Every myth comes in at least two or three variants Depending on the Writer, and that is just the ones handed down to the present! Of note are:
- One of Ares' Hymns
described him as kind of a Proud Warrior Guy while the other described him as more of the Blood Knight that people are more familiar with. - Either Persephone was tricked into eating pomegranate seeds so that she'd have to split her time, she was hungry and ate a pomegranate without thinking, she chose to eat them so she could stay with Hades and just claimed she was tricked in order to get My Beloved Smother off her back, or she never claimed to have been tricked and instead refused to eat them until Hades gave her the power she needed/wanted in their marriage. Some versions of the story indicate that Persephone was equally attracted to Hades for his power and knew what she was doing when she plucked the flower that brought on her abduction and especially when she ate the seeds (because she perfectly knew what eating them meant, and wanted to split her time to get benefits from both her husband and her mom). Others state that the "abduction" was just the final part of a Batman Gambit from both Hades and Persephone so they would be able to get married without interference (since Zeus had meddled in their previous meetings).
- Then there is the topic as to why Hades fell in love with Persephone in the first place. Most sources don't give a reason other than Love at First Sight, though Ovid mentions it was due to Aphrodite wanting to prove that her son Eros (Cupid) can make anyone fall in love, making him fire his love arrows on Hades. How much of the love between the couple was genuine or faked by Cupid in both short and long term is up for debate.
- Persephone's beauty putting Psyche to sleep is either an accident or it is a Secret Test of Character for Cupid to see if he loves Psyche enough to defy his mother in order to save her. Since the original text didn't give Persephone much characterization, both readings are equally famous among readers.
- Plato thinks Orpheus is a coward who mocked the gods by trying to go to Hades and get his lover back alive, instead of choosing to die in order to be with the one he loved.
- Loads and loads for Odysseus. Is he one of the most cunning and admirable heroes because he was faithful to his men, loyal towards his wife (relatively) and ultimately hated warfare, and was a Guile Hero on top of it? Or is he a slimy, low-life coward for exactly those same traits, making him a womanly wimp who would never win in a square fight?
- Some believe Achilles and Patroclus to have been not just best friends but lovers, which may add another dimension to Achilles' behavior after Patroclus' death. Since nearly Everyone Is Bi it is very much likely to have been the case. And before you start to assume this is a modern interpretation of the story cooked up by Yaoi fans, this way of looking at the story is so old, prominent authors like Plato, Aeschylus, Pindar and Aeschines commented on how probable this was.
- Athena's punishment of Medusa in Ovid's version of her myth. For some, she turned her to a monster to exact revenge on all men. (Which is egregious since she's a Daddy's Girl compared with other daughters of Zeus). For others, she simply did it because she couldn't punish Poseidon for desecrating her temple, so she went for the nearest target instead.
- The idea that Medusa was transformed at all is an example. She and her sisters were originally the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto (children of Pontus and Gaia) and were already monstrous. It wasn't until the fifth century that artists began portraying them as beautiful and it wasn't until Ovid about three hundred some odd years later that they became maidens who were transformed by the gods.
- That said, in Ovid's ACI, were Medusa and Poseidon lovers or did Poseidon rape her? If the latter, then did Athena truly intend to punish her, or was her transformation a means to ensure she could never be violated again? And if so, why did she then help Perseus kill Medusa later?
- Medusa's sisters, Stheno, and Euryale get tons of this (when people remember them, anyway), primarily because very little is written about them. Who were they? Where did they go after their sister was vanquished? In the Roman transformation version, what did they do to elicit Athena's wrath? Did they do anything at all?
- Hera in general. She's usually seen as an unbelievably cruel and vengeful goddess, and her role as the protector of women, marriage, and families is almost always forgotten. However, according to a Watsonian perspective, all of the tales of mythology are supposedly inspired by the Muses, who are illegitimate daughters of Zeus — of course they're going to paint Hera in a negative light. And as the story of Jason and the Argonauts can attest, when Hera picks a mortal champion to favor, she helps them loyally and with all the power at her disposal as long as they honor her back. When Jason didn't and abandoned Medea (who had sacrificed everything for him already), Hera was really fucking angry AND the other Gods backed her up.
- A theory about Hera's jealous behavior is that she actually doesn't care about Zeus's affairs, as husbands seeking sex outside of marriage was commonplace in Ancient Greek culture. Instead, Hera was angry about all the favor and attention Zeus granted his mistresses and illegitimate children. Zeus could potentially divorce Hera if he ever found a woman he liked more than her so she would have a very good motivation to make frequent examples out of the women who got too close to her husband. Additionally, it's also been suggested that her harassment of Zeus's favored illegitimate children wasn't just about jealousy but she's also testing their worth. In Ancient Greek culture, a husband's bastard children could only be acknowledged as legitimate if the wife gave her consent. Hercules and Dionysus were the who received the harshest treatment from Hera due to the high expectations Zeus had for them but she also quickly gave both of them her blessing when they became Olympians.
- The story of Arachne has multiple variations, which each paint both Arachne and Athena in different lights, although Arachne always ends up as a spider in the end.
- Version 1: Athena wins the contest, and Arachne commits suicide either out of humiliation or because the stakes of the contest was that the loser would never use a needle or spindle again. Athena then saves her by turning her into a spider- which also counts as Loophole Abuse as spiders don't need tools to weave, so Arachne could continue pursuing her passion while abiding by the terms of the contest. This version has Athena as being gentle and honorable, seeing Arachne as a Worthy Opponent.
- Version 1.5: Athena wins, and turns Arachne into a spider for losing. This makes her look proud and unforgiving.
- Version 2: Arachne wins the contest fair and square, upon which Athena flies into a rage and either kills Arachne or drives her to suicide by destroying the winning tapestry. Afterwards, she regrets her actions and turns Arachne into a spider as an apology. In this version, Athena is spiteful and hot-headed, but also a Jerk with a Heart of Gold capable of regretting her actions.
- Version 3 (one of the most popular versions): Athena and Arachne's tapestries are of equal quality, but while Athena wove a tapestry depicting the gods in a positive light, Arachne depicted the gods making fools of themselves. Athena was obviously less than impressed by Arachne brazenly insulting her family and destroys Arachne's tapestry to punish her for hubris, upon which Arachne commits suicide. Athena then feels sorry for her and turns her into a spider so she can continue weaving. In this version, while Athena is a stern punisher of Arachne's flippant attitude, she is also somewhat merciful.
- The myth of how Cassandra receives her curse has many different versions, all of which paint Apollo in different light; she either cheats on him, accepts his gift of prophecy while he was courting her and then blew him off (both of which makes his curse excessive but understandable), or she left her service as his priestess after receiving the gift of prophecy (which paints him as petty).
- Hope in Pandora's Box myth could mean either of two things: That it is a force of good that will be released later to help fix everything that has gone wrong (or a force of good that allows one to endure all other ills), or that it is the worst of all evils and Pandora has done well by sealing it. How can it be evil? Well, there's the hope that helps you get back up... and the hope where you tell yourself someone else will come along to fix your problems for you, which the Greeks saw as the worst reaction possible.
- Speaking of Pandora, was she an Unwitting Pawn made too curious for her own good, or was she a Femme Fatale who willingly participated in Zeus's plan? Hesiod seems to go with the latter, but he was a big He-Man Woman Hater who also counselled men to not love their wives because women were inherently evil.
- Why is Aphrodite attracted to Ares? Some say it's a simple case of All Girls Want Bad Boys, but other people have a more generous interpretation. They argue that Aphrodite likes Ares due to him being (in their view) the most pro-woman of the male Olympians, something that a Goddess of Love would definitely appreciate. An occasional theory is that her love of Ares is a remnant of Aphrodite being derived from the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who was both a love and a war god. The Greeks mostly stripped out Aphrodite's war goddess elements due to Values Dissonance, but the fact that she was originally associated with war might have eventually evolved into 'she associates with the god of war', and from there to 'She's banging Ares.'
- On the other side of the coin, some have suggested that Ares' continuous affair with Aphrodite is at least partly because she seems to be the only Olympian who actually likes him.
- Despite Hera's infamous antipathy towards Zeus' lovers and his children by them, she never once targets Danae or Perseus; indeed, the fact that some nymphs who serve her willingly help him on his quest implies that she had no hostile feelings towards him. Why is that? Did she think Acrisius' murder attempt leaving them adrift in the ocean for who knows how long was already punishment enough? Did she forgive them because of their deep mutual loyalty to each other, which a goddess of family would no doubt be touched by? Did she consider the "shower of gold" to be Zeus blessing Danae with a child in a non-sexual way, which didn't qualify as adultery in her eyes? Or was it just because they were originally from Argos, a city sacred to her? All of these have been suggested as potential explanations for her seemingly out-of-character behavior of not trying to harm them.
- Why did Helen go with Paris? Was she tired of her husband? Did Aphrodite make her fall in love with Paris? Or did he abduct or otherwise coerce her? All three of these interpretations — and some others — have popped up, both in original tellings of the myth and later on.
- Atalanta's engagement with Hippomenes. Either she was actually distractable enough that he won solely by throwing down golden apples that she then chased after, or she let him win because she liked him and/or didn't want to kill him.
- The most common interpretation of Aphrodite as a primary pacifist goddess who started a war because of her shipping is actually this. The Spartans worshipped her before the rest of Greece, and in their eyes, she had some affinity as a war goddess. Because they were Spartans.
- Given that Ariadne only helped to kill the Minotaur because she fell in love with Theseus despite possessing both the ball of string and the golden sword, modern readers have interpreted that she genuinely loves the Minotaur as a brother and can't bring herself to kill him.
- On the subject of the Minotaur, was he as brutal and bloodthirsty as he was by natural inclination? Did he choose to be that way? Or was he warped into a monster by his experiences? This interpretation is not new invention: a lot of non-Athen cultures (generally ones which were much more friendly towards the Cretans) have depicted the Minotaur in a much more neutral or even sympathetic light, with paintings depict the Minotaur interacting peacefully with other humans like this◊ 4th century BC Etruscan vase depicting him and his mother Pasiphae.
- Eris's golden Apple of Discord that she tosses at Thetis's wedding has multiple interpretations, fitting for the goddess of chaos:
- The correct recipient is Hera, as she is the fairest ruler (and also often depicted as the World's Most Beautiful Woman).
- The correct recipient is Athena, as she is the goddess of wisdom and thus has the fairest judgement.
- The correct recipient is Aphrodite for the obvious reasons.
- The correct recipient is Thetis and it's a wedding gift; who's fairer than a bride on her wedding day?
- In the titanomachy, it is completely possible for one to view the outcome of the Olympian victory over the Titans as less desirable for humanity - Zeus and the Olympians are the poster children for Jerkass Gods, using humans as pawns in games, inflicting Disproportionate Retribution for seemingly small crimes (Values Dissonance or not) or no crime at all, and regularly making unwanted advances on mortals. On the other hand, the time in which the titans ruled was called the golden age and a period of peak prosperity for the human race.
- Whether or not the three virgin goddesses (Hestia, Artemis and Athena) are actually "virgins". Endless debates whether or not they do have romantic attraction but just don't act on it (in the interpretation of Artemis and Orion as lovers), they are asexuals (as demonstrated multiple times by Artemis who has a habit of dishing out painful punishment for men who pursuing her or seeing her naked body, and by the Homeric hymns for all three which state that they're interested in hunting/warfare/housekeeping instead of romance), they are actually just not married and have no children (as is likely the original interpretation of the Greek), or as in the case of Artemis, lesbians due to the copious amount of Ho Yay with her hunters.
- Tumblr has a theory regarding Aphrodite and Hephaestus. Namely, that their marriage is a genuinely loving one, but most of the other gods are too shallow to understand why she would love him and assume she must be unhappy with him as her husband.
