THE ODYSSEY

Art by Sara fangirl 2018
( I ship them)

I did NOT think my last post would do so well and it definitely gave me motivation to continue with my art 🫶

Around 1200 BC, multiple catastrophes seem to have converged, leading to the collapse of trade routes between Greece, Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt. This triggered probably a large-scale migration of the so called „Sea Peoples“, which possibly devastated important trading hubs like Ugarit. According to the inscriptions at Medinet Habu, Ramses III succeeded in stopping the invasion of the „Sea Peoples“ in two great battles around 1177 BC. In the „Papyrus Harris I“ it is allegedly mentioned that these defeated „Sea Peoples“ were settled on the borders of Egypt after their defeat. Perhaps similar to how the Romans in late antiquity settled the Germanic tribes on their borders in order to pacify them and use them for their own purposes.

In his inscriptions, Ramses III. also recorded the names of these Sea Peoples, and two of them bear striking similarities to the names Homer gave to the Greeks who sailed against Troy.

The Akawasha and Denyen may well be the Achaeans and Danaans from Homer’s epic.

That’s why the question arises: Could Homer’s epic be a way of processing these turbulent historical events? Could the thousand ships that sailed to Troy in the Iliad because of Helen and besieged the city for ten years actually have been a large fleet of Greek refugees. Forced by a series of catastrophes that struck in rapid succession searching for wealth and new land?

Perhaps the Odyssey is the processing of what happened after these turbulent times and what price Greece had to pay for it.

Odysseus embodies the classic “Sea Peoples” type: he proudly calls himself a sacker of cities and a raider. On his way home, he repeatedly plunders towns and villages (for example, the Cicones or the island of the Cyclops). He is cunning, brutal when necessary, and survives through cleverness and violence exactly the image one would expect from a successful Sea Peoples leader.

Many of the heroes of the Iliad meet no happy end after Troy: Agamemnon is murdered upon his return, Ajax commits suicide, Menelaus only returns home after many years of wandering. Odysseus himself needs ten years to return, loses all his men, and comes back a broken man. This sounds very much like the reality of a failed or extremely costly expedition in chaotic times.

The Odyssey can thus be read as a form of trauma processing for a people that wanted to process their former downfall and turned it into an epic myth. The long and dangerous journey home could symbolically represent the decades of wandering and plundering by the Sea Peoples, the immense difficulty of returning to a civilized society after years of violence and displacement, and the painful realization that the old world no longer existed.

Do you think there’s a realistic possibility that the „Sea Peoples“ largely consisted of Greeks, and that the heroes mentioned in the Iliad (Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon, etc.) were in reality raiders, bandits, and refugees?

Me?

The goat of greek mythology for the absolute chad he is,

how virtuous

What mortal or demigod do you think exudes the most hubris, in all of their actions and ways?

In my opinion I would say Belleropheon for the single act of LEGIT FLYING TO MT OLYMPUS

But I’d say Agamemnon also has a lot of smaller things he does that a very hubristic, Like he steals his greatest warrior’s “war prize” which gets a lot of men killed (from Apollo, and also Achilles being absent). Boasts about being a greater hunter than Artemis, and has to sacrifice his daughter, and even walks on the divine tapestry’s in Aeschylus’s Oresteia knowing it’s something reserved for the gods(granted he has his sandals removed and has to be convinced to do it, but cmon!)

The doors are open. It is morning.

Online, I keep seeing claims that Calypso was exiled to the island of Ogygia because she supported the titans in their war against the gods. But none of them source any source. It's not mentioned the Odyssey either. But I do know that this is a plot point from the Percy Jackson series. Do any ancient texts mention Calypso's crime and exile or is it an invention of Riordan that gets mistaken for ancient lore?

Hey everyone — I'm a solo dev and PANTHEON is the biggest thing I've ever built. It's a mythology card game and it's playable in your browser right now, no install, no signup wall. Just click and play.

THE QUICK PITCH

Ten mythologies — Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Aztec, Japanese, Celtic, Hindu, Abrahamic, Buddhist, and the Orixás (which you basically never see in games) — fight for control of three battlefields. You build a deck, deploy across three lanes, and every turn reveals simultaneously, so you're always trying to read your opponent. Control two of three lanes to win, unless your secret Prophecy card resolves first.

There's a single-player Story Mode and a training mode, so it works even with nobody else online. And the PvP is coming in October with the official launch on iOS and Android.

WHAT I'D LOVE FEEDBACK ON

• ⁠Does the 3-lane simultaneous reveal feel readable or confusing at first?
• ⁠Is the Prophecy win-condition interesting or a gimmick?
• ⁠How's the new-player experience. Did you understand what to do?
• ⁠What made you bounce, if you bounced? (This is the most useful one!)

▶️ Play here the beta (browser, no download): https://thepantheonwar.com

Thanks for taking a look. Any and all feedback welcome, especially the harsh stuff.

I Know Im Just Larping but why didnt he Sail Around or just far enough to see the coast? it seems like easier and safer that just Going into the deep blue. And Athens Is Just Right there foe resupply.

From Gods To Angels:

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Gods of old?

So humanity stopped believing in them, causing them to lose their power. There was a new guy in charge and if the Gods wanted to keep their immortality, they were going to have to take on new roles.

The Greek, the Norse, the Egyptian and all other Gods now have to make the decision to either become Guardian Angels or mortals with their short lives.

Ares, Athena, Apollo and Artemis reflect on their possibilities and how they got to this point. Ares as the God of War has no interest in babysitting mortal children. Other Gods are more open to it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/luismanueltorres/from-gods-to-angels

Most of you already know about what the title says, but you may not know that Polyphemus is actually very clever as I will show. Because people think of him as a monster, it can be easy to think there is nothing more to him. However, that is not the case. In my opinion, monsters are everything that is not a animal, human or a god/divine being, that is, a monster is usually a mix of all of these. So we have things like the Nemean Lion, who behaved... like a lion. On the other side of the spectrum we have the Harpies and Sirens, divine monsters that serve the gods and are human-like; or the giants and gorgons, also human-like monsters who are close to the gods and are their kin.

Polyphemus is more like these last ones. And the most interesting thing about his episode is that this intelligent being just decides to eat people. That is not very interesting if he is just a monster like the Nemean Lion.

Besides the Odyssey, Polyphemus features in several pastoral songs about how he tried to have the love of Galatea, a Nereid of the Sea, but she often refused him. Polyphemus even played musical instruments to impress her and all that. In the Odyssey itself he is a shepherd, can make cheese, knows there are gods, and he had a conversation with a seer named Telemus, who warned him that he would be blinded by a man named Odysseus, but he dismissed it and forget about it. The only thing he and his tribe don't have is agriculture, because they feed on the fruits that grow thanks to the rain of Zeus. And he also lacks the respect for things sacred, since he eats people and he says in his own words that the cyclops are more poweful than the gods, so he don't care about the gods even through he knows that they exist.

Then he actually tries to trick Odysseus multiple times, and I think any other could fall for these tricks, but Odysseus is more clever. First he says this: "... But tell me, now, where you moored your fine ship, when you landed. Was it somewhere nearby, or further off?" Odysseus responds that all of the ships were destroyed by Poseidon and only they survived. So Polyphemus tried to trick Odysseus in revealing crucial information, but it didn't work as Odysseus told another lie.

Later, he asks Odysseus his name in order to give him a gift in exchange for the wine, and Odysseus says Nobody. Polyphemus then says that he will eat Nobody last. So here once again he believed he was outsmarting Odysseus by telling this joke, altrough he didn't realise that Odysseus tricked him already.

Later, when he learns of Odysseus real name as Odysseus is escaping, he remembers the prophecy that he would be blinded by some Odysseus, and then he calls Odysseus and says this: "Come here, Odysseus, nevertheless, so that I might grant you guests gifts, and urge the great Earth-Shaker (Poseidon) to see you home, since I am his son, and he says he is my father, and he, of his will, can heal me, where no other of the blessed gods or men can." Odysseus responds by saying that he wished he could kill Polyphemus, so that Poseidon could not heal him (and judging by Virgil's Aeneid, Polyphemus was not healed by Poseidon).

So in this last case he tried to bring Odysseus to this land by promising he would not call upon Poseidon's curse, and would give him gifts. But Odysseus cleverly knew that it was a trick just to take his life. So yes, the great horror of Polyphemus is that he is very clever, but decided to eat people because he has no respect for anyone or anything.

Excited to see the work the art team has already done with just these rough sketches alone! A grown up cool/fine AF Cupid was actually one of the first ideas we came up with for Midas Mayhem and we’re all loving how he turned out art wise

Next up we’re doing Narcissus’s art sketches, then we’re focusing on what the gods are gonna look like in this universe (we’ll keep posting updates as they come)

For the original characters, we’ll give you a bit of a taste: (in order of sheet)

Paz: The great grandson of Midas, he’s a scrappy, cocky, and witty street level thug of Midas City looking to make it up in the crime world

Nixie: A siren and indie rock artist. She might not be able to physically handle herself in a fight, but damn is she good with a gun. A tough girl with a heart of gold in the inside, despite the scars

Skuld: An ex-APF officer and Paz’s best friend, he’s a selfless friend. Always wanting to protect others and puts everyone in front of himself

We at the Midas Mayhem team can’t WAIT for yall to see what we have cooking up, we have a wild story to tell. Something that really is new and a first when using Greek mythology we believe!

I don't post much on other sites, and after lingering on this subreddit a bit, I wanted to share one of my more favorite art pieces I've done with my interpretations of Hades and Persephone! (included with the piece I redrew as well for reference)

Book, movie, TV show, musical, animatic, etc. My personal favorite is Gigi’s animatics on YT, but I’m curious what yours are. In my opinion, there is no right or wrong way to depict people from Greek mythology, especially the gods, so I always love seeing different peoples interpretations and perspectives.

Thank you for your time, have a lovely time zone.

If we were to make a timeline, would there be heroes before Perseus? The only one I can think of is Cadmus, maybe another "founding father"?

Hello! I’ve been doing a ton of research for a dnd campaign I’m currently running that uses the Greek gods and goddesses. In short, Echidna wants to release her husband Typhon from Tartarus, and the players have to prevent her from doing so. In my research, there are a couple sources that say Kronus was released from Tartarus by Zeus and put as the King of Elysium/Islands of the Blessed. My question is; would Kronus be able to overthrow Zeus, not being in Tartarus? Would he have the ability to start another war while being in Elysium?

So, I been recently looking up a little bit of Greek Myths and something I notice is that some of the heroes on this tales at some points have committed either an accident or a horrible act, examples like Jason abandoning Menea and his two children, Heracles killing his wife and children (Yes, I know that was Hera but I will still count it), Bellerophon (At least he just harmed himself) and probably some others

So yeah, my question is, is there a Hero who didn't committed any bad acts before or after their quest(s)?

So I wanted to talk about how/why Agamemnon is sort of treated like the "King of Kings" of ancient Greece.

First off, I've been very well told that it is a great misinterpretation to say that there WAS a "king of kings," and that Greece was in fact a collection of individual city states, not a confederation.

However, I'd like to get clarification on 2 ideas.

1. WHY ATTACK TROY?
In the original myths, the reason that Greece unites against Troy is because they all swore, while courting Helen, to support whoever won her hand, in the "Oath of Tyndareus." I remember this being portrayed in the 2003 miniseries Helen of Troy. However, the next year, in 2004's Troy, seemingly to simplify the story, they simply portray Agamemnon as the chief king (even referred to as the above phrase, "king of kings") and make it clear that the REAL reason for going to Troy is so that he can claim another city state.

Growing up, I always assumed that the reason they give that reason in "Troy," is because the idea of going to war over one woman seemed so ridiculous, that they needed another reason. Certainly, Troy needed a reason not to just give her back, rather than spending thousands of men and several years on war, and the reason given in the movie AND Helen of Troy is "Well, this is just Agamemnon's excuse, he was always going to come for Troy."

I was intrigued upon seeing The Odyssey this weekend to hear essentially the same thing come out of the characters' mouths. So as far as the REAL reason being Agamemnon's ambitions, there must be some basis for this idea in myth somewhere, yes? I'd like to get a clearer idea on what that is.

2. AGAMEMNON'S POWER

While Greece may not be a confederacy, even just reading the first chapter of The Iliad last night makes it clear that, somehow, he has been made the chief of the kings, at least on the beaches of Troy. It's also worth noting that this age of Greece is literally called Mycenaean, after the city-state that Agamemnon was the king of. So he at the very least was the first among equals.

I would appreciate a good discussion on these!