How do you make the other Greek Gods work as antagonists?

As i mentioned in another thread already, I'm considering using a Greek deity as an antagonist in one of my stories. However, i was hoping to use one that wasn't becoming something of a cliche. You see, some of the Greek Myth stories out there (or those that used Greek Mythology as a theme for the plot of the day) have used the Greek Gods as villains in the past and a lot of them worked (if only to a degree). But what about the other Gods and Goddesses, how do i use them and be different, but still make it feel like it works?

In the past, the following Greek Deities have been used as main antagonists for stories and they made sense in their own way—

Hades - While using this character as a villain is not accurate to the actual mythology (Hades was not evil, you see) and is more of trying to relate him and the Underworld to the Devil and Hell, it does still work in its own way. Hades is the Lord of the dead and, therefore, has command over armies of zombies, ghosts, skeletons and various other monsters. The Underworld itself definitely works as a Villain's lair as well, and as the King of the Underworld, his motives for villainy could be to; try to reclaim Olympus or to just increase his dead soul population.

Ares - He is the God of War, and therefore, he would likely command vast armies and would no doubt enjoy watching people get slaughtered in battle. His motivation for villainy could be that he just wants violence to sweep the world without any end in sight.

Hecate - She's a witch and the Goddess of the Night and Magic, nuff said.

Hera - The Hercules myths have already established just how vicious and vile Hera can be. All the story would need to do is find someway for the main character to provoke Hera in some way.

Eris - She's the Goddess of Chaos, nuff said.

Poseidon - The Odyssey has already established how menacing Poseidon can be. Like Hera, the only thing that would be required is for the hero to offend Poseidon in some way.

Circe - Like Hades, Eris and Ares, I have seen this character from Greek Mythology used as villain by the media. Probably not as much, but still, she seems a little too obvious a villain to use.

Cronus or any of the other Titans - Once again; too obvious a choice for villains and one that has been used many times before.

Greek Mythology has several other Gods and Goddesses to use as characters, but, how can you make them antagonists?

Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love and Beauty, the most evil thing she could do is constantly come between a romantic couple and temporarily drive a wedge between them. Her son, Eros (Cupid); same thing. To be honest, that could get a little corny and weak pretty fast.

Athena, Hestia and Demeter can't really be villains either when you think about it; nearly every media I've seen has portrayed Athena as a helpful goddess who guides the heroes through their ordeals. And, since she's the Goddess of Wisdom, villainy would sort of be out of character for her (there's no wisdom in being evil). Hestia is basically just the patron deity of the olden day housewife and Demeter, like her mother, Gaia, is basically a female Captain Planet (and before you mention it, I'd rather not make her a Poison Ivy rip-off, thank you very much).

Hermes and Hephaestus are little more than servants to the other Greek Gods and that's basically all they would be good for, service. Hermes can only move fast and bring things to people, and Hephaestus is really only good at building things. Him actually using them; not something i can imagine.

Dionysus is just a party animal, there's nothing villainous about that (not that i can see, anyway).

I'm considering using Artemis and Apollo, but, aside from them possibly having a sibling rivalry, there's not much i can do make either of them a villain. Artemis is a huntress, but she also protects wildlife from those who would hunt them for sport. Apollo may have Energy/Fire powers, but, he's the God of light, music, poetry and archery, where's the villainy in that?

For obvious reasons, i can't use Zeus, but, i don't want to due a cliche by using Hades, Eris, Hera, Poseidon, Ares or even Hecate or Circe either (especially since Hades was never a villain to begin with). Anyone have any thoughts?

Anyone can be used as an antagonist, for as long as something about them causes them to stand in opposition to the protagonist.

It does not have to equal being evil. There are stories where both the protagonist and the antagonist are good, and it's just that their goals very much do not align.

You should check out the story of Arachne. Athena could get very vindictive.

In fact, it's easier to list the Greek gods who weren't vindictive.

If you binge on the old myths, avoiding Bowlderised retellings, you should be able to depict almost any of the main Greek gods as evil without stretching things.

As for Aphrodite, her romantic love of Adonis (who she raised from a baby) is kind of creepy. You could portray her as a female paedophile without stretching things much, maybe...

The main thing I'd advise though is for you to do a bit more background reading. Your knowledge seems a bit sketchy. There really is a lot of good material in the old myths.

edited 26th May '15 3:39:27 AM by editerguy

Here's the thing. The Greek Gods weren't evil per se. They were fallible, and very human in terms of their emotions. Athena is not typically seen as evil, but she still cursed Arachne to spend eternity as a spider after she lost a weaving contest. (Argh Ninja'd)

Poseidon is a very proud god, so naturally he's going to make Odysseus' life difficult after the Trojan War. Even more so once he found out what he did to his son, Polythemus.

What I'm ultimately saying is, if you can find a way for you character to offend one of the Olympians, anyone of them can be an antagonist.

edited 26th May '15 3:39:53 AM by J.G.Crowne

It's funny how many of the gods you listed as potential antagonists are actually some of the more okay Greek gods in terms of spiteful vindictiveness.

Other than kidnapping Persephone (Though that was really out of line. >:|), Hades didn't ever really do anything bad. He was creepy and strict, but he did his job fairly- he even put up with people breaking in and singing at him to get dead people back.

Dead straight on Ares and Eris- though keep in mind Ares is a bit of a wimp sometimes, since he once ran away because a guy stabbed him. (Eris tho is the perfect antagonist for anything that seems like a stupidly self-destructive plan. She is the direct cause for the entire Trojan War.)

Hecate never really did anything bad. She helped fight the Titans (And may have been one), Giants and assorted other monsters. She helped Demeter search for her daughter after Hades (See above) kidnapped her. She adopted a mortal after some asshole gods turned the poor girl into a polecat. Hecate was often invoked as a defender from evil too. Making her bad would be a bit odd. She was an example of Creepy Good, really.

Hera was a prick to anyone who Zeus shacked up with, yeah, which was unnecessarily vindictive but understandable (Not like she could punish Zeus.)

Ocean-Face was of making people boat around forever whenever they annoyed him. Also made earthquakes (And horses).

Aphrodite was a fucking holy terror though. You did not cross this bitch and get away untouched. She was the goddess of "If you think you're prettier than me go fuck a bull."

Or, oh you don't worship me GO MURDER YOUR HUSBANDS AND JUMP INTO THE SEA. Or turned to stone or birds or made to do terrible, terrible things.

Don't ever make Aphrodite mad. Just don't. It will not be a family friendly death for you.

Athena was a vindictive prick. Smart, but still. She sank a fleet of ships, but she had a good reason in that case.

Once some girl had the arrogance of giving birth on her sacred ground, so Athena cursed the land to be barren and lifeless until the infant was left to die in the wilderness and the girl was sold into slavery.

Or cursed some poor girl because her mom (Aphrodite) had a baby with Ares.

Athena was not a nice person. She was smart- very clever and good at warfare, but not "nice".

Hestia was really nice though. Like the nicest of the Greek Gods, hands down. Demeter basically went on the warpath when her daughter vanished, including having a man burn alive in his home when he refused her hospitality. She also, to my endless mirth, transformed someone in a fit of rage into a mint plant.

Other than her mother bear tendencies, Demeter was pretty even tempered.

Hermes had a tendency to steal things because it amused him, including stealing Apollo's magic sun cows on the day he was a toddler (He invented a new kind of musical instrument for Apollo though, so no hard feelings.) He once turned a guy into a bird for calling him a common thief.

He also turned a nymph into a turtle for not going to a wedding.

But outside of those incidents, he was pretty chill as far as greek gods go.

Hephaestus mostly channeled his divine wrath into catching his wife and her lover in embarrassing situations. He did help Athena curse that poor girl because of what Aphrodite did, but he also made a magic throne for Hera that trapped her. Hilarious karma.

But he's really more known for helping people out than cursing them.

Dionysus is another holy terror. He was the god of "Totally out of control crazy let's go burn down everything and dance in the ashes".

His groupies were a bunch of crazy women who were so zerked out that they'd rip anyone they came across limb from limb.

Once a guy refused to allow Dionysus to be worshipped in his country, so Dionysus drove the man's mother and aunt torip him to pieces.

Also turned people into Dolphins. (He was very fond of having people ripped limb from limb.)

Artemis had a habit of bathing in the nude and having whoever found her turned into deer and hunted down. Apollo and her killed this woman's children after she claimed to be a better mother than Leto (Apollo & Artemis's mom). She and Apollo tended to tag-team vengeance. Artemis once sent a giant pig to ravage the land when someone didn't give her fruit from the first part of the harvest.

Apollo didn't really do that much by himself. He fell tragically in love a lot though. He may have tricked his sister into killing a guy once.

Apollo was also known as a god of plague, though more by reversal of his healer role. He did rain plague arrows down on the Greeks at the behest of a Trojan priest of Apollo.

Eros was described as "dragon-like" and "feared even by Jupiter". Admittedly in the Latin/Roman Cupid and Psyche (though the story existed for the Greeks)

But all in all, the gods were more retributive (often overly and hair triggered) rather than proactively villainous.

The easiest greek god to make a villain of Zeus, to be honest. I have read a good deal about the greek myths and the only single good thing he's ever done is caring for his children from time to time. Other than that he's a selfish and arrogant dick, a terrible ruler and a even worse god.

edited 26th May '15 6:04:45 AM by Gaon

And a rapist asshole. Frankly, the nicer version of Zeus that gets into a lot of history/mythology books owes more to Roman depictions of him as Jupiter than Greek ones.

Ninja'd on the list of gods ironically being some of the more reasonable ones.

And for the record, Hades and Persephone are two prominent protagonists in my story.

They take great offense to serial-killing, since the human protagonist and her parents are slated to be victims of a particularly extreme fairy.

Back on topic: Dionysus is a tricky deity—on one hand, he's the Pretty Boy party god, but he's got damn big ecstatic vibes to his practices—prophecy/oracles, artistry, so-called madness? Very shamanistic vibes. Days of tireless parties in extremely remote places? That sounds like a rave, which itself is a modernized cousin of ecstatic dance, which is right up Dionysus' alley as a god of parties AND art.

He's also the personification of alcohol ITSELF, not just the dude who created it (and probably drank it on a dare). Alcohol can make you fun and happy... but as alcohol abuse proves, it can turn you into a horrible person if you drink too much.

Most people can't really put Dionysus' separate functions together as "shaman" unless they're familiar with other shamanistic religions. So Dionysus isn't a bipolar party guy, more like a sometimes-Mad Oracle with a very vicious streak when crossed.

So yeah, he could very likely function as an antagonist in the strictest sense of "opposing the protagonist"—but maybe his goals, while not bad, are just different from the protagonist's.

edited 26th May '15 8:37:03 PM by Sharysa

Gena Showalter's Atlantis series is the only one I've ever encountered that depicted Hestia as a villain, though I wasn't convinced by her supposed motivations.

I think if you take her interest in the family and the community to an extreme, she could very easily become a well-intentioned monster. Maybe she will torture and dismember anyone who betrays their family or community. Maybe she demands human sacrifices. That alone could make her sufficiently villainous.

edited 27th May '15 12:02:09 AM by nekomoon14

Why would a god rape someone?

If you interest them, they don't care about consent.

Yeah, the Greek pantheon isn't really known for asking consent.

Athena turned evil in Marvel comics. She concluded that there was no realistic way to stop Amatsu Mikaboshi from destroying all of existence so she helped him speed things along. I think it was a Mercy Kill kind of thing.

Turning evil doesn't sound very wise, though.

Let's try this a different way; how can i make Aphrodite a villainess in a way other than just ruining people's relationships?

How would one make Artemis or Apollo into villains, but not butcher what they represented in the myths?

How often were Ares, Circe, Eris and Hecate used as villains?

For me, i count at least five times where Ares was an antagonist:

1. DCAU's Justice League Unlimited (he was the main antagonist of one episode)

2. The DC Original Animated Film, Wonder Woman (he was the main villain of that film).

3. DC Comics in General

4. The "Xena: Warrior Princess" Franchise (from what i heard, he was a prominent antagonist for Xena)

and

5. The Percy Jackson books (based on what i heard once)

I count at least four times when Circe was a prominent baddie:

1. A Ducktales Episode with a plot based around the Odyssey

2. A "Disney's Hercules" episode

3. An episode of "Mythic Warriors: The Guardians of Legend", which retold the part of the Odyssey when Odysseus met Circe

and

4. An episode of "Justice League Unlimited"

I can count two times where Eris was the main villain:

1. The Dream Works' Sinbad movie

and

2. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (she was a prominent character)

And finally i can think of two times Hecate was an important baddie

1. The "Disney's Hercules" series (she appeared in two episodes)

and

2. An episode of Mythic Warriors, where she was shown to be working for Hera for a brief scene

The fact of the matter is, i don't want to just milk a cow, i want to do something that at least looks a different spin on things. For example; Hades wasn't a bad guy in myth, but, Disney did make him into a very memorable villain.

As someone pointed out, Artemis sadistically killed a lot of people. Matues had a good post about this.

And again, Aphrodite was basically a paedo. When it comes to villainy, that shit writes itself...

How many of the myths have you read?

edited 28th May '15 12:06:37 AM by editerguy

@Demetrios: Wisdom means knowledge or skill, nothing more. So, being evil may very well be a wise course of action, depending on your goals. Also, evil is subjective and really means harmful or frightening, so...what exactly are you meaning when you say "wise" and "evil"?

edited 28th May '15 12:56:39 AM by nekomoon14

Why take this to spin? What is the appeal of Evil Aphrodite or Dark Artemis, to you?

Aphrodite can turn antagonist fairly easily. All you have to do is say she's not pretty, or that you're prettier, or not worship her properly or be related to the wrong people.

Or heck, being related to her may be a bad thing, since she may decide to make your life 'interesting'.

As for what she'd do.. I'm reminded of this one horror story I read once. This girl loves this guy, but he doesn't even know she exist (Typical), so she finds this book of forbidden magic and uses it to cast a love spell on the guy. It calls for some part of her, so she uses a lock of her hair.

It works fantastically well, but she starts noticing some weird things. The guy is slowly becoming more.. obsessive, and he's always playing with or smelling her hair.

It ends with (Slightly unpleasant)the guy ripping her hair out and eating it.

Crazy. Obsessive. Desire.

That's the sort of thing an angry Aphrodite might do.

All knowledge is for good. It's just the use you put it to that can be considered good or evil.

edited 28th May '15 8:27:19 AM by Demetrios

Right, but wisdom is specifically about APPLYING knowledge (hence, skill), which is why there can be harmful wisdom as well as helpful wisdom. And how exactly is all knowledge for good? Where are you getting that idea from?

edited 28th May '15 6:13:12 PM by nekomoon14

Well, as you can see from where that sentence was Pot Holed to, it is a quote from Battle for the Planet of the Apes...

Right. Because if it's said in a movie, it must be true

That's such an overly simplified way to look at a complicated world. "All knowledge is for good". What nonsense.

Gee, thanks. :/