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We're chatting about our fave Greek myths! Greek myths are foundational to a lot of Western culture, they're what superheroes are based on as well as all sorts of epic stories. Lots of scientific concepts and ideas are based on things from mythology. The stories resonate down through the millennia because they're so relatable and human- rather than being about stodgy perfect beings who live in a magical realm and guide their mortal charges like children, the Greek gods of myth have the same emotional drives, lusts, jealousies, and personal problems of any modern person living today.
Many of us find our own way into the myths. For me it was the astronomy books I loved as a child because I adored the images of the planets, stars, and nebulae. They had names from Greek and Roman myth and there were stories explaining where the names came from. Aspects of Greek myth would pop up all through culture; the naiads, dryads, and fauns in CS Lewis's Narnia books, the plays and music based on the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice… Hercules was always everywhere, and one of my favourite cartoons as a child was Ulysses 31, a French Scifi show based on the Odyssey. Then there are all the classic sword and sandal movie epics like Clash of the Titans! The Greek gods even show up in the musical Xanadu, a childhood fave of mine.
These days people have have many animes, video games like God of War and Assassins Creed, movie and book series like Percy Jackson, the 300 and even Wonder Woman. I'm sure the 90s Kevin Sorbo series Hercules the Legendary journeys and its sister series Xena Warrior Princess were big inspirations for many! Even the Disney cartoon about Hercules. Not to mention all the secondary and tertiary influences like He-man who has more than his share of Hercules in him, even carrying a sword inspired by Greek weapons (though he's also based on Conan, who has Hercules in him too).
It's funny where Greek myth references pop up- a lot of them in the names for technology and technical computer things because the scientists and engineers who created them were a little pretentious and wanted to show their classical learning. One of my faves is the name for the days of the week- In English most of them are the names of Germanic gods- Tuesday = Tir, god of war: Wednesday = Odin, Wodan, Wotan, god of wisdom: Thursday = Thor, god of thunder: Friday = Frigg and or Freyja, one a mother god he other a goddess of fertility. They were named that as a translation of the original Latin names because of course those days were named for Roman Gods: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus… which were of course translations of Greek gods: Aries, Hermes, Zeus, and Aphrodite.
So what are your fave characters from Greek myth, fave Greek myths or fave pop-culture things with Greek mythic influence? How did you come to learn of the Greek myths?
(Every culture has ancient, important, and highly influential myths but we're not talking about those here, just the Greek ones).
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by On the Edge - Borg showtunes!!! You WILL be assimilated, resistance is futile. Fazing, fading mechanical vocals with a suspiciously New Zealand lilt. You've never heard his classic in THIS form.
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Quackcast 699 - Greek Myths!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Aug. 6, 2024
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JohnCelestri at 8:12AM, Aug. 7, 2024
I got interested in mythology when I was a 10/11 year old kid watching the Hercules movies in the late 1950s. As a Catholic church-going boy, I was intrigued by the idea of ancient Gods, so I went to the local library and found a copy of "Bulfinch's Mythology" by Thomas Bulfinch. Written in the 1850s/1860s, it was pretty dense reading for me, but I kept at it, taking it out many times. Reading The Aeneid (in its original Latin) was a major part of my Latin classes in Jesuit high school (1963/67). I also studied Bulfinch's book as part of my Communication Arts classes at Fordham University (again the Jesuits). I still have that copy. ;-)
PaulEberhardt at 3:26AM, Aug. 7, 2024
This legend was passed down to us by Roman poet Ovid, among others, who may or may not have added some colour to it, but... WOW! The Greeks invented roadrunner cartoons! I can well imagine what a retelling under the night sky must have been like, that's why I told it the way I did; please mentally add some gestures, funny faces and sound effects.
PaulEberhardt at 3:22AM, Aug. 7, 2024
There's a less known legend about Phaeton, son of Helios, borrowing daddy's car. Of course, even in antiquity that as much spelt sure disaster as today 😉. The cart had too much horsepower: the horses instantly bolted and Phaeton lost control, zooming every which way across the sky, desperately clinging to the rear bumper. The Plough was heated up to be so bright despite being that far up North, and critters like the Dragon (which still curls glowering around the celestial North pole) or the Scorpion struck at him in their irritation, making the horses even wilder. The Lybian desert apparently wasn't a desert before a particularly low pass. Eventually, Zeus had to shoot him down with lighting serving as an air-to-air missile to stop him. The path left by the sun wagon plummeting to a fiery crash and burn is still visible as the constellation of Eridanus, and the Argonauts later found Phaeton's still smoking sandals on the banks of the Nile (actually the body; taking some licence here).
Ironscarf at 9:45PM, Aug. 6, 2024
@bravo1102 I've just started getting into the cult of Aphrodite on Cyprus and the Romans seem to have been big fans of that when they took over the island. What appeals to me is that the Greek deities have very human characteristics and foibles, which make them so much more relatable and instructional than some unknowable perfect being on his lonely cloud.
bravo1102 at 12:41AM, Aug. 6, 2024
In college I read Herodotus and I liked how the Greeks and Romans saw the deities of other cultures as the same just with different names. Always loved sword and sandal movies going way back. I grew up when any day of the week you could catch one or another on some TV station somewhere.
marcorossi at 12:21AM, Aug. 6, 2024
When I was a kid I had various books titled "Gods and heroes of the X mithology", where X was Greek, Chinese, Native north american, Egyptian, Roman (distinct from Greek), and African (I had many). I think my favourite story in the Greek one (the first I read) was the Minotaur. The whole set of the Minotaur legend (spanning from Daedalus to Talos to Dionysus marring Ariadne) is cool and mysterious.
InkyMoondrop at 12:07AM, Aug. 6, 2024
My favorite is probably the myth of Callisto. I also like the play Medea. And I did use the myth of Prometheus as an inspiration within a work of mine. Also, Zeus might've caused most of the issues, but Hera was an absolute psycho.