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.
Animal husbandry, a sign of power and wealth, was less well developed in #ancientGreece. Goats and sheep were the most common livestock and the flocks were protected (and sometimes stolen) by #Hermes. He cares for and increases the flocks and thus gives wealth.
Before Hermes was born, his brother #Apollon was herder of the flocks. When he was sentenced to a year of servitude as a young god for killing Python, Apollon served the mortal king Admetos as his herdsman.
Fired with love for Admetos, #Apollon made all the cows bear twins. But then #Hermes was born and built the first lyre and Apollon traded his cattle whip for the instrument, making Hermes keeper of herds.
Hermes is also the god of trade and merchants, watching over the marketplace in the agora, a natural extension of his role since animals and their by-products were brought to the market to sell. Thievery and scams, of course, are also tools of the trade...
@MetalTigerDude@smutstodon Well, as I said before, if it goes into dinosaur erotica territory (or prehistorical animal territory) I'm all right with that 😁
But it can also be just two humans getting it on while a mastodon gets a drink in the background 😉
@inaforest Ooooh, that is an amazing suggestion too!
Though 2000 is A LOT. I don't know who would go through all of them.
But I'm planning some thematic Mastodon account recs for my website. Historians, erotica writers, mythology / folklore accounts etc. 😊
@irina@Syphilia It doesn't, for the most part, but still I think working with taxes where it makes sense is the better approach as it allows the financing of other measures.