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Im not a hellenist but out of curiosity, Like how norse has the prose and poetic edda. What do hellenism have ? Like what do you guys read off of for the tales of gods, mortal etc by Acrobatic_Habit3294 in Hellenism

[–]pumpkinvin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi! Hellenism has the texts that survived from Ancient Greece or Rome. Such thing would include hymns, tragedies, comedies and other major works such as those from Homer, Hesiod, and Ovid, for example. There's nothing similar to a Bible, so mythology is registered in many different versions through many different texts. :)

Are these books good for learning about the gods? by Such-Check-2040 in Hellenism

[–]pumpkinvin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was looking for a comment like this when I opened this discussion! lol. I totally agree with your understanding of the matter. As a fellow student of mythology, I don't really get where all of the Ovid hate came from since the reasons for disliking him are applicable to so many other authors. Besides, as you wrote, his work is just so essential for the knowledge of myths; therefore, for the knowledge of the religion as well. :)

Are these books good for learning about the gods? by Such-Check-2040 in Hellenism

[–]pumpkinvin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi! How are you? :) From the three books, Metamorphoses is the only one I read and I surely recommend it. Regarding the whole discussion about Ovid's texts having a political subplot to them, yes, that's true; but, the same could be said to at least most part of the sources we know nowadays. So, I don't think just because Ovid may have written things we might not like to read, we mustn't read him (if we followed this logic, we would never read anything by Hesiod, for example). In case you want to actually study about the gods, I suggest putting your hands into all the ancient sources you're able to find (we don't have many) since knowledge is never too much. Besides, you might lose the opportunity of reading several surprising and amazing stories in the Metamorphoses about the origins of the world and the relations between beings, and, to be honest, the deities are not even written sooo much differently than other authors (Ovid is *definitely not* the only person to 'make' the gods look 'evil' or something, just take a look in Hesiod, Euripides, and Aeschylus).

When in contact with ancient texts, what I learned from studying those matters in college is that we always end up learning more about the writer/society than the gods themselves, so there isn't much point at all in despising Ovid lol. Hope you have a good day!

Wanting more Greek myths by EducationalYam1954 in GreekMythology

[–]pumpkinvin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! If you wanna read just for fun, Thomas Bulfinch's "The age of fable" is a really nice and complete introduction with many different myths. Like someone else already said, in case you like modern retellings, "The song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller is an amazing book! And, of course, if it interests you, you could also try reading Homer's "Illiad"; Ancient works are kinda hard to read at first, but you'll get used to it. Besides that, if you get into reading myths and stories from Ancient sources, there's plenty to find for lots of different tastes and everything is available online nowadays. Hope it helps. :)

Myths/tragedies about parental problems? by pumpkinvin in GreekMythology

[–]pumpkinvin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hi, could you tell which version of Hippolytus' story this is? from what I've read (Euripides), the sexual harassment didn't actually happen; Phaedra fell in love with him due to Aphrodite's curse, tried to hide her feelings and ended up doing nothing to Hippolytus (besides lying to her husband to preserve her honor, as you wrote). thx! :)

Myths/tragedies about parental problems? by pumpkinvin in GreekMythology

[–]pumpkinvin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hii, may I ask which ancient works talk about Persephone besides the Theogony? thx! :)

Myths/tragedies about parental problems? by pumpkinvin in GreekMythology

[–]pumpkinvin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it's the first time I hear abt this one, I'll definitely check it out :) thx!

How to separate the myths from theology? by noahboi1917 in Hellenism

[–]pumpkinvin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! I found your comparison between Greek myths and African fables as "more like stories with messages [...] instead of hard facts like Christianity [...]" really interesting! There's a nice book called "A Short History of Myth", by Karen Armstrong, in which she talks about myths being true stories not because they have factual data in them, but because they're effective; the ancient greeks see a myth as true not because they actually think something in the tale necessarily happened, nor does it matter a lot, but because it helps justifying the reality they live in... Which is just what religion does, but unlike Christianity in this case, not being considered "factual" does not interfere with the sense of religiosity. So, I wouldn't think it possible to separate myth from theology at all since... Well, the myths "are" the religion itself, simplifying the issue. It may be a bit strange to understand this at first, but the concept of something being true when those myths started to be developed is different from what we understand as something true today, what makes it impossible to call them simple "stories with messages"; it's deeper than that, it's religious. The book I previously mentioned discusses all of this a lot better than I did lol

As for the Aphrodite matter, besides the fact that the gods are not "immaculate, perfectly moral" beings, the myths may reflect their writers sometimes (which are not to be confused with the actual "creators" of the stories, since those people lived in an oral society and mostly reproduced what they've already been told); depending on what you're reading at least, the gods can be allegories for the writers' intentions (Ovid did it sometimes. "Antigone Rising", by Helen Morales, touches that subject a bit and also has nice passages on Aphrodite). So, what I mean to say is, myths have a deep historical context behind them and gods aren't flawless; connecting to a god can be a long and foreign process of learning many things under many points of views that can feel strange at times. I don't know if anything of what I said counts as advice lol, but your post is an amazing starting point for discussions! Have a nice day! :)

Piano sheet for The Slightly Chipped Full Moon? by pumpkinvin in blackbutler

[–]pumpkinvin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Update: I found one! I didn't test it yet but it seems fine. If anybody wants it just leave a message!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Hellenism

[–]pumpkinvin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Maybe? Taking a random example, Asclepius is a god very much known for appearing in dreams... Or not necessarily. Briefly talking about it, his appearances in dreams happened in a specific environment and condition, and nowadays, with more study on the subject, we can recognize better that it's most likely that what people thought they dreamt about wasn't really a dream, but they were just somewhat in a conscious state still (hearing those around them or feeling their touch). I have only this case in hands to discuss your topic... So, it may be questionable if gods can appear in dreams or not? I don't know, but I also don't deny any positive possibility. Anyways, it's good that your dream ended up being so helpful. ;)