[[quoteright:236:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/have_a_hot_time_hades_4916.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:236:"K.H.R.O.T.U, King Hades, Ruler of the Underworld, that's me."]]

->''When it comes to the Greek Myths, things aren't always what they seem.''

Lots of people (or at least those who are especially interested in that sort of thing) have some knowledge of Myth/ClassicalMythology. Many of the myths feature brave heroes and the mighty Zeus, who rules on Mount Olympus. But in this children's series by Kate [=McMullan=], Lord Hades, Ruler of the Underworld, [[FracturedFairyTale tells you the real story of what actually happened]]. The myths we've all heard are a pack of lies told by Zeus, the biggest myth-o-maniac (old Greek-speak for "liar") ever, to make himself look good. And he only got to be ruler of Mount Olympus by cheating at cards!
----
[[folder:''Myth-O-Mania'' Books]]
[[index]]
* I. ''Literature/HaveAHotTimeHades''
* II. ''Literature/PhoneHomePersephone''
* III. ''Literature/SayCheeseMedusa''
* IV. ''Literature/NiceShotCupid''
* V. ''Literature/StopThatBullTheseus''
* VI. ''Literature/KeepALidOnItPandora''
* VII. ''Literature/GetToWorkHercules''
* VIII. ''Literature/GoForTheGoldAtalanta''
* IX. ''Literature/HitTheRoadHelen''
* X. ''Literature/GetLostOdysseus''
[[/index]]
[[/folder]]
----
!!The ''Myth-O-Mania'' series provides examples of:
* AdaptationDistillation: Aside from such embellishments as anachronisms and a larger role for Hades deities, ''Hit the Road, Helen!'' and ''Get Lost, Odysseus!'' seem more like ''Literature/TheTrojanCycle'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' trimmed and translated into middle-school syntax, than entirely new takes on them. The Stone Arch editions of all X books also include two-three page, traditional summaries of the myths in the back.
* AdaptationalHeroism: Happens to many of the monsters, such as the Minotaur, the Hydra, {{Medusa}}, Echidna, and Orthus. In contrast with the myths, the Greek heroes' encounters with these famous monsters [[SparedByTheAdaptation tend to be resolved peacefully]] (often with the help of Hades).
* AdaptationalUgliness: According to Hades, Zeus removed references to his own pudginess and bald spot when rewriting the myths.
* AdaptationalVillainy: In-universe, Zeus' versions of the myths exaggerate monsters' scariness.
* AffectionateNickname: Hades calls Poseidon, "Po", Persephone, "P-Phone", and Cerberus, "Cerbie."
* TheAllegedCar: Hermes transports souls to the Underworld in a broken-down bus.
* AnachronismStew: The mythological characters make constant use of technology more advanced than that of Ancient Greece.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Hades can just barely put up with conceited, deceitful Zeus, or bossy Hera.
* BagOfHolding: The monogrammed wallet that Hades receives from Persephone can hold anything regardless of size. She explains that she bought it from some nymphs.
* BrotherSisterIncest:
** Cronus and Rhea are full siblings as well as husband and wife.
** Zeus had a daughter with his sister Demeter.
** Zeus marries his sister Hera.
%%* CanineCompanion: Cerberus to Hades, and Argos to Odysseus.
* {{The Casanova}}s: Zeus and Poseidon court several women throughout the series, while Hades instead remains HappilyMarried to Persephone.
* CharacterNarrator: Hades narrates each book, usually only providing plot details that either he was present for, or someone else told him about. (''Have a Hot Time, Hades!'' does include some plot points that don't seem to fall into either category; Hades quotes events preceding his birth, but doesn't say who detailed those events to him.)
* {{Cliffhanger}}: Each chapter usually ends at a tense spot.
* ColdBloodedTorture: The ghosts of the wicked become subjected to fire, lava, and tar in the Underworld pit of Tartarus. In ''Stop that Bull, Theseus!'', Hades decides to build up an Underworld Wrestling league by way of persuading some big bad bullies who are otherwise headed for Tartarus to sign wrestling contracts to get out of this. Souls who had already landed in Tartarus couldn't join because the severity of their punishments caused them to lose their fighting spirit.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: The ghosts of those who were not-so-good but not-so-bad have to memorize an endless list of difficult spelling words.
* CupidsArrow: Cupid uses three different kinds of arrows when spreading love between people, two of which invoke the TemporaryLoveInterest trope. Love induced with yellow-tipped arrows only lasts an hour. Orange-tipped arrows create romantic effects that wear off after three days. Red-tipped arrows make people permanently fall in love. Cupid only carries prototypes of the orange-tipped arrows in his first appearance[[note]]when he shoots Hades into reciprocating Persephone's crush[[/note]], with the other two debuting in ''Nice Shot, Cupid!''
* DarkIsNotEvil: The majority of the inhabitants of the Underworld, such as Hades himself and the Furies, are decent people. Most of the monsters, with the exceptions being Typhon and the [=NeMean=] Lion, turn out to be more-or-less good guys who will listen to reason.
* DirtyCoward: Zeus tends to wuss out of fights and confrontations.
* {{Doorstopper}}: ''The Big Fat Book of Greek Myths'', Hades' main source for Zeus' revised versions of the tales. Hades apparently gets plenty of equally thick books from The Big Fat Book of the Month Club.
* EverybodyHatesHades: Averted; Hades actually seems like the most helpful god most of the time, so the only mortals who fear him include those who mistake him for a messenger of death (a discrepancy he does express annoyance with).
* FertileFeet: Wherever Persephone walks, grass and flowers grow from her footsteps.
* FirstPersonSmartass: Hades' accounts tend to develop a cynical tone.
* FracturedFairyTale: Even though these are retellings of Greek myths rather than fairy tales, each book otherwise fits this trope.
* FunWithAcronyms: For starters, ''Get To Work, Hercules!'' uses "T.R.U.T.H." and "F.I.B." as abbreviations for "Totally Real Unadulterated History" and "Factually Inaccurate Bull-[[GoshDarnitToHeck Hooey]]", respectively.
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Since the publisher changed from Hyperion to Stone Arch Books for the 2011 reprints, the epilogues for ''Phone Home, Persephone!'' onwards were drastically re-written to show Hades talking with someone other than the Titan Hyperion.
%% * Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GratuitousItalian: Aphrodite talks with this. The author says this trope is used so Aphrodite has an excuse to use the Roman and more familiar version of Eros's name, Cupid, which would otherwise be out of place with Greek names.
* GroupPictureEnding: ''Say Cheese, Medusa!'' and ''Go For the Gold, Atalanta!'' both end with Hades getting his picture taken with the title character and her family and friends.
* HappilyMarried: Hades and Persephone never divorce or cheat on each other, and even when she must leave the Underworld to bring spring to the world, he makes time to visit her on Earth.
* HurricaneOfPuns: These books provide several puns.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each novel has a title that sounds like someone giving a character a command or comment. Most of them also name their chapters with a theme related to the title and/or the main character.
* InSeriesNickname: Most serve as abbreviations for names that children might find too long to properly spell and/or pronounce.
** The gods refer to Hera as, "The Boss."
** The Furies Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone go by Alec, Meg, and Tisi, respectively.
** Gaia and Uranus have the respective nicknames of "Mother Earth" and "Sky Daddy".
** Pandora and Epimetheus have the respective nicknames of "Pandy" and "Epi".
** Hades' gardener, Ascalaphus, also goes by, "Cal".
** Medusa's sisters, Euryale and Sthenno, have the respective nicknames of "Riley" and "Eno".
** Hercules' cousin, King Eurystheus of Tiryns, also goes by, "Eury".
* InvisibilityCloak: Hades' Helmet of Darkness can turn him, and anything or anyone he holds, invisible.
* {{Kayfabe}}: Almost all references to ProfessionalWrestling (such as Hades wrestling a Titan in the Olympics, attending "Eagle-Eye" Cyclops' latest match, or starting his own wrestling federation) try to make it sound more like a legit sport than a scripted event.[[note]]''Nice Shot, Cupid!'' has one exception, in which Hades acknowledges wrestlers' blood as fake.[[/note]]
* LifeOfTheParty: Poseidon loves to party.
* NeverMessWithGranny: Gaia, AKA Mother Earth, AKA Granny Gaia, has a pretty bad temper.
* OnTheNext: The epilogue of each book features Hades telling one of his friends or relatives which myth he will retell next. Until ''Go For the Gold, Atalanta!'', he even shared the name of the next book.
* {{Precap}}: The original versions of the books each had one.
* ThePromise: A promise made over the waters of the River Styx can never get broken.
* PunnyName: Several characters have one, including these:
** Shiner the cyclops has one eye, and is named after the term for a black eye.
** The Hundred-Handed Ones go by Fingers, Highfive, and Lefty.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Hades reveals that some of the monsters who died in ''The Big Fat Book of Greek Myths'' actually survived, including monsters Zeus claims his sons slew.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Gods can communicate with animals via the Creature Communication Channel.
* {{Teleportation}}: Gods perform this with an "Astro-traveling spell", which Hades refuses to share with the readers.
%%* TitleDrop: Several books do this.
* WalkIntoMordor: For people who haven't died, travel between the Underworld and the Earth requires either a nine-day trek on the Underworld Highway, or access to Hades' secret shortcut. Not even astro-travel can help a god quickly reach the Underworld.
* WrestlerInAllOfUs:
** In ''Stop That Bull, Theseus!'', Hades meets a lot of mortals with great wrestling skills, from Theseus, to the bullies on the Trozen-Athens Road, to the Minotaur, [[spoiler:to the Athenians who could actually survive living in the labyrinth]].[[note]]Theseus and the bullies either belong or belonged to different wrestling leagues, while the Minotaur and the {{Walking Spoiler}}s have their own trainer.[[/note]]
** Hercules out-wrestles two pythons ''as a baby'', and also takes wrestling classes as a boy.
** Atalanta spends her life training to wrestle an immortal in the Olympics.
* WrittenSoundEffect: Some of the most commonly used include the "POOF!" of Hades turning invisible, and the "[[NowDoItAgainBackwards FOOP!]]" of him re-appearing.
----