#specifically HERA

[clownzaf]

Being into Hellenism is basically like being into dc. You just Pick and Choose what you want to believe about the gods you like.

Hymns, Books or Poems can be misinterpreted or simply fake. It’s not like you can ask Homer how does he know what happened in the Odyssey right now.

If you want to work with a god you can read about them but be aware that not everything they say in myths is necessarily true. That girl who said her kid was from Zeus Maybe was a cheater who accidentally created a myth to protect her life.

That hero who is super famous maybe lied to get a little attention and accidentally became super famous!

Maybe the writer just added that part to make the story more interesting!

We don’t now what actually happened in the myths, so don’t take them so literally. You never now what’s real and what’s a “so many writers wrote about it so I’m gonna put it in my work too”. That’s how we lost many aspects of the gods, like war goddess Aphrodite.

So pray to that god who the myths wrote off as the worst creature alive, you might find the comfort you needed!

PICK AND CHOOSE YOU CANON GIRLSSSS

[pjowasmy1stfandom]

Percy: goes missing

Annabeth: about to commit murder to find him

...

Annabeth: goes missing

Percy: literally committing murder to find her

[onceuponaladye]

Wow Jason really is the worst husband (second to Zeus, that is)

[commsroom]

the u.s.s. horrible unending nightmare 💥 (once again from the incredible @hehearse)

[tyquu]

Hear me out, imagine if, after years of Ezra and the gang saying 'Karabast' as a curse at serious things, Ezra stubs his toe and yells 'FUCK' and the ghostie crew is like :O

Honestly, as funny as it is to hear Ezra say “fuck” I think we’re over looking all the epic swears he could pick up from the rest of the crew (mainly Hera)

[kastalani123]

There's something about the idea that gods change according to belief.

There's something about Aphrodite having to drop her sword and shield and pick up a makeup brush and mirror.

There's something about Zeus's Crown overtaking his hospitality.

There's something about Ares being scrubbed of his care with blood.

There's something about Hera's care being thrown in her face because of her cruelty.

There's something about Dionysus having his artistry and wildness ripped away from him due to his partying.

There's something about Hermes losing his chthonic connections in favour of his trickery.

There's something about Demeter surrendering her fierce, protective love and power over life and death to become a hysterical mother.

There's something about Athena's femininity and protectiveness fading to make her grip her spear and grasp her thoughts tighter.

There's something about Hephaestus forgetting his creations' finesse and intricacy to focus on pure function and efficiency.

There's something about Poseidon's earth-shaking rage that causes waves to rise above the tallest mountains being reduced to occasional vengefulness.

There's something about Apollo giving up his herds and truth and wisdom and plagues to speak the future and heal the wounded through song.

There's something about Artemis turning from children and childbirth to fixate on the wilderness.

There's something about the idea that gods change according to belief.

[ottosbigtop]

But each night I look Up at the stars in the sky And I can't help it But I still wish I was with you

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[thetruecthulhu9]

Hey it's bullshit that nico would refuse to acknowledge Percy in SoN because of being A Big Gay and also spiting him for Bianca's death. Makes way more sense if Hera rocked up in his dreams when She realised he could fuck over her plans and went "hey if you snitch I will rock your shit. Absolutely ruin your life and Hazel's. Don't help the Greeks with Jason and don't tell Percy who he is."

This is what I have always believed and will continue to do so

[aroaceleovaldez]

chewing on big 3 kids being capable of absolutely devastating natural disasters and apocalypse-level outbursts of power.

Percy who creates hurricanes complete with lightning that pummel titans and flooding and whirlpools that can trap god-powered crocodile kaijus. Earthquakes that erupt volcanoes. Hazel who sunk an entire small island entirely on her own with her final breath, against giants and a primordial goddess of the earth.

If Nico dramatically wilts plants and cracks the ground when he's mildly stressed, and disintegrates enemies down to their skeletons with a single touch or rips their souls out of their still-living bodies, and can command armies of the undead, what happens if he tries to cause destruction? Even outside of total zombie apocalypse or insta-killing a crowd, he's shown enough geokinesis to absolutely be capable of the same destruction Percy and Hazel can manifest.

What about Jason? He can control the winds and storms. There's no way he can't create the most destructive tornadoes with casual effort that he can never justify using for the collateral damage they'd cause. With a single thought he can rip up a town and launch the remnants 50 miles out. (Jason in the center of a Dead Man Walking tornado, vortexes responding to his movements like an avatar...)

And what can anyone do to combat it? How can you fight the wind lifting everything you know and love into the sky, or floods sweeping you away, or the ground giving way beneath you? The Big 3 kids are scary because they are forces of nature, and their whims are the only thing preventing you from witnessing that at any given moment.

[my-name-is-apollo]

If I had a nickel every time Hera was shown to have loved Apollo's hair, I'd have two nickels. That isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

Tibullus, Elegies book 2 (trans. A. S. Kline)

Lucian, Dialogues of the gods (trans. Fowler)

[passumstars]

Screenshot redraw of the coolest moment and easily one of the top 5 frames of the show

[commsroom]

sweetheart, baby, darlin', and so on. 💞 (by @jamisonrivv)

[uluthrek]

there‘s something so sinisterly funny about hera‘s constant joking about how everything persephone does being dictated by hades to the point where all she‘s allowed to wear is black, but when hera and persephone actually meet to discuss something important, it‘s hera who has summoned persephone on behalf of zeus and while persephone wears a bright, fun pink and has a lunchbox matching her dress and glasses, hera is in all black… something about hera making persephone into the prisoner she is herself… something about this feeling of entrapment being so violent she has to impose it on every woman she knows to create a sense of painful subservience to your husband being the norm because not doing that means admitting there‘s something horribly wrong with the goddess of marriage‘s marriage…

[kastalani123]

I know that PJO Hera is an absolute bitch and even in mythology she isn't among the best, but. But.

Tell me that Hera, Goddess of Motherhood, wasn't completely enthralled when Leo Valdez, a few months old and so tiny and fragile, grabbed her finger for the first time and giggled like it was the best thing to happen in his life.

Tell me that Hera, Mother, doesn't replay the first time Leo Valdez, a year old and always covered in bumps and bruises because he climbs everything, said "Tía" years after it happened.

Tell me that Hera, Patron of Women, didn't have cuckoos following Esperanza, young and alone and discarded by her family, when she had to lock up late to make sure no harm came to her.

Tell me that Hera, Goddess of Motherhood, didn't feel worshiped to the highest degree when Esperanza, tired and dirty and bleeding, worked nights so that she could afford to spoil her son for his birthday.

Tell me that Hera, Tía Callida, didn't care when she put Leo, all of two years old and burning with a flame so bright the Earth Mother herself felt the need to intervene, in the fireplace as though to burn away his mortality.

[wisebeth]

why does the pjo series have to unnecessarily villainize goddesses (hera & athena) or show them as silly ladies (aphrodite & demeter) BUT posiedon and apollo are somehow shown as the coolest/most likeable gods, even though arguably, they're right after zeus on terms of corruption?

ares shown as the worst god after zeus and hera amuses me. last time i checked, he was the patron god of amazons and literally killed a man for attempting to rape his daughter but guess who cursed women for rejection? apollo. guess who raped women when they said no (aside from zeus)? posiedon.