• shish_mish@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    I like the story of Prometheus. He is one of the few Gods who cared at all. I dislike any involving Zeus and his shenanigans with women, mostly because of a book of Greek myths I was given when I was 6. In it, it tells of him kidnapping various women and they ending up with his offspring and his wife’s ire.All illustrated with graphic classical paintings.

    I was terrified for months that if I as much as looked at a bull or swan wrong he could come and get me. I had nightmares, and then the nightmares got the stories more mixed up in my head. It got better eventually but left me with a very personal dislike of Zeus.

    • gerbler@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Ummmm Prometheus was actually a Titan 🤓

      Jokes aside Prometheus was the realest cunt. Talk about taking one for the team.

  • HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.one
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    20 days ago

    Personally i like the tale of prometheus. One Mans willingness to help others is rewarded in punishment from the anger of the gods. Shows how petty the gods really.

  • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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    19 days ago

    my favorite is hercule’s promise to have sex with a shepherd after he came back from the underworld.

    in it, hercules has go to the underworld to complete his labors and ends up making an agreement with a shepherd that hercules will have sex with him if he shows hercules how to get into the underworld; and so he does.

    hercules does his thing in the underworld and when he comes back to make good on his promise, he finds out that the shepherd had died; but there was a sapling growing out of the shepherd’s grave so hercules figures that he’ll have sex with the little tree and that his promise to the shepherd is fulfilled.

    • popcorp@discuss.tchncs.de
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      19 days ago

      Yeah I came here just to say the same. BTW it was Dionysus, he fashioned a phallus from the fig tree that grew on the grave and fucked himself with it. The story is most likely a Christian propaganda. I still love it though.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    Man, it’s hard to pick. The Greeks had wonderful stories. The labors of Hercules are pretty neat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labours_of_Hercules

    My favorite, though, is the story of Narcissus, in part because it’s my favorite Salvador Dali painting.

    Also, sidebar, but there’s a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book where you the reader are thrust in the world of greek myths and it’s awesome. (It’s called The Throne of Zeus.)

  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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    20 days ago

    I think two figures of Greek mythology that I like and I suspect might resonate with many today are that of Sisyphus and Cassandra. I’ve personally felt like both of these figures many times in my life, and I guess both stories just resonate with me .

    I personally dislike Narcissus. Not the story mind you, I just can’t fathom liking the world’s first narcissist.

    • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      19 days ago

      This is a twisting of your words to make you smile, not to offend :)

      You identify with the person so arrogant that he tried to cheat not only the gods but death himself, putting the whole of mortal existence in danger - while disliking the hottest bisexual in existence who was tricked into not knowing what reflections were - and then tragically thinking that he met the hottest sea creature in existence!

  • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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    19 days ago

    I prefer the ones that are rooted in history, more than pure mythology. Notably the Iliad.

    I dislike the myth of Orpheus, who got set up with the cruel rule of not looking back at his love when exciting Hades. It’s so unfair the way she got taken from him and the gotcha way he loses his chance of being reunited with her.

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
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    19 days ago

    Love Ulysses, in particular tricking the cyclops. I also like how he didn’t age at all during his journey, but upon arrival Athena made him look old as a “disguise” so people wouldn’t recognise him.

    I don’t know which one I dislike. I’ll think about it and return

  • CyberMonkey404@lemmy.ml
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    19 days ago

    There’s one that is both for me. It is a legend of how the hoopoe bird came to be.

    cw violence, SA

    Short version: this bloke starts lusting after his wife’s friend, so he kidnaps her and hides her in a cabin in the woods. He also cuts off her tongue, so she can’t call for help. She eventually manages to send word to her friend (aforementioned bloke’s wife) somehow (I think she crocheted it? It’s been a while). Upon learning the news, the wife kills her son, cuts off his head and makes a meat pie with the body. The blokes comes home, eats the pie, and calls for his son. Wife tells him “he’s already in you”. Bloke is confused, so she pulls out the bloody head. Dude flies into rage and starts chasing the wife (and the friend he kidnapped, IIRC the wife brought her home). Eventually they all turn into birds. I forgot which birds the ladies turn into, but the bloke turns into a hoopoe - his helmet becomes the bird’s crest.

    It’s kinda disturbing for what should be just “cool looking bird”.