Gods and Monsters (titled "Gods and Monsters 2017" distinguish it from other works with the same title) is a retelling of Greek Mythology by ShanaStoryteller. It features several connected short stories featuring tales of famous episodes of Greek mythology, most with some twist or other.
Originally published on the author's tumblr, it was collected on Ao3 here
and is for sale here.
Gods and Monsters features the following tropes:
- Abled in the Adaptation: A variant. Hephaestus' typical origin story involves the fact that he was deformed and that Hera, disgusted, threw him off Olympus after his birth as a result. In this, while he's born a normal baby, he loses his legs below his knees as a result of the fall.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: From Arachne's chapter: "They tell tales of Hephaestus’s ugliness. They are not true."
- Adaptational Badass: Five of the nine Muses take to the battlefield at one point, and do very well. By contrast, in classical canon, they were not martial goddesses
- Adaptational Consent: Downplayed with Apollo was infamous for chasing down unwilling women in the mythos. Here, while he's still rough with men, Artemis keeps him from forcing himself on women.
- Specifically, while he famously pursued Daphne against her will in classical mythology, here the two are happily in love. Which means...
- Adaptational Jerkass: Peneus is hit with this. In the classical tradition, his transformation of Daphne into a laurel was done at her request to protect her. Instead, here he is disapproving and he just straight-up murders Daphne.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Aphrodite, one of the most jealous of the Olympians, is here pretty reasonable by godly standards. She becomes something of a protectress to Arachne, for instance, and her tests of Psyche are of the Secret Test of Character variety rather than the "I-want-you-dead" variety.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Classical mythological tradition usually has the Nine Muses as the daughters of Zeus and a single Titaness. Here they're daughters of Apollo, who in myth would be their half-brother, and various women.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Artemis is usually portrayed as chaste. Here, while she's sworn off the company of men, she definitely hasn't sworn off the company of women.
- Adaptational Villainy: Zeus has almost no redeeming qualities in this work.
- Awful Wedded Life: Zeus and Hera, natch.
- Break the Haughty: Hera, in the earliest iteration we see of her at the beginning of the Hera and Hephaestus chapter, is extremely proud and willing to endure an abusive marriage with Zeus for the sake of power. That slowly breaks her, and she's a shell of a woman by the time Hephaestus rescues her.
- Chick Magnet: Apollo is noted at one point to have many female admirers. Most of the Muses, who in this are his daughters, are born after encounters with various goddesses and mortals.
- Chocolate Baby: Hephaestus.
- Composite Character: After spending time in the underworld, Icarus starts helping out with maintaining the underworld and picks up the name Thanatos.
- Achilles is somehow sent back in time and becomes Charon the boatman.
- Demeter is actually Gaia, Mother Earth herself.
- Cuddle Bug: Ares, believe it or not, often receiving hugs and cuddles in his chapter. They're usually of the cool-down variety.
- Determinator: Arachne. She journey's to Hephaestus' forge twice, once as a spider.
- Driven to Suicide: Icarus, who after spending several years as Poseidon's not-entirely willing lover leaves the palace, and is either crushed by the pressure or drowns. Then he wakes up in the underworld...
- Dude Magnet: Even in a story where most characters are quite attractive and have many lovers, special mention has to go to Icarus/Thanatos. While still mortal, he attracts Apollo and Poseidon. After going to the Underworld he catches Hades and Persephone's eye, and settles into some sort of relationship with both of them.
- Interrupted Suicide: Eros gets Zephyr to interrupt Psyche's.
- Loophole Abuse: Artemis is supposed to remain a virgin. A young woman who wants to, ah, thank her for something claims that virginity is "a man’s invention and a man’s concern", and since they're both women...as can be inferred from the above trope on Adaptational Sexuality, Artemis takes this to heart.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Aphrodite with Ares by mortals in Eros and Psyche's chapter. As a baby, Eros was so warm to the touch that only Ares could touch him comfortably, so he often curled up in bed with Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Eros.
- Really Gets Around: Apollo has the longest list of lovers in-series.
- Erato, one of the Nine Muses and Apollo's daughter with Amphitrite, leaves a "constant trail of heartbroken men and women" behind her, a characteristic she apparently picked up from her father.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Psyche, who wants to have a normal life.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Hephaestus, usually seen as one of Zeus and Hera's three children, is in this the son of Hera and a mortal man. He is thrown from Olympus in this version for this.
