@chbnet​ event 26 → 12 days of PJO | godly parent

athena always, always has a plan.

us: we're not judgemental

also us:

(artemis and apollo ily sm)

Flower boy Apollo

Odysseus: You knew about this and didn’t tell me?

Patroclus: I don’t have the time to call you every time Achilles has a bad idea.

The fact that Apollo uses a silver bow and a golden sword implies that hes the type of person who combines golden and silver jewelry *shivers*

odysseus is generally seen as 'morally ambiguous' due to his not always being seen as the best of people- but this is a very modern and feminist take, and whilst nothing is inherently wrong with the idea of feminist takes and retellings, it skews what we have and already know of the myths, and this can be seen most predominantly in the character of odysseus. odysseus is two things:

- not meant to a hero

- not meant to be good

he is written as a man faced with impossible odds, and who loses some- if not all- of his morality in doing so. BUT where does the idea of him being 'bad' come from? the penelopiad by margaret atwood, a woman known for being quite vitriolic towards men of any kind. in recent years, people have picked up on three major things from the odyssey:

- the hanging of the maids

- odysseus cheating on his wife

- odysseus going mad at the end

NOW, to break it into points:

the hanging of the maids is so often seen in a feminist light due to margaret atwood, where odysseus is painted as some cruel, vile, disgusting predator who loathes women. this isn't true to the odyssey AT ALL. in the odyssey it is explicitly stated by the nurse that raised telemachus: 'i shall single out those who betrayed you, my lord' and by one of the maids herself- melantho: 'if we sleep with the suitors, when they become king we will be in favour with him.' and THIS is why he killed the maids. not because he was insane, not because he was bad, but because they had betrayed not just him- but his wife. not all the maids were killed, only those who slept with the suitors. the argument most often used for this is that the women couldn't say no, but this goes against what the maids themselves say in the odyssey when they believe no one to be watching.

odysseus cheating on his wife HE DIDN'T. but he is a man, and as a man, he cannot be raped. he is a terrible man for sleeping with circe and calypso when he could have- as epic decides to say- say no. which is untrue!! these are goddesses. titanesses. circe is the daughter of helios, and calypso is daughter of atlas. they could overpower him simply by looking at him. circe turned his men to pigs, even with the moly she could have easily done the same- or worse- to him. the idea of him choosing to and being unfaithful stems from madeline miller's, Circe which whilst not inherently bad, goes out of its way to put all men in a terrible light, because the heroes deserves no rights in feminist retellings. odysseus wanted to say no, but could not as hermes explicitly told him he couldn't. on the flip side, calypso threatens, ensnares him and only releases him when told to by hermes and the council of the gods. in the odyssey it is literally stated: 'and odysseus stayed on the shores weeping for home before joining the nymph in her bed.' he did not WANT to sleep with calypso, but was left with no other choice but to do so. this is a recurring theme for calypso.

but he is blamed due to his gender, and the idea of 'feminism' and 'patriarchy'.

and now, the real reason for odysseus being seen badly:

the telegony the telegony is a myth written after the odyssey with telegonus- son of circe and odysseus- as the main character. in this he travels to find his father and meet him, but accidentally kills him on the shore. (peneleope marries telegonus, and circe marries telemachus) but this is where the idea of odysseus' insanity comes from. in the telegony, it is stated he went mad after the war, and couldn't survive without bloodshed, and so he went out seeking war, and women, and battle, and went mad in this.

the statement: 'generous to odysseus' is wholly unfair, because he is a man forced to lose everything, assaulted, violated, tortured and imprisoned with no hope of survival. he goes to war knowing he won't return for 20 years, won't see his wife, and won't watch his son grow. he is a man not a god, or a demigod. he's just some dude doing his best.

before i leave for school today i want to say something: i think a point that a lot of myth nerd people miss is that at the end of the day it doesn't matter what you want to label achilles and patroclus' relationship as because it will always be fundamentally queer. these are two men who love each other so intensely one is willing to risk his own life to protect the other one's glory and reputation and the other one is willing to sacrifice his godlyhood and immortality to avenge the other's death. their love for each other breaks almost everything that the people expected from heroes and demigods as we see in plato's symposium -- achilles killing hector and not caring that it meant he had basically been reduced to any other mortal person is the most shocking part of it all, even for the people back then, since he's been fighting to maintain his glory and honor for so long, for the entire iliad in fact, but is willing to throw it all into the air the exact moment his beloved patroclus is killed. it doesn't matter if what they felt for each other was platonic, familial, queerplatonic or romantic, the story in itself is queer in its very roots and has always resonated with the lgbtq community and to try and make it seem like we are foolish for thinking of them as lovers is to disregard the importance that their story has to all of us.

"Actually in the REAL mythology [Ovid retelling; not canon to the actual religion or pantheon in any way, not what ancient Greek people believed and just a reimagining, literally poems written by a dude who intentionally put different spins on the God's narratives, not story of the real fucking myth]" SHUT UP!!!!!!!!

Sleeping on the job

Hera: A boy doesn't dye his hair that color unless he has psychological problems!!

Dionysus: My hair color has nothing to do with my psychological problems!!!!

So fiercely was Apollo in love with Hyacinthus

but how hyacinthus endlessly adored apollo

inspired by this photo from google I randomly found looking for refrences

HAL: Please stop putting fish in your pants. That's not what they mean by "codpiece".

CALIBORN: I DO WHAT I WANT. FAGGOT.

HAL: Yes, you do. I don't know why I possibly would've thought so otherwise.

Nine of Swords. Art by Ivy K, from the Mythos Tarot.

SISYPHUS

Hermes (:

Someone: Greek mythology is boring.

Greek mythology:

"People need to stop saying Lore Olympus is disrespectful to Apollo. Do yOu kNow WHat a ReTeLlinG iS?"

Literally Lore Olympus' comment section (and other places!):

And my personal favorite:

(and yes, apparently (cuz im not the one who took the screenshot) this was found under a LO discussion on Instagram)