#cthonic gods

[sleepnowmychild]

Autistic? I think you mean siren of the river Lethe trapped on the surface that’s why I don’t like bright lights or fit in with the humans up here and can’t walk without tripping over. Hypnos come pick me up the humans are inventing pointless social cues I’m scared.

[vonaria2000s]

Kissing 

©Vonaria2000s

[athenepromachos]

Bit more detail about these gorgeous murals. They were painted by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in c.1827 and were originally in the Palais des Prinzen Karl and Ordenspalais in Berlin which Schinkel remodelled in the C19th. During the Nazi regime, the building was used for the Ministry of Propaganda. Sadly though, the building was destroyed in 1945 leaving us with only a few photographs. The murals depict the Greek Gods and are really gorgeous 😍 🏛😍

Rare shot of the Interior

Rhea gives Cronus a swaddled stone to eat instead of baby Zeus ☠️

Zeus with his Eagle and Hera with her Peacock 🦅🦚

Hades and Persephone with a fabulous looking Kerberos 🐕💀

The divine twins Artemis and Apollo 🏹🏹

Dionysus and a dancing Maenad 🍇🍇

[kore-siciliana]

UPG: On the nature of the gods, ancestors, and maybe also mystery cults

What is a god but many of the blessed dead coming together in an afterlife.  Many joined together across space and time to form a consciousness. Together they can speak and act and live.  To me that is the mystery cult.  What is a blessed afterlife but joining with a god.  And when you pray and libate to a god you become part of them.  In life and death you then can join with many gods and in life they live close to you. 

They love to come together around you.  Each time you pray and give offerings you add to them as a god.  You give part of yourself and those blessed dead that are always around us can join to become part of that god to be near you. 

Giving to a god is also a way to give to the blessed dead or our ancestors.  There then is a way that ancestral gods mean something.  Our ancestors can remember what it means to be part of a god they themselves sacrificed to.  Though I should say, that doesn’t mean you cannot worship gods who are not ancestral to you.  You still help a god come together around you by giving to them. 

So libate! The gods live and they live around us. They can hear and feel us and they are always with us.

[boofindoopin]

I really hate it when people act like it’s a crime that I/a lot of other Greek myth lovers think that PJO/HOO/TOA aren’t good Greek myth adaptations.

People have different opinions, and I’m all for that! I chose to be a fucking Ares stan, I’m use to having “weird” opinions. But, it’s really silly to get like ACTUALLY mad at someone for having a different opinion then you.

I personally think that the PJO franchise fell into the same thing that a lot of popular media does to the Greek gods, and they are as followings.

Ares is big, scary, evil, misogynistic dude bro

Aphrodite is a hoe!

Underworld gods are mean and scary oOoOh

And to all the people that are like “Hades got better!” Not by much!! Still a sucky ass dad :(

The other Greek gods ALSO got reduced like, they painted Zues and Hera as one dimensional evil villains, Athena as this cool person who is better at war than Ares, and every else in the standard ones!

And I’m not saying that you can’t like this series, go ahead and love all your heart out! I personally love some of the characters Rick made (my grievances with some characters would take up a whole two posts).

Also if you are trying to get into Greek mythology, and your learning through those series,I’m so so SO proud of you for learning about other peoples culture/history. Just make sure to do some read historical texts as well.

But, if you read the series and think your a myth expert, chances are you probably aren’t. It’s ok to learn from those things, thats how I got into this! But, please don’t act like you know more than someone who devoted their time to be good at it.

Just please, for the love of all that is good in this life, don’t fight Greek myth fans for pointing out the flaws in the PJO myths, and don’t fight us for not thinking it’s the best retelling

[creepie-n-squirrel]

[of-hearth-and-bone]

sometimes i truly do believe it is impossible to separate storm witchcraft from death work a storm is such a powerful symbol of death and rebirth it is the great change we see in the tower card the thing that pushes us to accept what we cannot fix and find something we can its the harsh reminder that not everything has to be fine all the time

lightning and death go hand in hand in many ways

someone more educated could probably link this to kthonic zeus but sadly i am not that person so for now im just going to acknowledge that the modern symbolism is rather strong and something i quite enjoy exploring in my craft

[slobstation]

opinions on how Persephone and Hades were portrayed in the Percy Jackson Franchise?!

i especially want to hear about opinions on how Persephone was portrayed.

DEFINITELY including people who have Persephone as a patron, work with her. i am very interested in any standpoint.

my useless thoughts are below? where i am very human and eventually get off topic and realize, then give up.

also i am aware that i already made a post about this asking overall opinions on god characterization this one is just to focus on Persephone and Hades in particular!

for some reason i have had this idea that Persephone and Hades were Poly… i am unsure where this idea ever originated honestly it just was in the back of my mind.

^ not necessarily poly but more ambi a more openness in a way.. unsure how to properly convey my point.

anyways, i’m not sure exactly how i imagined Persephones personality or energy. i have never directly worked with the Goddess but i am Pagan and work within the greek pantheon heavily and a majority of my work is with Hades. i offhandedly work with her during spring just being more mindful and making small offerings to show my gratitude. as well as leaving offerings on Hades altar frequently :)

and i’m not even sure how to properly explain how i feel but i definitely did not like or enjoy how she was portrayed how she was… or Hades either for that matter honestly.

i feel like this is dumb to share seeing as they are considered characters and… okay PJ is basically fan fiction with world convergence of Greek and Modern day.

that thought made me laugh, i feel like i have lost my previous topic….

[hecatesdelights]

Thanatos, God of Death, vs. Hercules, Hero of Ancient Greek Mythology

[arcanewxtch]

⋅·⋅ ☽devotional post☾ ⋅·⋅

═ -ˋˏ 💀 ˎˊ- ═

.˓ ࣪˖˚. Lord Thanatos 𖥔 . ˓ ࣪˖

[sleepnowmychild]

“Hypnos, shrouded in the gloom of his brother Thanatos and dripping with Stygian dew, enfolds the doomed city, and from his relentless horn pours heavy drowse, and marks out the men” - Statius, Thebiad.

Devotional art be upon ye, I may be a Hypnos devotee but he and his twin are a package deal and I don’t have the heart to seperate them. I appreciate Thanatos as well, even if I’m focused on his brother.

[athenepromachos]

Lord Hades, Queen Persephone and the ever faithful Kerberos by Karl Friedrich Schinkel 1827.

🏛💀

[joshsindigostreak]

Thankful for all the blessings Lord Hades has given me these past few weeks. Been feeling His presence a lot lately.

[smolandweirdwriter]

My Bad Analysis of Hades and Persephone

the Homeric hymn to Demeter is, as far as I know, the earliest source we have for Hades and Persephone. It is… a confusing text, to say the least. For one thing, the only evidence we have in this that anything regarding r@pe occurred is this line: τέτμε δὲ τόν γε ἄνακτα δόμων ἔντοσθεν ἐόντα, ἥμενον ἐν λεχέεσσι σὺν αἰδοίῃ παρακοίτι πόλλ᾽ ἀεκαζομένῃ μητρὸς πόθῳ 

translation (not my own):

“there he [Hermes] found the lord in his palace sitting on a bed with his legal wife, very much reluctant, longing for her mother"

so… Is it clear that she’s been r@ped? Not exactly, but neither does it say she hasn’t been. Also, according to the translation (supplied by a friend of mine who takes ancient greek- my school does not offer it and I am not the best with foreign languages, although I am studying classics on my own a bit, let alone ancient ones but I digress) Persephone is hades’s wife at this point. Now, before the hades stans take me out after the rest of this statement, let me explain it!

my belief is that it… could very well have been r@pe. Just not quite the type you’re picturing. If, at this point, a wedding has been officiated and they are husband and wife, there is a ritual within the Ancient Greek marriages, directly after the wedding, in which the man and woman have sex to secure the wedding rites. They are consummated. It wasn’t just a “thing” they did- it very well could be argued to be a religious ritual. An obligation, as marriage was meant to be to the ancient Greeks. Love matches were very rare. So it could have been r@pe, but it was a perpetuation of societal norms and obligations. Does that make it any better? Debatable. Probably not. So they could have had sex, and Persephone certainly did not want it, but it is a required part of a marriage. A marriage she didn’t even want. One her father forced her into without her mother’s or her consent. This was typical of Ancient Greek marriages. That’s what the myth is presenting beyond an explanation of the seasons: how woman were forced into marriages, the obligation of the married couple to have sex by social pressure (which could certainly be seen as an extent of r@pe), and yet when hades and Persephone are presented together in art and literature POST their marriage, they seem somewhat… tolerable towards each other. Perhaps— PERHAPS — even in love. For this, I cite Ovid’s Metamorphoses, wherein Orpheus says to Persephone: “But Love has overcome me, a God well-known in the upper world, though whether here or not I do not know; and yet I surmise that he is known here as well, and if the story of that old-time ravishment is not false, you, too, were joined by Love.” Whether “Love” in this is meant as “sexual desire” is slightly unclear. The Greeks had a different concept of love than we think of it today, as I’ve already established. And “ravishment” does not have the best connotation in today’s terms, but Orpheus appears to see it as proof of their love. So I believe the “ravishment” here relates to the above mentioned marriage ritual. we also have various works of art, my personal favorite of which being this:

however there’s also an equal amount of if not more artwork of the less savory aspects (ie the kidnapping) of the relationship.

so, in conclusion, I think hades and persephone were meant to portray the average relationship of a married couple in Ancient Greece: the future wife is taken much to the distress of the mother and the girl herself, the (certainly questionable by modern standards) marriage rites are performed, and eventually the two manage to find some relationship.

It’s not ideal today. But for Ancient Greece, well, “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Persephone and Hades represented the very low bar for romantic relationships in Ancient Greece. However, they also somewhat rose above this: persephone was free to leave for half the year. She saw her mother. Most girls were (literally) praying for this. So again: low bar. Not exactly romantically ideal for today in any way. Nor were most relationships in Ancient Greek mythology. Should we romanticize it? Absolutely fucking not. But can we reimagine it? Retell it? I genuinely don’t know. Is it wrong? Is it making excuses for bad relationships? Even if they’re over 2,000 years old? I really can’t say. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. What are your thoughts?

[cephalopod-celabrator]

Someone: isn't there a myth about that with uhh, you know, that death god...

Me: They're called cthonic gods and do you mean Anubis, Osiris, Nethphys, Melinoe, Thanatos, Hades, Persephone, Zagreus, Makaria, Nyx, Hermes, Hecate, Morrigan, the Dagda, Odin, Hel, or Freya? I mean, there are others, and also miscellaneous groups that fill a cthonic or psychopomp role like the sidhe, the various underworld nymphs, or the incredible number of egyptian protectors of the dead Also someone: Hey, can you give this to Miles? Me, despite having probably known and interacted with this Miles for weeks: I have no fucking clue who that is

[venator-signum]

on a scale of hades to the phantom, how healthy is your relationship potential with angsty tortured past dramatic boy