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1* AdaptationDisplacement:
2** The religious folklore of the Ancient Greeks was passed down verbally and rarely written down. Most of the surviving myths from that time come from the works of poets and playwrights who cared less about accurately archiving their religious beliefs and more about remembering what stories played best with the crowds. What's more is that they would often alter narratives and characterizations if they thought it would make for a more interesting tale (for example, Ovid apparently invented Medusa's human backstory out of whole cloth), meaning that a lot of aspects of Greek mythology that modern audiences are familiar with are likely wildly different from what the Greeks actually believed in.
3** The sportswear brand named after Nike is better known now than she is. One comedic fantasy story suggested that she adapted to modern times by founding it.
4* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/ClassicalMythology Now has its own page.]]
5* AluminumChristmasTrees: That's right, ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'' fans, Zagreus WAS an actual god and not a character made up for the game (though his portrayal is something of an OCStandIn by necessity). Not only that, but the connection with Dionysus that Zagreus makes up in the game as a joke is in fact, a nod to the actual mythology surrounding him.
6* BaseBreakingCharacter:
7** Athena. While she is widely admired for her cunning, intelligence and her ActionGirl status, there are some who find her equally as bad as the rest of the gods. The most common attack against her is the moment she punished Medusa for failing to remain virgin, even though Medusa was loyal to her and she was the one being raped by Poseidon. This action of hers isn't considered just. Her defenders often point out that this origin was shoehorned in by Ovid, with Medusa having always been a monster in the original myth and Ovid was motivated by his anti-authoritarian attitude at the time so it shouldn't be taken as being in line with her character elsewhere in the mythology.
8** Ares. He isn't the most famous and the most beloved god, due to his war-like personality, but some argue that he is actually one of the nicest, due to his deep love for his kids, his mother (he tried to help her when she was imprisoned by Hephaestus) and Aphrodite. He's also one of the only male gods with no myths about him raping anyone, and in fact one myth shows him killing a demigod who raped his daughter, then being tried and acquitted for the killing.
9** Zeus, big time! A lot of people despise him and consider him to be one of the worst deities to ever exist. His tendency to cheat on his wife, Hera, and his horny personality are the main reasons why he is so unlikeable among classical mythology fans. Then again, there are some fans who show respect towards him, believe that the hate he receives is too much and highlight some of his HiddenDepths. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190515014119/https://disbander-of-armies.tumblr.com/post/182866328582/zeus-in-the-iliad This post]] makes some really good points, with moments taken from Literature/TheIliad. But even his defenders don't like the fact that he cheated on his wife on multiple occasions.
10** Theseus, as well. He is one of the most popular greek heroes, possibly the second most popular after Heracles - at least, [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales in his hometown]] - and his adventures are discussed and adapted on various forms even to this day. However, he has a huge hatredom, entirely created due to his TooDumbToLive moments (that one time where him and his friend tried to kidnap Persephone), his awful tendecy to kidnap women (with the most famous example being Helen of Troy when she was twelve), as well as him abandoning Ariadne to Naxos. Some will mention the other side of the myth where the reason he abandoned Ariadne to this island was not because he had forgotten her, but because Dionysus told him that he had seen Ariadne, he had fallen in love with her and that he wanted to marry her and Theseus was forced to obey - and considering what happened to some other mortals who disobeyed the gods, that was actually a pretty smart move to do.
11** Odysseus, even from [[OlderThanFeudalism ancient times]]. Depending on who you ask, he is either a cunning, intelligent and GuileHero, who deserves respect and praise, or a low coward who tricks his way out of fighting [[ARealManIsAKiller violently like a real man]].
12* CommonKnowledge: There are quite a few misconceptions about the mythology that have gained traction.
13** Ares:
14*** Some have characterized Ares as a noble, heroic figure, albeit with some HotBlooded tendencies. This ''is'' a fairly accurate characterization of Mars (aside from the HotBlooded part, since Mars tends to be more subdued, if not outright stoic), but not so much for Ares. In the original myths, he was a bloodthirsty thug with a cruel streak a mile wide.
15*** Others have reacted to the mischaracterization by portraying Ares as a monstrously heinous bastard with no redeeming qualities. While not ''quite'' as inaccurate as the above, this is a pretty serious case of overcorrection. Ares was [[PapaWolf very protective of his children]], [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas loved his mother Hera enough to fight on her behalf]], and unlike many other Greek divinities, all of his sexual partners unambiguously consented.
16** Some people think Amazon warriors would have their right breasts cut off or burnt out. But none of the original myths make any mention of this, and ancient works of art always depict Amazons with both breasts intact. This misconception probably stems from the ancient historian Justin, who ''assumed'' this to be the case due to indulging in some folk etymology.
17** Many of Ovid’s tellings of myths were fudged to suit his tastes. While the gods were no saints, he sometimes made up some parts of the original myth. For example, Medusa’s most famous backstory was made up by him; she was originally a monster from birth. While they might count as Roman mythology, they have no basis in the earlier Greek ones. Similarly, Ovid exaggerated Zeus’ rapist tendencies (in contrast to Poseidon, who was viewed as a rapist by the Greeks).
18** That Hestia gave up her seat at Olympus so Dionysus could take it, often with the justification that being the goddess of the hearth, she already had a place of pride in every home. Sounds logical, right? The problem is that there is no known myth mentioning this happening. Listings of the Olympians would include either Hestia or Dionysus but not both, so later people assumed he supplanted her, but it’s just regular inconsistency by all indications.
19** It is common to depict Apollo as the charioteer of the sun or that he inherited the job from Helios, Titan of the Sun. While Apollo became conflated with Helios (insofar he was a solar deity), they were originally quite distinct figures; and the identification was, in fact, never carried out completely, for no Greek poet ever made Apollo ride in the chariot of Helios through the heavens, and among the Romans we find this idea only after the time of Virgil. The same can be said for Artemis and Selene, although far less frequently.
20** A figure named Macaria (meaning "the blessed one") is often perceived as a daughter of Hades by modern writers. However, the sources that mention her as such were written long after the worship of the Greek Pantheon ceased being a living tradition and indeed, most of the mythographers who backed it up were from the 14th century. A character by the name of Macaria ''does'' exist in in the ancient Greek mythos, getting a starring role in one of Creator/{{Euripides}}' plays, but in it she's a daughter of ''Heracles'', not Hades.
21** The idea that Hades and Persephone were the only functional marriage among the Greek Gods. Yes, they were happier than, say, Zeus and Hera, but there were plenty of other god couples that were just as functional and sometimes just as faithful--Poseidon, though as much a philanderer as his brother, seemed generally happy with Amphitrite (one version of Scylla's origin story notwithstanding); Eros ''never'' cheated on Psyche or mistreated her; Heracles was happily married to ''all'' of his wives, with the situations with Megara and Deianira being manipulated by outside sources; Dionysus became a one-woman man when he realized how much his sleeping around hurt his wife Ariadne; even Demeter was quite happy with her demigod husband Iasion, having tearfully begged Zeus to let them be together and mothering two children with him. And if counting non-Olympian, the list is even longer: Typhon and Echidna’s UnholyMatrimony resulted in at least 10 different monstrous children, a majority of the Titans, with notable example include Oceanus and Tethys, whose marriage is so happy that they sired ''three thousand each'' river gods and Oceanids. Out of all the Greek deities, the most obvious examples of AwfulWeddedLife mainly seem to be Zeus and Hera, Kronos and Rhea, Ouranos and Gaia and Aphrodite and Hephaestus, the majority of which appear to be played up this way on purpose to prove a point and the last ultimately gets resolved when Hephaestus finds love with someone else.
22** Bacchus and Pluto are often given as the Latin names of Dionysus and Hades respectively, but both are Greek in origin.
23** Zeus is frequently portrayed as a serial philanderer. In actuality, kings of the era frequently had multiple wives, making Zeus more a serial polygamist than anything else and in turn rather than a wife who was cheated on, Hera is actually a jealous chief wife. Even the earliest myths involving Zeus' "romances" were actually his marriages to various goddesses. He's also sometimes interpreted as an outright rapist, another invention of Ovid's.
24** Everyone "knows" that, according to the myths, winter is the result of Demeter being too sad to fulfill her agricultural duties while Persephone is down in the underworld with Hades. Actually, considering the Greek climate, it's more likely that Persephone is in the underworld during the ''summer'', when plant life is threatened by the hot, dry weather, and comes back with Demeter when the autumn rains cause vegetation to grow back again.
25** The Cyclops is known as a feral and AlwaysChaoticEvil monster in popular culture. In actuality, most Cyclops were shown to be intelligent allies of the gods. Even Polyphemus, the primary exception, was still a loyal son to his father, Poseidon, and treated as a sapient being, including his own HiddenDepths.
26** Artemis wasn’t in love with Orion. While they were very close and there was a myth where Apollo tricked Artemis into killing him out of fear of this, there was no evidence to suggest that she ever considered him more than a platonic friend. There are even a number of versions were she kills him herself, because he tried to ''assault her or her nymph companions.''
27** It's often claimed that [[CartwrightCurse all of Apollo's lovers die tragically or reject him.]] This only applies to his most famous ones, ie [[ForcedTransformation Daphne, Cyparissus,]] [[IfICantHaveYou Hyacinthus,]] [[YourCheatingHeart Coronis]] and Cassandra. Many more of his mortal lovers had happy relationships with him, such as [[ActionGirl Cyrene]], [[{{Seers}} Branchus]], [[TheGoodKing Admetus]], Hecuba and Rhoeo. And this is saying nothing of his relationship with the Muses.
28* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/MythologyAndReligion here]].
29* CrossesTheLineTwice: Zeus sex escapades are severe cases of rape that aren't funny... if it wasn't for the audacity in how he does it. Turning into a goose? Turning into a golden rain? Pretending to be your best friend? Heck, the most popular song from ''WebVideo/DestripandoLaHistoria'' is about Zeus.
30* DesignatedHero: Whether you were a "hero" in Greek myth had little to do with how moral you were. All you needed to do was accomplish great deeds. Outside of that you could be as big a {{Jerkass}} as you liked. In fact many of their [[FatalFlaw character flaws]] led directly to their own deaths - a key part of Greek Tragedy.
31* DiscreditedMeme: The AlternateCharacterInterpretation that Athena didn't curse Medusa, but actually pitied her and gave her the "curse" to protect her and that Perseus was actually the villain for going after her was a very popular feminist take on Website/{{Tumblr}}, though it's since fallen out of favor as it was apparently discovered that the users propelling the theory were transphobic. Additionally, the interpretation makes less sense when you remember Athena ''was the one who sent Perseus to kill Medusa'' (either out of [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regret over cursing her]] or [[ShootTheDog to salt the wound]]), and the idea that even a wise woman could make fallible judgements and victim-blame also became more accepted for being a lesson about something that does happen in real life. On top of that, if they wanted to make Athena more sympathetic, they could’ve just pointed out that Athena cursing Medusa appears to be an invention of Ovid, and likely wasn’t what Romans/Greeks actually believed.
32* DracoInLeatherPants:
33** Hephaestus is considered one of the nicest gods (and to a great extent, he was) and is pitied for the fact that his own wife Aphrodite continued to cheat on him, but many people seem unaware (or tend to ignore) of the fact that he once [[AttemptedRape tried (and failed) to rape]] Athena (though, to be fair, Poseidon was jealous of Hephaestus and Athena's friendship and told him that Athena was sexually interested in him) and that his wife was ''forced'' by Zeus to marry him, meaning she had no say in being married to him. In some myths, Hephaestus wouldn't release Hera from the throne he trapped her in ''unless'' she gave him Aphrodite as a bride.
34** This applies to nearly ''all'' of the gods (except [[NiceGirl Hestia]]), as they're all varying degrees of terrible people (or, well, gods) who have done shitty things to humans who may or may not have deserved their punishments and even to each other for petty reasons. On the other hand, they're iconic mythological figures that have been inspiring people for millennia, making readers, especially modern readers, more lenient to their shenanigans.
35** The Romans, as well as many Renaissance artists, ignored the adulterous nature of Ares and Aphrodite's relationship and chose to view the pair as star-crossed lovers. Granted, Aphrodite was ''not'' married to Hephaestus of her own accord.
36** Hades himself is especially of note. While it is true that he is the least volatile of the Gods, many modern day fans choose to overlook his kidnapping of Persephone on the basis that she eventually came to love him and they end up having the [[HappilyMarried most stable relationship]] compared to many other divine couples. Some even try to claim that Persephone willingly followed him into the underworld and likewise believe Demeter is an abusive, controlling mother that Hades rescued Persephone from. This is ignoring the fact that most versions of the myth state that Persephone loved her mother and was taken by force. In fact, the most famous and well-known version in the ''Homeric Hymn To Demeter'', state that Persephone had screamed for her mother as Hades snatched her into the underworld, that she had been miserable while down there, and that Hades tricked her into consuming the pomegranate seeds of the underworld in order to keep her bound to him when he was ordered to return her to her mother. Not exactly a great start to a relationship, now is it?
37* EnsembleDarkhorse:
38** Hades has developed a popular following among modern fans of Greek myths, who like to see him as a stern but fair god of the underworld who isn't actively malicious, but merely fulfilling his role as the keeper of the dead - and a faithful husband to boot. This characterization is probably more attributable to what Hades ''doesn't'' do than what he does. Since ancient Greeks didn't even like to say his name, there are very few myths featuring him, meaning less opportunity to depict him participating in jerkass behavior like all the other gods. The Greeks hated and feared Hades not because he was petty and vindictive, but specifically because he inevitably took all human souls and refused to let them go. The characterization of Hades as "nice" is ''definitely'' a recent invention.
39*** Persephone is also pretty well liked, due to being HappilyMarried to Hades and having [[HiddenDepths surprising depth]] as both the goddess of spring and queen of the Underworld. She’s probably the most popular non-Olympian goddess. And in fact, Hades and Persephone might very well be the most popular and beloved couple in mythology (in modern times) due to the fact that they completely loved each other, were always faithful and never cheated on each other, had a perfectly happy and stable marriage which was extremely rare in Greek Mythology.
40** Endovelicus is the only Lusitanian god still remembered by the Portuguese people, and also very popular as a recipient of worship in the Western Roman Empire.
41** Hephaestus is considered one of the major [[TheWoobie Woobies]] of the Pantheon due to his shoddy treatment for being lame and "ugly" despite being one of the most intelligent and useful residents of Olympus, especially by his own wife.
42** Prometheus has become a positive symbol of progress, ingenuity, determination, and human resourcefulness. It helps that he's usually considered responsible for humanity's creation and is one of the kindest deities. This is a big step up for a somewhat-controversial minor deity with few cults or rituals associated with him.
43** Psyche. Her love story with Cupid is only a fifth of the original novel's length but is the best remembered portion and has been depicted in many works while inspiring tons of romance story, most notably Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast. The fact that they are one of the few HappilyMarried couples doesn't hurt.
44** Diomedes for being badass enough to wound two Olympian gods during one of the battles at Troy.
45** Despite only appearing in minor capacity as a supporting characters in classical works and myth, Cassandra is massively beloved because of both her unique circumstances as well as being a massive Woobie. She is perhaps the most well-known mortal from Greek Mythology.
46** Minor gods like Flora, Enyo, and Eris became popular over the centuries despite having little myths attributed to them (mainly due to Flora being the flower goddess appeal while Enyo and Eris has the "evil is sexy" vibes).
47** Thanks in part to WebAnimation/OverlySarcasticProductions doing a deep dive into his character history, Dionysus got a big uptick in popularity around 2018.
48** Hermes is arguably one, as he's the second youngest of the Olympians and much lower on the power scale than Zeus, Hades, or Athena. As discussed in an WebAnimation/OverlySarcasticProductions video on him, he pops up in pop culture constantly, perhaps due to how versatile he was as a god - as the god of merchants, travelers and medicine, [[LovableRogue as well as thieves and liars]], it does make some degree of sense that our modern, capitalist world would idolize him. Despite being an antihero, much like Hades, he's also [[NiceGuy much more likable]] than the god of hospitality, [[JerkassGods Zeus]], and has a plucky underdog quality which makes him endearing.
49** Hekate is arguably other too thanks to some branches of [[UsefulNotes/{{Neopaganism}} modern paganism]] as UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}}, where she has a very prominent role, even if they tend to center more on her side of goddess of magic and witchcraft than anything else and to see Hekate as a [[TheHecateSisters Maiden, Mother, and Crone]] triad (or for that matter, to see her in such triad as the Crone) instead of three aspects of equal age of the same goddess is a modern idea.
50* FandomRivalry: Different Greek city-states (poleis) chose different gods as especially important and different heroes to claim as their own. Also, every city had to have at least one mythical founder, preferably a demigod or god, whose name frequently tied in with the city's name. This of course led to quite a few conflicting myths which basically showed that "our town's deity or our local hero can beat their deity or hero" or "this great hero really is our local boy, not theirs". For instance, Thebes and Argos quarreled over Herakles; unfortunately we only know the Theban version (partly because the Thebans were on better terms with the Athenians), but quite possibly the villainous role played by Hera is due to the fact that the Argeians were great worshipers of Hera.
51* FandomEnragingMisconception: Do ''not'' claim that Hades actually raped Persephone. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20210217213925/https://not-plaidweave.tumblr.com/post/627954790392102912/im-not-sure-whether-i-should-laugh-or-cry-is-op You'll end up like this person]].
52* {{Fanon}}:
53** In general, Classical Mythology is a ''myth'', meaning that no version of the story is less valid than any other, not even modern ones.
54** Technically there's no myth saying that Hestia gave up her title as one of the Twelve Olympians for Dionysus; it's just that some lists have her and some have him, and it's entirely in her character to do so.
55** Modern versions of the story tends to give Hades and Persephone the AdaptationalConsent treatment, which isn't too far fetched, since Hades and Persephone by all accounts had a far more stable marriage than anyone else in the pantheon.
56** [[FanPreferredCouple If Artemis isn't paired up with Orion]], some modern readers tend to interpret her as a lesbian due to her often flanderized [[DoesNotLikeMen man-hating]] tendencies, despite the fact that she shows no romantic interest in women either. A less common interpretation some readers have is viewing her as asexual.
57** While he tends to be as pale as any other god in most paintings of him, a lot of modern artists tend to interpret Apollo as being tanned due to his association with the sun and sunlight. Artemis, in contrast, tends to be drawn as pale for her association with the moon.
58* FanPreferredCouple: Artemis/Orion, due to the interpretation that Orion is the only man, or, heck, [[ItsOkayIfItsYou person]], that Artemis has ever loved romantically. To modern readers, whether Artemis having romantic feelings for Orion actually has basis in mythology is irrelevant, as it's the most common interpretation nowadays. [[MySisterIsOffLimits It certainly doesn't help that Apollo disliked their relationship so much that he felt the need to intervene]], adding fuel to the fire.
59* FauxSymbolism:
60** Atalanta and Hippomenes being turned into lions for making love? Some Greeks believed that lions only mated with leopards, so the punishment was considered rather cruel to them.
61** Scholars have really read into the ExtraParentConception versions of the Orion myth.
62* FirstInstallmentWins: In modern pop culture, the Greek incarnations of the gods are far more recognizable than their Roman counterparts. This might have to do with the fact that their Roman names nowadays are more identified with [[UsefulNotes/TheSolarSystem their respective planets]] than the Roman gods themselves.
63** For much of history, this was surprisingly ''not'' the case; for centuries, the Roman Catholic Church served as the primary scholarly institution in the western world, and because of this, Latin texts were studied far more than Greek ones. For example, ''Literature/TheAeneid'' was once considered the definitive account of the Trojan War by scholars, whereas nowadays ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' have become HouseholdNames, while Vergil's epic is rarely talked about outside academia. In many works of classic literature, the gods will often be alluded to by their Roman names, as authors and literary scholars were far more familiar with those variations of the myths. This began to change by the middle of the twentieth century, with UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace making space theory more common knowledge outside the field of astronomy, and the planets of the Solar System soon [[{{Pun}} eclipsed]] their mythological namesakes. As a result, most people nowadays when they hear "Jupiter" are bound to think of [[UsefulNotes/{{Jupiter}} the gas planet]] as opposed to a Roman god. (That said, it's more of a toss-up with names that ''haven't'' been used for planets; thanks to [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Disney]], ''Hercules'' is still better-known than Herakles.)
64* FridgeHorror: The story of King Midas plays on this trope: "OK, yippee, everything you touch turns to gold. Now go try to eat your dinner. Or hug your daughter."
65* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
66** Show of hands - how many of you grew up as a kid knowing at least ''one'' story from Greek mythology? (Yes, King Midas counts). Show of hands again - how many of you are from Greece?
67** Ares doesn't get much respect for his savage nature. As Mars, the Romans thought he was hardcore, with his barbaric side toned down via HistoricalHeroUpgrade. Though that may be a little bit of CrazyPrepared. A city at war as often as Rome might prefer to have his favor after all. And after all one could argue that [[TheEmpire Mars was grateful]] to Rome.
68** Spartans were fervent worshipers of Athena more than Ares, despite the former being the patron goddess of their main rival UsefulNotes/{{Athens}}. Archaeological evidence of Sparta shows that there are three times as many temples dedicated to Athena compared to Ares.
69** Unsurprisingly, UsefulNotes/{{Athens}} takes great pride in proclaiming Athena to be the patron goddess. The vast majority of Greek myth we have comes from the Athenians, and they saw themselves as the embodiment of her (goddess of--[[OddJobGods among other things]]--defensive/just war and strategy).
70* HilariousInHindsight:
71** The Amazons. In the myths, they were just about the only civilization at the time where women oppressed men instead of the other way around. What part of the world do you think they lived in? [[RussianReversal Ukraine and Russia]] (according to [[Literature/TheHistories Herodotus]], that is).
72** Eros and Psyche. The God of Love falls in love with and marries a girl who later goes on to become the Goddess of the Soul. You could say that they are ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8CSjDC18b0 Heart and Soul]]''.
73* HoYay:
74** Quite a lot going on here. [[ValuesDissonance The Greeks had different ideas on homosexuality than modern cultures do.]] Just to name a few famous duos, Achilles and Patroclus, Apollo and Hyacinth(us), Heracles and Hylas, Zeus and Ganymede. The list really goes on.
75** Apollo is quite literally the embodiment of this trope, as he has quite a few male lovers. In fact, he may have been the god with the ''most'' male lovers.
76** Even Ares had a male lover in Alectryon.
77** There's two notable examples from Dionysus:
78*** His ChildhoodFriendRomance with Ampelus ended tragically, either by Ampelus mocking the Selene while he rode a wild boar and being gored by it as a punishment or him falling while picking grapes. Either way, Dionysus mourned his death and either lifted him into the stars to become the constellation Vindiatrix or transformed his body into the first grape vine and created wine from the boys blood.
79*** With Prosymnus, who Dionysus promised to have sex with after the former guided him to the entrance of the underworld on his mission to rescue his mother Semele from Hades. Prosymnus died before his promise could be fulfilled, so Dionysus made good on his promise anyway by carving a fig into the shape of a phallus and pleasuring himself with it while seated on Prosymnus' tomb.
80** On the ladies' side, we have this... interesting mention of Athena and Artemis during the story of Persephone's kidnapping:
81--->''...Pallas [Athene], on that side hand in hand with her beloved Diana [Artemis]...''
82*** However, this may simply be reference to the dance of Persephone from a Roman version of her story, mentioning how she danced from god-to-god during her flower picking activities. Indeed, the Rape of Persephone is the only clear reference to a friendship between the three goddesses, in an older time where they may have been more childlike. The complete quote is as follows.
83---->''"Proserpine [Persephone] in spring-time led the dance over Hymettus’ flowery ridges or beneath the cliffs of Sicily, on this side stepping close by Pallas [Athene], on that side hand in hand with her beloved Diana [Artemis], taller than they and surpassing her fellows, ere, she grew pale at the sight of Avernus [Haides] and all her beauty fled.''
84** There are myths that suggest that Callisto willingly slept with "Artemis" (actually Zeus in disguise), and when Artemis discovered her pregnancy and asked who did it to her, Callisto truly believed that Artemis was the one who impregnated her. And considering Artemis and her huntresses often bathed together and were really affectionate with each other, it's not hard to imagine that they certainly got up to some things - especially as the term "virgin" in ancient times possibly meant "unmarried".
85** Athena and Chariclo. In Callimachus' version of the story of Teiresias, his mother Chariclo was described as the beloved of Athena, who loved her beyond all companions and went with her everywhere. She was even the reason Teiresias was given the gift of prophecy and long life, as Athena wanted to appease her angry and mournful beloved.
86* LGBTFanbase: Both Artemis and Apollo are beloved by the LGBT community due to the former being a CelibateHero, which often gets interpreted as her being Asexual, or less often, a lesbian due to most of the members of her hunt being women, and the latter because he's considered the patron of same-sex love.
87* LoveToHate: Unsurprisingly for most modern readers of Classical Mythology, Zeus. He may be a JerkassGod and a serial rapist, but he does have enough sympathetic qualities DependingOnTheWriter and other charm points to win over some readers. It helps that most modern depictions of him tend to downplay his negative qualities, if not ignore them altogether.
88* MemeticBadass: Every Greek hero either became this or sought to become this. ''Who'' would win [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny in a fight between Achilles and Leonidas]], again?
89** Heracles stands above them all, being probably the most widely recognized of all the Greek heroes. Having once wrestled death itself into submission and holding up the sky itself, his Roman name has entered into the English language as "Herculean", a feat of extraordinary strength, while his original name entered most world languages as... [[TheHero "hero"]]. Yes, he was so badass, the very concept of heroism is named after him. It doesn't get any more badass than that.
90** Atalanta deserves some mention, for being the most important and well-known ''female'' hero in an age where women hardly had any agency or power. Especially as she was the only woman in the Argonauts - until Medea - and fought alongside the men in the voyage and against the monstrous Calydonian Boar.
91* MemeticMolester: ''Zeus''. There's a reason he's the page image for DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal. Notably, though, most depictions of him leave out such things as Ganymede... even if [[VideoGame/GodOfWar those works]] which depict him without his [[DepravedBisexual bisexuality]] will [[GirlOnGirlIsHot happily show female-on-female action.]]. Although that may have something to do with Ganymede being frequently agreed to be underage.
92* MemeticMutation: Whether due to Albert Camus' musings on the character or due to his story resonating with modern culture, Sisyphus' story and his punishment has often become a popular meme. Whether that be comparing any monotonous task to rolling a boulder up a hill, to imagining Sisyphus as happy, there's a lot of ways to interpret his story.
93* MemeticTroll: Apollo has become one in the age of the internet (especially on Website/{{Tumblr}}); every time someone makes a joke prediction post [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor that somehow ends up becoming true]], the original poster (or someone else) will accuse Apollo of giving them the gift of prophecy [[ItAmusedMe for fun.]]
94* MisaimedFandom: Modern feminists, particularly some of the more radical ones, sometimes hold up the Amazons as strong, independent women to be inspired by, ignoring the fact that the mythological Amazons were ''villains'' who not only frequently had sex with men (albeit mainly for reproduction purposes) but outright ''raped'' them, crippled their male children so they couldn't fight and mutilated themselves by cutting their breasts off because they got in the way during battle.
95* {{Misblamed}}: Some stories depict that Aphrodite took her wrath to anyone who was claimed to be [[TheWorfEffect more beautiful than her]], and even said that she was the one who turned Medusa into a Gorgon because she's more beautiful than Aphrodite, or she was the one Cassiopeia boasted Andromeda on in terms of beauty, causing her to request Poseidon to demand Andromeda's sacrifice. The more believed versions was that Aphrodite has no business within these territories, she only did those jealousy things on Psyche; Medusa either became a gorgon because Poseidon raped her in Athena's temple which incited Athena's wrath or was a monster from the very beginning, whereas Cassiopeia boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful than ''the Nereids'', beautiful creatures of the sea, which was taken as an insult by ''Poseidon''. There were also several women considered most beautiful/on equal/better than Aphrodite, and she didn't go on a jealous rage: Helen of Troy (in which she even approves and uses to persuade Paris in the Trojan War) and Heracles' mother Alcmene.
96* MoralEventHorizon:
97** [[{{Pride}} Hubris]]. That was the cardinal sin; you could do just about anything else (yes, even rape and murder with a good enough excuse) and [[SociopathicHero come out a hero]], but putting yourself above your place (as compared to the gods) was a big no-no.
98** The big three were Hubris (See above), [[FlatEarthAtheist impiety]], and violation of [[SacredHospitality xenias]]. Hubris and xenias were often a part of impiety; people indulging in hubris often didn't limit themselves and [[BlasphemousBoast ridicule the gods]], [[BullyingADragon which tended to get negative attention]]. And xenias was the domain '''of Zeus himself''', making repeated, willful violations of hospitality as good as direct affronts to the authority of the Lord of Olympus. Honoring xenias honored Zeus, trampling the tenets of hospitality was an insult to him.
99** Kinslaying (the killing of one's own family members) was also a ''big'' one, and this is part of the reason so many antagonistic family members in Greek Myths don't just directly kill their heroic adversaries.
100** Cronus eating his newborn children one by one as each were born, becoming the same as his prejudiced father, Uranus, but worse.
101** The many denizens of [[{{Hell}} Tartarus]] ended up there with ironic punishments specifically for the fact that they crossed this. These include, but are not limited to...
102*** Ixion being pardoned from the killing of his father-in-law only to start forcing himself on Hera while the Gods have him over for dinner. His punishment was being strapped to a fiery wheel for all eternity.
103*** Tantalus killing his own son and cooking him to serve to the Gods. His punishment was to spend eternity in a state of starvation and thirst, with relief just out of reach in the form of a fruit grove and a pool of water that both recede whenever he tries to reach for them.
104*** Sisyphus killing his houseguests and stealing from them, then using lies and trickery to evade the consequence of death. His punishment was to push a boulder up hill forever.
105*** Tityos trying to rape Leto. His punishment was to be pinned to the ground as a pair of vultures peck at his eternally regenerating liver.
106*** Forty-nine of the fifty daughters of Danaus killing their husbands. Their punishment is to carry water to a large bath in which they can cleanse their sin once it's filled, but the bath is constantly leaking, so it will never be full.
107*** Phlegyas burning down Apollo's temple in retaliation for the death of his daughter Coronis, who herself was killed for cheating on Apollo. His punishment is to be trapped in a rock and starve while he watches the Furies host a lavish dinner party right in front of him.
108*** The Aloadae (twin giants and sons of Poseidon) trying to kidnap Artemis and Hera. Their punishment is to be tied to a pillar, back to back, while an owl constantly screams at them.
109*** Curiously, there is one denizen of Tartarus, Ocnus, who got an ironic punishment in the form of having to weave a rope out of straw whilst constantly being followed by a donkey that eats the rope before he can finish it, but no records survive of just why he ended up in that position in the first place.
110* NeverLiveItDown: Pretty much the whole Pantheon. Pick almost any one of the Olympians and you can guarantee that they have done something utterly deplorable and often hypocritical. Some especially well-known examples include:
111** Zeus, the arrogant king of the gods and posterchild for DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal. All the moons of Jupiter are named after his lovers and children, and ''79'' moons later, they still haven't run out.
112** Hera, Zeus's nominal wife, who vented her frustration about his constant cheating by inflicting horrible RevengeByProxy on Zeus' children, lovers, and rape victims.
113** Athena turning Medusa into a monster because [[InsaneTrollLogic she got raped by Poseidon in one of Athena’s temples]], nevermind that this was actually Athena's roman counterpart, Minerva and Ovid intentionally tended to paint Minerva in an unsympathetic light.
114** For that matter, Poseidon raping Medusa in the first place, even though it was actually his roman counterpart, Neptune and this was another example of Ovid intentionally depicting the Roman Gods in a bad light.
115** Demeter holding Earth's food supply hostage until Persephone returned.
116** Artemis cursing a random hunter and getting him killed by his own dogs because he intruded in her bathing by total accident. Or requiring Agamemnon sacrifice Iphigenia, so much so that many author has to retcon that she replaced Iphigenia with an animal and spirit her away.
117** Aphrodite for having an affair with Ares, made worse given her husband is Hephaestus who is one of the only [[NiceGuy non-jerk gods]], even though Aphrodite was ''forced'' to marry Hephaestus and plenty of married male gods cheat on their spouses and [[DoubleStandard were never subject to humiliation the way she was]]. She is also mostly responsible for the Trojan War, albeit indirectly.
118** Despite Hades’ reputation for being much nicer than the other gods, his most notable action is still kidnapping one of his fellow gods and proceeding to [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe try and force her to marry him]]. Though this isn’t held against him too much nowadays considering that Persephone ends up falling in love with him in as well and they have perhaps the happiest marriage in the Pantheon in most versions.
119** Apollo for cursing Cassandra and for killing Orion because he was jealous of the former's relationship with Artemis.
120** Among mortals, it's hard to think of a better example than Achilles. Despite being renowned in his time for being a peerless warrior, in modern times he's mainly [[AchillesHeel known for his greatest weakness]].
121** Cyclopes are well known for being stupid AlwaysChaoticEvil brutes solely due to Polyphemus actions in the Odyssey, even though he was shown to be the exception to the rule.
122* NoYay: For modern readers, Heracles and Iolaus as lovers due to them being paternal uncle and nephew respectively.
123* OlderThanTheyThink:
124** The softening of Hades 'abduction of Persephone is thought to just be a modern trend, but in Southern Italy (specifically Locri) their interpretation of the myth has her being more willing to be Hade's bride and doesn't return to the surface world so she could rule as the powerful queen of the underworld. Her story is taken to be a model in transitioning from maidenhood to marriage.
125** The idea of Persephone wanting to be away from her [[MyBelovedSmother mother's thumb]] and prefers her husband also tends to show up in modern interpretations, but Roman sources like Virgil (Georgics) and Lucan (Pharsalia) also went with that view as well.
126* RootingForTheEmpire:
127** The Amazons were villains whose intended purpose was to demonstrate [[ValuesDissonance the dangers in allowing]] [[StrawFeminist women any power whatsoever]], and were conquered by Heracles to show a belief that women are always weaker than men. In later times, especially with the rise of feminism, they have been portrayed with increasing sympathy, most prominently with [[Franchise/WonderWoman a certain very popular heroine]]. Also, Archaeological evidence suggests that the Scythians (whom the Amazons were based on) were actually far more egalitarian than the Greeks.
128** A number of people support the Titans over the Olympians. A case of GreyAndGrayMorality, Cronus ate his kids but is recorded as ruling over a golden age for mankind where humans lived without the need for toil, disease, or war. Then Zeus and a bunch of other JerkAssGods came along, ended the golden age, and introduced every cruelty they could think of. Many modern adaptions have to villainize the Titans (including often designing them as monsters) so you sympathize with the Olympians. The story of Prometheus is pretty much the prime example of this. Even most modern adaptions of Greek Mythology can't get around making him sympathetic and portraying him as human-looking.
129** This arguably even applied to Prometheus in ''ancient Greece itself'', since some stories have Heracles freeing him from the torment that Zeus put him through, and his punishment becomes merely symbolic by having to wear a metal ring on his finger to represent his chains.
130** Actually, most of the Olympians invoke latent, guilty-pleasure hatred for [[DisproportionateRetribution their extreme injustice toward mortals]], especially for offenses that are minor or accidental, or that ''are not even directed at the gods themselves''. And if you ''dare'' to think yourself the equal of a god, you are going to die, or at least end up ''[[FateWorseThanDeath wishing]]'' [[FateWorseThanDeath you would die]]. (Of course, since quite a few mortals did succeed in making monkeys of the Olympians, or even ''becoming gods themselves'', you can't really blame the Olympians for feeling insecure and paranoid.)
131** The ancient Greeks despised Hades, the god of the dead and the underworld since they didn't like dying. He has a somewhat better reputation today, in that he regularly kept his bargains with gods and mortals alike, and would only inflict a FateWorseThanDeath on someone who crossed him first. His kidnapping of Persephone is still rightly seen as vile, but even then Hades is ''faithful'' to her, which is more than his philandering brother Zeus can say. DependingOnTheWriter is in full effect with these myths and their retellings.
132** Show of hands -- how many people wanted Troy to win the war? Notable for being an in universe example as well, with the gods taking sides, Zeus himself supporting the Trojans. This goes back centuries, multiple medieval European royal dynasties would claim descent from Trojan refugees, and famous Frankish hero Roland claimed his sword had belonged to Achilles' ArchEnemy Hector.
133* RonTheDeathEater:
134** Ovid had a marked tendency to do this due to his anti-authoritarian views; versions of myths he wrote down often show the gods as significantly more mean-spirited and pettier than other sources. Note that it's Ovid's work that describes the story of Medusa as someone who Athena turned into a monster as punishment for being raped, while earlier myths describe her as being born a monster and even having three monstrous sisters.
135** [[TheWoobie Helen of Troy]] is frequently remembered by modern audience as a cheater who caused the Trojan War despite the original texts tendgin to depict her more as a victim of circumstances. Doesn't help by the fact that many other characters who far outstrip her in term of characterization and popularity like Achilles, Hector and Cassandra all got caught up in the Trojan War and die horribly because of it.
136** Demeter is mostly remembered for starving the Earth until Persephone was given back to her (which even than was done out of grief at her daughter going missing), but is otherwise a loving mother and reasonable goddess (if not provoked), and plays other, if smaller, integral roles in the canon mythology which don't involve Persephone (advising Psyche for one). Modern interpretations however rarely give her a personality outside of being an overprotective, overbearing, and sometimes even abusive mother to Persephone, and her starvation of the earth is portrayed more as sheer pettiness of her daughter gaining some agency in her marriage than despair at losing her.
137** Some view [[NiceGuy Perseus]] negatively for slaying the Medusa, who - in some versions of the myth - only became a monster due to being cursed by [[AdaptationalVillainy Athena]] as punishment for Poseidon raping her. It's also not uncommon for these people to interpret Athena's [[CursedWithAwesome snake heads]] as a [[AdaptationalHeroism gift to ward off further advances from men]]. However, at the time that the story of Perseus killing Medusa was first created, this was not Medusa's backstory: in the original version, Medusa was born an evil monster along with her sister gorgons. Furthermore, this interpretation ignores that Perseus was oathbound by king Polydectes to return with Medusa's head, that Athena helps Perseus kill Medusa, that his action is to prevent Polydectes from forcibly married his mother Danae as well as his more likable actions like rescuing Andromeda and having a faithful HappilyMarried life with her by all account (which is remarkably rare in Greek mythology).
138* TheScrappy:
139** The Romans were both much more fond of Ares (as his local {{Expy}}) than the Greeks were (the Greeks tended to favor the strategic war goddess Athena over Ares). On the ''other'' other hand, modern media seems to be learning enough from SadlyMythtaken portrayals to have Ares as the GodOfEvil rather than [[DarkIsNotEvil Hades]]. Properly speaking, if you're looking for a Greek god of evil you won't find one: however; there are Kakia (vice), Hubris (see above), Dyssebia (impiety), Dysnomia (anarchy or political corruption, the correct interpretation is not known), Koros (greed and a rare male example of good or evil), Ate (foolishness) and others.
140** To the ancient Greeks themselves, Hades was TheScrappy. Thanks to ValuesDissonance, however, he's ([[EverybodyHatesHades usually]]) the nicest Greek God nowadays. Hell, even one of his SadlyMythtaken [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} portrayals]] is an EnsembleDarkhorse!
141* SignatureScene: If there's any entry into the Greek myths that just about everyone knows about, it's of Persephone and Hades. If it's not, it's the romance between Psyche and Cupid due to how popular Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast is.
142* {{Squick}}:
143** How [[UsefulNotes/OedipusComplex Kronos castrated his father Uranos]]. Think about it (if you dare): At first, Uranos made sure that Gaia's children never were born, by constantly raping her, so their way out was... blocked. So Gaia gave unborn Kronos a weapon, and Kronos did the deed while Uranos was doing the other deed.
144** Poseidon's various escapades in stallion guise with the mares of Greece, fathering many of the supernatural horses populating the mythic world (Including Pegasus in Ovid's myths, via his rape of Medusa, although he was probably in human form this time). Of course, once again he's got nothing on his younger brother Zeus.
145** Pasiphaë ''gave birth to a freaking bull-man''. ''By copulating with a bull''. How she managed to do it is left to interpretation (then again, [[AWizardDidIt she is a goddess]]).
146* SuperCouple: Hades and Persephone, without a doubt--the pairing among the Olympians that has captivated audiences for ages and prevails even to this day.
147* TearJerker:
148** Aegeus, standing at the top of the mountain, waiting anxiously for his son to return. He notices that the sails of the ship that carried Theseus to Crete are black (he told the captain that, if Theseus survived the Minotaur, he would put white sails), assumes that his son died (while in reality, he was still alive, it was just that the captain forgot his task) and falls from the cliff and drowns. To make matters worse, Theseus was his only child, so imagine how devastated he must have felt.
149** Orpheus and Eurydice. The poor couple had just gotten married and were living it up when Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died. Orpheus travels to the Underworld and uses his music to plea to Hades himself for her resurrection. Hades is so moved he agrees to set her free, if Orpheus can pass his test to lead her back to the living world without looking back. Right as they are almost there, Orpheus looks back and the two lovers are separated forever. They were ''so'' close to a HappilyEverAfter only for a brief doubt to dash any hope.
150** The fate of Cadmus and his family.
151** The Abduction of Persephone; First Persephone gets taken by Hades, screaming and crying for her friends and mother the whole time and taken to the Underworld, crying and terrified. Then the nymph Cyane tries in vain to stop Hades, but he instead ruins her stream, making her dissolve into tears. [[MamaBear Then Persephone's mother Demeter desperately searches the earth for her, killing it in her anger and grief.]] They are finally reunited, but only for half the year when Persephone is forced to return to her husband and Demeter is again griefstricken and the land plunged into winter until her return.
152** In addition to that, Demeter hears Persephone’s screams before she plummets into the underworld but is too late to save her or even see what happened. She then goes on a desperate, futile search around the world to locate her daughter, but her grief only gets worse when she’s informed Persephone was married off behind her back. Demeter is so distraught she exiles herself from Olympus and abandons her duties to the earth until Persephone is returned to her.
153* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Despite being [[MinorMajorCharacter one of the Olympians]], Hestia/Vesta's stories can be counted on one hand. For some reasons, ancients weren't terribly interested in her.
154* UnintentionallySympathetic:
155** The ancient Greeks never intended for Ares, Hades, or Hephaestus to be sympathetic - they never even really liked them. Although it was more [[AxCrazy justifiable]] in Ares' case, Hades was hated by the Greeks because [[EnemiesWithDeath they feared death]], and Hephaestus was loathed because he was an ugly cripple. To modern audiences, however, Hades and Hephaestus are often viewed as [[NiceGuy the nicest]] of the Greek Gods, while the gods the Greeks adored, such as Zeus and Hera, often come across as JerkassGods at best or [[GodIsEvil tyrants at worst]].
156** Ares, on the other hand, was adored by the militaristic Romans (and possibly Spartans, though archaeological evidence show rather few temples devoted to him in Sparta) conflated him with Mars - he got a [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade Mythological Hero Upgrade]]. Certainly the fact that classical mythology attributing Ares (who the Romans associate with Mars) as helping found Rome had a lot to do with it.
157** It's really easy for readers to sympathize with the Minotaur since it is treated horribly by Minos. Its end by Theseus and the help of its sister Ariadne reads less like a heroic victory but a tragic abused man being killed. For one example, see ''Literature/TheHouseOfAsterion'' from Creator/JorgeLuisBorges. It isn't even modern readings, with cultures much less antagonistic towards Crete has depicted him in more neutral or even sympathetic light in paintings.
158* ValuesDissonance: Well, what do you expect from stories that are [[OlderThanFeudalism over two millennia old]]?
159** In general, a common differentiating factor between audiences of the time and modern ones is that modern audiences tend to see the gods as characters in a story, while the ancient Greeks saw the gods as a mix of real individuals and personifications of ideas, with the story being [[JustSoStory about how those phenomena happen]]. To modern audiences, it seems baffling that the gods so frequently change track and commit so many cruel actions, when to the Greeks, it made perfect sense, because the natural forces and emotions and concepts those gods represent are very frequently fickle and cause trouble for no apparent reason. The simple answer for why, say, Poseidon wasn't hated for killing people in earthquakes and storms is because... well, earthquakes and storms exist, and sometimes they kill people, including people who seemingly didn't deserve it. Expecting Poseidon to be entirely moral in his dealings would be like claiming, to the Greeks, that earthquakes and storms never kill innocent people.
160** The cause of Achilles's sulk was a much bigger deal in his milieu. Some would notice that Achilles' sulk is also an example of a lack of a soldierly sense of duty to his comrades.
161** Zeus is one of the biggest victims of this among modern fans of Greek mythology. His behavior comes off much worse to modern audiences than it was probably intended to look. For example, in Ancient Greek culture, a man could only marry one woman but he was allowed to have multiple concubines and mistresses, something that was particularly prevalent among the upper classes. As such, Zeus' many extramarital affairs wouldn't been seen as ideal behavior but it also wouldn't have been seen as contemptuous or immoral either. Zeus, as an idealized divine ruler, behaved exactly like powerful men were expected to at the time.
162** The way nearly everybody treated women, the way kings sometimes treated their subjects, and the way hospitality was taken so extremely seriously. Now it's kinda... silly, in comparison.
163** There's a story where one of Hera's faithful priestesses has trouble getting to the temple to fulfill her duties so the priestess' sons take the place of the horses and take her there. Touched by their piety and duty, the priestess asks Hera to grant the greatest boon to her sons that a mortal can have. Hera kills them in their sleep. We are supposed to focus on how they died without pain and getting sick and weak (they were young men at the peak of their health), but readers likely forget this in the fact that they, well, ''died''.
164** Iolaus, Heracles's charioteer is sometimes portrayed as Heracles's lover. While people in the twenty first century might not find ''too'' much bad about this... they ''might'' object more to the fact that Iolaus is not only young enough to be his son, but he's also Heracles' ''nephew''.
165** Hades' kidnapping of Persephone, as mentioned earlier, [[http://herskyofdiamonds.tumblr.com/post/77535721358/lillian-raven-hungrylikethewolfie was considered a Greek wedding.]] By today's standards, it would be kidnapping, but an appropriate modern interpretation of the events would be [[http://kata-chthonia.com/post/69903384941/yes-im-officially-creeping-on-you-i-just Hades and Persephone]] falling in love, reaching an agreement, eloping behind Demeter's back to dodge her ParentalMarriageVeto ''and'' Zeus' meddling and THEN dealing with the aftermath, and not to mention they're the [[HappilyMarried most stable couple in the Pantheon]]. And that's not even getting into whether one prefers Persephone as the sweet little innocent who gets kidnapped and perpetually victimised, or the [[{{MyBelovedSmother}} smothered]] teen who intentionally seduced Hades to get free and snag some agency for herself, [[TakeAThirdOption (Or maybe both)]].
166*** This is an issue that appears frequently, since the ancient Greeks didn't really differentiate between what we'd consider rape or abduction and the seduction of a woman by a man other than her husband. Hence, for example, why it's often unclear if Helen of Troy consented to leaving with Paris or not.
167*** Demeter's treatment of Persephone is a more mild example; the fact that she kept trying to protect her whether Persephone wanted it or not and starved the world for months when Persephone went missing was treated as a ''good'' thing because it showed her as a devoted mother. By today's standards, this is seen as [[MyBelovedSmother exceedingly extreme]].
168** The myth about Procne. When her husband Tereus raped her sister Philomena, she and her sister decided to take revenge on him. What does Procne do? She ''murders the son they had together'', then cooked and served him as a meal to Tereus. And he had nothing to do with his father's crime. Interestingly when Tereus finds out and wants to kill the women, they pray to Zeus who turns all three of them into birds because the guy was definitely horrible but the women weren't all innocent after killing and cooking the kid either.
169** Publius kills his sister for daring to mourn her betrothed who was killed fighting for the other side.
170* ViewerGenderConfusion: The Chimera is supposed to be female, but since she has a mane (typically associated with male lion’s, though in fact possible on female), you'd be forgiven if you thought she was male.
171* TheWoobie:
172** Both Hades and Hephaestus, by modern standards. One is the lonely (until he got his wife), overworked, [[EverybodyHatesHades generally disliked and often-misunderstood]] god of the Underworld. The other is the equally-disliked, equally-overworked, crippled, undeniably brilliant smith-god with a hot wife who's screwing everyone ''but'' him.
173** Persephone, who in her famous myth was kidnapped from her home and forced into marriage by Hades (a union sanctioned by her own father Zeus, unbeknownst to her or her mother Demeter) and terrified out of her mind. Thankfully things get better for her as she still got to see her mother and have a stable marriage with Hades, as well as her her own Underworld to boot.
174** Demeter. Her role in the myth of Persephone is desperately searching for her daughter who disappeared screaming. Again, things do also work out for her when she got to see her daughter half of the year.
175** Io got a crappy deal too. After being desired by Zeus, she had to be turned into a cow to hide from Hera's wrath. And Hera still found her and had her tethered and guarded by the hundred-eyed watchman Argus. And even after Hermes beheaded Argus and saved Io, Hera sent a gadfly to chase her out of Greece and into Egypt. Only then did Io find peace as a priestess of Isis.
176** Inachus. He is eventually reunited with his lost daughter-turned-heifer and the two cry together over her fate. Io is then driven away by Hera, and Inachus never gets to know what happens to her, hiding in a cave and deepening the river with his tears for his lost child
177** In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the sisters Medusa, Euryale and Stheno got turned into Gorgons after Medusa was raped (in some versions of the myth, in others it was consensual) by Poseidon in Athena's temple - and of course we all know Medusa's final fate at the hands of Perseus, ''with Athena's help''.
178** There is no version of Tiresias that was not put upon by the world. Once a priest of Zeus, he's said to have been turned to a woman for interrupting snakes mating. They then spent several years as either a priestess of Hera, a prostitute, or both. They later turned back to a male by leaving another set of snakes alone, but this gets the attentions of an arguing Zeus and Hera. They're having an argument about who enjoys sex more: Zeus says women get more pleasure out of it, and Hera says the man gets more pleasure. They ask Tiresias (who clearly has experience on both ends), and he lets out the secret that a woman's climax is ten times better than a man's climax. Hera gets upset and strikes him blind; Zeus can't undo the blindness, instead giving him prophesy to make up for it. Which makes Tiresias miserable, because peoples like Oedipus waste his time by demanding his help and then ignoring his advice. Then there's the one where he was struck blind by stumbling across Athena in the bath. By accident. Athena also cannot undo said blindness and is sincerely sorry for her mistake... but then she gives him prophesy too, and you know what followed.
179** Nerites; there is no version of him that ''doesn't'' get [[ForcedTransformation transformed into a shellfish]] for extremely petty (by today's standards) reasons. To make matters worse, in one of them, he was the first person Poseidon truly loved.
180** The original cyclopes. Their father locked them in Tartarus since birth. Their older brother Cronus doesn't bother to free them after his rebellion. When Zeus frees them, they return his favor by forging weapons for the gods and finally live peacefully working as Hephaestus's helpers. That's until Zeus kills Asclepius and a vengeful Apollo doesn't have the guts to turn against his father, so he kills the group of cyclopes who forged Zeus's lightning bolt instead. Though there are versions that have both them and Asclepius [[UnexplainedRecovery get better]].
181** Cassandra. There's literally nothing that ever seems to go right for this girl, making her perhaps one of the biggest woobies in Classical Mythology on a whole. First: either [[JerkassGods Apollo tries to rape her]], she commits the "sin" of blowing his affections off, she cheats on him, ''or'' she leaves her work as a priestess of his temple in Troy without counting on how [[BerserkButton that would piss the Hell outta him]]. Then, he curses her so that none of her visions of the future are ever believed. Then the Trojan War happens and her brother Hector dies. Then she [[SanitySlippage starts to lose it]]. Then she tries to hide in Athena's temple only to be kidnapped and [[RapeAsDrama violently raped]] by Ajax the Lesser, while her entire family is either killed or enslaved. Then, she ends up as King Agamemnon's concubine. And finally, Agamemnon's cheating wife Clytemnestra ''kills'' her. And if the ''Agamemnon'' play is to be believed, she ''clearly'' knew shit was about to go down [[DespairEventHorizon but was resigned already to her and Agamemnon's bloody fate]], not attempting to run away even when the local elders expressed sympathy for her.
182** JerkassWoobie: Hera's not nice by a long shot, but her husband continually cheats on her- [[{{Irony}} the goddess of marriage]]- even though he knows it will make her mad. And she [[KarmaHoudini can't punish him]] because he's stronger than her, so she has to settle for [[RevengeByProxy hurting his lovers and children]].
183** Oedipus. Big Time. He accidentally kills his own father [[YouCantFightFate while traveling in order to avoid this fate]], [[ParentalIncest marries his mother]] and have four children with her, then blinded himself after finding the truth. It doesn't end there. His two sons exile him and he dies wandering with his daughter, who's also his half-sister.
184** A case could be made for Actaeon too: he accidentally sees Artemis bathing and gets [[ForcedTransformation turned into a stag]] only to be [[CruelAndUnusualDeath torn apart by his own hounds.]] And, in Ovid's Metamorphoses at least, it's implied ''that's what she wanted to happen'' (" They say Diana the Quiver-bearer’s anger was not appeased, until his life had ended in innumerable wounds.") [[DisproportionateRetribution All because he accidentally walked in on her bathing.]]
185** Callisto. She’s one of Artemis’s hunting companions and followers, either [[{{Foreshadowing}} Lycaon's daughter]] or a nymph. She never does anything wrong except looking beautiful, and even then she wasn’t intentionally doing so. Zeus sees her, and he transforms his appearance into that of [[{{Squick}} his daughter Artemis]] to get close to Callisto and rape her. Despite Callisto’s effort, Zeus is Zeus and he overpowers and rapes her. Callisto [[MySecretPregnancy hides her pregnancy]] for nine months, then when Artemis and her followers decide to take a swim, her “sin” is discovered. Artemis banishes Callisto, or in some versions, is the one to [[ForcedTransformation turn her into a bear]]. Callisto gives birth to Arcas, but she doesn’t get to see him for 15 years because Hera, angry at Callisto for “flaunting Zeus’s affair with her” (by giving birth to a child by Zeus), turns her into a bear. For 15 years, [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand she lives in fear of hunters (what she used to love doing) and other bears.]] Then either Artemis herself kills Callisto with an arrow, or Arcas, Callisto’s son. Callisto recognizes Arcas after 15 years, he sees a bear staring at him, and shoots. Zeus decides this is too messed up so her transformed both into constellations (both now in bear form). Hera bans Callisto to set her feet below the ocean. Later, Phaeton in a flaming chariot burns her.
186** Dionysus' early story reads like a TraumaCongaLine. His mother was burnt to death while still pregnant with him because his mother was tricked by Hera to ask Zeus to show himself in his true godly form, so Zeus had to sew fetus Dionysus into his thigh. After the baby was ready to be born, Zeus gave him to Hermes to take to the relatives of the dead mother, who dressed him up as a girl to hide his presence from Hera. They succeeded... for three years. Then Hera drove them insane, made them kill their own children and themselves, and the only reason why Dionysus survived was because Zeus turned him into a goat. The toddler gets shipped off to Mount Nysa, where he is raised by satyrs and nymphs and lives the good life, having friends, till one of them dies trying to get him a new strange plant, which Dionysus makes bear fruit in penance, creating the first grapes and then wine. He starts to get a following and then the first time he and his entourage offer the king of a city their help, said king kills several of the satyrs, Dionysus' SECOND stepmom, and almost Dionysus himself too, but he gets away into the sea where he stays with Thetys for a while to regroup.
187** Hyacinth. A young prince who enters a loving relationship with Apollo. And what does he get for his trouble? A brutal death by a discus to the head either by wanting to impress Apollo or because Zephyrus got jealous. At least he got a flower named after his honor.
188** Chrysippos, son of Pelops and a nymph. Laius, his father's honored guest, was his teacher in chariot-racing -- and took the first opportunity to abduct the pretty Chrysippos to Thebes and rape him. And after that, his half-brothers, Pelops' legitimate sons from his wife Hippodaimia, see him as a rival for their heritage because he's Pelops' favorite son, and murder him.
189** IronWoobie: Psyche. No matter how much crap life (and Aphrodite) throws at her, she never gives up on her love for Eros. It's easy to see why the latter disobeys his own mother to forgive and save her from the deep sleep from Persephone.
190** Myrrha/Smyrna, is another JerkassWoobie. While [[ParentalIncest falling in lust with her father]], and [[BedTrick tricking him into having sex with her]] is undeniably a fucked up thing to do, most version of the myth strongly imply (or state outright) that it's not her fault she's this way, and was made to have such feeling due to a curse of some kind. One version even says Aphrodite cursed her because her mother said that she (Myrrha) was more beautiful than the goddess, meaning she's getting punished for something her mother did that she had no control over.
191** Echo's unrequited love for Narcissus. Due to a curse, she is only about to speak the last words another person has spoken. One day she spots Narcissus in the woods and falls in love, but is rejected, and flees in shame and grief to a cavern where she wastes away. Yet her love for him only grows. When Narcissus dies, wasting away before his own reflection and looks one last time into the pool utters "Oh marvellous boy, I loved you in vain, farewell", Echo can only helplessly echo "Farewell." Eventually Echo begins to fade away to nothing, till only her weak, eternally repeating voice is left.

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