THE ODYSSEY: The Greek Gods

Divas, strap in because this episode is what I like to call .. brain rot for intellectuals! It is full of castrations, cannibalism, incest, birthing from the head and thigh and even a spontaneous combustion, which means we can either be talking about Game of Thrones OR the Greek Gods! And in this case, it is the latter! From the primordial deities to the Olympians we're tracking the origins of the ancient Greek religious system and the figures who made it spin. Get ready, it's a wild one! Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for pulling this together, and if you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! Til next week, Ainslie x

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Alright guys, so we have to talk about it. The elephant in the room, okay? The Odyssey. Yes, that is right. It is coming to cinemas on July 17th, which is Friday, and it's in two weeks from now. So in preparation for the film, literally one of the biggest history films ever made, I wanted to make sure that you guys were armed with all the knowledge to go in and understand who's who, what's what, all the dynamic between, you know, the different characters and the importance of the translated version that Christopher Nolan used for the base text here. So because of that, all of July is going to be dedicated to the ancient Greek world

• 0:42Speaker 00

  because I am nothing if not benevolent. And I want you guys to have the best cinematic experience possible. So roll the tapes and let's get into it.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  Hi guys and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready for a July of epic proportions, okay? I've been prepping these episodes here and like the wider social content that goes with them for probably three, four months now. So a huge slate of content coming your way and the first episode off the bat here is the Greek gods. Now, whether you're a history lover, a Percy Jackson fan or someone who like me read the smutty retelling called Neon Gods, you're kind of obsessed with the Greek gods, okay?

• 1:52Speaker 00

  And it's no wonder why. I mean, think about it, the idea of these, you know, like incredible beings who have beef with each other and babies with humans and masterful gifts and kind of like stir shit, but in this like epic kind of way, you know? Plus the fact that it is one of the oldest religious systems in the world. And I want to start with them for July because so much of the Odyssey and ancient Greece in general is anchored in the gods and goddesses. But it can all get a bit confusing, so let's get into it today, guys. By rewinding all the way back to where we were a couple of weeks ago, actually, in our Atlantis

• 2:34Speaker 00

  episode, the late Bronze Age, around 2000 to 1600 BCE. So almost equal time before Jesus's death as we are today in the early 2000s, right? And it was here, amongst the Minoans and the Mycenaeans of Bronze Age Crete, that the worship of the Greek gods began historically. But they, as deities, predate that significantly to, you know, basically the beginning of time, where they emerged from a primordial void called chaos. Now, at the top, I think it's really important for us to make two key distinctions here because we're gonna kind of flip-flop between the two of them. So there is ancient Greek religion, right?

• 3:14Speaker 00

  The historical belief in these deities and the actual act of worshipping them by real people in former civilizations. And then there's Greek mythology, which is basically the gods' own history of themselves, which explains their origins and their stories between one another. So we kind of have, at the same time here, two different histories running concurrently: the human history of their worship, the gods' history of their lives. And as I said, we are going to talk about both. But let's start with the humans, shall we? The boring stuff, let's get it out of the way. So, as we said, the practice of the ancient Greek religion started in the late Bronze Age and was less of a religion and more of a way of life.

• 3:58Speaker 00

  You know, it wasn't as simple as converting, as we know today, or you're joining into some kind of formal structure. Rather, it was a central part of daily life and ancient society, which evolved over time. So it really was, back then, the total norm, which developed over thousands of years in a continuous system known as orthopraxis. Now, this is very much in contrast to the Abrahamic religions, so Islam, Judaism and Christianity, which are orthodox. So you conform to establish beliefs that have remained pretty much the same for centuries in this system. The ancient Greek religion, it ain't like that, okay? It was constantly evolving and during its heyday, spread throughout the entire Mediterranean

• 4:41Speaker 00

  world, including having impacts in Spain and, of course, Rome, who identified their own deities with those of the Greeks. Plus guys, it does also weasel its way into Christian tradition as well, particularly throughout the Renaissance, where the rediscovery of Greek literature and classical sculpture massively impacted Christian religious art. And even today, the impact is all around us. Not in the least because of Percy Jackson, but Logan Lerman lovers, rise up here. I see you, I am you, I love you. But because of something else, guess what? If you've ever like done your zodiac sign, you're actually participating in ancient Greek tradition here,

• 5:25Speaker 00

  which blended astronomical systems with Greek mythology. So a huge, very long lasting impact throughout human history. And one which is often really, really misunderstood. So let's look at how the religion operated, you know, what's involved? How does it differ from modern religions? Well, first and foremost, as we said, the key thing about ancient Greek religion is that it's not formal in the way modern religions are. There's no clergy or priestly cased and no real rules. Or if there were, they weren't written down like the 10 commandments, for example. There was also no effort to convert others into your specific beliefs

• 6:07Speaker 00

  and rather an understanding that your practice was your own. So, you know, for example, if, if you're a Poseidon girlie or your neighbor is like mad for Athena, they're not going to start knocking on your door with a pamphlet trying to get you to, you know, join Athena's side.

• 6:25Speaker 00

  It's also not a monotheistic religion, where there is the belief in one all-powerful god, but is rather polytheistic, AKA the worship of multiple gods. There's also no single sacred texts like the Bible or the Quran and no centralized religious building. In fact, the one sole requirement within the ancient Greek religious system was that you just believed the gods existed, with the relationship between human beings and deities being the most sacred connection they had, as it was based off one very, very important thing.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  Reciprocity. Honestly, it really does all boil down to this idea that if humans gave offerings, right, this very, very physical expression of thanks, then the gods and goddesses were expected to give gifts which were vital to survival. Now, we know this was the heart of their belief system because they don't even have a word or term for religion, but they do have a phrase, duete, which is Latin for I give so that you make it. So how do the humans give then? What's this look like? What's the process? Well, these offerings were, and vegans might have to cover their ears for this one, usually animal sacrifices, which were killed at an altar in front of a temple.

• 7:47Speaker 00

  As part of this sacrificial process, the blood, which was believed to have magical powers, was always spilled, you know, very dramatically as part of, part of this kind of grand ceremonial show, after which the haunch of the animal was offered to the gods along with requests or favors and pleas for mercy or protection, you know, depending on what the person had done, I guess, if, depends which part of the animal you're gonna give them, like if you've gone and killed someone, I think you're gonna, you're given a big ham, right, versus if you're just hoping for good weather. Now, if you're listening along here and you're thinking, you know what? All of this sounds kind of great, like I give, I get, no one's gonna try and convert

• 8:29Speaker 00

  me, and you could probably do this except for the sacrifices, like if I don't have to, this could be kind of cool, then eh, it ain't gonna work for you, okay? Because under the ancient Greek system, sacrifice was second only to prayer as the most common religious practice, for it connected the mortal with the immortal by involving the gods in the material possessions of men, which again, if we come back to our idea of reciprocity here, makes sense.

• 9:00Speaker 00

  So as long as you believed, right, gave your sacrifices on time and in accordance with the right kind of way of things, you were in and could have your own relationship with your selected deities on your own terms, in your own way, and be widely respected for your choices. But those choices were important because these aren't nice, bright, white, glowy, like Philadelphia cream cheese ad up in heaven kind of gods. They often had a civilization ending wrath. So let's talk about that, okay? So who are they then?

• 9:43Speaker 00

  Well, many of them you may have already heard of, like Poseidon, god of the sea, or Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. And thanks to pop culture, bringing us things like Percy Jackson, Clash of the Titans, Troy, and of course, the smash hit Disney classic that is Hercules. We also know more about other gods like Zeus, Hades, Hercules, and Athena. But who were they actually? What do they do? What's their deal? Are they all related? Like, what's going on here? Well, first and foremost, not all of the deities under the ancient Greek system are equal. In fact, they're actually split up into various groups based on significance and origin. So at the top, okay, the big dogs, we have the Olympians. They are the

• 10:26Speaker 00

  12 key gods who all live on Mount Olympus and get into all sorts of mischief and drama and deceit with one another and humans. And, you know, it's, it's kind of crazy up there. Below them are the primordial deities, aka the elemental forces, followed by the Titans, who are the older rulers and super important to Greek mythology. So, you know, the gods' own kind of history. And the last, we have the underworld deities. Now, I don't want to scare you all the way with the complexity of the names and roles and family ties and marriages and, you know, all the intermingling drama of the ancient Greek gods. So we are going to do a little family tree overview here before deeping into the individual figures because they're all disconnected.

• 11:09Speaker 00

  So, in the briefest of explanations here, the primordial deities were the first beings in Greek mythology who came into existence during the creation of the world and as such, make up the most basic components of the universe. Next came Titans, who were the children of Uranus and Gaia, two of the original primordial gods. Now, of the Titan children here, it was Cronos and Rhea who went on to create the first six Olympians, who, so like, they're all siblings, right? And these first six then elect like another six based on what they did and their roles and connections, which gives us the total of 12.

• 11:49Speaker 00

  So primordials had Titans, two of the Titans had six of the Olympians. It's basically just like Game of Thrones up in here, okay? Now, one of the Olympians does sit separate to the rest, and his name is Hades, god of the underworld, who hangs out with his own deities down in this massive invisible space, which includes the afterlife and eternal hell, kind of all wrapped up into one, alright? So, the crux here, it's a family affair, all broken up into four key groups, and we are, of course, going to start at the very beginning with the OGs, the primordial deities.

• 12:29Speaker 00

  So, as I said at the top, these are the original deities which represented the beginning of existence. So the four of them together kind of just spontaneously emerged and brought life to be, or at least according to Hesiod's Theogony written around 700 B.C. And the reason they were so all creating is because they weren't people or beings with human characteristics as the other gods are, but rather elemental forces. So first, we have chaos, which is the empty space before existence, Gaia, the earth, Tartarus, the abyss beneath the earth, and Eros, the force of procreation. And it's super important when looking at the primordial deities to think of them as

• 13:14Speaker 00

  forces, because they are essentially making up the physical foundations of the world in which we still exist, and as such are like really intangible. Now, that's again according to Hesiod's Theogony, which is one of the earliest sources. But later traditions, namely the Orphic Theogony, had a different idea. For them, the story of creation involved Cronos, the deity of time, and Anunk, the deity of necessity, wrapping their limbs around each other to sort of birth an egg from which the universe then emerged. It's all kind of very vague and confusing here, but in this tradition, other primordial beings are

• 13:55Speaker 00

  also mentioned, including Hamira, the goddess of the day, Nyx, the goddess of night, Oceanus, the primordial god of water, Oreia, the primordial god of the mountains, Pontus, the primordial god of the sea and his female counterpart, the Lassa, which, fun fact, is where the term Thylacophobia, as a fear of the deep sea, comes from. And then lastly, we have Uranus, right? God of the sky, who had a particularly sorry story involving his penis being lobbed off by his children at the encouragement of his wife Gaia, aka the earth. So again, these deities are less beings, even though they apparently did have penises,

• 14:37Speaker 00

  and more forces, you know, the literal sky, the literal earth, the literal ocean. But just because they lack human characteristics in mythology doesn't mean they couldn't procreate. Because from them, we get the Titans, so our next stage of the Greek god family tree.

• 14:58Speaker 00

  So who the fuck are they? Who are the Titans? What did they do? You know, what was their beef? Are any of them missing their penises? Well, as far as we can tell, no. All reproductive organs were intact and in good working order across all 12 of the Titans, who were the offspring of both Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth. Now, these guys are generally known and regarded throughout Greek mythology and Greek history as the elder gods, and they ruled at a time where the earth and the sky were one. And amongst the twelve Titans, eight of the siblings married one another. So picture, like, sky Targaryens, yeah? And that's these first dynasty gods, the most important of

• 15:40Speaker 00

  whom was a god called Cronus. And he is the god of agriculture, the harvest, and the destructive or devouring nature of time. Quite the job title for LinkedIn. Now, despite being the baby of the family, he's, he's the little brother and always busy with the harvest, Cronus was actually king of the Titans. And my, my, my, did he have daddy issues, guys? Like, he absolutely hated his inanimate father Uranus, because he was basically like a tyrant who dismissed several of his children and forced some others

• 16:23Speaker 00

  back into his mother's womb, which, as you can imagine, caused her immense pain and suffering. So much so, that she gave Cronus a stone sickle to castrate and depose Uranus, allowing him and the Titans, AKA her own kids, to take control of the cosmos. Now, because Cronus is a good boy, he does as he's told, leading to both the sky separating from the earth and the time of the Titan rule emerging. So penis is gone, right? He's taken over. Who else, then, is a part of this mystery sibling gang? Well, there was Oceanos, who, as you can probably guess from the name, was the Titan of the great river, AKA the ocean. There was also Tethys, his wife and sister, who was Titan of fresh water, which

• 17:08Speaker 00

  nourished the earth. Next is Hyperion, the Titan of heavenly light, whose name means watcher from above, which is pretty much what he did when he held his dad down while Cronus castrated him. Next is his wife and sister Thea, who was the Titan of sight and shining light, followed by Coas, god of heavenly oracles, who also helped castrate Uranus, and his wife, Phoebe, which seems like such a mundane name in comparison to the rest, but she was, in my opinion anyway, one of the best, presiding over the oracles of the axes of earth, making her the Titan of bright intellect. Next up is Creus, the Titan of constellations, who also helped with the castration,

• 17:51Speaker 00

  as did Lepitis, the Titan of mortality, who also represented the four corners of the earth. Next is Nemmosni, Nemmosni, Nemmosni, I'm gonna go with Nemmosni, the Titan god of memory and language, who is basically like the OG hot historian here, guys. With her role of memorization, allowing her to preserve the stories of history before writing even existed. Hot girl shit right there. Next is Themis, the Titan of divine law, order and justice, who was also a prophetic goddess who presided over the most ancient oracles, helping establish the traditional rules of conduct by the gods. And lastly here, I know there's lots and the names are all confusing,

• 18:35Speaker 00

  but we're gonna tell you the big ones, okay? The rest you can kind of put into your mind palace. Lastly, we have Rhea, the mother of the gods and Titan of female fertility, who just so happens to be the wife of that pesky, youngest brother who took their dad's knob off, Cronos. Something that she did not particularly enjoy, because guess what, guys? He kept eating their children. Yeah, I mean, you think marrying your brother is bad enough, but then you find out he's like a crazed cannibalist who was scared of a prophecy, which said all of his children would usurp him. So to stop this happening, he just eats them, like, straight out of the vaj.

• 19:19Speaker 00

  What the fuck? So, Rhea, who, as you can imagine, is devastated by this, finally decides to do something about it. And she pulls off a good old fashioned sleight of hand, swapping a real baby for a stone wrapped in swaddle, which she gave to Cronos, who gobbles it up right away. Meanwhile, the baby, whose name was Zeus, was instead taken to Crete to be raised in secret, where he eventually grew big and strong and went back to Cronos, freed his siblings, who somehow survived inside their weird dad's stomach, and started a 10-year war known as the Titanomachy.

• 19:58Speaker 00

  Which FYI, every war since then wishes it could have a name that fucking called Titanomachy? Are you joking? Fucking cinematic. That's gonna be Christopher Nolan's next movie, okay? Anyway, distracted, distracted, distracted. This war, absolutely brutal, guys. With many of the younger Titans aligning themselves with Zeus. And eventually, it got so bloody that the matriarch herself had to step in. That's right, Gaia, the primordial deity for earth, was fed up with the intensity of the battle. So much so, that she suggested to her grandson Zeus that he go down to Tartarus, the underworld, and rescue the secret, rejected aunts and uncles he'd never met.

• 20:43Speaker 00

  Guys, the family drama here is just insane. I'm surprised Andy and the Bravo team haven't made a real Titans spin-off. Like, it's wild. Anyway, so Zeus, that's right, we're with Zeus. He's like, "Grandma, what do you mean? I don't have aunts and uncles in Tartarus. They're all Titans who are up here." Which is when she drops a big old-fashioned bombshell. Her, and Uranus, so again, the original guy who was usurped, had more children, after the Titans, three of whom were hecatonchris. Described as extremely big and powerful, these beings each had a hundred arms and fifty heads, and were all cast out by Uranus, who was terrified of them.

• 21:25Speaker 00

  Gaia knew this, obviously, and told Zeus to go and recruit them to his side. So, what does he do? Packs his bag, takes a trip to Tartarus, treats them to a delicious meal, tells them about this war, saying he needs their help to destroy their, um, Titan siblings. And ultimately, they agree to help, which became this massive game changer in the war. Soon, what we find is proper chaos. The sky is burning, the oceans are boiling, earthquakes rage, all while these big, hundred-armed creatures are throwing rocks at Titans, burying them so deeply in the earth, they reached Tartarus. Which allowed Zeus to claim power for himself, ending the Age of Titans,

• 22:10Speaker 00

  and bringing about the Dawn of the Olympians. So who are these guys then? And, most importantly, how are they different from the primordials and the Titans? Well, in total, there are 12 Olympians, six of whom are the children of Cronos and Rhea, which includes Zeus and five of the other kids that were like gobbled up and then saved. The other six were then given positions for their various skills and virtues and family relationships and welcomed on Mount Olympus, the very real almost 3,000 metre peak in Greece, which Zeus claimed after his victory as home of the Olympians. Speaking of whom, let's get to know them. So first, of course, as I've already mentioned, is Zeus.

• 22:55Speaker 00

  He's bearded, guys. He's ripped, okay? He conjures lightning and more than that, he is both god of the sky and king of the gods of Olympus, which makes him basically the supreme authority and judge of all. Like if Judge Judy was a person, she'd be Zeus, okay? As part of this, his job is to manage disputes between the various gods and humans, maintaining order in the universe by ensuring that promises, treaties and oaths were kept. And let me tell you, you did not want to face Zeus's judgment because his powers extended far beyond simply throwing lightning bolts. He could summon all kinds of weather at will, using it to painfully punish those who defied

• 23:35Speaker 00

  him or ignore the rules of hospitality known as xenia. He also possessed extraordinary superhuman abilities, changing his form into animals, people or natural phenomenon to interact with various gods and humans for both his pleasure and to pass judgment on them. But he wasn't always justice minded. You see, even though the ancient Greeks believed Zeus rewarded justice and good leadership, he could kind of be a dick, with one of the best examples of this being Pandora.

• 24:13Speaker 00

  Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with Pandora outside of the jewelry brand, she was, according to the Greeks, the first woman who Zeus created and sent to earth with a jar full of troubles to plague humanity for receiving the gifts of fire, which was stolen from heaven by the Titan Prometheus. So it's kind of like Eve eating the poisoned apple, which again, in the Greeks' case here, was Zeus's whole point and idea. He's the mastermind behind, like, sin. So he can be kind of cruel and petty, and that's really the thing about the Greek gods, guys. They never, at any point, shy away from the fact they're kind of terrifying and full of all of this unbridled, like, almost human emotion.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  There's actually a great interview, I'm gonna play it for you guys, by Stephen Fry, the British actor and commentator, where he talks about the Greek gods in respect to the Christian god. And I think he gets this idea across really well here. Have a listen.

• 25:11Speaker 01

  I will, basically, what's known as theodicy, I think, I'll say, bone cancer in children? What's that about? How dare you? How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It's not right. It's utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?

• 25:38Speaker 01

  That's what I would say.

• 25:39Speaker 02

  And you think you're going to get in on that?

• 25:41Speaker 01

  No, but I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to get in on his terms. They're wrong. Now, if I died and it was Pluto, Hades, and if it was the 12 Greek gods, then I would have more truck with it, because the Greeks were, they didn't pretend not to be human in their appetites and in their capriciousness and in their unreasonableness. They didn't present themselves as being all seen, all wise, all kind, all beneficent.

• 26:08Speaker 00

  So, pretty savage there, and I do just want to preface, while we're here, guys, and stopped for a minute, this episode is not meant to offend anybody for their specific beliefs or suggest that you should, you know, go and believe this or act in this way and you should absolutely do with your faith as you please. This is just a look at the history and mythology, as these figures do play important roles in the stories over the next few weeks. But I do agree with what Stephen says in that clip about the Greek gods. Right, they never shy away about their appetite and their capacity for cruelty. And even though Zeus is this, this war hero and leader and kind of justice enforcer,

• 26:52Speaker 00

  he's also in touch with this kind of humanity, which makes him and the rest of the gods' immortality all the more exciting and terrifying and unpredictable, which makes for a very good story. Because there's lots of drama. Which means that we are about to meet Zeus's wife and sister Hera. Now, Hera is a powerful deity in her own right. As both queen of Olympus and the goddess of marriage, women and family, she is usually depicted with a crown and holding a royal sceptre. As we said, she is the wife of Zeus and also a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, which means she started her life, you know, swallowed by her father before being freed

• 27:35Speaker 00

  and then playing a pretty big part in the Titanomachii as the real brains behind the whole operation. She was wickedly smart and deeply compassionate towards both gods, humans and animals. But not always. Yeah, guys, just like Zeus, Hera is full of almost human level emotions. And when her husband had an affair, which resulted in pregnancy, one of them anyway, she went on a full blown rampage, attacking the child, Heracles, while he was still in his mother's womb. Things went to the next level though, when Zeus announced that the next child born would basically be a superpowered baby lord.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  So Hera on purpose delayed Heracles' birth until another child, Eurystheus, could be born. First, then, yeah, we're still going here. Then, when Heracles was eventually born, she sent two serpents to destroy him, eventually driving him mad to the point that he killed his own family. So yeah, Hera, for all her, you know, motherly kind of godliness, was extremely jealous of Zeus's multiple affairs with other women and did some pretty vengeful things to pull her husband and mistresses into life.

• 28:56Speaker 00

  Now next is her brother, so one of the three sons of Cronus and Rhea, Poseidon, who as we already mentioned before was granted dominion of the sea. Made famous in recent years by Percy Jackson, who is the demigod's son of Poseidon, he is recognised by his trident, which was created by cyclopses during the Titanomachy for him to control the oceans. In addition to ruling the seas, he is also the god of horses, which is often depicted by him riding across the ocean in a golden chariot pulled by magnificent seahorses known as hippocamps. But, one of the most important things to know about him is that he was a total fuckboy.

• 29:37Speaker 00

  Yeah guys, if Poseidon were cast in a film of the Greek gods, Nate Jacobs from Euphoria would be playing him. Okay, he is always doing the most, seducing nymphs, seducing mortal women, getting with different goddesses, you name it, like Poseidon's there. But not in a Casanova, James Bond kind of way. In fact, a lot of the discourse within Greek mythology paints Poseidon as a serial sexual offender, reframing many of his relationships as non-consensual. Amongst them were his mortal relationships with Athera, who gave birth to the hero Theseus, the legendary king of Athens and slayer of the Minotaur.

• 30:19Speaker 00

  There was also Teiro, who gave birth to Pelias and Nellius, both important kings in Greek legend, also sound like Jojo Siwa's babies' names, and of course, Medusa, who after being transformed into a gorgon with the snakes for hair, gave birth to the winged horse Pegasus. I honestly love learning about the Greek gods, because it feels like brain rot for smart people, right? This is just like, this crazy, wild mix of different relationships for Poseidon, who was both respected and feared by the other gods for this wild and unpredictable nature, which deliberately mirrored that of the sea. But moving away from the men for a minute, our fourth Olympian is Demeter, and she is

• 31:02Speaker 00

  the goddess of agriculture and the harvest, often depicted as older, wearing a crown and bearing sheaves of wheat. Now again, she was one of the siblings gobbled by Cronus and saved by Zeus, playing a role in the Titanomachia and is often compared to her grandmother, Gaia, the primordial deity of the earth, with almost all of her actions inspired by motherhood, the most famous of which involves her daughter by Zeus, Persephone. Now for those of you who haven't heard the tale of Persephone, we will dive into it in more detail later. But basically, she was stolen by this Gaia called Hades against her will, but with Zeus's permission, to be the goddess in the underworld.

• 31:45Speaker 00

  Hearing of this news, Demeter, her mum, freaks out, searching for Persephone for nine days without sustenance or bathing. And on the tenth day of searching, she meets Kate, who said she had heard Persephone's cries in the underworld. Devastated, Demeter left Olympus to go down to earth where she took out all of her anger on all of the humans who didn't give her enough gifts, causing a famine by not allowing fields to produce fruit. Seeing this, Zeus absolutely freaks out at the threat of basically extinction here. Again, remembering he's meant to be the king of the gods and, you know, his sister is seriously acting out, he basically ushers her back to Olympus, but she refuses to go until Persephone is returned.

• 32:28Speaker 00

  So a super, super powerful goddess with a spirit deeply linked to her fraternity. Speaking of badass goddesses, let's meet Athena, who is going to be a very important figure come our Odyssey episode, not in the least because she's played by Zendaya. So Athena is the goddess of wisdom, warfare and crafts. And unlike the gods we've covered so far, was not gobbled up by Cronus, instead being the child of Zeus and a Titan named Matisse. But unlike the traditional method, Athena wasn't born from a womb, rather spurting straight out of Zeus's head, fully formed and decked in armour, hence the goddess of wisdom and war.

• 33:11Speaker 00

  She, along with Hestia and Artemis, were also virgins and never had biological children. Because, guess what? These deities are busy working. And in Athena's case, that included having a whole damn city to keep safe. Which, you guessed it, is Athens. Key historical context here for a minute though, so coming out of the mythology, back to real history. During the ancient world, Greece was split into city-states, which were basically independent regions, which allied and fought with each other. And Athens was one of the most important city-states because it contained the Acropolis, which was seen as an extremely powerful defence mechanism. Now, back to mythology.

• 33:52Speaker 00

  It is said that Athena and Poseidon led a crowd from the city up to this place at the Acropolis to present gifts to the people, who would then decide who would preside over the city. So who's gonna be our patron? Poseidon offered to smash his trident into the earth to create a spring of salt water. Meanwhile, Athena knelt down before the people and planted an olive tree seed, which grew immediately before their eyes. This crowd are bewildered by this, naming the city Athens and making Athena their queen and protector. Also, a bit of like side tea here. Many sources throughout Greek mythology claim that Athena was Zeus's favourite child

• 34:33Speaker 00

  and the only one he trusted with the Aegis shield, which was incredibly powerful and sacred. So she is super duper impressive, a massive deal. And by far my favourite of the 12. But moving on to Olympian number six, we have Apollo. I would need a stiff drink to get through all the things Apollo is the god of, because he is famously like a jack of many trades. But for simplicity here, his main domains were light, music, prophecy and healing. Like Athena, he wasn't one of the gobbled Cronos siblings. Rather being born of Zeus and the Titan, Leto marched to the chagrin of Hera.

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  Again, she comes back being toxic for Apollo's mum by placing a curse on her and then sending a dragon to ensure she had nowhere to safely give birth. Yeah. So Leto is basically like wandering all around Greece, heavily pregnant, looking for somewhere to give birth, avoiding this dragon, like some kind of House of the Dragon-esque plot, which leads Zeus to then create an island in the sea which was guarded by Poseidon. So he finally does something nice with one of his mistresses. Here, she gives birth to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, who we'll get to in a minute. Depicted as a beardless young man, often playing galeer, Apollo was a menacing figure with even the gods fearing him. Now, time for his twin sister Artemis.

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  She is goddess of hunting and the wilderness, and as I mentioned at the top, is one of the virgin goddesses, which matters here because she is quite conservative, doesn't like to be seen naked, and apparently on one occasion, she was seen naked by a hunter and she turned him into a deer, after which his own hunting dogs devoured him. These stories are insane. Like, no wonder these people believed it. It's so fun to believe this nonsense. She's often represented by carrying a bow, arrow, and quiver, like Capes Evetein, roaming around the wilderness, surrounded by a group of devoted nymphs. Next, we're talking about another son of Zeus, but don't worry, guys.

• 36:42Speaker 00

  Hera isn't going like all fire and brimstone for this one because it's her own son. Yes, that is right. It is finally time to talk about the legitimate-born god Ares. Now, he is the god of war and courage, and usually depicted as a mature warrior armed for battle, or a nude youth with a helm and spear, but he is usually always like in some case in the context of a battle. As is the nature of war, he himself was short-tempered, rageful, and violent, and revered particularly in Sparta, the ancient Greek city-state of warriors, which, you know, makes sense. Now, despite his role as the legitimate son of Zeus and as the god of war, his role in

• 37:24Speaker 00

  Greek mythology is actually considered quite small, partly because he was overshadowed by his half-sister Athena. Where she was calm, intelligent and skilled, Ares was less of a soldier and more of a bannerman, something which pissed him off all the more because she was daddy's favourite, which he directly accused Zeus of in Book V of Homer's Iliad, but more on that next week. Basically, for now, all you need to know is that Ares had daddy issues and he also had an affair with the next Olympian, the one you've all been waiting for, Aphrodite. Goddess of love, beauty, passion, procreation and desire, Aphrodite was to gods, men and

• 38:05Speaker 00

  all creatures what Megan Fox in Transformers is to all of us today, okay? A certified 100% through and through bombshell, which is why she features in so many of the drama-filled stories throughout Greek mythology. Now, as for her origin story, there is some conflicting sources here. The dominant narrative says that she was born from the sea foam which was created when Cronus threw his father's severed penis into the ocean. Supposedly emerging from the sea, right where the phallus fell, coming onto the shore at Cyprus where flowers bloomed in her wake. Now, this actually does hold up because the term aphros is actually Greek for foam.

• 38:47Speaker 00

  The other story, however, is much more boring, which is that she was the daughter of Zeus and the Titan Dion, but I like the sea foam story, so let's go with that. Now, as I said, being the goddess of love, she is featured in many of the other gods' stories and we'll get to that in a minute, but her effects extended far beyond Olympus, having mortals fall under her spell, the result of which was numerous wars being waged over her. She supposedly also had the power to guide lovers to each other, although these powers did not work on Hestia, Athena and Artemis as they were the virgin goddesses. Which brings us to her husband, Hephaestus, the god of fire, blacksmiths and craftsmanship.

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  Now, he was often depicted as a bearded man, holding a hammer and tongs and sometimes riding a donkey. And despite that perhaps making him, you know, more endearing, kind of sweet, like he loves his donkey, he was pretty fucking vengeful, directing much of his anger at other gods and goddesses. But this did mean he spared mortals, like he was quite sympathetic to them, so he gets a tick in my book for that. Now he, like Ares, is the son of Hera and Zeus, but unlike the other gods and goddesses who were known for their beauty, Hephaestus was born hideous. He was hairy, he's covered in soot, which reportedly made Hera throw him off Mount Olympus

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  by his ankle, where he takes a big tumble, splashes into the sea near the island of Lemnos, and although he survives, he's badly injured, having a limp for the rest of his life. He was however rescued by the sea goddess, Thetis, before returning to Olympus to gift his mother, Hera, with a golden throne. After all, remember, he's, you know, the god of blacksmiths, he creates stuff. Hera was glad for the gift, after all, it was solid gold, but when she sat down, she realised she couldn't get back up and was stuck there, with only her son able to release her, which he refused to do unless two conditions were met. First, she had to respect him and welcome him back as part of the twelve gods, and

• 40:54Speaker 00

  secondly, he wanted the ultimate prize, to marry Aphrodite. So, guys, our dirty, hairy, hardworking god is pulling the ultimate trump card here, which eventually works out with the two marrying and Hephaestus earning himself a good amount of respect from his fellow deities because of it.

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  But his marriage wasn't the only reason. He was basically the handyman of Olympus at this point, crafting and creating all manner of objects, including the sandals of Hermes, the bow and arrow of Eros, and most importantly for next week, the impenetrable armour of Achilles. So, put him in your brain. Plus, he did also make this like special invisible golden net, which ensnared Aphrodite, his wife, and Ares, his brother, who were having an affair, after which he dragged them both before all the gods, who got a good laugh out of it, but no real repercussions, because guess what? Everyone loved Aphrodite, she never got into any trouble, even though she was a bit of a naughty gal. Which brings us to our last two Olympians, we've done ten so far.

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  The first of whom is Hermes. Now, he is depicted as a young handsome and athletic man, or as an older bearded guy with winged boots and a herald's wand. He is, therefore, the god of travel, trade, messages and thieves. And he was also the son of Zeus and a nymph named Mya, who escaped his mother's swaddle, snuck into the caves of Mount Saline, and stole the cattle of his half-brother Apollo, who came knocking, looking for compensation as you do. Mya, his mum, is stunned though, she's got no idea what he's talking about. She couldn't believe that her infant child would be responsible for such a thing after all. He's like a day old at this point.

• 42:45Speaker 00

  So her and Ares are arguing. Then, mid-argument, Hermes began to play the lyre. Apollo was so deeply affected by the music that he told Hermes he could keep the cattle in exchange for the instrument, which he happily accepted. Zeus, as well, was so bewildered by Hermes's hilarious antics and pranks that he granted him a place as one of the 12 supreme gods on Olympus, so he could basically have someone to laugh with. Which leaves us with only one god left. And my, my, my, he is the funnest of the bunch. God of wine, theatre, pleasure and festivity, Dionysus is depicted as either an older bearded man or a long-haired young boy who carried a pine cone tipped staff,

• 43:30Speaker 00

  a cup and a crown of ivy. He's also usually paired with a group of wild devoted women who followed him around. Dionysus is an important and different kind of god here because his mother was a mortal woman, the princess Semele of Thebes. His dad is, of course, Zeus, who supposedly appeared in the form of an eagle to watch Semele and became so captivated by her that he impregnated her, which of course, you can already guess here, guess who's pissed? Hera. She herself then goes into this kind of disguise to convince Samile that the father was not Zeus, but some random guy impersonating him. And she must have been pretty convincing here because Samile starts demanding to see Zeus

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  in his true form, but he refuses to do so because if a mortal were to see a god in this way, they would immediately burst into flame. But she's saying, no, I don't believe you. Fake news, fake news. Show yourself to me. So Zeus eventually does this and guess what? The pregnant Samile is incinerated, much to Hera's joy and Zeus's dismay because he wants this kid. So to save the child, he recovered the remains from Samile's charred body, sewing them into his own thigh and then carrying him to term. You can't even say it with a straight face. These stories are insane. So Dionysus is born of, um, you know, Zeus's thigh.

• 45:00Speaker 00

  He's then passed around to various family members, including his aunt and uncle, who Hera then drove insane, causing them to kill themselves and their children. Dionysus, guess what? He still survives this and despite all of this trauma, ends up actually being one of like the funnest gods to be around, no doubt, probably thanks to the constantly full glass of wine, which seems to always be in his hand. But Hera is a menace. Dionysus is a king. And that's the Olympians bar one. Yes, you realize if you are keeping track that after the Tritonomachy, the three sons of Cronus and Rhea split the cosmos. So Zeus takes the heavens, Poseidon takes the sea and then Hades takes the underworld.

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  So we're going to leave Olympus now. Okay, we're up on earth. We're leaving that. We're going to put our big brave girl panties on and take a trip down to the underworld. But what is it exactly? Right? And why are all of its deities separate? Well, the underworld is basically the subterranean realm, deep beneath the earth, where an individual goes after death. Here, the soul is separated from the corpse and transported. But where does it go, I hear you say? Well, very good question. In early mythology, so around the Iliad and the Odyssey, the dead are indiscriminately grouped together to live a post-existence, while just a few heroes related to the Olympians enjoyed an eternal paradise in Elysium.

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  But in later mythology, postmortem judgment occurred, with good and bad people being separated, which is basically the Greek version of Judgment Day, and the underworld is the place where this decision is made. This means it is a realm solely for the dead and the deities, so no mortals, bar a few exceptions, can enter. Now, as you can imagine, okay, when the postmortem judgment piece landed, the sinners on earth weren't entirely thrilled and as such sought to improve their chances by initiating themselves in mysterious cults, which provided guidance for the journey into the underworld. The best example of these practices are the Orphic tablets,

• 47:12Speaker 00

  which were found in Sicily, southern Italy, northern Greece, the Peloponnese and Crete. And aside from being super rare and super valuable, they're also super spooky because they appear to give a sort of map of how to get to the underworld, where the dead then take a path that runs, like all of these different ways around a house of Hades. It also says that you pass through springs and go past cypress trees and a lake of memory and more. It's all very confusing, okay? It's much easier to go with the common way of how to get to the underworld, which is that the deceased enter via the ferryman charon. There are lots of references to water in various original texts when it comes to the underworld crossing like this by this ferryman.

• 47:56Speaker 00

  The Iliad, for example, makes mention of a river and the Odyssey describes many, quote, "great rivers and appalling streams", which could be this point between the worlds. So the ferryman idea does reign strong. As does the idea of murky darkness, which is referenced in the Odyssey and by the playwright Aristophanes. Although his version has like brighter coloured myrtle groves, so at least I guess that's something to look forward to. To be honest though, after these guys, we don't have much reference to the underworld in Greek art, but there are elements. For example, Persephone, who we've briefly mentioned and will do a deeper dive into for in a minute.

• 48:36Speaker 00

  Um, and Cerberus, the underworld guard dog with three heads, AKA the inspo for Fluffy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. So that's the underworld guys, right? Like the space, what it is. Now it's time to meet its head, Honcho Hades. King of the underworld, Hades was the last of Cronus's kids who was eaten and saved by Zeus, helping him fight in the Titanomachae before taking the underworld, where it is his job to preside over funerals and defend the dead in their rights to due burial. He was also god of the hidden wealth of the earth, from fertile soil to the mined wealth of gold, silver and other precious metals.

• 49:17Speaker 00

  And he didn't really mind his job, but ultimately the idea of being separated from his siblings and fellow gods up on Olympus in, you know, the sun on earth, made him lonely. So he asks his brother Zeus to grant him one of his daughters as a wife, which is where Persephone comes into the picture. Now, she was not one of Zeus's legitimate daughters, as her mother was Demeter, not Hera, which like, I don't know if this influenced his decision or not, but there was no way Zeus was going to give Hades Athena. So I think it was more a process of elimination than anything. But Zeus decides to give him Persephone and Hades is pretty stoked about this. But both men knew that Persephone would resist the marriage to the nth degree.

• 50:04Speaker 00

  So what does he do then? Well, he forcibly abducts her. Of course, there's no other option, is there? Yeah, I mean, who doesn't wanna be dragged to the underworld away from your mother and friends? And like fellow gods on Mount Olympus and the fucking earth? Now, we already know that Demeter was furious. We spoke about it before, right? Darkness, crops didn't grow, blah, blah, blah. And she would stay down on earth, causing havoc until Hades returned to Persephone, which he did agree to do. However, she had already eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld, binding her to Hades. But they eventually reached a compromise with Persephone, spending roughly half the year in the underworld and the rest on earth. You may be listening and feeling a mix of things here, right? One, you may be thinking, fuck this guy, what a dick.

• 50:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, he abducts this poor girl, he drags her down to the underworld, he lets her eat these pomegranate seeds and then refuses to let her go home. Evil, evil, evil. But you may also be thinking, okay, abduction, obviously terrible, right? Inexcusable. But maybe he was, you know, saving her perhaps from someone worse? Like his brother Poseidon or nephew Ares? Giving her a home and free rein in the underworld and then letting her return for parts of the year to the sunny surface, which is where she came from. Which may sound a hell of a lot like a court of mists and fury. Yeah, Akata girlies rise up, okay?

• 51:32Speaker 00

  Hades is recent, Persephone, Phara, the underworld, the night court, Olympus, the spring court. We're all seeing it come together.

• 51:42Speaker 00

  Then there may be those few of you who have read Neon Gods by Katie Robert. And instead, you're now picturing Hades as this sexy, dark, young figure hidden like across the Brooklyn Bridge. And Persephone is this damsel in distress, running away from an arranged and abusive marriage with Zeus, who lives in like the Empire State Building, after which lots of sex ensues. If that's you. I have respect for you. If that's not you and you do not dabble in the um dirty world of smart, that ain't a book for you, okay? You should stick to your Percy Jackson or your Akamath. But we're gonna get back to the real history here, okay? So is Hades good?

• 52:25Speaker 00

  Well, again, abduction, bad, right? Very, very bad. But of all the Greek gods, he is actually one of the fairest and most responsible. He judged no one himself, rarely interfered with mortals unlike Zeus, Poseidon and Hera, and also maintained the balance between the living and the dead with precision and fairness. He also did let Persephone go for half the year, which he didn't have to do. So in comparison with the other 12, I'd say he's maybe like top five goodies? Which is not actually how modern history or the Disney smash hit Hercules portrays him, but this is less to do with the actual mythology and behaviour of Hades kidnapping aside, and more to do with the later Christian ideas of him as the god of death. But again, not true.

• 53:08Speaker 00

  So that's Hades. Let's look at what we haven't covered for his wife, Persephone. Now, she is queen of the underworld, wife of Hades and, which doesn't really help our Akamath comparison here, goddess of spring. Now, she was worshipped alongside her mother Demeter for spring's impact on the harvest, with the flowering of meadows and the sudden growth of new grain directly tied to her return back to earth. So who else is kicking around in the underworld at this time? Well, we have the deity Hecate, the underworld goddess of magic, witchcraft and the night time, who was a major ally of Demeter and helped look after Persephone following her abduction, guiding Demeter and the search party with flaming torches.

• 53:53Speaker 00

  So remember how we said on the 10th day, Demeter like found someone who said that she heard Persephone's screams? That's this girl, Hecate.

• 54:02Speaker 00

  Once Persephone was then found, she became her companion and minister in the underworld, helping her rule as queen, which we love. Next is Thanatos, who unlike Hades, was the actual god of death, though his touch was gentle and is most often associated with non-violent deaths versus some like big, bad Grim Reaper type. Instead, he is depicted as a winged, bearded old man and appears in a scene in the Iliad opposite his brother Hypnos, the god of sleep, who hung out in Erebus, the land of eternal darkness in the underworld, which sat beyond the gates of the rising sun. As the son of Nyx, the primordial deity of darkness, Hypnos rose into the sky each night following his mother

• 54:47Speaker 00

  and is often depicted with wings and a horn of sleep-inducing opium. Which brings us to the last underworld deity, Morpheus, who is often confused with his brother Hypnos, but they're very, very different, right? Hypnos, god of sleep. Morpheus is the god of dreams and as such could take the form of any human or, you know, object, perfectly copying their appearance, voice and mannerisms to deliver messages from the gods or reveal important truths and warnings to individuals, basically, you know, while they slept. He, like his brother, also lives separately from the main underworld kingdom in a dark cave near the land of sleep

• 55:31Speaker 00

  where poppies and other sleep-inducing plants grew. He has also become quite famous in recent times, continuing to inspire modern stories and drugs, morphine, hello? And there's actually a really great series, um, it's on Netflix, I think, called The Sandman? The guy in, I think his name is Tom Blyth or Blyth? I don't know, I'm gonna put a picture of him. It's this guy and the Sandman series is really good. You should go and watch it.

• 55:59Speaker 00

  So there we have it guys, oh my goodness, we got through them all. Some crazy names, some crazy stories, the Greek religious system. There are the four different deities, the primordials, the Titans, the Olympians, and then the underworld deities. But the big question remains. What happened to both them and the religious system of the ancient Greeks? Well, nothing, for well over fifteen hundred years. Because it remained embedded in both the spiritual and cultural organisation of Greek society well after the collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms and the Greek Dark Ages. It really did reach its peak as a system by the eighth century B.C. which matches up with that of Homer and Hesiod.

• 56:39Speaker 00

  Hence why the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Theogony helped shape the stories and identities of the gods so much. During this time, temples were built in honour of the gods. Public festivals celebrating their achievements were thrown, and oracles such as Delphi guided important political and personal decisions with their consultation. The religion then remained dominant throughout the Classical Age, including the conquest of Alexander the Great and throughout the Roman Empire, as we spoke about at the top, where many Greek gods were adopted under Roman names. The decline of the system only really happened with the rise of Christianity. God's to blame for everything, guys. In the first century A.D., accelerating after Emperor Constantine legalized it in 313 A.D.,

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  then when Emperor Theodosius I made it the official religion and banned pagan sacrifices, it pretty much diminished, becoming almost entirely extinct by the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., where temples had closed and been converted into churches, and public worship became monotheistic versus polytheistic in nature. As for the gods, well, if you believe, then they're immortal. You know, still getting into all sorts of trouble and trickery in the underworld and Olympus, looming still as the key figures of a system and a people, who not only withstood many trials and tribulations, but built the very foundations of society upon which we live today.

• 58:03Speaker 00

  Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History. Guys, thank you so much for following along. This is such a fun one. I honestly feel like the Greek Gods is literally brain rot for intellectual people. Like, we've got penises being cut off and thrown into the sea, after which goddesses are arising from them. There's Cronos eating his kids. There's Hera going on these crazy, like murderous sprees with all of Zeus's mistresses. Like, it's no wonder these guys believed so deeply in the ancient Greek religious system. I mean, it's so entertaining. You know, like, if you don't have, like, Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones to entertain you in these big cinematic experiences, you have to make up shit like this to make your life worthwhile.

• 58:48Speaker 00

  Speaking of which, all of these guys are gonna make another appearance in next week's episode, because we are talking about the Trojan War, which means Helen of Troy is entering the chat, and I could not be more stoked, guys, so make sure to tune in. As always, though, if you are looking for some more hot history, before then, you can follow us on Instagram at Hot History Club and on TikTok at hot dot history. It has been a pleasure, as always, guys, getting down and dirty in time with you, and I will speak to you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.