Anghraine

colorwheels14 responded to this post:

I get the sense that tumblr is in love with the modern reinterpretations, rather than the Roman version.

I replied:

I’m not sure, tbh—well, they’re not usually thinking of the Roman version but the Greek versions and claiming that Persephone actually consented/wanted to go/something or other, but I don’t think it’s exclusively modern reinterpretations.

heget said:

little me reading picture books of mythology loved this myth, then hermes’s birth and theft of cattle, and a distant third was orphesus and euridice

I replied:

Little me mostly felt sorry for Demeter/Ceres :(

(But my faves were always “anything with Athena in it,” lol.)

Onto Book 2 of the Metamorphoses and “Phaëthon and Phoebus”! This one is interesting because I didn’t really dislike anyone in it? Or at least not their actions?

Sure, Jupiter kills Phaëthon, and you understand why Phoebus is so upset about it, but also Phaëthon was burning up so much of creation that even Pluto was going wtf??? down in Tartarus and Earth herself begged Jupiter to do it. Phaëthon was kind of annoying, but just in a kid-out-of-his-depth way.

IDK, it was interesting to read one with a bunch of gods in it and people having semi-decent motivations for their actions.

Tagged: #in fairness a bunch of phaëthon's relatives get transformed for no apparent reason #but we don't know who did it so ... #also interesting: if anyone is at fault here it's phoebus for making such a rash offer to a mortal boy #but i think the narrative is /very/ sympathetic to him while describing jupiter as 'fashioning excuses' #so if anyone is coming off badly it is—yet again—jupiter #aka celestial augustus