I’ve some new pages up over at my Story of Myth website. One on Metis called “About Metis Mythology” (oh, Google, how you make us murder the English language for keywords), and one on the birth of Athena. I think when I get to the next chapter in Kerenyi I am going to have more to add to both. Still, I find it all very fascinating, so I hope you enjoy!

I’ll begin with my own updates, because, hey, this is my blog.

I’ve got a new page up about Athena: Athena the Goddess. And a quick one about Hera that I shall expand anon: Hera Goddess of Marriage. The info on these two pages comes from Kerenyi’s Athene: Virgin and Mother in Greek Religion, with much more Kerenyi-laiden goodness to come.

There is so much good myth stuff! So much!!

Ok, first is a book review of Gods Behaving Badly. I haven’t read this myself, but with this review I think I am going to have to acquire a copy:

That said, with a rudimentary understanding, this is a very funny story. Apollo reduced to being an oracle on cable? Artemis the dog-walker? And let’s not even talk about Zeus… Perhaps the funniest two are Eros and Athene. Eros, the Christian. And Athene, mind-boggling intelligent… but articulate? Not so much….

Teehee!

Next a really fantastic article on how myth evolves over time called “Look Within For Value; Look Beyond for Perspective”. Marc examines the myth of Prometheus to prove his point:

An excellent example of a divine myth which has changed both shape and significance over time is that of Prometheus as illustrated by first Hesiod in Theogony, and then Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound. In these plays that were created over three centuries apart, the character Prometheus evolved from a typical trickster who is to blame for humanity’s hardships, to a celebrated divinity responsible for bestowing great benefits upon mankind.

My point exactly! Myths keep evolving to help us deal with changing societal notions. Society is nothing more than a group perspective, and if enough people change their minds an entire culture can change on the turn of an….election.

This next find really got me thinking (ph3@r!). Ms. Cassie Gafford is doing her Classics thesis on earthquakes in ancient Greece and Rome:

The questions Gafford must ask in her research relate not only to literature but to religion, science, and culture as a whole. “Were natural catastrophes seen as punishment from the gods, random natural occurrences, or omens?” she wonders. “I want to know what Greeks and Romans wrote about the destructive, unforeseen shaking of the ground.”

Now see. This is lead-in to a quibble that I have had ever since I started researching mythology. Myths nowadays tend to be explained as: bedtime stories savages told themselves to account for natural phenomena they didn’t understand. Which makes me hopping mad, because they weren’t stupid primitives, and science isn’t the One True Way.

*koff* Um. Perhaps Ms. Gafford will help dispel that impression.

Next up: a review for the new mythy video game on Playstation, XBox, and PC: Rise of the Argonauts. You get to be Jason! Watch out for Medusa…

Archeology! Those kids love them some euhemerism. A recent dig in Arcadia seems to “prove the myth true” that Zeus was born on Mt. Lykaion:

“This new evidence strongly suggests that there were drinking (and perhaps feasting) parties taking place on the top of the mountain in the Late Helladic period, around 3,300 or 3,400 years ago,” said Dr. Romano.

Ok. And lastly, because it is the AWESOMEYIST, you have to go read This book review by D.A. Riser where he reviews Rick Riordan’s PERCY JACKSON books. The books are about the Greek gods so Riser writes his review by interviewing…the Greek gods:

ME: Is it true that the half-blood heroes have ADHD as the book says?

ZEUS: Of course, it is true. Double check next time you cross one of these mortals. Like Percy Jackson, all demigods have ADHD and dyslexia. It keeps them hardwired for battle ready mode, enhancing their lightning fast reflexes, if I do say. How it took Percy until junior high to figure this out just shows that Percy is Poseidon’s son. Learning you’re related to Poseidon would be a shock to anyone, but mortals like Percy seem to struggle most with it.

HEEEEE!

Huzzah! A brandy-new page all about Athena and the Parthenon. I had lots of fun doing this one, as I’ve never really looked into the Parthenon. I just knew it was a big temple to Athena in Athens. So I learned a lot. Also, my current personal myth library was not entirely up to the task, so make sure to check the Greek mythology books page for some new website references to check out, full of awesomely useful info. Of course I updated the Greek mythology dictionary page too.

I have a new page up about Athena in her aspect as a goddess of war. Check it out here! I also updated the Greek mythology dictionary page, and the Greek goddesses page as portals into the new page. Also, I got to delve into some new books for this article, so be sure to check out the Greek mythology books page too.

So I am back from vacation and I was going to do a general page about the psychology and archetypes that are present in the Greek goddesses but I am dragging my feet on it. Since the web is such a fabulous place I decided the better part of valor was to run away and just work on something else for a bit. So I’ve a slew of pages I want to do on Athena, and they are much more targeted and focused, so I’ve decided to just work my way through those instead and come back to the general page when I am done before moving on to explore a different goddess.

That’s right, I’ve finally updated with some bona fide content. I am very proud of my new page: The Greek Goddess History: From universal principle to subjugated ideology. I didn’t get it up as quickly as I wanted, for two reasons: I got a nasty sunburn that took me a few days to not feel sick from, and this is all a huge amount of information to process. It’s been many years since my report-writing days, so it’s taking me a bit to get into the groove of reading texts for reference and digesting them to write a cohesive article. I’ve had to split the Goddess History up onto two pages, and still I only breeze over some desperately interesting points. I would really love to come back and do a more intensive, informative e-book on this! But first, I know, more articles!

I’ve also been able to add some pictures to the site, and there will be more forthcoming. Also, I’ve updated the Greek Mythology Books page and added a new decorative divider to all the pages. I think it really breaks the pages up nicely so they feel more inviting to read.

Now that I am starting to get the hang of what I am doing, I expect to update far more often. I have the basic layout set, and the second half of the Greek goddess history article all outlined and ready to be filled with juicy, juicy content. Look for it tomorrow!

Today after much hemming and hawing over creating a structure that would make sense, I have finally added a goodly amount of content to the Greek Mythology Goddesses page! This page is now a nice introduction to the topic, with tantalizing paragraphs tempting the reader to click to find out more. I am very excited at having some real content up for you, as I have been buried in books cribbing to learn the facts to go with the vague knowledge in my head. Mostly I’ve been reading selected chapters of Campbell’s Occidental Mythology, namely Part I: The Age of the Goddess; Chapter 4: Gods and Heros of the European West: 1500 – 500 BC; and Chapter 6: Hellenism: 331 BC – 324 AD.

I have to say, Chapter 4 has a breakdown of the Odyssey as an almost Egyptian-like journey through the Underworld that had my tarot-reading self very, very excited. I can’t wait to get to that page to write!

I’ve put up the shells of my next two pages, The History of the Goddesses in Greek Mythology and the Greek Goddesses as Archetypes. I very much hope to read the final chapter in Campbell, check some facts against the Greek history book I have (The Classical World, by Robin Lane Fox), glance through the relevant bits of The Myth of the Goddess by Baring and Cashford, and have the history page up tomorrow morning.