History YMMV / ClassicalMythology

* TheScrappy: The Spartans and the Romans were both much more fond of Ares (or his local {{Expy}} then 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.

** Both Hades and Hephaestus. 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 the patron goddess of {{Femme Fatale}}s for a wife.

** Either Persephone was tricked into eating pomegranate seeds so that she'd have to split her time, or she chose to eat them so she could stay with Hades and just claimed she was tricked in order to get MyBelovedSmother off her back. Some versions of the story even indicate that Persephone knew what she was doing when she plucked the flower that brought on her abduction.

** Both Hades and Hephaestus. 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 smith-god with the patron goddess of {{Femme Fatale}}s for a wife.

* [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bitch]]: Aphrodite, jealous of her son Eros' wife Psyche, breaks apart their marriage and then sets Psyche to several impossible tasks in order to earn him back.

* TheScrappy: The Spartans and the Romans were both much more fond of Ares (or his local {{Expy}} then 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]].

** Loads and loads for Odysseus.

* NeutralGood: Hestia is by far the gentlest and most benevolent to mortals and her kin alike.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Every myth comes in at least two or three variants, and that is just the ones handed down to the present!

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Ares doesn't get much respect for his savage nature. As Mars, the Roman think his brute is hardcore. Though that may be a little bit of CrazyPrepared. A city at war as often as Rome might prefer to [[GenreSavvy have his favor]] after all. And after all one could argue that [[TheEmpire Mars was grateful]] to Rome.

** The big three were Hubris (See above), 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 put down on the gods, which tended to get [[{{Understatement}} 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 tenants of hospitality was an insult to him.

** 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 cyclopes who forge Zeus's lightning instead.

** Laomedon, Priam's father and a king of Troy, had Apollo and Poseidon working for him as part of their punishment for ticking off Zeus in some way. So he had Apollo watch his herds and Poseidon build a wall. And then he tried to welsh on paying them. Poseidon sent a sea monster to eat one of Laomedon's daughters, but Laomedon managed to talk Heracles into killing the beast. And then tried to welsh on paying ''him.'' So Heracles and his comrades sacked Troy.

** 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 cyclopes who forge Zeus's lightning instead.

** The big three were Hubris (See above), 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 put down on the gods, which tended to get [[{{Understatment}} 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 tenants of hospitality was an insult to him.

* {{Woobie}}:

* ValuesDissonance: The cause of Achilles's sulk was a much bigger deal in his milieu.

* TheScrappy:The Spartans and the Romans were both much more fond of Ares (or his local {{Expy}}. 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]].
** Also, the Greeks tended to favor the strategic war goddess Athena over Ares.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Ares doesn't get much respect for his savage nature. As Mars, the Roman think his brute is hardcore.
** Though that may be a little bit of CrazyPrepared. A city at war as often as Rome might prefer to [[GenreSavvy have his favor]] after all. And after all one could argue that [[TheEmpire Mars was grateful]] to Rome.

* MemeticMolester[=/=][[MemeticSexGod Memetic Sex]] [[IncrediblyLamePun God]]: ''Zeus''. There's a reason he's the page image for RapeIsOkayIfItsDivineOnMortal.
** Notably, though, most depictions of him leave out such things as Ganymede... even if [[GodOfWar those works]] which depict him without his bisexuality will [[DoubleStandard happily show]] [[GirlOnGirlIsHot female-on-female action.]]
* MoralEventHorizon: {{Hubris}}. That was the cardinal sin; you could do just about anything else (yes, even rape and murder with a good enough excuse) and [[HeroicSociopath come out a hero]].

* WhatAnIdiot: There were occasions where, given the circumstances, mortals did things so thoroughly stupid and/or pig-headed that the gods' typical DisproportionateRetribution was hard to bat an eye at. For example, the crew of the Odyssey (save Odysseus himself) perished under Poseidon's wrath after killing and eating the sacred cattle of [[strike:Hyperion]] Helios. ''Which the blind seer Tiresias had specifically warned them not to do''. On top of that, '''''they had already made Poseidon mad beforehand'''''.

* {{Woobie}}: Both Hades and Hephaestus. 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 smith-god with the patron goddess of {{Femme Fatale}}s for a wife.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Hades, who contrary to [[GodOfEvil modern adaptations]] was the stoic and gloomy but non-evil ruler of the dead who had no designs (that we're aware of) on his brother's throne. He was actually one of the ''less'' selfish or petty gods.

** Tiresias became blind after accidentally coming across Athena in the nude. And the sisters Medusa, Euryale and Stheno got turned into Gorgons after Medusa was raped 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''
** 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. She the spent several years as either a priestess of Hera, a prostitute, or both. She is 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 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.

* {{Woobie}}: Both Hades and Hephaestus. One is the lonely (until he got his [[AzumangaDaioh waifu]]), overworked, [[EverybodyHatesHades generally disliked and often-misunderstood]] god of the Underworld. The other is the equally-disliked, equally-overworked, crippled smith-god with the patron goddess of {{Femme Fatale}}s for a wife.

* FridgeLogic: [[NorseMythology Norse gods]] are almost always depicted as tall and Nordic looking, to the point where people actually [[SeriousBusiness had a fit]] when the movie version of ''{{Thor}}'' had a black Heimdall. So, how come the Greek gods are never depicted as short, dark, and hairy?
** According to {{Hesiod}}, the Golden Age ended when Prometheus gave fire to mankind. Afterwards was the Silver Age, followed by the Bronze Age, which ended with TheGreatFlood in the time of Deucalion and Pyrrha. Considering the Deucalion was Prometheus's son, and Pyrrha was the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, this means that the Silver and Bronze Ages combined lasted for only one generation.

* LawfulNeutral/ DarkIsNotEvil: Hades, who contrary to [[GodOfEvil modern adaptations]] was the stoic and gloomy but non-evil ruler of the dead who had no designs (that we're aware of) on his brother's throne. He was actually one of the ''less'' selfish or petty gods.
** Helps he pretty much got the raw end of the deal, he's overworked (thanks to all the Greek heroes and gods), no one likes him, and the prime reason why he kidnapped his wife Persephone was out of loneliness. At least the marriage worked out.
*** Ancient Greece considered marriage to be an abduction of a woman from her family. So in truth, back then, Hades wouldn't have been considered to be kidnapping Persephone, [[{{ValuesDissonance}} merely marrying her.]]
** And then there's the fact that Hades [[PetTheDog could and did occasionally bend the rules for mortals]], such as with Orpheus and Eurydice. And when he ''did'' screw around with mortals, he was actually justified in doing so -- Theseus and Peirithous tried to kidnap Persephone, Sisyphus (see above) tried to cheat death, and Zeus blasted Asclepius because Hades complained that Asclepius's efforts were cheating him of new subjects for his kingdom. In general, if you didn't bother Hades, he wouldn't bother you.
*** According to some versions of the story, Hades had no problem with a kickass healer like Asclepius until he started going from curing the deathly ill and mortally wounded to actually ''[[BackFromTheDead raising the dead.]]'' From his perspective, medicine is fine, but stealing Hades's subjects without his express permission is a '''Bad Idea'''.

** As well as all those mortals, Cronus, leader of the Titans, counts too. After defeating Uranus to free the Gigantes, Cyclopes and Hecatonchires, you'd think he would try to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Instead, he goes and ''reimprisons them with no well-recorded reason'', pissing off Gaia all over again and inciting her to raise Zeus to overthrow Cronus.