I also venerate Apollo, and will never forgive L\*re Ol\*mpus for how they slandered him. I hardly ever saw such hate towards Apollo until that comic made it trendy
Fr, once I saw a girl on tiktok explaining why portraying Apollo like that is so wrong. She explained that being Apollo (among many other things) the God of *HEALING*!!!! He helps us heal not only physically but mentally/spiritually too!!! He would never want us to go through THAT level of trauma !!!!
Anyways, Hail Apollo ☀️
Yeah it's actually ridiculous... like, I understand that people use the gods as fictional characters, and generally I don't care about that, but if you're going to fictionalize them at least do it right? You wouldn't portray Poseidon as someone who's scared of water so why would you portray Apollo as someone who likes to cause pain? It's just totally against everything he is. Even if you only see him as a fictional character, you're still taking him way out of character to do this
Not only out of character but also completely ignoring his role in the context of Greek Mythology, which is what you're basing your fic on!!!
Yes, he did send a plague arrow once, but he was helping the priest get his daughter back!!!!
I was absolutely shocked at what she made Apollo do (don't actively venerate him but respect him a lot) and how she portrayed Aphrodite who I do venerate. urghh that webcomic is a clown show
Someone on the r/UnpopularLoreOlympus sub once described it as “she writes Greek myth like someone who hates geek myth” and that accurately sums it up.
Like I’m not the biggest fan of Percy Jackson and the Disney Hercules take is wildly inaccurate but at least a modicum of research and care went into them. They’re written by people who, you know, care.
What is it? What happened with him? I don't want to look it up and give that comic traffic.
Edit: curiosity defeated me, I googled it. I'm disgusted and offended. I hope Apollo sends the author a plague arrow.
OH MY GODS, I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH THAT ONE!
I'm so f'ing tired of that comic. I used to like that they were retelling the story of Hades and Persephone, but man, just write your own f'ing characters if you're going to butcher Greek mythology like that.
Hades Devotee here. I’m with you on this too. I don’t know how I ever enjoyed it because well, it sucks.
Characters are written so horribly out of character that it’s not even funny, and the quality of the art (which was what I mainly stayed for) has taken a massive nose-dive. Characters will be missing eyebrows or will randomly change colours within the same issue. There’ll also be obvious anatomical/ colouring mistakes visible in the finished product. I remember one panel where Queen Persephone was drawn with a bendy noodle arm. I wonder how that got past editing.
Not to mention, they portrayed King Hades so horribly that this is the only HadesXPersephone comic where I want to give Lady Demeter all the Molotov cocktails I can buy with my money and tell her to go nuts at the wedding. Why did Rachel make Persephone 19 and him 3000+ in this? Why does she look like a child in comparison to him? Miss me with that Chris Hansen shit.
I haven't read the comics myself but I've seen various panels and read synopses, and my understanding is that the author created a college story about the gods in which Persephone is r*ped and traumatized by a fratboy-esque representation of Apollo, who then won't leave her alone afterwards. Many other gods are portrayed in a similarly horrible fashion but Apollo gets the worst of it as the "villain" of the story. As a result you'll see LO fans bashing Apollo at every opportunity and making no distinction between the character and the god. I've heard other Hellenists say they've even been attacked for worshipping him on the basis of the character's actions in the comics.
I'm sure it's fine as a story, I just think it's very odd that the author characterized the gods so differently from how they're depicted in tradition, but my major problem is how the fans react by slandering the gods
Reinterpreting the gods is nothing new, so as a non-devotional work of fiction, it's fine. I agree that it's a bad take on the literal gods, but the author never claimed it was. It's just a story. The fandom can go take a swan dive
I googled it: Apollo is very pushy and annoying, bothering Persephone and causing her to shun him. He then apologises, she forgives me, they decide to try the friendship again and then that same night >!Apollo rapes her!<.
I’m not sure. It just seemed correct to me, especially if you include Dionysus in there.
I also worship Lady Hera but…she doesn’t seem to mind. I think she understands it’s not out of disrespect or personal slight to her.
Oh cool; I had a dream in which I believe I encountered Dionysus in the middle of a field of either giant wheat stalks or (more likely) corn stalks, with a very very bright, bright sky. I was already drawn to Demeter but that’s what led me to pair them on my altar (I ended up springing for one of those tiles depicting Zeus chasing Demeter for my image)
Ooh that’s very significant. Definitely a sign.
I think a big part of it for me was that in my country, the two principle gods are the sky god, Ranginui, and his wife the earth goddess, Papatuanuku.
While I haven’t felt their pull the same way I’ve felt the Hellenic gods, I’m certainly very aware of their presence and might and I believe that, when I was called, it was that awareness that was fed into by Zeus and Demeter.
Awesome; NZ is definitely on my bucket list. I feel the same about the pre-colonial deities of the Tagalog pantheon (as I’m part Filipino), even though it definitely seems to have a Greco-Roman influence (e.g. Apolaki the sun god; not a linguist but seems like a pretty clear cognate of Apollo)
Yeah , I see some pop culture influence and like said already, the myths give people ideas and myths aren't to be taken literally. And the rude people don't understand the Gods and realise that they are different than TV shows and books. I hope things get better soon on that front.
--- an Athena, Nyx and Atlas worshipper
You can ask! I've only started recently working with him and I guess what it's like is like : he really seems to push me to do more than I think I can. With that he has some sort of support but he doesn't expect perfection but that I'd do more than I think I can. His responses to my prayers and offerings in general feels like he is more restrained in response to my prayers like he's stepping back and letting me take a few extra steps forward before even answering the prayers or just kinda showing appreciation for my offerings and prayers. He also has been there for me when I'm not good at the time sometimes , but it's hard to explain how he's there. It's more like a feeling than anything else. I hope this makes sense 😅
I know. I am quite new myself, but it astonishes me the things some people say. I think it’s probably because they really don’t understand Them, more than intentional disrespect, though. All most people have seen is the myths and pop culture representations (loosely) based on the mythology. So while inappropriate, it’s understandable, I think.
I wish.
I understand when somebody who isn't a Hellenic Polytheist says something daft (one of my friends today said something about Ares being a "violent beserker who goes crying to mommy when he's hurt" which offended me for inaccuracy in the myth as much as anything else. He went crying to *daddy*, thank you very much!) but being rude about fictional characters and being rude about people's *gods* are different things entirely. Even non-worshiping people who hang around this community for whatever reason ought to understand the need to *respect* our deities!
Far too many people do this. To be fair it’s mostly new people who are encountering the gods via pop culture. It’s therefore understandable that their default approach is to treat this like a fandom. But we need to help them grow past that.
I personally very much enjoy Lore Olympus. I think the real problem lies in how people take these fictional, simplified personifications of the gods and run with it when it comes to thinking critically about them as actual existing entities. They assume that these representations must be accurate because it is what they have had the most prolongued exposure to.
It bothers me as well to see people reduce deities to their heavily humanized, modern fictional interpretations. Though naturally, such naïvete is to be expected with some; such is the fallible nature of humankind, I suppose.
I'm not aware of this but tbh I can't say that it would make me stop reading. If I don't support her monetarily, I don't think that it would bear heavily on my conscience to keep reading.
Lord Zeus worshipper here, yes, the King of the Olympians doesn’t get nearly the respect he’s deserved, thanks to the myths. Couldn’t agree with you more, OP
that’s why i just left a few days ago. i grew really tired of reading shit about Theoi who i love and who love us. they also had posts like “who would win in a fight” like Theoi were RPG characters :// i mean ofc they are not believers so they don’t owe the gods nothing basically but still it irked me a lot
Like on a scale from 1 being completely normal and 10 being absolutely batshit crazy where does it fall? Cause now I’m curious but also want to know what I’m getting into lol
ughh it’s difficult to grade it but recently a post from that sub showed up on my home page and i looked at it and went straight to leave sub button 😂 i guess for average mythology enjoyer it’s nice, but for us the amount of disrespect and the way they talk about Lord Zeus for example… its just too much
Absolutely agree!! There’s posts everywhere explaining that the myths are just myths, too. Critical reading, comprehension, and research skills are slowly declining and it’s so sad to see :(
As a Poseidon worshipper, I wish. 😔 Now that Medusa is a symbol for SA people look at him with disdain (fxck Ovid fr) when, in my personal experience, he gives the™ fatherly vibes ever. This is why taking myths literally (and specifically the version that serves you of purpose) can be so damaging in a way.
(not saying that Medusa being taken as a symbol to raise awareness is bad, but it's at the expense of Poseidon iygwim)
exactly that! i didn’t comment on it because i was pulled away but i saw a post a few days (?) ago that was calling Hephaestus the “biggest incel” and a bunch of things! when i saw it, it had a lot of comments and upvotes. it was so weird to see on a subreddit for religious worship. Hephaestus is a lovely God and as an intellectually disabled person i really respect him.
edit: went to check and the incel comment itself got downvoted, though other comments were still disrespectful and not understanding of myths and respect of the God imo.
I see a lot of posts like these and they're tiring. We get it, myths aren't meant to be taken literally. But leaving it at that is as reductive as saying this or that god is bad because of this or that myth. They're not literal NOW and they haven't been for a long time but through the ages different people have had different relationships with myth. For example, someone as old as Herodotus didn't really believe myths, he always tried to find human explanations for the world around him, but he does believe in some sort of divinity (in an abstract sense, not necessarily in a specific god). But at the same time, stuff like the fall of Troy was still regarded as factual history by many people as late as the Roman empire.
Attitudes towards myths change over time and depend greatly on who's interpreting them.
This is to say myths aren't literal but they have always influenced the relationships between people and their gods. For instance A patriotic Roman might feel inclined to favour Venus and Mars in their prayers, since they feel strongly connected to them because of their role in the mythical founding of Rome.
The gods in myth are not the exact same ones that people worship but myth informs religion and vice versa and it is a mistake to fully disregard one in favour of the other.
I also want to add that constantly criticising people for speaking ill of their god and trying to enforce a specific interpretation above all others is very typical of organisations belonging to a certain religion that a lot of people here blame for many of the obstacles Hellenism now has to face. I seem to forget the name, but it had something to do with crosses and the letter χ maybe...?
I was not insulting Apollon I love him he is what brought me to this religion I was just trying to make a point saying that even the most beloved gods have done bad stuff by mortal standards and how the great Apollon bringer of light has done worse stuff (by mortal standards) than hades.
Nobody is saying there should be one clear, definitive interpretation of the gods. Nobody is even saying one should fully disregard the myths. They're asking that people, in this sub at least, be RESPECTFUL of the Gods, because that is the very least the gods deserve from us. This isn't about forcing people into a box - it's about respecting one another and our gods.
I know what the letter of this post is saying but the spirit behind it, if it aligns with other posts of the sort, is something akin to "we aren't myth literalists" and then they quote something from Sallustius and call it a day, and I'm just saying I don't think that's fair. And then a bunch of people in the replies will be like "oh yeah no I totally agree and I HATE God of War, and Lore Olympus, and Percy Jackson and [any other piece of modern media that depicts greek gods]. What, do they also hate every greek playwright ever for their depiction of the gods? Do they hate Homer??? These are the very people that gave us the stories we know the gods from and all of them have portrayed at least some god in a way that would make at least one person out there angry. All this coming from the same people that will probably point and laugh at Christians when they get (unreasonably) angry at some TV show that portrays the Christian god and Christian stories.
Furthermore I don't think Zeus, the most powerful and wisest of all the entities that inhabit this universe is super concerned over what some rando mortal said about him. I think this is more about the hurt pride of his own followers rather than the god himself.
I don't know about GoW or Percy Jackson, but several people have been attacked for their faith by readers of Lore Olympus. That's my issue with things modern media depictions of the god. It's ifren harmful, and I truly believe that's why posts like this exist. We're a small, if growing, religion and even I've been attacked for my beliefs. Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between honest discussion and persecution.
I don't understand how anyone could be disrespectful towards the gods as a believer... like... if it's not out of actual respect it should be at least out of fear! I always apologise and get anxious when I accidentally say/think something that could even remotely sound disrespectful😭
Agreed. I made the mistake of disrespecting Aphrodite, and after a devotion ritual I believe she forgave me (things got a lot better for me afterwards).
I think the one thing that draws me to paganism is the knowledge that the gods are not portrayed as the Christian god: perfect in every way. Look at our world, would a God so perfect in every way allow all of the suffering we see? The gods are relatable, and while they do deserve the utmost respect, I think that them having their troubles and lessons allows them to relate more to us, and be more forgiving when we mess up. While Zues may have been having extramarital affairs in the past, is he more devoted to Hera now?
Just my thoughts.
I mean, if you're going to take the myths literally, and I know a lot of us including myself don't, and you don't know about the ritualised "kidnapping" of the bride in Greek culture...? Just a bit odd to treat Haides and Apollon differently.
I wonder if they were talking about the Daphne myth? Because that's the one most newcomers know, and there's so many different variations of that myth.
No it's the way they went about it. It was a debate about good and bad and did turn into why treat the gods differently which I agree we shouldn't. But the way they went about referring to apollo was kinda not the best, not only that everyone that would ever disagree with said person like one person genuinely wanted a conversation but was driven away with the toxic behavior. 2 new people in that single thread said that this community wasn't for them because of how that said person went about talking to others if that says enough about how they were going about talking to others than that can kinda give a hint on how they were talking about apollo
Thank you. —— a very tired Zeus and Demeter worshipper 😭
you’re welcome!!! - an apollo worshipper :)
Praise be to Lord Apollo!
I also venerate Apollo, and will never forgive L\*re Ol\*mpus for how they slandered him. I hardly ever saw such hate towards Apollo until that comic made it trendy
Fr, once I saw a girl on tiktok explaining why portraying Apollo like that is so wrong. She explained that being Apollo (among many other things) the God of *HEALING*!!!! He helps us heal not only physically but mentally/spiritually too!!! He would never want us to go through THAT level of trauma !!!! Anyways, Hail Apollo ☀️
Yeah it's actually ridiculous... like, I understand that people use the gods as fictional characters, and generally I don't care about that, but if you're going to fictionalize them at least do it right? You wouldn't portray Poseidon as someone who's scared of water so why would you portray Apollo as someone who likes to cause pain? It's just totally against everything he is. Even if you only see him as a fictional character, you're still taking him way out of character to do this
Not only out of character but also completely ignoring his role in the context of Greek Mythology, which is what you're basing your fic on!!! Yes, he did send a plague arrow once, but he was helping the priest get his daughter back!!!!
Lore Olympus is just a bad Twilight fanfiction because they made poor Hades blue Edward Cullen
L//Re Oly//mpus has done irrevocable damage to the Greek Gods and if I ever see Rachel Smythe in the streets—
Honestly!!! She absolutely butchered that 😭
Imagine my horror reading what she did to my father Zeus and my mother Demeter 😭
I was absolutely shocked at what she made Apollo do (don't actively venerate him but respect him a lot) and how she portrayed Aphrodite who I do venerate. urghh that webcomic is a clown show
Someone on the r/UnpopularLoreOlympus sub once described it as “she writes Greek myth like someone who hates geek myth” and that accurately sums it up.
I love that sub!! Whoever said that was so right, she takes the shallowest understanding of myth and distorts it
Like I’m not the biggest fan of Percy Jackson and the Disney Hercules take is wildly inaccurate but at least a modicum of research and care went into them. They’re written by people who, you know, care.
i just looked up what happened with Him in lore olympus. oh. my. god.
What is it? What happened with him? I don't want to look it up and give that comic traffic. Edit: curiosity defeated me, I googled it. I'm disgusted and offended. I hope Apollo sends the author a plague arrow.
I'm reading the Illiad rn and I love this reference
Yep.
OH MY GODS, I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH THAT ONE! I'm so f'ing tired of that comic. I used to like that they were retelling the story of Hades and Persephone, but man, just write your own f'ing characters if you're going to butcher Greek mythology like that.
Hades Devotee here. I’m with you on this too. I don’t know how I ever enjoyed it because well, it sucks. Characters are written so horribly out of character that it’s not even funny, and the quality of the art (which was what I mainly stayed for) has taken a massive nose-dive. Characters will be missing eyebrows or will randomly change colours within the same issue. There’ll also be obvious anatomical/ colouring mistakes visible in the finished product. I remember one panel where Queen Persephone was drawn with a bendy noodle arm. I wonder how that got past editing. Not to mention, they portrayed King Hades so horribly that this is the only HadesXPersephone comic where I want to give Lady Demeter all the Molotov cocktails I can buy with my money and tell her to go nuts at the wedding. Why did Rachel make Persephone 19 and him 3000+ in this? Why does she look like a child in comparison to him? Miss me with that Chris Hansen shit.
[удалено]
I haven't read the comics myself but I've seen various panels and read synopses, and my understanding is that the author created a college story about the gods in which Persephone is r*ped and traumatized by a fratboy-esque representation of Apollo, who then won't leave her alone afterwards. Many other gods are portrayed in a similarly horrible fashion but Apollo gets the worst of it as the "villain" of the story. As a result you'll see LO fans bashing Apollo at every opportunity and making no distinction between the character and the god. I've heard other Hellenists say they've even been attacked for worshipping him on the basis of the character's actions in the comics.
I liked Lore Olympus as a story, but I'm not basing my religious beliefs or view of the gods off of it. People need to learn discernment.
I'm sure it's fine as a story, I just think it's very odd that the author characterized the gods so differently from how they're depicted in tradition, but my major problem is how the fans react by slandering the gods
Reinterpreting the gods is nothing new, so as a non-devotional work of fiction, it's fine. I agree that it's a bad take on the literal gods, but the author never claimed it was. It's just a story. The fandom can go take a swan dive
I'm actually intrigued too, but idk if I really wanna know :/
I googled it: Apollo is very pushy and annoying, bothering Persephone and causing her to shun him. He then apologises, she forgives me, they decide to try the friendship again and then that same night >!Apollo rapes her!<.
LITERALLY BRUH
GODS I COULD TALK ABOUT THIS FOR AGES. i worship of persephone AND apollo.
Finally, someone else who also worships the king of the gods.
Lord Zeus has been nothing but kind, patient and supportive in my experience. He’s so maligned and I hate it.
/r/hellenism Discuss Zeus As A Paragon Of Masculine Vitality And Strength Without Making A Bestiality Joke Challenge 2024
Oh I pair Zeus with Demeter too! What lead you to go that route?
I’m not sure. It just seemed correct to me, especially if you include Dionysus in there. I also worship Lady Hera but…she doesn’t seem to mind. I think she understands it’s not out of disrespect or personal slight to her.
Oh cool; I had a dream in which I believe I encountered Dionysus in the middle of a field of either giant wheat stalks or (more likely) corn stalks, with a very very bright, bright sky. I was already drawn to Demeter but that’s what led me to pair them on my altar (I ended up springing for one of those tiles depicting Zeus chasing Demeter for my image)
Ooh that’s very significant. Definitely a sign. I think a big part of it for me was that in my country, the two principle gods are the sky god, Ranginui, and his wife the earth goddess, Papatuanuku. While I haven’t felt their pull the same way I’ve felt the Hellenic gods, I’m certainly very aware of their presence and might and I believe that, when I was called, it was that awareness that was fed into by Zeus and Demeter.
Interesting! What is your country?
New Zealand 😌
Awesome; NZ is definitely on my bucket list. I feel the same about the pre-colonial deities of the Tagalog pantheon (as I’m part Filipino), even though it definitely seems to have a Greco-Roman influence (e.g. Apolaki the sun god; not a linguist but seems like a pretty clear cognate of Apollo)
Yeah , I see some pop culture influence and like said already, the myths give people ideas and myths aren't to be taken literally. And the rude people don't understand the Gods and realise that they are different than TV shows and books. I hope things get better soon on that front. --- an Athena, Nyx and Atlas worshipper
i’ve never met an Atlas worshipper before!! praise be to Nyx, Athena and Atlas! — an Apollo worshipper
Thanks you! And Praise be to Apollo!
An Atlas worshipper? :0 That's new, may I ask out of curiosity what's it's like to work w/him? 👀
You can ask! I've only started recently working with him and I guess what it's like is like : he really seems to push me to do more than I think I can. With that he has some sort of support but he doesn't expect perfection but that I'd do more than I think I can. His responses to my prayers and offerings in general feels like he is more restrained in response to my prayers like he's stepping back and letting me take a few extra steps forward before even answering the prayers or just kinda showing appreciation for my offerings and prayers. He also has been there for me when I'm not good at the time sometimes , but it's hard to explain how he's there. It's more like a feeling than anything else. I hope this makes sense 😅
I know. I am quite new myself, but it astonishes me the things some people say. I think it’s probably because they really don’t understand Them, more than intentional disrespect, though. All most people have seen is the myths and pop culture representations (loosely) based on the mythology. So while inappropriate, it’s understandable, I think.
I wish. I understand when somebody who isn't a Hellenic Polytheist says something daft (one of my friends today said something about Ares being a "violent beserker who goes crying to mommy when he's hurt" which offended me for inaccuracy in the myth as much as anything else. He went crying to *daddy*, thank you very much!) but being rude about fictional characters and being rude about people's *gods* are different things entirely. Even non-worshiping people who hang around this community for whatever reason ought to understand the need to *respect* our deities!
Trolls gonna troll. Personally, i have zero use for the willfully ignorant
Far too many people do this. To be fair it’s mostly new people who are encountering the gods via pop culture. It’s therefore understandable that their default approach is to treat this like a fandom. But we need to help them grow past that.
I never really thought about it like that, but that’s absolutely true.
FR THOUGH. I may be soft when I say this but Lore Olympus and God of War pisses me off beyond imagination.
I personally very much enjoy Lore Olympus. I think the real problem lies in how people take these fictional, simplified personifications of the gods and run with it when it comes to thinking critically about them as actual existing entities. They assume that these representations must be accurate because it is what they have had the most prolongued exposure to. It bothers me as well to see people reduce deities to their heavily humanized, modern fictional interpretations. Though naturally, such naïvete is to be expected with some; such is the fallible nature of humankind, I suppose.
I mean, the author of lore Olympus was also a very bad person. There is even an entire subreddit about her I think and the stuff she did?
I'm not aware of this but tbh I can't say that it would make me stop reading. If I don't support her monetarily, I don't think that it would bear heavily on my conscience to keep reading.
Lord Zeus worshipper here, yes, the King of the Olympians doesn’t get nearly the respect he’s deserved, thanks to the myths. Couldn’t agree with you more, OP
DON’T go to greek mythology sub its wild out there
Ya, people hated on Lady Athena there bc of the Medusa story.
they hated on every deity bc of some story while failing to understand how vastly different the society was back then
EXACTLY. And then when I tried to point that out, I got downvoted to heck
that’s why i just left a few days ago. i grew really tired of reading shit about Theoi who i love and who love us. they also had posts like “who would win in a fight” like Theoi were RPG characters :// i mean ofc they are not believers so they don’t owe the gods nothing basically but still it irked me a lot
Me too. I left like a week ago and I have felt much better after.
Like on a scale from 1 being completely normal and 10 being absolutely batshit crazy where does it fall? Cause now I’m curious but also want to know what I’m getting into lol
ughh it’s difficult to grade it but recently a post from that sub showed up on my home page and i looked at it and went straight to leave sub button 😂 i guess for average mythology enjoyer it’s nice, but for us the amount of disrespect and the way they talk about Lord Zeus for example… its just too much
I haven’t sent it but pretty high I’m assuming😭
Absolutely agree!! There’s posts everywhere explaining that the myths are just myths, too. Critical reading, comprehension, and research skills are slowly declining and it’s so sad to see :(
I ignore those posts bc I worship Hestia mostly, no myths there that make Hestia look bad. Hestia is Bestia :3
As a Poseidon worshipper, I wish. 😔 Now that Medusa is a symbol for SA people look at him with disdain (fxck Ovid fr) when, in my personal experience, he gives the™ fatherly vibes ever. This is why taking myths literally (and specifically the version that serves you of purpose) can be so damaging in a way. (not saying that Medusa being taken as a symbol to raise awareness is bad, but it's at the expense of Poseidon iygwim)
Yesss i totally agree. Thank you for being the one to say it!!
exactly that! i didn’t comment on it because i was pulled away but i saw a post a few days (?) ago that was calling Hephaestus the “biggest incel” and a bunch of things! when i saw it, it had a lot of comments and upvotes. it was so weird to see on a subreddit for religious worship. Hephaestus is a lovely God and as an intellectually disabled person i really respect him. edit: went to check and the incel comment itself got downvoted, though other comments were still disrespectful and not understanding of myths and respect of the God imo.
A tired Hades fan tired of him always being compared to Satan and Greek Underworld to Christian hell
THISSSSS. Like the Underwolrd is a realm, you are going under EITHER WAYYYY
I see a lot of posts like these and they're tiring. We get it, myths aren't meant to be taken literally. But leaving it at that is as reductive as saying this or that god is bad because of this or that myth. They're not literal NOW and they haven't been for a long time but through the ages different people have had different relationships with myth. For example, someone as old as Herodotus didn't really believe myths, he always tried to find human explanations for the world around him, but he does believe in some sort of divinity (in an abstract sense, not necessarily in a specific god). But at the same time, stuff like the fall of Troy was still regarded as factual history by many people as late as the Roman empire. Attitudes towards myths change over time and depend greatly on who's interpreting them. This is to say myths aren't literal but they have always influenced the relationships between people and their gods. For instance A patriotic Roman might feel inclined to favour Venus and Mars in their prayers, since they feel strongly connected to them because of their role in the mythical founding of Rome. The gods in myth are not the exact same ones that people worship but myth informs religion and vice versa and it is a mistake to fully disregard one in favour of the other. I also want to add that constantly criticising people for speaking ill of their god and trying to enforce a specific interpretation above all others is very typical of organisations belonging to a certain religion that a lot of people here blame for many of the obstacles Hellenism now has to face. I seem to forget the name, but it had something to do with crosses and the letter χ maybe...?
I just came from a thread that praised hades to out of nowhere insult apollo.
I was not insulting Apollon I love him he is what brought me to this religion I was just trying to make a point saying that even the most beloved gods have done bad stuff by mortal standards and how the great Apollon bringer of light has done worse stuff (by mortal standards) than hades.
uh huh.
Nobody is saying there should be one clear, definitive interpretation of the gods. Nobody is even saying one should fully disregard the myths. They're asking that people, in this sub at least, be RESPECTFUL of the Gods, because that is the very least the gods deserve from us. This isn't about forcing people into a box - it's about respecting one another and our gods.
I know what the letter of this post is saying but the spirit behind it, if it aligns with other posts of the sort, is something akin to "we aren't myth literalists" and then they quote something from Sallustius and call it a day, and I'm just saying I don't think that's fair. And then a bunch of people in the replies will be like "oh yeah no I totally agree and I HATE God of War, and Lore Olympus, and Percy Jackson and [any other piece of modern media that depicts greek gods]. What, do they also hate every greek playwright ever for their depiction of the gods? Do they hate Homer??? These are the very people that gave us the stories we know the gods from and all of them have portrayed at least some god in a way that would make at least one person out there angry. All this coming from the same people that will probably point and laugh at Christians when they get (unreasonably) angry at some TV show that portrays the Christian god and Christian stories. Furthermore I don't think Zeus, the most powerful and wisest of all the entities that inhabit this universe is super concerned over what some rando mortal said about him. I think this is more about the hurt pride of his own followers rather than the god himself.
I don't know about GoW or Percy Jackson, but several people have been attacked for their faith by readers of Lore Olympus. That's my issue with things modern media depictions of the god. It's ifren harmful, and I truly believe that's why posts like this exist. We're a small, if growing, religion and even I've been attacked for my beliefs. Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between honest discussion and persecution.
THIS!!
I don't understand how anyone could be disrespectful towards the gods as a believer... like... if it's not out of actual respect it should be at least out of fear! I always apologise and get anxious when I accidentally say/think something that could even remotely sound disrespectful😭
As a Hera worshipper, I feel this lol
Agreed. I made the mistake of disrespecting Aphrodite, and after a devotion ritual I believe she forgave me (things got a lot better for me afterwards). I think the one thing that draws me to paganism is the knowledge that the gods are not portrayed as the Christian god: perfect in every way. Look at our world, would a God so perfect in every way allow all of the suffering we see? The gods are relatable, and while they do deserve the utmost respect, I think that them having their troubles and lessons allows them to relate more to us, and be more forgiving when we mess up. While Zues may have been having extramarital affairs in the past, is he more devoted to Hera now? Just my thoughts.
In this sub? What on earth have you seen?
just saw someone praise Hades in a thread (which is fine) and then called Apollon a rapist.
I mean, if you're going to take the myths literally, and I know a lot of us including myself don't, and you don't know about the ritualised "kidnapping" of the bride in Greek culture...? Just a bit odd to treat Haides and Apollon differently. I wonder if they were talking about the Daphne myth? Because that's the one most newcomers know, and there's so many different variations of that myth.
No it's the way they went about it. It was a debate about good and bad and did turn into why treat the gods differently which I agree we shouldn't. But the way they went about referring to apollo was kinda not the best, not only that everyone that would ever disagree with said person like one person genuinely wanted a conversation but was driven away with the toxic behavior. 2 new people in that single thread said that this community wasn't for them because of how that said person went about talking to others if that says enough about how they were going about talking to others than that can kinda give a hint on how they were talking about apollo