#i went on a very long rant on greek mythos but it was fun nonetheless

[bloomingjarofhoney]

Greek Mythology in Twisted Wonderland: Book 6 Part 2

hey hi hello once again! i am back to annoy and educate you in one of my weird niches once again. i already did a deep analysis in part 2 so if you want you can check it out there. otherwise, i'll most likely repeat myself unless otherwise. everything will be under the read more cause this will be long once again.

starting off strong, we got the hydras! as many know, the hydra is a nine headed serpent where if one's head is chopped off, another will grow in its place. it was mentioned as one of the labors from the twelve labors of heracles. it was the second labor that heracles has to tackle, the first being the nemean lion. i know in the movie, hercules would chop off the heads because he's stupid, but heracles was very smart and would find a way to lure the hydra out of its poisonous caves to attack it.

also should mention, its spit was also poisonous. i know in the movie hercules gets swallowed and thus allowed him to kill the hydra. yeah, the poison would've killed him. instead, he requested the assistance of his nephew to help defeat the hydra. with the assistance of athena, heracles would chop off the heads of the hydra while his nephew would cauterize the stump, thus defeating the creature.

another fun fact, hera was getting pissed that heracles was winning, so she sent a crab after him in the hopes of getting distracted. unfortunately, heracles would later step on it, not even be bothered by the crab. hera felt bad for her crustacean friend so she allowed the crab to be among the stars, and that's where the star sign cancer comes from.

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tbh i first thought it was talking about zeus, but reading further it was talking about heracles. or at least the hercules from the movie because i can guarantee you, heracles very much knew who his father was. he was also not a god, his parents were zeus and a mortal woman where the name escapes me.

gaia is the titan goddess of the earth and the grandmother of the olympic gods. i don't know what titan nebula god idia is talking about because it's not really well known. the only one i could definitively find was astraeus, who is the titan god of the stars and planets and the art of astrology. in some cases, he was also the father of the stars and the four seasonal winds. otherwise, there's not much knowledge of him.

mnemosyne is the titan goddess of memories and is the mother of the nine muses, with zeus being the father. i've mentioned it before in my previous post, but zeus would have sex with anything and anyone. he was not a good guy.

anyway, i digress. mnemosyne was also a river in the underworld, which ran parallel with the river lethe, the river of forgetfulness. according to myth, souls who are reincarnated would drink from the river lethe so they would forget their past life. however, souls of the novices would be told to drink from mnemosyne. possibly so they could remember their past life, i'm not clear on the details.

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aegis is mostly cloth that ancient greece has used. it was mentioned that athena has adopted the aegis as regular dress, even going so far as to use the severed head of medusa as a symbolic representation.

tbh, i would think they would use argus, who in greek mythology was a creature with many eyes around its body. he was mentioned as being a servant to hera. in one myth, hera was able to capture one of zeus's lovers (i think it was io it's been a while) who was turned into a cow and was kept in hera's garden. argus was stationed to keep watch, since his eyes would always be open. zeus devised a plan to rescue his lover by having him slain. he asked hermes for help, which he disguised himself as a shepherd and played a song to put all the eyes of argus to sleep. after he was sure he was asleep, hermes slaughtered argus by using a stone to hit him over the head.

i just think it would've been fun if the barrier was called argus. it would've been a fun flavor point.

reference

lachesis, clotho, and atropos are the three moirai, or the fates, and they would assign individual destinies to mortals at birth. clotho was the spinner, which means she was in charge of the thread. lachesis was the allotter, which meant that she would distribute the mortal's fate. and lastely atropos the inflexible, which meant that she would not compromise someone's fate no matter how much they begged. one would spin the thread, another would measure it, and the third one cuts it. in some myths, they were the daughters of nyx, the goddess and personification of night. they had enormous power and even zeus was unable to recall their decisions.

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fun fact, this isn't the first time they were mentioned.

they were mentioned throughout the entire game, but the more memorable one is during jamil's fairy gala vignette. no one really knows how old the fates are. they can either be really old or really young, depending on certain myths. also it's fun flavor points when the threads of fate are mentioned.

one more fun fact, the moirai sometimes gets confused with the gray sisters. in the movie hercules, disney combined the gray sisters with the moirai for some reason. the gray sisters, who were extremely old women that shared one eye and one tooth, only showed up once in mythology and that was to give directions to perseus to find the gorgon medusa. the gray sisters at first refused until perseus took their eye and tooth and threatened to tell him where she was, which they agreed. the moirai were perfectly in tact and didn't need to share an eyeball. or a tooth.

yes but also no. i think i've mentioned this before, but the titans do predate the olympic gods, but they weren't the original gods. they were the twelve original children from the primordial parents uranus (the god of the sky) and gaia (the goddess of the earth). it would've been really cool to see the primordial gods that even predate the titans, but disney is trying to tie it into the movies and therefore hates fun.

a cool mention of zeus's lightning bolt. i should mention that it was just a literal lightning bolt, not a thunder spear. nevertheless, it's a cool image to think of.

i should also point out that zeus did not single handedly seal the titans away. i mentioned it in my previous post, but zeus did have assistance from other gods and creatures to defeat the titans.

i get they're trying to connect it to the movie, but it would've been really fun to see the primordial gods in action. or at least be consistent with the actual titans. the only titan i can possibly think of that's the earth titan is maybe gaia, who is the goddess of the earth and is not a titan. the closest one of the phantom titans can come close to is coeus, who is the titan of inquisitive minds and intellect and the titan of the north, can be tied to the ice titan and maybe the magma titan can be tied to perses, the god of destruction. otherwise, there really isn't any correlation from these titans to the greek myth titans.

i think some of the phantoms are supposed to be nods to the disney movies. this one, however, i think is a nod to mythology. it's very similar to king midas, who as many know is a king who was able to turn anything he touched to solid gold. it was a blessing and a curse, as he accidentally turned his favored daughter into pure solid gold. he didn't have any correlation to hades, but this is mainly just for fun.

now i'm gonna just write it out because i either forgot to screencap it or i just didn't think it was necessary. idia mentions that no mortals can enter the gates to the underworld, which is somewhat true. there have been stories where mortals will enter into the underworld to reclaim their lost loved ones, such as the story of orpheus and eurydice. it's not uncommon, but it is rare for mortals to go into the underworld unless they're already dead.

the gates of the underworld is an interesting unique magic to have. mostly because of how media portrays it. rick riordan does a good job in depicting the gate to the underworld as being a door that's heavily guarded so no monsters or undead can enter through it. i believe thanatos guards it in the books, but my memory is hazy so forgive me.

i forgot to screen cap this part, but during idia's backstory when he recreated ortho, he mentioned about the hero going to the underworld to save his lover. this does happen occasionally, as i mentioned orpheus and eurydice. (tbh i legit thought idia was talking about them but then i remembered it was a movie tie in so whoops.) heracles does go into the underworld to retrieve a wife, but it wasn't his wife megara (extremely complicated and not going to get into the details. if you're curious, you can ask me and i will infodump.), but a wife of one of the kings that was one of heracle's friends. back in the day, the gods would take pity on mortals and would revive their lovers back from the dead. i don't think there's one for siblings, and i kinda feel bad for idia to hope that a god will revive his brother back to him.

what is pretty cool about the chapter titles is that each word at the end of the sentence rhymed. i don't remember if the other books had that, but it's pretty neat and it reminds me a lot of how greek plays, especially the chorus, would rhyme out loud during their performance. it was a nice nod to the greek and roman plays. (i studied them in college. it was an interesting experience.)

one thing i will critique is that i wished the towers were done a bit differently. in the underworld, there are three tiers within the underworld: asphodel, elysium, and the fields of mourning. it would've been really cool to see different landscapes that doesn't look so... stale? the technology part of it is pretty neat to look at, but seeing a lush meadow and experiencing a different side to the underworld would've been really cool to see. however, i understand budget issues and all that, but it still would've been nice to see.

and that's it! i might have missed some things, but it's already getting long. longer than the first one i think. if you want any clarifications or you want me to delve deeper into a myth i mentioned in passing, feel free to ask me and i'll do into much more detail as i possibly can. otherwise, hopefully everyone enjoyed the book and everyone enjoyed my little rants and explanations.