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[greekmythologynerd1]

You may be unsurprised to learn that I have already done that.

Her name is Peftasteri and she is the daughter of the titaness Asteria and Zeus, whom we all know and love. Peftasteri is the goddess of shooting stars and the caretaker of the immortal horses of the gods (including the horses that draw Apollo’s chariot). Occasionally, she rides them across the heavens, leaving fiery trails that we now know as comets and shooting stars.

She is generally quite well loved among the gods, and is especially close with Apollo and Artemis, bonding over their shared father and also their mothers (Asteria and Leto) are sisters.

I have also created a monster if you want to hear about that 😄

if you were to invent a new Greek god or goddess, tell me abt em

@thedamsorce, take it away

[greekmythologynerd1]

Because they all had the same mother - oedipus married his own mother (unknowingly) and then had four children, which means that they are both his children and also his half siblings.

Somehow I’m pretty sure this isn’t the most incestuous relationship in Greek mythology.

[greekmythologynerd1]

Random Greek Deity Facts

- Artemis has been associated with horses in the past.

- Ares has associations with owls.

- There are ancient gravestones with reliefs on them that historians still cannot tell if the art is of Dionysus or Jesus.

- It is common for historians to struggle identifying if a statue is of Artemis or Apollo because they often look so much alike.

- Hephaestus is a god of fire.

- Maia, the Mother of Hermes, was thought to assist in raising both Dionysus and Hephaestus.

- Hypnos is said to live in a massive cave, sleeping with thousands of his sons.

- Rather than blood, Greek gods are said to have something called Ichor running through their veins; no one is quite sure what "Ichor" actually is.

- Both Apollo and Artemis are deities of light; it is not just Apollo. Along with this, it is believed Leto may also be a goddess of light.

- It is commonly believed that the hyacinth flower is not actually the flower Hyacinthus was infamously transformed into; most sources seem to agree that it was likely either an iris or a larkspur.

- At one point in the Dionysiaca, Dionysus wages a war against India. The goddess Rhea is said to have gathered troops for him, and Zeus was said to have been the one to task Dionysus with going to war in order to allow him to join the gods on Mount Olympus.

- Demeter's chariot is pulled by two giant winged serpents; she has literal dragons pulling her around, and no one is talking about it.

- The Python was a child of Gaia, and before Apollo took up the Oracle in Delphi, there was actually an Oracle with Gaia in that location.

- The twins Castor and Pollux, who made up the Gemini constellation, were commonly worshipped throughout ancient Greece under the title of the "Dioscuri" or "Dioskouroi".

- Also regarding the Dioskouroi, the name "Castor" ("Kastor") may translate to "Beaver".

- The famous epithet "Paean" of Apollo was also listed on an ancient Mycenaean tablet that listed the names of separate deities. It is, therefore, possible that Paean was once a separate god who later became associated/merged with both Apollo and his son Ascelpius.

- Besides being an epithet, a Paean was also a type of devotional chant/song that was sung in honor of Apollo. Some ancient sources claim that the event of singing a Paean could actually be quite loud, involving clouds of stomping/banging and movement.

- The masculine version of Hekate's name, "Hekatos", was an epithet for the god Apollo; both names can be translated to "worker from afar".

- The first record of the more "traditional" view of a werewolf comes from the Greek myth about King Lycaon, when Zeus transformed into a wolf for ten years as punishment for tricking the gods into consuming human flesh (yes, you read that right).

- In the myths, Zeus and Hermes have a lovely Father-Son bonding trip of destroying an entire village (except for one home) for not showing either of the disguised gods hospitality as poor travellers.

- Both Apollo and Zeus were seen as gods who purified "blood-guilt" - a condition which was caused by the killing of another person and required immense purification.

- Cerberus is described as a fully sentient being who can communicate as other immensely powerful children of Gaia could, meaning he is akin to the gods in terms of intelligence rather than being like an overgrown dog.

- Hermes is said to be the inventor of offerings, specifically animal sacrifices.

- One origin of the Pegasus was Poseidon and Medusa doing the devil's tango.

- There is a tale that claims Hermes to be the one who granted Aesop his knowledge of fables.

- According to some ancient sources, Cerberus has as many as fifty heads, a mane of snakes, the claws of a lion, and a snake tail.

- Iris was not only the goddess of rainbows but was also the personal messenger of Hera and was prominently featured in The Iliad delivering many messages on behalf of the Olympian gods.

- Eros has been depicted as the child of Aphrodite and Ares, the child of Ouranos and Aphrodite, the child of solely Aphrodite, the child of Poros and Penia, the child of Ouranos and Gaia, the child of Zephyrus and Iris, and a primordial being who simply came into being. So, where did Eros actually come from? Your guess is as good as any.

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That's all for now! Let me know if y'all enjoyed these and would like more. 🧡

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|| Sources ||

- Theoi.com (of course)

- The Iliad by Homer

- Theogony by Hesiod

- The Dionysiaca by Nonnus

- Information from various museum trips in Athens and Delphi, Greece (sorry, I don't remember the exact sources 💀)

[greekmythologynerd1]

Ok. I may be reaching here, or I may have just realised something. I’m also willing to bet that someone’s already thought of this, but here we go.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (written by She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named), Harry, Ron and Hermione have to get past Fluffy, Hagrid’s three headed pet dog. It doesn’t take much brainpower to realise that Fluffy is based Cerberus, the three headed dog/hellhound who guarded the gates of Hades. To get past Fluffy, the trio have to play some music. This could be She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named quickly coming up with a simple solution for the first task, or it could be a reference to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

This myth tells us the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a married couple who, by all accounts, loved each other (an overall rarity in myths unless the myth is a tragedy). Unfortunately, Eurydice was bitten by a serpent and died of the wound. Orpheus’s heart was broken, so he followed her into the underworld and persuaded Hades and Persephone to allow him to take Eurydice back to the real world. Some versions state that he opened the passage to Hades by playing beautiful music and then convincing the gods to allow his wife to return by telling them about their love for each other while other versions simply say that he followed her with minimal explanation of the how and used his music to persuade the gods. Either way, Hades complied and allowed him and Eurydice to return to life - on one condition. Orpheus would lead the way and Eurydice would follow, but Orpheus could not look back at her until they left the land of the dead. However, he did look back, and Eurydice was returned to Hades and Orpheus returned to the land of the living, spending the next three years moving various inanimate objects with his beautiful music, before turning down some ladies and being torn limb from limb.

Essentially, our hero uses music to get a ‘prize’ from a deep hole guarded by a giant, three headed dog by playing music. I could be reaching or seeing connections that aren’t there, but I think it’s cool.

TLDR: I think that She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named might have been referencing the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice when Harry, Ron and Hermione sneak past Fluffy by playing music.

[greekmythologynerd1]

I was telling my dad about a Greek myth I had just learnt. It was a summary of the story of Amymone which ends with Poseidon creating a river. My brother was eavesdropping on us.

Then this little shit has the audacity to tell me that Poseidon can’t create rivers.

2 things:

1. Poseidon just did

2. This child has never read a Greek myth. I’ve told him some and he’s eavesdropped on others, but he doesn’t know any beyond what I’ve told him. And he still tells me what a god can’t do.

TLDR: My brother eavesdropped on me and told me that Poseidon couldn’t create a river despite knowing less than the bare minimum about Greek mythology.