This is a comedic short involving #Ares and #Hermes I wrote for a friend when they were feeling down. Can Ares open himself up to experimentation like his girl Aphrodite suggested?
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is trees π²
Many stories in #GreekMythology have trees in it, some of which I will be telling in this thread.
The most famous tree-related myth must be the transformation of Daphne. Hit with Eros' fiery arrows, #Apollon was burning with desire for the nymph and pursued her when she fled from his advances. Feeling her strength wane, Daphne prayed for help from either her father or Gaia and was turned into the first laurel tree.
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! π
#Hermes as a UPS delivery man, a visual joke from the music video of Hermes' #DestripandoLaHistoria song by Spanish musicians and animators Pascu and Rodri. The song retells many of Hermes' myths like the theft of Apollo's cows, the slaying of Argos, and the birth of Orion.
It's #InternationalBatNight this weekend! The #BatNight has taken place every year since 1997 in more than 30 countries in Africa and Europe on the last full weekend of August. π¦ #Bats rarely feature in #GreekMythology but they appear in #Aesop's fables as a creature of dual nature, neither bird nor mouse. As an animal blurring the lines, it fits well with #Dionysos, a god who blurs the lines not between mouse and bird but between male and female.
The story of #Dionysos and the Minyades appears in Plutarch's Greek Questions 38 and in the Metamorphoses of both Ovid and Antoninus Liberalis. The daughters of Minyas, Leukippe, Arsippe and Alkathoe were startlingly diligent. They strongly criticised other women for abandoning the city to roam the hills as Bacchantes. Dionysos took on the likeness of a girl and urged the Minyades not to miss out on the rites and mysteries of the god. But they paid him no heed.
#Dionysos was angered and turned into a bull, then a lion, then a leopard. From the beams of their looms there flowed for him milk and nectar. Gripped by terror, the maidens threw lots determining that Leukippe had to offer her son as a sacrifice to the god. They tore him to pieces and went into the mountains as Bacchantes until #Hermes (or Dionysos himself) changed them into #bats.
It's #InternationalDogDay! There are several #dogs from #GreekMythology that we still know today, like Kerberos guarding the entrance to the underworld, Odysseus' faithful dog Argos who was the only one who recognised him in his disguise, and Hekuba, the Queen of Troy, who became Hekate's constant companion in the shape of a big black bitch.
But what do we know about the ancient Greeks and their dogs? @amayor researched how the dogs were named:
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.
While searching for #Persephone, Demeter was received by Eleusinian prince #Triptolemos and his family and after she had found Persephone, she taught him how to grow crops and provided him with a winged, serpent-drawn chariot to spread her gift across the earth. Triptolemus was the favourite of #Demeter, and it is said that he became the inventor of the plough. Pausanias even tells of a temple of Triptolemos at #Eleusis.
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is healing. The God of Healing is #Apollon but there are other gods who share in a subset of his power. Apollon's son #Asklepios famously brought dead people back to life. Deified after his untimely death by Zeus' thunderbolt, he received a cult of his own, the Temples of Asklepios serving as hospitals. Asklepios had children of his own, among them Panacea (Cure-all), and Hygieia (Health).
But he is not the only healing god associated with Apollon.
Dionysos Hygiates, Dionysos the Dispenser of Health, is Dionysosβ healing aspect. In #GreekMythology, he originally titled himself #Dionysos Iatros, (Doctor), but the Pythia of Delphi declared that he is not a doctor, but rather a dispenser of health. While #Apollon ensures the health of the city and the people, Dionysos spreads good health because wine has healing properties, as well as the vegetation he rules over.
Source: Forgetting Delphi between Apollo and Dionysus, by Marcel Detienne