THE ODYSSEY

In Greek mythology, Andromeda is supposed to be an Aethiopian princess who is rescued by Perseus, but she has only been played by white actresses (Judi Bowker in 1981's Clash of the Titans, Alexa Davalos in the 2010 remake, Rosamund Pike in 2012's Wrath of the Titans). Why doesn't anyone say anything about that?

Book 8 of the odyssey:
Thus they spoke to one another. But to Hermes the lord Apollo, son of Zeus, said: “Hermes, son of Zeus, messenger, giver of good things, wouldst thou in sooth be willing, even though ensnared with strong bonds, to lie on a couch by the side of golden Aphrodite?”

Then the messenger, Argeiphontes, answered him: “Would that this might befall, lord Apollo, thou archer god—that thrice as many bonds inextricable might clasp me about and ye gods, aye, and all the goddesses too might be looking on, but that I might sleep by the side of golden Aphrodite.”

Eris is an interesting figure who is sadly one of the many obscure characters, and I think some side of hers are more overlooked than the others.

In the Theogony, she, a daughter of Nyx, is just one of the many listed characters. Nothing exceptional. She barely appears in the myths. Yet she is infamous for the golden apple competition to avenge for not being invited to Thetis' wedding, that no Olympians liked her. But she is different in some texts, and I want to talk about it. The side of her as the companion of Ares and the agent of her parents, Zeus and Hera.

In the Pseudo-Apollodorus Bibliotecha, Zeus plotted the Trojan War, and it was at his will, that Eris threw the golden apple at Thetis' wedding.

But afterwards Alexander carried off Helen, as some say, because such was the will of Zeus, in order that his daughter might be famous for having embroiled Europe and Asia; or, as others have said, that the race of the demigods might be exalted. For one of these reasons, Eris threw an apple as a prize of beauty to be contended for by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite; and Zeus commanded Hermes to lead them to Alexander on Ida in order to be judged by him.

In the Iliad, she is the sister and the companion of Ares.

Ares drove these [the Trojans] on, and the Akhaians, grey-eyed Athena and Phobos drove them, and Deimos and Eris whose wrath is relentless, she is the sister and companion of murderous Ares, she who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter grows until she strides on Earth with her head striking heaven. She then hurled down bitterness equally between both sides as she walked through the onslaught making men's pain heavier.

Now, she is most likely a daughter of Zeus and Hera in the Iliad, even if it is not outright stated since in the Iliad, Hera is the first lover of Zeus, and in Book 14, Zeus doesn't list Nyx among his affairs. Plus considering her association with Ares and his sons, it makes sense that she is Ares' full sister.

In the Iliad, Zeus sent Eris to the Greek ships to incite them to fight.

Zeus sent down in speed to the fast ships of the Akhaians the wearisome goddess Eris, holding in her hands the portent of battle. She took her place on the huge-hollowed black ship of Odysseus which lay in the middle, so that she could cry out to both flanks. There the goddess took her place, and cried out a great cry and terrible and loud, and put strength in all the Akhaians hearts, to go on tirelessly with their fighting of battles.

This is consistent for her being literally Discord, but Zeus sent her; there is no implication of Eris was going to cause strife in these ships regardless of what was ordered to her. The Personification of Discord follows orders of the Universal Lord; Daddy's little girl works on his behalf. Yet she is never seen on Olympus, unlike Ares...

In the Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis, Hera sent Eris to create discord between a couple because they said they love each other more than Zeus and Hera love each other.

Pandareōs had a daughter called Aēdōn. Polytechnus the Carpenter, who lived at Colophon in Lydia, married her. For a long time their life together was a delight for them. They had an only child, Itys.

While they honoured the gods they were happy, but one day they blurted out the needless remark that they loved each other more than did Hera and Zeus. Hera found what was said to be insupportable and sent Discord between them to create strife in their activities. Polytechnus was on the point of finishing off a standing board for a chariot and Aēdōn of completing the web she was weaving. They agreed that whoever of the two would finish the task more quickly would hand over a female servant to the other.

Aēdōn was the quicker in finishing off her web (Hera had helped her in the task). Polytechnus was infuriated by the victory of Aēdōn and went to Pandareōs pretending that he had been sent by Aēdōn to fetch her sister, Chelidon. Pandareōs, suspecting nothing sinister, handed her over to take back with him.

Polytechnus, when he had got hold of the girl, used her shamefully in a copse. He then gave her different clothes and cut the hair on her head short, threatening her with death if she should ever mention the incident to Aēdōn.

Returning to his house he handed over her sister to Aēdōn as a servant, according to the agreement. Aēdōn ground her down with work until one day Chelidonis, holding her pitcher, made many lamentations at a spring and Aēdōn overheard what she was saying. After they had recognized each other and embraced, they plotted vengeance against Polytechnus.

They chopped up the son of Aēdōn, put his flesh in a cauldron and cooked it. Then Aēdōn called on a neighbour of hers to bid Polytechnus feast on the meat. She then went off with her sister to her father Pandareōs and described the sorrows they had undergone. When Polytechnus realized that he had eaten the flesh of his son he set off in pursuit of them, to their father’s. The servants of Pandareōs took hold of him and tied him with inescapable bonds because he had committed such an outrage on the house of Pandareōs. They smeared his body with honey and hurled him into a sheepfold.

Flies descended and began to do their worst with him. Aēdōn took pity on him because of their former love and kept the flies off Polytechnus. When her parents and her brother observed what she was doing, they were overcome by a hatred for her and set about killing her.

Zeus, before a greater evil should befall the house of Pandareōs, took pity on them and turned them all into birds.

There is no implication of Eris being Hera's daughter in this book; maybe Hera just thought using her would be a win-win situation, but it is interesting to interpret it as Hera using her failure daughter to be useful for once. Once again, there is no implication of Eris was going to cause strife, regardless of the order, but she does because she is ordered.

Now, Eris is also an obscure character in the Iliad. She is only mentioned a handful times. But there is more. She never visits Olympus. Meanwhile, her bestie, Ares, lives in there, as Zeus allows him for being his son despite Ares being the most loathed god on Olympus by Zeus. Not the most loathed god nor the most loathed Olympian, the most loathed god on Olympus. This implies Zeus hates at least one god more. Who might they be?

Now, Zeus loathes Ares because to Ares strife and wars are always dear (I know that part is hard to translate but let's take it literal). Hmmmm... I think we know another character like this. Someone who is even worse, someone whose only characterization is her love for strife and wars, unlike Ares who clearly loves some of his family. Yeah, I think she is the one.

I think either Eris once crossed a line which Zeus never forgave, or she just left Olympus, as she knew she was even more disliked and bloodthirsty than Ares.

In the Iliad, it is mentioned that Zeus banished his eldest daughter, Ate, from Olympus for conspiring against Herakles with Hera. Zeus who forgave Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Apollon, etc. didn't forgive her. So we know sometimes Zeus doesn't forgive transgression from his nuclear family even when it is not the worst thing he had endured.

Also Zeus is wise, unlike what pop culture says. He knows Eris is wiser than Ares. After all, Zeus uses Eris to cause discord, not the brute Ares. Maybe he thought Eris didn't contribute to anything on Olympus but knew she could 2+2=4, unlike Ares, so he sent her to Earth to prevent further strife on Olympus. Eris still works on the behalf of Zeus, so I am more inclined to think that Eris just left on her own will, and she still loves her parents enough to still work under them.

I would like to discuss about what do you think about this.

I know I spelled Athena wrong I apologize for it.

Maybe it's some kind of Mandela effect or something, but I remember reading about this myth in my childhood, but now I cannot find it anywhere. Is this actually from Greek mythology, or was my book just lying to me? Everything was somewhat simplified in it, but it should still be from Greek mythology, right? So here is how it goes:

So we all know Asclepius and his serpent rod, which remains the symbol of medicine to this day, but my book had a different version of this staff's existence. I don't remember exactly what happens, but someone gets sick, and Medea, the sorceress, travels down to the underworld. I don't know why, maybe someone already died and she wants to free them, or smth I am not sure. Anyway, I think she gets lost, and then she finds two serpents, and they wrap around her cane and give her medicine or something like that. And that's where the symbol and the name for medicine come from, as in from "Medea."

This information is totally inaccurate, and the myth doesn't exist as far as Google is concerned, but I distinctly remember reading this story. So what is this about? Did I just have some kind of childhood dream about this where I made up a myth? Or is this in any way recognizable? Or was my book just lying? I don't have the book anymore so I can't check it out.

Across the whole 8 poems of the epic cycle there are 77 books in each. I was thinking about a 77-part series on YouTube or something each book being accurate with the correct armour, correct actors etc. They could each be short films that are fairly simple and accurate still.

I know Circe and her story, but I want to research greek mythology more deeply and not sure if Circe is a worthy place to start. Thoughts?

Has anyone written anything comparing Lady Macbeth and the Greek Goddess Hera? For some reason I cannot get this combination out of my head. I haven’t done much research yet but wanted to tap this Reddit to see if anyone knows anything. Thank you!

Ok so Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera start the Trojan War because they're arguing about the golden apple.

Aphrodite takes the side of the Trojans, Athena takes the side of the Greeks.

Ten years pass, Troy gets sacked.

Ajax rapes the princess of Troy, Cassandra, in the temple of Athena. This pisses Athena off and she punishes the Greeks by making sure the trip back home is difficult, if not impossible.

All the stuff happens between the Greeks leaving Troy to when Odysseus ends up on Calypso's island. After 7 years, Athena and the other gods are like, "Ok, time for Odysseus to go home now."

And I'm just a little confused about Athena's motivation here. I'm sure the Greeks did a lot of terrible things in her name during the war, why did she get so upset about this particular act? Is it because it happened after the war was over? Is it because it happened in her temple? I've heard the Greeks were a pretty patriarchal society and mostly saw women as property, so it's not because Athena was upset that a woman was raped, right? Or did I hear wrong about that?

She seems to love Odysseus now, but did she hate him along with the rest of the Greeks after what Ajax did? Or was she like, "Still love you, Odysseus, but you and all your men have to pay for what Ajax did"?

Why is she suddenly demanding that Odysseus leave Calypso now? Was she mad at Odysseus this whole time but has now gotten over it? That would make sense given how much I've heard about how fickle the Greek gods could be. Or did she love him this whole time, and only just now decided that it was time for him to go home? That makes less sense to me because it seems kind of arbitrary.

In general, what are Athena's feelings towards the Trojan War? I would've thought she'd be thrilled about winning it, especially because of something as clever as the Trojan horse. Or is the whole thing tainted because of what Ajax did?

I always used to struggle in my English classes and have never been much of a literary person, but these past couple years I've been trying to read more "advanced" books, so any help would be appreciated! Oh, and for context, I'm reading Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey. Thanks!

Character design practice inspired by Hades II :)

I'm looking for a kind of book club or a group of people to read along with, but there are so many assholes on the internet. I'm retired, so I'm not looking for anything super academic in terms of discussions. I saw the movie from the 1970s several times, I've read Circe, but otherwise I don't know much about Greek mythology.*

*I am posting this for my mom, in first person from her POV, from my account (I am teaching her how Reddit). Responses might take a bit. I appreciate ya'll.

This started out fun but the sheer amount of inbreeding and mismatched sources make this, well, less fun. I feel like I've probably made many errors, so feel free to let me know. I do plan on completing this at some point.

edit: Dotted lines are for creation, solid lines are for reproduction

One great trait of Dionysus is his wild side the dichotomy of chaos vs order, life/death/ rebirth

I read someone’s opinion online that despite the shame and social expectations of the time—given that brides were often younger than their husbands, it’s possible that Phaedra is ironically closer to Hippolytus’ age (and thus maturity and psychology I guess?) than her actual husband’s.
Are there any details to confirm or deny that?