M³ Greek Civilization

            I have to go meta on Perseus one more time. We tie Perseus, Hestia, and Prometheus together one more time, and connect them all to Odysseus. I know, I know, it doesn’t seem like a good fit. Odysseus is not exactly known for restraint and wisdom, especially after mouthing off to Polyphemus. And it’s not like he was the poster child of monogamy when he’s shtupping Circe and Calypso.

M³ Hestia

            You won’t find myths about Hestia. I know, I’ve looked. I’ve scoured my resources. It might be easy to write her off because of this. There are no stories about her, therefore she’s not interesting. Conclusion: she’s not important. But the opposite is actually true.

            I’ve only found one thing about Hestia. Zeus decreed that Hestia was off-limits from all the shenanigans of the other gods. No one is allowed to mess with her. And, wonder of wonders, no one did. Not a single one of the other gods ever took action or said a word against Hestia, and the Greek gods are known for their in-fighting.

            I cannot overstate the importance of a Greek goddess who doesn’t get into any kind of trouble. But why did Zeus make his decree? An even better question is why did the fractious gods and goddesses abide by it? In a pantheon known for its usurpations, betrayals, and attacks, they left her alone. There’s not even mention of anyone thinking anything bad against her. She is, in a word, untouchable.

            Why?

            Well, this is where we can make the connection back to Prometheus. Hestia is goddess of the hearth. She is the center of worship for the Greek home. Yes, the other gods have temples, but those are big ideals that are not felt in the same way as the personal nature of worship in the home. Now I’m not saying that people worshipped Hestia instead of Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Aphrodite, or any of the others. Remember, this is a polytheistic culture. The Greeks were quite at home worshipping multiple gods.

            Hestia is included in the worship of any of the other gods or goddesses. This is mostly because of the structure of Greek worship. In most of the ancient world, Greece included, they made offerings to the gods on the fire. We know this most from the story of Prometheus with regards to the cuts of meat. The cuts of meat that are made for the gods are to be burned on the fire as an offering to the gods, kind of like a meat tithe.

            (Incidentally, the Old Testament is full of stories of meat offerings to God, most notably with the stories of Abraham and Elijah.)

            Because Greek worship requires the use of fire and the hearth, the first prayers and offerings are to Hestia, who watches over the home. Without the hearth and the home, the Greek people have no worship to the other gods. Zeus’s decree is about safeguarding the ability of human beings to continue to worship the gods.

            Right, we’re supposed to connect this back to Perseus. That comes next, I promise.

           

M³ Home Is Where The Heart Is

            Perseus, as I have said before kind of gets a bad rap. As the gadget guy of the Ancient world, he sometimes doesn’t get respect. Also, there was that whole opportunistic purchasing of Andromeda thing. But! we have sorted that out and now realize the importance of Perseus’s actions regarding marrying Andromeda.

            But we have to now consider Perseus’s place in the overarching narrative of Greek mythology. I’m not talking about the foundation of his dynasty. That’s important, but ultimately predictable that other heroes would rise from his bloodline. No, we need to talk about women.

M3 Prometheus: Sly Zeus

            Okay, so this is it, the big finale. Why did Zeus do all these weird things? It’s actually pretty complicated. Or at least, it’s shrouded in mystery because Zeus wants it that way. To understand it all, we need to take a closer look at what Zeus did.

M3 Prometheus: A Really Big Jar

            First, the misconception: It wasn’t a box. It was a jar. The ancient Greeks were fond of sealing things into jars. They were masters of pottery and pottery was a water-tight, air-tight vessel suitable for storing food, wine, water, scrolls, and more.

M3 Prometheus: Pandora's Gifts

            Pandora often gets a bad reputation, similar to Eve in the Old Testament, but it’s really an undeserved reputation. To clear things up, we have to examine how she was made. Zeus asked for each of the gods to contribute a gift as part of her creation. In fact, the etymology of her name literally means “all-gifted” in Greek. So every god and goddess in Olympus contributed something to her make up, and not a flaw among them.

M3 Prometheus: Fire, Fire, Everywhere

            To better understand Prometheus’s crime, we first have to understand the nature of the prize itself: fire. It doesn’t seem like that big a deal to us, since we can summon up fire with the strike of a match or the flick of a Zippo. But to ancient people’s, fire is the difference between a caveman existence with rough furs and the height of democracy and cool togas. No, I’m not exaggerating.

M3 Prometheus: Forward Thinking

Introducing Myth Manifest Monday! What can I say? I had to keep the cubed theme going. This will be a new, regular feature wherein I explain a myth (from actual mythology, not a Mythbusters type thing). Hopefully, this will be a little insightful resource for readers and writers out there.

Since most myths are actually very complex, I plan to tackle the myths a little at a time, breaking up one myth over the course of a few (or even several) posts. And we begin with: Prometheus