- he has , like , ten dogs and his therapist has been begging him to stop
- While Hades mildly dislikes Ares due to all the people he sends to the Underworld they still puppy sit for each other and their dogs play together every Sunday
- When he is actually home at Olympus he spends seventeen + hours of the day sleeping
- he suffers from PTSD and has many nightmares
Hades:
- he tries to remain cool, but has a flower crown on a lot of the time
- he is prone to leaving meatings half way through to cry for five minutes and come back acting like nothing happened
- he still hasn’t figured out a work life balence
Thanatos:
- Him and Athena are actually quite good friends. She goes to him on Fridays and she will rave on about a legal dispute she has been suffering from. He will weigh in here and there, bit never tell her his opinion, but he will offer snacks. When she leaves he says “I trust you to make the right decision as always.”
- He thinks of Hades as a friend, but Hades thinks of him as merely a work friend which has led to very awkward conversations
- he litterally gets one hour of sleep and his application for an apprentice has been pending for 6 years
Hephaestus:
- is average looking for a mortal, but the rest of the Olympains are so unnaturally beautiful he’s considered ugly
- thrives off of self loathing and thinks everyone hates him when they litterally couldn’t cares less
- has frightened himself when working in the workshop too late at night when spotting a monster shaped machine he made from the corner of his eye too many times
- ended up talking to his hammer and naming it
Poseidon:
- he has watched the Little Mermaid on repeat because his grandson has a starting role
- surprisingly aesthetic Instagram
- is the type to get you presents for your birthday the litterally day before “I saw this kitten shaped waffle maker and thought of you”
Honorary Head Cannons
- Hestia will wake up and bake cookies for breakfast and while people have tried to express that this isn’t a good eating habits they are never able to because she ends up giving them some
1. The Lament for Icarus, Herbert James Draper, 1898. 2. Apollo and the Continents, Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, 1739. 3. Perseus and Andromeda, Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, 1730. 4. Elijah in the Wilderness, Frederic Leighton, 1878.
I hate Ovid. I hate this motherfucker more than Theseus him-fucking-self.
Every time I go to any page or blog that revolves around paganism or Greek mythology, I have to read the same spiel about whether or not Athena did Medusa any favors by ‘turning’ her into a hideous snake monsters along with Medusa’s older sisters.
Hundreds, possibly a thousand, years of Greek tradition and story-telling and Ovid blows it out of the water for the rest of us because he was mad about being banished and wrote book of slam poetry against the Roman emperor. I mean, that’s fair, but now he’s tainted Athena’s name because he was petty and spiteful. If I’m going to read about Greek myths, especially ones about my favorite gods, I’m not going to be digging up a Roman interpretation of them hundreds of years after they were first used in Greek oral tradition. Roman culture is all pretty much ripping off and appropriating all sorts of cultures and claiming non-Latin and non-Italian gods as their own. He didn’t set down to retell these stories for the sake of preserving knowledge and mythos, he wrote them down to spite the Roman emperor and what he stood for. I can understand and even get behind this level of pettiness, but Ovid ruined a perfectly good narrative in the process.
How is it that Athena turns a woman who either seduced Poseidon or was raped by him in Athena’s temple into a snake monster equal justice? It doesn’t make sense the goddess of wisdom is petty enough to turn Medusa into a monster and Arachne into a spider? Did she inherit the average Greek male’s perception of how bad women behave? Sure, the gods often did what they wanted, but it doesn’t fit her character as the embodiment of crafts and battle strategy. If she went around turning every woman who displeased her into a monster for doing something she didn’t like, Athena wouldn’t be much of a goddess of civilization and cities, would she?
More to the point, why have Perseus kill her in the first place if she was already cursed? Why would Athena make him do her dirty work? Why not just kill Medusa herself or prolong her suffering as a snake monster? It doesn’t make sense for Perseus to go out of his way to kill a monster for her head if Athena cursed her to begin with then went back and decided to have Medusa killed instead. This doesn’t even mention Medusa’s older sisters. In Ovid’s retelling, because they sided with Medusa, Athena also turned them into hideous snake monsters, which is definitely not the characterization of a goddess of wisdom. However, according to the original source material, all three Gorgons were born to primordial ocean deities even older than Poseidon. Stheno and Euryale were way older and scarier than Medusa. Stheno had a bigger kill count than both of her other sisters combined, but it was Medusa that had to be slain? Would it not make more sense to kill the Gorgon who turned more people into stone than prioritize Medusa? Of course, I do take the story of Perseus with a grain of salt considering how many deus ex machina toys he gets to play with and how much help he gets from the gods despite being yet another bastard son of Zeus. (I have more things to say about Zeus too.)
I understand why Medusa’s story hits for so many women. If reading Ovid’s version, Medusa was a victim of rape or Athena’s jealousy. She gets killed after the goddess victim blames her and turns her into a hideous monster. However, this is sadly the only version I hear about and doesn’t even come from the original Greek tellings. Yes, sometimes a monster is just a monster and it doesn’t get deeper than that. We’re talking about an ancient culture that saw a god, nymph, ghost, or spirit in every part of nature or building. They would have believed in monsters while we generally don’t. The Greek tellings don’t have Medusa’s tragic backstory that makes it understandable for women following Ovid to sympathize with. I’m not saying do away with Ovid entirely, just making sure people understand that the original Greek didn’t include that stuff until after him. There are plenty of characters from the original source materials to sympathize and connect with. Therefore I present the following list of those who deserve as much attention, if not more than, as Medusa:
Cassandra
Electra
Nymphs in general (which I could on about)
Meda (not related to Medea; different person)
The Amazons
The Trojan women (many of whom became war prizes and slaves)
Mestra
And for the Romans the Sabine women, Rhea Silvia, and Lucretia, who was raped by Tarquin and then killed herself.
Pandora (the ‘all-gifted’), first mortal woman according to Hesiod.
She was sent by Zeus as a gift to Epithemus. She brought a box which, when opened, released all world’s evils. Only 'hope’ remained. (Victorian painting)
📷: Alamy Stock Photo
The story of Pandora came into prominence in Theogony, the epic poem of Hesiod, written in the 8th century BC.
The myth dates back to the first centuries of humanity, just after the Titanomachy, the Great War between the Titans and the Olympians.
It is interesting to note that the reference to Pandora’s Box came only in the 16th century from Erasmus of Rotterdam.
The bottom line is that the entire story about Pandora was fabricated.
It may be considered as a misogynist stand that the creation of woman was the harbinger of all evil on this world.
The Creation of Pandora
All started from a gathering of the gods where the Titans were also invited.
The gathering had been organized to decide who would be favored with the better portion of a sacrifice.
Prometheus, the Titan who later stole the fire from the Gods and gave it to humanity, had deviously presented the sacrifice in such a manner that Zeus chose the portion that looked more appealing when in fact, it was just bones presented in a tempting manner.
Outraged at this mockery, Zeus decided to take revenge and get even with Prometheus.
Zeus charged Hephaestus, the god of smiths and master of crafts, with creating a dazzlingly beautiful woman, one that would appear irresistible to either god or man.
To accomplish this feat, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, posed as a model for the creation of the statue.
The woman was molded of earth and water and once the body was ready, the Four Winds breathed life into it.
She was then given gifts from all the Olympian gods.
Aphrodite gave to her unparalleled beauty, grace and desire.
Hermes, the messenger god, gave her a cunning, deceitful mind and a crafty tongue.
Athena clothed her and taught her to be deft with her hands.
Poseidon bestowed on her a pearl necklace that would prevent her from drowning.
Apollo taught her to play the lyre and to sing.
Zeus gave her a foolish, mischievous and idle nature, and last but not least, Hera gave her the wiliest gift, curiosity.
Thus, the first mortal woman was born, and she descended down to earth.
Her name was Pandora, meaning “all-gifted,” implying all the gifts she had received from gods.
Along with her, Hermes gave a gilded and intricately carved box, a gift from Zeus with an explicit warning that she must never open it, come what may.
Draped in raiment fit for the gods, she was presented to Epimetheus, Prometheus’ half-brother.
Opening the Box
Epimetheus had been told by his brother never to accept any gift from Zeus.
Prometheus was well aware that Zeus was still angry with him for his effrontery at the gathering and would try to get his revenge.
However, one look at Pandora was all it took for Epimetheus to fall in crazy love with her and marry her without thought or consideration.
He was truly enchanted with her.
To congratulate them, Hermes came to the wedding ceremony and told Epimetheus that Pandora was a gift from Zeus, a peace-offer signifying that there were no more ill feelings between the chief of the gods and Prometheus.
He also told Epimetheus that the gilded box of Pandora was a wedding gift from the Olympian King.
Being a bit credulous, Epimetheus believed the words of Hermes to be true.
Unfortunately, Prometheus’ advice had fallen on deaf ears.
The days were passing quickly and the two were leading a happy, married life but one thought was still at the back of Pandora’s mind:
What was in the box that Zeus had given her?
She kept thinking that maybe the box had money in it, nice clothes or even jewelry.
Without thought or reason, she would find herself walking past the box and involuntarily reaching out to open it.
Every single time, she was reminding herself that she had vowed never to open the box.
Hera’s gift of curiosity had worked and one day, unable to take it any more, she decided to have just a brief look inside.
When nobody was around, she fitted a golden key hanging around her neck to the lock on the box.
Turning the key slowly, she unlocked the box and lifted the lid only for a while.
Before she knew it, there was a hissing sound and a horrible odor permeated the air around her.
Terrified, she slammed the lid down but it was too late.
Pandora had released all the wickedness and malevolence that Zeus had locked into the box.
Accordingly, she understood that she was a mere pawn in a great game played by the gods.
In that gilded box, Zeus had hidden everything that would plague man forever:
Son of Iapetus, well known brother of Prometheus, Epimetheus is the infamous Titan of :
Afterthought
And excuses
It’s unknown if he once had any official sacred symbols of his own, but he is depicted carrying a farmer’s trowel on a Attic Red Figure Krater from 475 - 425 B.C.
But anyway, now for
More facts!
Epimetheus is well known as the brother of Prometheus. While Epimetheus rules over and represents afterthought, Prometheus rules over and represents forethought. Together, they were tasked with populating the earth with animals and men, and they did so by sculpting them out of clay.
Epimetheus however, quickly exhausted the supplies they were given for the task. When ordered to equip animals and men and give both their proper qualities, he used up all of the given qualities on animals. Leaving mankind helpless, and forcing Prometheus into well told drastic measures to better their creations survival. (But we’ll touch more on that later)
But because of Prometheus crafty actions! Zeus (Jupiter) got angry and ordered the creation of Pandora, humanity’s first woman, to deliver evil to mankind. Yes, that Pandora. After being created - in most myths by Hephaestus (Vulcan) - she was sent to the brothers with a pithos (jar). Epimetheus took Pandora as his bride, despite warnings from his brother that this was a trap set by the Olympian King, and not soon after Pandora opened the pithos she was gifted with. Releasing a number of so called evil spirits onto mankind, while only one remained within it. The Goddess of Hope ; Elpis (Spes).
Even after that mess, they still had kids tho! Together with Pandora, Epimetheus fathered Pyrrha. Some also list him as the father of the Oceanid Ephyra - though most of course list her as a daughter of Oceanus & Tethys like the other Oceanids - and he is stated to be the father of Prophasis, the Goddess of excuses.
Some myths list their mother as the Oceanid Clymene, others list their mother as the fellow Oceanid Asia. However, the two were also commonly associated with each other, sometimes even eponymously.
howling at the moon // darshana suresh • crouching figure of atlas // baldassare tommaso peruzzi • atlas shrugged // ayn rand • atlas the man who (h)olds the world // evangelos papapostolou • song // allen ginsberg • atlas was also black // elena gaston nicolas • atlas and the hesperides// john singer sargent • pillar // rose-fingered dawn • hercules supporting the world flanked by euclid and ptolemy, from the camerino // annibale carracci • strangers // white lies
Percy Jackson 🔱 - Don’t Give Up on Me by Andy Grammer. Now don’t be fooled by the title, the song is a message about just not giving up, no matter what. And this is such a Percy principle of life. Percy has always been one of the most loyal characters in the entire series. He is one of the bravest characters, and will always try to save them, even if they are on the “enemy’s” side. He always accepts characters for how they are and is just the accepting and loyal friend we all aspire to be.
Annabeth Chase🦉 - Pressure by Paramore. Okay let me put this out here: Annabeth Chase has so much invisible pressure. I think that the fandom doesn’t acknowledge it as much, but I’m so surprised she doesn’t have anxiety. For example, in TLT, she had the pressure of completing her first ever quest. And that pressure just continued throughout the entire PJO series. Then, in TLH, she was so stressed about Percy, and whether or not he was still alive. In MoA, she outsmarted Arachne after she twisted her ankle, and she was still able to face her greatest fear. Plus, this was all to free the Athena Parthenos, which, on the bottom line, was just a really important statue. I still don’t know how she didn’t have a panic attack or just give up, but that’s OUR QUEEN, LADIES.
Grover🌯 - Green and the Town by AJR. I don’t know, I get Grover vibes from this… I can’t really describe it.
Tyson🧸 - Bud Like You by AJR. This song is super playful and again, gives me Tyson vibes. We all need a bud like Tyson 💞
Chiron🐎 - Centuries by Fall Out Boy. Chirob has been working for centuries, training heroes, watching them face harsh battles, assisting them whenever possible, etc. I feel like it’s self explanatory.
