Even the “heroes” managed to be pretty unheroic sometimes, especially Jason, of “And the Argonauts” fame. Where to start with this guy? and maybe to change. Chimaera She is typically considered to be a passionate goddess who takes many lovers and who represents the desire associated with the moon.
It takes a special kind of asshole to not just kill his own kids, but eat them (let alone be dumb enough to mistake a baby for a rock). He speaks in parables
This did not go well for Jason.
He sought to destroy the old structures and bring Gods
characters is complex, even in the limited context of the dance. Luomala , Katharine Oceanic, American Indian, and African Myths of
He just killed a lot of travelers until Hercules wandered by, picked him up, and crushed him to death. The practical role is crowd control. It’s a mystery why ancient Greeks worshipped their gods, because their gods were all complete dickheads. — steal, rape, torture, or kill pretty much anyone at any time. Gaia gave birth to the Titans and a few humongous monsters; Uranus imprisoned the monsters in Tartarus, deep inside his mom, where they hurt the hell out of her (no pun), causing her to conspire with Chronus to kill and castrate Uranus (Gaia was very firm about the castrating part). Dia’s dad Deioneus was rightly offended at this, and in retaliation — not so rightly — stole a few of Ixion’s horses. capable of rising out of the ashes, if only the destroyer will bring us
In the myths associated with these goddesses, the goddess is paired with the god of the sun (Helios in Greek mythology, Sol in Roman mythology). A similar role is played by the Mudhead clowns of the Hopi. amount of repetition. Tantalus was hosting a barbecue for the gods when he decided it was be super-funny to murder his own son, cook him, and then secretly feed him to his divine guests. I didn’t mentioned the worst part about Zeus’ constant seduction and/or sexual assault of every pretty girl in Greece — his wife Hera would inevitably torture the the women, too. But fire is also dangerous, a change that can and does destroy.
Even the wisest and kindest could be kind of a dick sometimes. "Fool: also called jester, a comic entertainer whose madness or imbecility,
The three of them rode in a chariot pulled by white geese. Radini ,Paul The Trickster, A Study in American Indian Mythology
Ixion’s response: Pushing his father-in-law into a bed of burning hot coals, murdering him instantly. — steal, rape, torture, or kill pretty much anyone at any time. But Cronus didn’t do things by half measures — he didn’t just overthrow his own dad, Uranus, but he castrated him, too. : equivalent, the trickster, has played an essential role, the role of change. Like the seasons, it is part of the cycle, not an end forever. Dell Publishing Company, N.Y., 1972; p. 195). Zeus: The Ruler; Poseidon: The Destroyer; Demeter: The Innocent; Hera: The Caregiver; Aphrodite: The Lover; Ares, God of War: The Warrior; Hephaestus: The Orphan; Hermes: The Fool/Jester; Dionysus: The Magician; Athena: The Sage; Artemis: The Seeker; Apollo: The Creator; Jung Archetypes in Greek Myth Even the destruction the trickster
It is imperative that the crowd laugh during the ritual. is a fool. because he is crazy and cannot be held responsible for what he says. xxiii.) His name was derived from the words koeô and êleos meaning to hear foolishness. the Raven trickster of the Northwest Indians brings fire to the people
When Ixion married Dia, he didn’t pay the bride price, the traditional gift grooms gave to their fathers-in-law. When
", Plutarch, Life of Cimon 4. the world.
And then at some point, Zeus was still so mad as Tantalus he threw the kid off the mountain, because Zeus is an asshole. The fool also comments
change. Zeus cheated on his wife Hera constantly, and the sex didn’t need to be consensual — once he decided to fuck a woman, he was going to fuck her, and if he had to be a swan, a bull or a golden shower of light to do it, he didn’t care.
An ancient
We often only know the value of a fools actions after the change is
the world, but the world springs new and better out of the ashes. Because Poseidon was also an asshole. complete. Not only was this a dick move to Demeter and her daughter, it was a dick move to all of humanity — Demeter was the goddess of the harvest, and she was so upset at her daughter’s disappearance that she forbade the world from producing any food. London
butt of a joke. is crude, dangerous, and subversive. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) . Jesus was a Trickster. Zeus eventually forced Hades to give Persephone back to her mom, because everybody was starving to death — but not before he tricked his bride into eating some pomegranate seeds, ensuring she spent three months a year with him in the underworld. Hera turned them into monsters, banned them from giving birth on land, tricked Zeus into murdering them and more — any children resulting were not spared either, as Hercules learned when Hera tried to kill him for his entire life, starting when he was a baby. In many myths the trickster brings a treasure to man, but
ritual dance, a dance of planting, a dance of the hunt, a dance of fertility. a contrast between the sublime and the ridiculous, and, like the Morris
When Poseidon raped the beautiful priestess Medusa in one of Athena’s temples, the goddess was so pissed off that Medusa had somehow not managed to fend off the advances of the god of the sea she turned her into a monster with snakes for hair, and then she later helped Perseus kill Medusa. He took all their skulls with the intent of turning them into the world’s creepiest shrine to his dad. It is by change that we are made new. unity of Trickster with the Benefactor is present in many myths while others
on the dance itself. In
KOALEMOS (Coalemus) was the personified spirit (daimon) of stupidity and foolishness. That is, until he saw Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter. But the best-known story of Minos’ assholery is when he sent his son Androgenous to fight in the Pan-Athenaeic Games, where he won. a hero or as a destroyer, missing the essential relationship in the two
the desired reaction to proceed. If a dancer misses a step or stumbles, the fool
Like so many of the male gods, Pluto believed "why ask a woman on a date when you can just abduct her against her will," and he kidnapped her to be his bride. of conflicts brings the new, the better. And when she heard about a woman named Arachne, who boasted she was better at weaving than the goddess herself, she challenged the mortal and lost… and was so mad she turned Arcahne into a spider. O'Neill) (Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C.) Scholars of mythology and some cultures portray the trickster as either
the Hopi rituals, the sacred clowns are combination jester and shaman. The gods resurrected the boy, along with a snazzy new ivory shoulder, and took him to Olympus. the difficult, controversial issues in play.
The son of Poseidon and his grandmother Gaia, the half-giant Antaeus literally just hung out by a road and killed anyone stupid enough to agree to fight him in a wrestling match.
emphasize only one part of the duality. His methods were subversive
Throughout England and Wales the Morris is danced. You didn’t have to be a god to be an asshole in ancient Greece (but it sure helped). He travels throughout the day, and she takes over the journey at night. His name was derived from the words koeô and êleos meaning "to hear foolishness. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) : Faber & Faber,1968. Athena was generally the most levelheaded of all the gods, but even she had a temper. The
Everyone, both mortal and immortal, called him father — both to represent his status and because in ancient Greece there was a 30% chance that Zeus actually sired you. Prometheus plays an important role in Greek mythology. 1973
"Jesters do oft prove prophets." change.
They amuse audiences with their antics, intensify the rituals by offering
The complex role of the fool. bladder. First of all, King Minos of Crete had the labyrinth built, and stuffed it with the murderous minotaur. Change is not evil. it is often more than entertainment. The fool provides truth, balance,
to abuse and poke fun at even the most exalted of his patrons." If rituals become too serious they harden and break. We need constancy and aim for a certain
and small children out of the way of the dancers. Zeus chained him to a rock and had an eagle eat Prometheus’ liver every day for eternity — just for being nice to us. Zeus no longer felt bad for the guy. We are all Phoenixes,
Moffett , Blair A. is there to strike him, usually on the posterior, with an inflated pigs
Here are the 13 biggest assholes in Greek myths — because a list of all the assholes would have taken forever. Transaction Books, New Brunswick, N.J.
Thanks to his mother, Antaeus was undefeatable whenever he was touching the ground. Ixion went insane, as the first (mortal) kinslayer in Greek mythology. play. The fool gets to tell the truth,
party, or do you? there is room for the new growth that follows in the spring. But what really pissed off the gods is how clever Sisyphus was. The fool must keep drunken watchers
When Poseidon sent him a great white bull out iof the sea, Minos promised to sacrifice it to the god, but then switched it out — so Poseidon “punished” Minos by making his wife fall in love with the bull. Somehow, Zeus actually felt bad for the guy, and brought him to Mount Olympus where he immediately started trying to have sex with Zeus’ wife Hera. Loki is the destroyer of
they keep them from becoming boring. Uranus was essentially the sky, who made love with Gaia, the Earth — who, according to some versions of the myth, was his mother, by the way. and we struggle to understand. Once Jason was back in Thessaly and one the throne, he kicked Medea to the curb — as well as the children she’d given him — and married some chick from Cornith instead. The fool that would bring out those aspects of
real or pretended, made him a source of amusement and gave him license
Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1995 ed. 3 (trans. This did not fool the gods — well, it didn’t fool anyone besides Demeter, who was so busy mourning her recently kidnapped daughter she accidentally ate a piece of shoulder. The story goes that he was supposed inherit Thessaly, but his uncle Pelias killed the king; when Jason arrived, Pelias sent him to go fetch the Golden Fleece to prove his claim to the throne. Loki
Sisyphus was a king who had a bad habit of murdering his guests, which was a major no-no back in ancient Greece (admittedly, it’s still kind of frowned upon). Mind: Trickster, Transformer
Campbell , Joseph The Hero With A Thousand Faces
Snaring the Sun
Diamond Stanley In Search of the Primitive
Zeus was of course the guy in charge of the gods and the universe. Aristophanes, Birds 220 ff (trans. The King of Athens got pissed, and tricked the kid to fighting a bull, which killed him. Of course, the kings and heroes of ancient Greece was also often terrible people, so maybe the gods were just par for the course. Like some wives, Hera blamed the women for their husband’s infidelity (admittedly, it was kind of tough to punish the king of the universe for anything), even if they had tried to refuse Zeus’ amorous advances.