have a rough outline of some of the stories I wish to tell. This was on the Beginning of things. Next I will likely cover the Pantheon, and some of their related stories. I’ll come to the origin of mankind, and some of the human heroes. The many conquests of Zeus, and his progeny. There’s the Trojan war, the Argonauts, the trials of Herakles, etc. Oedipus and Elektra, and other plays. There’s a whooooole lot. So stick around. And thanks again for reading and asking. ANY questions (or title suggestions) throughout this series of posts will be MOST welcome.
Thanks again. I don't have a specific schedule for posting thought up, but I've already begun work on my next post!
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
R
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
It's an old song. We're gonna sing it anyway.
A long time ago, back when I was a freshman in undergrad, someone asked me what it was that made me feel alive. I actually have a whole other blog about it (this is in fact the third blog I have attempted to run). It's been a question I've been struggling with ever since. At times the answer has been "NOTHING" and at times it's been things that have come and gone. In Oxford, the answer became "video games", and that ended up in a BPhil Thesis largely about Commander Shepard and Lara Croft, so these things can work out well. But there are a few things that I think have had even more staying power than that in my mind.
I wish I could say that one of them was Philosophy - I have two degrees in it after all and hope to one day gain a third, and teach. Or at least I think I do. And yes, there are bits of philosophy - still mostly Plato and Aristotle - which I greatly enjoy (but not, it turns out, enough to make them my BPhil specialization). But no, there's one thing that 'caught' me when I was young and still has me very much in its teeth, as it were, and if you've read any other post on this blog or even the title up there ^^ you might know that it is Mythology.
And can I just say? What a time to be alive, and a lover of mythology! One of the chief beauties of mythology is in it's retelling - they are stories we tell over and over again, and maybe they change a bit each time, that's okay. We tell them anyway. And maybe they're sad, and maybe we don't want to know, and maybe they're flat out bad - we tell them, and retell them, and change them, and embrace them. Mythological stories are weird and wrong and good and awful and they repeat something deep in the hearts of humankind. They are our archtypes and our motifs, and their message is at once essential to them and also changes with every telling.
There is a LOT of mythology which with I am unfamiliar. And I haven't done a terrific job fixing that, over the years. I mostly know Greek and Roman myth, and Norse myth, with a smattering of Sumerian and Celtic myth mixed in, and a vague awareness of other cultures, like those native to the Americas, or those farther east or farther south (eg africa) or myths whose home are islands. There's a whole wide world of myth I don't know. But what I do know, I love.
It's hard to put a finger on why. But I care. A Lot. About the Gods. They're absolutely terrible, and I love them. I love their ancient stories, and I love the modern ones too. I've been listening to Hadestown on repeat for about a week now. I've read and re-read Lore Olympus and Percy Jackson, and as you probably already know, I watched and re-watched Xena: Warrior Princess even tho I didn't really encounter it growing up. I love Assassin's Creed: Odyssey because of its historical and mythic setting. And that's just the greek ones! Norse myth is even more mythic, and has just as many modern adaptions, from Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice to God of War.
I also love seeing how the god have impacted culture in less obvious ways. Like the language we use. For instance, did you know that cereal is named for a god? Ceres (pronounced 'Keres') is the Roman Demeter, goddess of harvest, mother of Persephone, sister of Zeus, and daughter of Rhea. Other words as well. Like jovial, or chronology, or Thursday. And that's just linguistic! Culturally, the gods are archtypes, several of which have survived to modern day. Foremost among these I believe are Aphroditie and Ares - Venus and Mars - Beauty and War. They were idols of the greeks, and are still idols of our time. If you don't think that American culture in particular is devoted to Venus and Mars, then I've got a long spiel for you. (Funnily enough, Ares and Aphrodite are the only two gods who survive to the end of Xena too, which fits the themes and plot of the show, but also feels a bit prophetic). The gods are, or can be, dangerous as well, in this sense. Real danger. They are, in fact, idols. And they are more than just carved images. They are ideas. And they might be more than that.
The long and short of it is, I have a lot of thoughts about the gods. And I have nothing to do with them. I feel like I need a project or some place to put all of this - besides rambling to my friends, who I'm sure are growing tired of it. I have before considered making a podcast or something, although those are a lot harder to do on your own. And I know they already exist elsewhere. There are already podcasts telling all the stories of the gods. But what is mythology without our retelling? I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with this. But I'd like to do something. Any of you wanna hear some stories?
Thank you for reading. Often when I get into all of this, I have friends who have one of two reactions. Either they brush this stuff off like it can't be *that* important to me - but it is. If I could build my life and career on this, I would. I'm still trying to figure out how - or they act like it *shouldn't* be this important to me. Sometimes people even get scarred. All this talk of idols and gods. But I believe that the gods tell us about humanity, and about good and bad, and I believe that those things in turn teach us about God. Some of the most meaningful lessons I have learned of late about life and love and God have come THROUGH these stories - and it is these stories that give these lessons their staying and punching power.
I could say a lot more but I want to finish this up. Thank you again. Let me know if you want to hear some old, old stories.
R
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
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