History Headscratchers / GreekMythology

*** Sadly ruined by the film adaptation, though. Jarring considering the author of the books actually knows his Greek mythology well, yet the damned filmmakers [[Main/TheyJustDidntCare. just didn't care!]] *facepalm*

*** Sadly ruined by the film adaptation, though. Jarring considering the author of the books actually knows his Greek mythology well, yet the damned filmmakers JustDidntCare. *facepalm*

** So there you have it. Lesbianism: Worse than bestiality! [[ValuesResonance Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.]]

** SatanicHamster: Umm, ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' and ''HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys''? In those series, he's one of the more decent and respectable of the Gods.

** Because he '''can''' and to quote, HistoryOfTheWorldPartOne "It's good to be the king." Think about it: he gets credit for rescuing his siblings and kicking his dad's ass, he has the most powerful weapon in all of Greek mythology and the ''one'' time a revolt starts, it's only by chaining him in bed while he slept and despite being outnumbered, there was a collective OhCrap from the entire pantheon the second he got free. Face it, he is AsskickingEqualsAuthority and WishFulfillment incarnate.

*** There is not that much resemblance between Ares and Mars. Ares was the god of brute strength and love of battle with Athena being the Goddess of skilfully conducted military operations. As Mars developed into a God of War the aspects he took on were closer to Athena’s than Ares’ as those were more Roman.

**** That ''is'' how you get demi-Gods like Hercules and Cúchulainn. Just be careful what you wish for. Zeus could show up as a giant bull.

** The ''Literature/{{Myth-O-Mania}}'' books present him as a decent, usually friendly guy (if a bit of a DeadpanSnarker) who made a couple of mistakes and got hugely slandered by his uppity little brother and the guy's [[IHateYouVampireDad unaffiliated]] [[LadyOfWar daughter]] and [[StopHelpingMe idiot mortal sons]]. It's a PerspectiveFlip, but still...

** I think the text from Metamorphoses about Iphis and Ianthe demonstrates why there aren't many lesbians in Roman myth, at least:

->'''Iphis:''' Hardly restraining her tears, she said ‘What way out is there left, for me, possessed by the pain of a strange and monstrous love, that no one ever knew before? If the gods wanted to spare me they should have spared me, but if they wanted to destroy me, they might at least have visited on me a natural, and normal, misfortune. Mares do not burn with love for mares, or heifers for heifers: the ram inflames the ewe: its hind follows the stag. So, birds mate, and among all animals, not one female is attacked by lust for a female. I wish I were not one! Yet that Crete might not fail to bear every monstrosity, Pasiphaë, Sol’s daughter, loved a bull, though still that was a female and a male. My love, truth be told, is more extreme than that. She at least chased after the hope of fulfilment, though the bull had her because of her deceit, and in the likeness of a cow, and the one who was deceived was a male adulterer.

* TheOdyssey: something always bugged me about the climax of the story. Odysseus proves he is the rightful king by stringing his bow, something apparently none of the other suitors can do. But something about that situation doesn't quite jibe with the rest of Odysseus's characterization. Odysseus is always characterized as TheSmartGuy rather than TheBigGuy; he's more about brains than brawn. He's certainly not a wimp - he was a warrior-king of Ancient Greece, after all - but he's not a superpowered bruiser demigod like Heracles or Achilles. He's probably not even the strongest mortal in Ithaca; at the very least, he's his late thirties when he finally makes it home, and many of Penelope's suitors are younger men in their physical prime. And yet, none of them can beat the old man in what is basically a classic "feat of strength". Did Odysseus have a custom bow, and there was some kind of trick to stringing it that only he knew?

* TheOdyssey: something always bugged me about the climax of the story. Odysseus proves he is the rightful king by stringing his bow, something apparently none of the other suitors can do. But something about that situation doesn't quite jibe with the rest of Odysseus's characterization. but Odysseus's greatest strength was always his brains, not his brawn. He's certainly not a wimp - he was a warrior-king of Ancient Greece, after all - but he's not a superpowered bruiser demigod like Heracles or Achilles. He's probably not even the strongest mortal in Ithaca; at the very least, he's his late thirties when he finally makes it home, and many of Penelope's suitors are younger men in their physical prime. And none of them can successfully defeat him in a feat of strength? Did Odysseus have a custom bow, and there was some kind of trick to stringing it that only he knew?

*** Sadly ruined by the film adaptation, though. Jarring considering the author of the books actually knows his Greek mythology well, yet the damned filmmakers JustDidn'tCare. *facepalm*

* The story goes that Archimedes was asked by a king to find out if a certain crown was made of gold or not. (Without melting it down obviously.) Now the story of how he discovered displacement in the bathtub is well known, but does anyone know if the crown turned out to fake or not?

** [[{{Tradewinds}} Tradewinds: Odyssey]] Hades is a pretty cool guy and helps out the main character in one of the storylines.

** GodOfWar, of all things, has this.

** Why didn't he swallow him? Would ''you'' want to do this twice? (HighOctaneNightmareFuel warning!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son

** The ''Myth-O-Mania'' books present him as a decent, usually friendly guy (if a bit of a DeadpanSnarker) who made a couple of mistakes and got hugely slandered by his uppity little brother and the guy's [[IHateYouVampireDad unaffiliated]] [[LadyOfWar daughter]] and [[[StopHelpingMe idiot mortal sons]]. It's a PerspectiveFlip, but still...