#Blame Zeus

[initialchains]

rick being a luke apologist is the best thing that has ever happened to me

[gingermintpepper]

I think, perhaps one of the funniest things to come from EPIC popularising the Odyssey is that now a ton of people think Poseidon wanted to kill Odysseus.

In the Odyssey, Poseidon has no intention of killing Odysseus. In fact, part of the whole reason Zeus lets Poseidon do whatever he wants even though he thinks Odysseus is rad and should get to kiss his wife is explicitly because Poseidon had no intentions of killing Odysseus. Poseidon wanted to pay back the suffering/inconvenience blinding Polyphemus would have caused. It's a really abstract thing tbh. How do you pay back someone permanently disabling your son? Poseidon's solution was just to amputate Odysseus from his other half; i.e. Penelope. The end game was never murder, it was always an endurance race.

(Od. Book 1: Zeus reassuring Athena that he is not, in fact, a part of Odysseus Hater-Nation. Trans. Robert Fagles)

Also, for those wondering if there's any sort of in text reason for why Poseidon wasn't around in God Games - at the time in the Odyssey when Athena petitions Zeus to let Odysseus leave Calypso's island, Poseidon was -checks notes- on vacation in Ethiopia. Yep. He left to Ethiopia for a festival and thusly was very much absent for Athena's whole "please let Ody go? Please? 🥺" request.

(Od. Book 1: While Odysseus was suffering, Poseidon went to party in the east)

I am begging y'all to read the Odyssey. It's a comedy for everyone except Odysseus and Penelope who are, in fact, suffering 24/7 365.

[littler3d]

“It’s Odysseus’ fault” “It’s Eurylochus’ fault” “it’s everyone’s fault” WRONG

👏always 👏blame 👏the 👏gods 👏when 👏they 👏meddle 👏in 👏the 👏story 👏

[whalehouse1]

Co-worker who knows that I’m a nerd, “What are your plans for the 4th?”

Me, trying my best to figure out how to explain that the Thunder Saga is dropping for Epic, “Uh, well, YouTube is going to have a premiere for something I’m excited about.”

“Oh? What’s premiering?”

Me, literally stumbling over my words, trying to figure out how to explain Epic.

Him, “It’s something nerdy isn’t it?”

Me, “Yeah, so some guy seemingly got a hyper fixation on the Odyssey during Covid and decided to make a musical about it in parts, and the part with one of my favorite Greek monsters is this one.”

Him, confused cause he 100% was not expecting that type of answer, “Well, I hope it’s good.”

[mossmanismoss]

[my-name-is-apollo]

Zeus 🤝 Apollo : letting mortals make the extremely difficult decision of choosing between powerful gods.

Just imagine them approaching Apollo for this -

Athena: Well, Apollo. Since you are the ancestral deity of this city...

Poseidon: you should judge who the city must be named after.

Athena: so...who will it be? Your moody uncle or your capable, intelligent sister?

Poseidon: don't forget that I helped your mother when she was pregnant.

Athena: I escorted you back to Delphi after you got purified.

Poseidon: I gifted the entire Delphi to you.

Athena: I was actively rooting for you during your match against Marsyas.

Poseidon: We both served together as slaves for a year!

Athena: I voted in your favor during the trial of Orestes!!

Apollo, sweating profusely: you know what! I have the perfect solution for this situation!

[ur-a-simp]

I must confesses:

[olympushit]

I once answered a question about who my least favorite god was. In my answer I said that I believe that each greek god is flawed, because ancient greek philosophers imagined the gods to have a human nature. I also added I strongly believe that each greek god represents a specific flaw. Well, I wanna share it with you guys!

The flaws each god represents are:

Zeus: adultery and disloyalty, we all can agree on this

Hera: jealousy and malice, I mean she was cheated on constantly, but she shouldn't make victims the one's who are not responsible, especially Zeus' children

Poseidon: egotism and feeling inferior, because if you think that he wanted Zeus' throne and he made Odysseus' life unbearable and impossible for him to return home, that's what it is.

Demeter: stubbornness, because you can't make the whole world starve to death. I know that losing your child is a big deal, but still tge poor mortals shouldn't have endured her rage.

Athena: feeling superior, and for me it's not a good thing to have. She took Zeus' permission to hurt Ares and when she defeated him she pointed out how inferior he was.

Artemis: she was cruel for killing her companion Callisto, when the one to blame was Zeus for taking the appearance of Artemis to seduce her.

Hermes: cleptomania and lying, he was a sweet talker and a trickster and never hesitated to use those against anyone, be it serious or just have fun.

Apollo: Killing Koronis because she was unfaithful, while she was pregnant to his child is beyond cruel. And let's not forget that no greek god was faithful to their lovers, so it's kinda hypocritical.

Ares: Not putting his mind to work and always being spontaneous and sentimental. Also, he was indecisive and never cared about consequences, because he broke his promise to Hera and Athena about his side on the Trojan war, but it's not really his forte to choose sides on a war.

Hephaestus: He wanted so badly to be accepted by his family, that he lost reasoning when he trapped Ares and Aphrodite on his bed. Not that Ares and Aphrodite were right, but if we take the myth that Ares and Aphrodite had children and were together before the incident, then it was cruel of Hephaestus to separate them to marry Aphrodite.

Aphrodite: Full of herself, she couldn't accept that someone was more beautiful than her, and also vindictive towards Helios daughter and Eos.

Hades: Doing whatever he wants. You can't just abduct Persephone taking Zeus approval and let Demeter suffer.

Dionysus: alcoholic. We can all agree to that the god of wine constantly drinks wine.

Hestia: Nothing about her. She never meddled in drama or caused any problems!

That's my pint of view about their flaws. I don't want anyone to get offended if they like a certain god, this is just my opinion based on events. I bad-mouthed everyone here!😂😜

What do you think? Is there anything else you may wanna add? Write it in the comments!

[anniflamma]

I didn't think it was possible to become gay for Zeus considering what I know about him from the myths, but DAMN 😳

I don't want Hera to get mad at me though, so I will simply admire from a distance.

You can look. But never touch~~

Squeek Squeek Sqeuuk!

[gibuckaroo]

achilles and patroclus; he is half of my soul as the poets say.

[original text in post: When you took Patroclus from Achilles— is this what he felt? When he saw him lifeless and pale and unmoving in another soldier's arms as they delivered the very reason he was here on earth—did he feel the ground move from under him? Did he feel time cease? Did he feel the way I do now? Out of breath, out of life, out of time, out of love. When you took his person, did he also want to dig a hell of his own?]

[nocturnal-birb]

Imagine living in the time where you're just simple human during the time where Greek gods ruled but then said gods are at each other's throats plunging the world into chaos cause the king of the gods died and everyone's out to get some stone so they can be hailed as the new ruler of the gods- only they made it worse cause the one being that was fit for it that isn't even a god but a half-blood just got backstabbed by the king of the Underworld, who so happens to just want the stone to be with his wife but now mother earth is upset that happened and just released a titan that has been in the stone all along, to destroy everyone

yeah that's the summary of s2 of Blood of Zeus

[dangergays]

idk how long the skip is between odysseus getting stabbed and the sacred cow island but i imagine it's pretty short which is very funny to me bc eurylochus literally immediately proves that he's incompetent as fuck and if it weren't for odysseus everyone would be dead. and then immediately after killing the cow he looks to odysseus and is like "captain? 🥺" like girl u just turned his entire crew against him shut the FUCK up

[colorsunlikeanythingseen]

What makes the tragedy of Jason's death so goddamn well written is that it is that there were three loopholes to his death prophecy, but for each of these loopholes to work requires people to be out of character.

The Syble tells Jason that if Jason and Piper went to find the emperor one of them would d__.

The first and most obvious way for Jason not to die is to simply not help Apollo and not go after the emperor. Unfortunately Jason is heroic. Even worse he never shirks his duties. He won't be able to overlook Caligula's crimes and turn away. It's not in his nature.

This book somehow, despite Piper and Jason breaking up, sold me on their relationship. Those two are ride or die for each other even if things are rocky right now. They aren't going to run and leave the other to face the emperor alone. Their friend might die anyway. Also Piper also gave me the impression that she believed they wouldn't actually die just like with Leo's death prophecy and the general lack of permeant death in Heroes of Olympus.

Now the third way Jason could have survived. Turning into a dog. You might be laughing but I am dead serious. Apollo, god of prophecy, brought up this possibility and while he might be grasping at straws this could easily work. Turning into a dog would allow Jason to dodge Caligula's blow, and in the confusion he has a chance to escape. This happening is entirely feasible in the pjo universe. It is extraordinary common for gods in myths to turn people into animals. It is confirmed that the gods are watching. It could happen.

Unfortunately, no god is going to interfere. Hera is on thin ice after the stunts she pulled in Hero's of Olympus, Zeus was throwing lighting bolt at her and not the giants he was so angry at her. I got the impression that it could easily be her thrown to earth not Apollo. Hera can't interfere without risking it all.

The minor gods won't disobey Zeus either even if it means losing a priest.

Zeus on the other hand can interfere he just won't. It would be a politically sound decision to save his son. Jason is the former leader of New Rome and current priest for minor gods. By saving Jason Zeus would regain the support from both demigods and minor gods that he is clearly lacking. The Olympian council would support this, this might help Apollo's quest so Artemis is on board, Hera's support goes without saying, Aphrodite daughter is also on the line here, and I can't think of a god that would oppose this. This isn't beyond Zeus's capabilities. He turned Thalia into a tree in similar circumstances. Blatant favoritism. There is a possibility that he just didn't think about it, but I really doubt it. Not only did Apollo bring up this as a loophole Athena is Zeus's advisor she would tell him it's at least a possibility. Zeus has a lot of flaws being an idiot isn't one of them. If he really wanted to save Jason he could have.

So why wouldn't he? Jason disobeyed Zeus standing up for Apollo when he was punished. Zeus really hates being disobeyed especially when it is a son doing it. He gets very paranoid about it in fact. Jupiter gave Jason to Hera/Juno and their only conversation is Jason questioning his father's decision in the coliseum. They do not have a close relationship. They have the least bonding moments of any godly parent beating even Luke and Hermes. Zeus doesn't care about Jason that much. It's not worth justifying the interference especially when his son is rebellious. His paranoia tends to make Zeus shoot himself in the foot.

Besides it's not like Zeus mourned his son's death or lost anything with his inaction. Hera mourned Jason, not Zeus.

The other thing that made Jason's death iconic is how it's effects are handled but that's another post.

[bugwolfsstuff]

Luke fans: Luke was manipulated! He was a hero!

Luke in the LITTERALLY THE SECOND BOOK: *commands monsters to kill Annabeth AND Grover (PEOPLE HE USED TO CARE ABOUT) and make Percy watch*

like the only thing that saved them was the party ponies. His ass was gonna kill them. There is no way you can spin that where he's good here. He was not told to fucking do that by Kronos, that was all him.

[sarafangirlart]

People are pressed at me for pushing back to the statement that “Zeus is always the villian” like i clarified Zeus is an asshole but he and his kids are why Greece isn’t ruled by shitty monsters and chaotic. It’s getting to the point that people are doing the “hades is the evil god” thing but for Zeus. Ugh

At least we have tons of myths where Zeus is a tyrant, but he can be a decent ruler when he actually uses the brain cells that he stole from Metis, tho I do agree we need to let him have a little more complexity.

A scene that really encapsulates both his complexity and cruelty is the scene when he yells at Ares in the Iliad, yes he’s being verbally abusive, yes he was the one to send Athena to hurt him, but he was also the one to send a healer to fix him up bc it hurts him to see his child (in some sources eldest child) in pain.

[my-name-is-apollo]