Classical Mythology: Difference between revisions

[[File:mount-olympus 3714.jpg|frame|[[Blatant Lies|Just one big]] [[Big Screwed-Up Family|happy family.]]]]

 

In Homer's portrayal, they were basically [[Physical God|super-powered humans]] without [[Comes Great Responsibility|the super-]] that comes standard with powers these days. Zeus, for example, was a philandering rapist, responsible for a large share of the [[Half-Human Hybrid|god-human hybrids]] running around. Many of these became great heroes, the most famous of which was '''Hercules/Heracles/Herakles'''. Though you'd think Zeus's wife and [[Brother-Sister Incest|sister]] Hera would be a sympathetic character, she spends most of her time taking out her frustrations on said heroes, probably because Zeus, said to be more powerful than all the other gods and goddesses combined, was beyond her ability to take any meaningful revenge on. Other gods engaged in similar behavior. Hades, while [[Hijacked by Jesus|not as]] [[Everybody Hates Hades|evil as his]] [[Theme Park Version]], got his wife by kidnapping his niece '''Persephone''' (with Zeus's approval and assistance). This prompted the girl's mother, Demeter, to [[Just-So Story|create summer in retaliation]]. Greece and Italy are considerably warmer than other parts of Europe, and their summers are much hotter, so as the myth moved north, it became the explanation for winter instead. And [[War God|Ares]]... Well, he ''defines'' [[Jerkass]].

 

 

Also there are the oft forgotten, primordial gods that preceded the Titans, '''Gaia''' being the most well known of them (though often [[Did Not Do the Research|mistaken for a titan]]).

Characters from this period are universally recognizable to viewers thanks to a dress code heavy in drape-and-cinch unpatterned linens, plus, they've all made the uncanny decision to speak with a [[British Accent]].

 

 

 

* ''[[Theogony]]''

* ''[[The Trojan Cycle]]''

* Most of the works of ancient Greek tragic playwrights [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]].

 

* ''[[The Aeneid]]''

* ''[[The Metamorphoses]]''

 

== A-C ==

* [[Achilles' Heel]]: [[Trope Namer]] that is surprisingly not ''[[The Iliad]]''. That is the story of his rage, but it doesn't cover many of the famous parts of the [[Trojan War]], including his death and the creation of the Trojan Horse (those are narrated in lost epics of the [[The Trojan Cycle|Trojan Cycle]]). In fact, the Achilles Heel myth is not even referenced in the text, and Achilles is more known for his skill, strength, speed, and ferocity than for being nigh-invulnerable.

** Also Apollo and [[Norse Mythology|Freyr]], Hades and [[Finnish Mythology|Tuoni]] and etc.

** The weekdays Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are named after the Norse/Germanic gods Tiw, Wodan, Thor, and Freya. In the Romance languages, their names are different: For example, in Italian, they're called Martedi (Mars), Mercoledi (Mercury), Giovedi (Jove/Jupiter), and Venerdi (Venus). The implication is that Mars is equivalent to Tiw, Mercury to Wodan, Jupiter to Thor, and Venus to Freya. (Incidentally, it also means that the names of the days of the week are named after [[The Solar System|the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn]]—the seven planets of [[Western Zodiac|traditional Western astrology]].)

* [[And I Must Scream]]: Those [[Taken for Granite|unfortunate enough]] to gaze upon the face of Medusa.

** Which is where we get the word petrified

* [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]: Atalanta, who's distracted from a footrace by [[How Do You Like Them Apples?|sparkly golden apples.]]

* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]: While [[Hypocritical Heartwarming|Zeus himself]] does a lot of morally ambiguous things to [[Casanova|mortals]], if anyone besides him tries to make a move on Hera (or Leto), he reacts instantly and violently.

** Though in Orpheus's case, he came back from Hades, and hadn't really died.

** Persephone does this every year, but doesn't count since she's a goddess.

* [[Cardboard Prison]]: Arguably, Hades.

* [[Chained to a Rock]]: Andromeda and Hesione.

* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Hera is a Jealous Wife, but rightfully so, because her job as goddess of family and marriage runs in direct opposition to her husband's ''very'' promiscuous ways. She even torments the poor girls Zeus rapes.

** Persephone turned the nymph Minthe into the mint plant as revenge for trying to sleep with her husband.

* [[Conjoined Twins]]: Depending who you ask, Geryon is a group of conjoined ''triplets.''

* [[Continuity Snarl]]: Even if you stick to just the Roman or just the Greek myths, ''don't'' expect consistency.

 

== D-F ==

* [[Different for Girls]]: Achilles in a disguise.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: [[Wild Mass Guessing|Maybe they all want to make an example of those foolish mortals?]]

* [[Divine Date]]: Zeus was notorious for doing this behind Hera's back, though a fair number of other gods were willing to give it a try.

* [[Divine Parentage]]: lots and lots of examples. Many were children of Zeus, like Perseus, Heracles and Helen. Aeneas was a son of Aphrodite.

** Also Narcissus, who was cursed to fall in love with his own reflection by Aphrodite as punishment for cruelly rejecting all the girls (and [[Erastes Eromenos|guys]]) who fancied him. Realising he could never love anyone else so much, he either stabbed himself or threw himself into a river.

** This trope is hardly uncommon, especially in Greek tragedy: going back to Oedipus, Jocasta did not take the news of the revelation well. Then later we have Antigone, Haemon, Eurydice... and that's just the Oedipus trilogy.

* [[Due to the Dead]]: Good guys bury the dead properly. Always. Insofar as you fail, you are not a good guy until you straighten out your act.

** Or you die because you actually DID it (or because of laws that want to prevent that)... ask [[Antigone]]...

** Hephaestus bested Ares using his skills as a smith, considerable wit and formidable strength. Not bad for a guy often considered a joke by the other Gods.

* [[Girl in a Box]]: Danae.

* [[God Is Evil]]: Zeus, the king of the gods, appears often as a rapist and a [[Manipulative Bastard]] in some myths, despist his modern [[Sadly Mythtaken|usually benevolent portrayal]]. His father Chronus/Kronos and his grandfather Uranus weren't any better... if not worse. See also [[Jerkass Gods]].

* [[The Great Flood]]: Deucalion and Phyrra again, as well as two other stories.

* [[Instrument of Murder]]: During a music lesson from the lyrist Linus, Hercules once took some criticism the wrong way, and bashed Linus' head in with his own lyre.

* [[It Was a Gift]]

 

== J-L ==

* [[Plant Person]]: Dryads.

* [[Prophecy Twist]]: Too numerous to list.

* [[Rage Against the Heavens]]: Olympus is attacked more than once, and Heracles was known to get into fights with several gods.

** Gaia, mother of Earth, did it the most; first she plotted to have her husband, Ouranos, overthrown and killed by Cronus because he locked away the Gigantes, Cyclopes and Hecatonchires for their ugliness. Then, when Cronus is stupid enough to lock away the newly-freed giants after they were just freed (not to mention devour his children) she plots for Zeus to kill him. Then, as vengeance for the Olympians killing her children, the Titans (which she herself pretty much caused by the previous plot; never mind that Zeus had ''freed'' the kyklopes and hekatonkheires), she sets Typhon and the Gigantes onto the Olympians. Basically, she took offense to pretty much every generation of the gods, even when she got them into power in the first place. Brings a whole new meaning to [[Gaia's Vengeance]], doesn't it?

* [[The Trickster]]: Prometheus functioned as a pro-human trickster god until Zeus locked him up. Hermes has tricks and moral transgressions as one of his hats.

* [[Troll]]: What Eris does best.

* [[Truly Single Parent]]: Nyx (although exactly which ones are just hers and which ones she had by Erebus are disputed). Also her daughter Eris, to either a lesser or further extent, depending on whether you're counting number of kids had or percentage of kids born by parthenogenesis.

* [[Twincest]] [[Incest Subtext|Subtext]]: Apollo was ''not'' happy when he heard about Artemis and Orion. It didn't end well for Orion.

* [[World's Strongest Man]]: Heracles.

** He can even lift the sky... ask Atlas...

** Hera, too. Doesn't help that her husband is none other than Zeus.

* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'', ''[[The Aeneid]]''.

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[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:Classical Mythology]]