The Greek/Latin Gods

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Well, technically, if at least one person believes in them, they're a mythology.
And if I know anything about my kind, there's much, much, much more than just one believer.

But we are talking about the gods of the ancient bisexual pedophiles here.

 

[Tancred_de_Houdan]

Well, technically, if at least one person believes in them, they're a mythology.
And if I know anything about my kind, there's much, much, much more than just one believer.

I might have expressed myself quite badly.
What I meant to say, that Lovecraft's wobbly god is not part of any ancient classic mythologies.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

What you said and what you meant are two completely different things.
No point in bolding that out now.

 

[uncreative]

Why has no one said Ares (did i spell that right). But i like Possiden and Hades are cool to.

Ares was a bitter, cowardly, and vain fellow with a superiority complex. Mars was a little better, the glorious God of War leading the Legions to victory, but Ares...

I'm pretty sure there are stories about Ares stubbing his toe (or something equally minor) and fleeing the field of combat crying.

Actually, that family she killed, I think she only killed the mother and her daughters while Apollo shot the sons. Those rascals.

You're right, but they're twins, so it's sort of like she did it too.

'Sides, Apollo's rarely a wrathful, frigid bastard, being the God of the sun and music and medicine and plague and archery and prophecy and athletics and drama and poetry and shepherds and light and truth and harmony and order, most of which are warm fuzzy things (plague not so much). Artemis is just the queen of the hunt, the moon, chastity, and archery, all of which are lonely, cold, and violent. Although I will admit, the idea of hunting alone at night is appealing, sometimes. There's only a few stories about Apollo massacring people out of wrath, but practically all of the stories about Artemis are about her massacring people or people trying to woo her and failing, then getting massacred.

I thought that Artemis was the goddess of war as much as Ares, but that she governed the organized, strategic, "intelligent" side of war, while Ares was more the god of brutal war; slaughter and bloodlust.

Strategic warfare doesn't sound awfully lonely. Meh, I might have watched one too many Xena episodes.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

That was Athena, if I remember correctly.

It's also why she's usually portrayed with a shield and spear. Or at least a helmet.

 

[zollum]

Artemis was god of hunting, or so I have read

 

[The Mercenary]

Athene was the goddess of wisdom, owls, and strategic warfare. She's portrayed with a helm, raised on her head, a sarissa, and a hoplon, as I recall. She was apparently born from Zeus' head in full armor after Hephaestus cracked Zeus' head open with his hammer.

Ares was the god of carnage, accompanied by Phobos and Deimos, Fear and Terror (and the only people who liked him were Aphrodite, a twiddle-headed bimbo, and the Spartans). Generally portrayed with a sword and stark raving mad. Except when he stubbed his toe.

Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, archery, the moon, chastity, wilderness, mythical women warriors from Scythia, and probably some other stuff. Always has a bow and arrows, likes to run around and shoot stuff. I think she was normally shown in a half-tunic as well, baring one of her breasts, and most of her legs. Which I never got, since she was supposed to be chaste.

Like most goddesses, Artemis was not a happy camper when she was insulted. It is a generally good rule to follow, that one should not insult the gods by calling them names or even by comparing oneself to their beauty, skill, or anything else. The same rule applies with most nymphs. One idiot, for example, named Chione, bore the penalty for daring to compare herself to Artemis. She asked Apollo to tell her she was more beautiful than the goddess. This he would not do (smart man), but Artemis found out, and shot Chione. She also killed Ethemea for not sacrificing to her. Another example was when some dude forgot to sacrifice to her and she sent the Calydonian Boar to ravage everything. A girl named Gerana was turned into a crane for talking smack.

Between Artemis and her twin brother Apollo, they reigned over like 99% of the different subjects out there. Most gods had like one or two dominions, then you hit Apollo who has like 58543893489 and Artemis, who has like the other 7843178.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

So essentially, Athena knew what to do in conflicts bigger than the average bar fight, Ares was the ax crazy maniac, Artemis was...bow crazy? And Apollo was an *******?

 

[uncreative]

Sorry my mistake, got Artemis and Athene confused for a second there

 

[Urlik]

Pertheus he gave us fire

Pertheus? Who the **** is Pertheus? Oh, you mean Prometheus. Ohhhhh.

Favourite classical deity? Don't know. Dionysus sounds like a hoot, I suppose.

Prometheus wasn't a god, he stole fire from the gods so they punished him by chaining him to a rock where he would have his liver plucked out and eaten and then at night his liver would be restored and it would all happen again the next day 

Dionysus sounds like the best of the gods to hang out with although I have a lot of respect for any god that can zap your arse with a lightning bolt, so Zeus/Jupiter has to be near the top of any list of the best of the gods

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Actually, Prometheus was a god.
In some stories, he made the living creatures in others he just had to assign traits to them but ran out of traits by the time he got to the humans and gave them fire instead.
In other, he pissed off Zeus that decided to take away the fire first.

 

[Urlik]

Actually, Prometheus was a god.
In some stories, he made the living creatures in others he just had to assign traits to them but ran out of traits by the time he got to the humans and gave them fire instead.
In other, he pissed off Zeus that decided to take away the fire first.

I stand corrected

 

[Rubberduck]

Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, archery, the moon, chastity, wilderness, mythical women warriors from Scythia, and probably some other stuff. Always has a bow and arrows, likes to run around and shoot stuff. I think she was normally shown in a half-tunic as well, baring one of her breasts, and most of her legs. Which I never got, since she was supposed to be chaste.

An early case of "damned if you do, damned if you don´t?"

 

[FrisianDude]

Promteheus was not a god, he was a titan.

 

[zollum]

Titans was just a name for the old gods wasnt it?

 

[gamer0745]

I think of titans as a sort of predecessor to gods? Weren't a couple of gods born from titans anyway?

 

[Bullethead]

I think of titans as a sort of predecessor to gods? Weren't a couple of gods born from titans anyway?

The whole Indo-European pantheon, including its Greco-Roman version, was always a usurper of the indigenous religion.  Thus, to adapt to the local situation, its gods were usualy portrayed as being descendants, conquerors, or at least senior partners of the local "old gods", some of whom usually ended up in that version of the Indo-European pantheon.  Thus, the Germanic version had the Aesir (Indo-European) and the Vanir (indigenous), the Greco-Romans had the Olympians and all the other stuff like titans, nymphs, etc.  Athena's whole owl/wisdom thing, for example, was the "Old European" Neolithic supreme goddess grafted onto the generic Indo-European war goddess.

When Christianity moved into these areas, it followed the same practice to some extent, such as making the pagan goddess Brigid into a saint, or at least reassigning properties of the pagan goddess to a Christian saint of the same name.  In Wessex, the royal genealogy originally went back to Wodin but after they were converted, Wodin was made the descendant of several fictitious personages going back to an otherwise unknown son of Noah supposedly born aboard the Ark.

 

[Urlik]

Artemis was normally shown in a half-tunic as well, baring one of her breasts, and most of her legs. Which I never got, since she was supposed to be chaste.

dressed like that I expect she'd have been chaste* all over the place





*for chaste read chased.
puns don't work so well when written down but who cares when the opportunity for a bad one comes along? 

 

[Gabeed]

Hephaestus/Vulcan is my favorite.  He might be a cripple, but he crafts some nice stuff and he is the only one who doesn't seem like a pompous *** hole.

QFT.  Every other major Greco-Roman deity has some mythological tale about how they were dicks to mortals for the hell of it.  Hephaestus just wants to bang his hammer and hot wife.

 

[gamer0745]

Hephaestus/Vulcan is my favorite.  He might be a cripple, but he crafts some nice stuff and he is the only one who doesn't seem like a pompous *** hole.

QFT.  Every other major Greco-Roman deity has some mythological tale about how they were dicks to mortals for the hell of it.  Hephaestus just wants to bang his hammer and hot wife.

Can you blame him?