Hello everyone!
Boy, what a week!
First off, that cross-over event - Crisis on Earth-X was absolutely spectacularly AMAZING over Monday and Tuesday (or, in my case, with a bit of a delay, on Tuesday and Wednesday). My reveiw of this will be coming on Saturday since I bumped the Talkie Tuesday for just this purpose. After the fun with the Dominators last year (which I was reminded of, very kindly, by my Facebook memories) this year was off-the-charts insane, in all good ways!
But back to books.
I've seriously been reading like some sort of machine on this end, moving through reading slumps like a pro by picking up oldies-goldies, and then of course there was the massive autumn Book Depository order I placed not too long ago.
Once it arrived, can we say happy camper?
Among those books I ordered was the one I'm reviewing tonight: Percy Jackson's Greek Gods.
Now, if you've been following my blog for a bit, you'll notice there pops up a Rick Riordan-related blog every once in a while. I don't really know how I first got into the books, to be honest - I'm pretty sure I DIDN'T want to read them, initially, but then somehow landed in the fandom anyway and never looked back.
Percy Jackson is basically the demigod we all want to know.
And of course, after his adventures with the Greek (and Roman) gods, you'd think he's the best guy to go to if you ever need any tips whatsoever about the deities.
You'd be right.
The first companion book that dealt with this subject was called Greek God's, where our favourite demigod sits down aftr being asked by an editor in Manhattan to write this all down for other unsuspecting demigods.
In his own words, wear your safety glasses and your raincoat. There will be blood.
The book is basically a chronological description of how, exactly, the Greeks imagined their world to have come to be, and how the gods and goddesses happened, too.
Basically, though, in the beginning, no one was there.
Then nothing became Chaos, and from then on, all hell broke loose.
Literally.
See, Chaos got creation-happy and went on to create the first gods, Gaea and Ouranos, among others, and then you'd have the goddess of day, of night, Tartarus, anyone pre-Titan you can imagine.
But of course Chaos wasn't the only one happy-happy.
Gaea went nuts-o too.
Gaea and her husband, Ouranos , had three sets of kids - the first, the Titans, and then there were the Cyclopses, and then the Hundred-Handed ones.
Of course nothing's ever happy with these old stories - where do you think Shakespeare and nowaday-soap opera writers get it from? - which meant that as the second and third batches of kids were UGLY, Ouranos threw them into Tartarus, which pissed Gaea off so much she had her Titan children kill him.
Then Kronos, her youngest son, became king, and then came the Golden Era of Cannibalism. Among other things.
The Titans divided the world between themselves, and also, Prometheus, at this point, created the first humans - but take note. We, the humans of today that is, aren't that same batch. Throughout the course of history, the Titans - and later Gods - would frequently destroy the human race and then upgrade it to a new version.
Anyway, back to the story.
Kronos heard a prophecy about his son dethroning him, and once he started having kids - the Greek Gods - he started the trend of cannibalism by swallowing them the second they were presented to him, until his wife Rhea was smart enough to swaddle a rock instead of Zeus, the youngest god, and made sure Zeus grew up to be strong and resourceful (this would backfire later, but more on that somewhere below). He eventually managed to free his siblings from Kronos' stomach, and together they overthrew the Titans and declared themselves lords of the universe, and the brothers split the world into their domains (Zeus = sky, Poseidon = sea, Hades = underworld).
At which point, our hero begins his presentation of the gods in order of how they were born as opposed to the order they came out of Kronos, which is usually how people like to see their ages. But actually, Zeus is the YOUNGEST of the gods, not the eldest.
Hestia, his sister, is the eldest, and she's the goddess of the hearth, who wanted to never be married. Like, NEVER EVER. She just wanted to be the cool aunt and help out and make sure everyone had a place at the hearth, and eventually Zeus & Male Gods decided, okay then, she'll be the world's first bachelorette, but because they all loved her they defended that statement and didn't want anyone to mess with her.
Demeter, her younger sister, didn't have such luck. She was actually stalked and cornered by Zeus and Poseidon BOTH, and talk about persistent gods (remember how I said Zeus was resourceful? Well, there you go). She had children with both of them, but while Zeus somehow managed to father a normal one, Persephone, Poseidon didn't have such luck since Demeter was in horse form at the time of their, er, courtship.
Yeah, I know.
But since I mentioned Persephone already, let's move on to her, because she's one I'm pretty intrigued about. She was her mother's pride and joy but got kidnapped by Hades, who fell in love with her, in response to which Demeter got so mad she stopped plants and crops from growing, causing famine on Earth. Eventually, Zeus declared (ignoring the fact he was the one who gave Hades the kidnapping idea in the first place) that Persephone had to return, but by that point she'd already eaten three pomegrenade seeds, so this meant her time would now be split. For most of the year, Persephone resides with her mother, but for three months she's with her husband, and actually out of all the gods Hades is the most trust-worthy and loyal, so they have a pretty okay relationship.
Meanwhile, her mother the Grainzilla throws a tantrum every time and so we have winter for three months when nothing grows.
The last of the goddesses born of Rhea and Kronos was Hera, who basically decided she wasn't going to be fooling around. She wanted a husband and a family and nothing Zeus said could convince her otherwise. Because, you know, she was the most beautiful goddess (at the time) and so Zeus wanted her, naturally. In the end he tricked her by turning into a bird (see a trend here?) to which she declared love (in a non-romantic way) but ended up married to Zeus. And let me tell you, ANYONE would be better than the God of the Universe. Because as many affairs as that being had, you'd think he'd get bored of himself in the process. But at least Hera did in fact give Zeus Ares, if nothing else. And a rebellion at one point where she ended up hanging over Tartarus for a bit, but, you know, all's fair in love and war!
Hades, the oldest of the boys, was the unluckiest in terms of where he ended up, which is the Underworld, but the God of the Dead definitely took it in stride and landed himself a pretty cool wife in the process, too. He had bad luck when trying to have mistresses, however, as both got turned into plants, so he just gave up on the institution and made sure to rule his kingdom with an iron fist.
Now Poseidon, he's a different story. Technically speaking he married a sea nymph (causing a blue whale colision while whaling about never getting her, pun intended) but he definitely went about, if you know what I mean. Medusa is actually one of those unfortunates who went to bed with him, and look what happened to her. Still, arguably, he's probably ranked as one of the most powerful gods, regardless who's the king, and when he and Zeus rumble, it's on like Donkey Kong.
Finally, the youngest one, Zeus, basically had all he wanted and he played it that way, too, with a million mistresses and a zillion kids who always pissed Hera off, but that couldn't be helped. His attitude, I suppose, would have been pretty smug, but as he was the King you didn't want to piss him off. That lightning bolt of his could cause SERIOUS damage.
And then of course there are the other Olympians, starting with Athena, who jumped out of Zeus's skull. See, Zeus kind of pulled a Kronos and swallowed her mother while she was pregnant because there was a prophecy about progeny dethroning him. In any event, Athena clambered out of there after giving her dad the biggest headache ever, and became the goddess of wisdom and warfare, not necessarily in that order. She never married, because woe to anyone who dared.
Coming to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, you have to explain who she actually is. She isn't exactly an Olympian goddess born and bred - she was created. Back when Kronos chopped up Ouranos, he went and dumped what was left over the sea, and from that foam would eventually rise one Aphrodite. This makes her older than the gods and more fickle, and seriously, even though she's supposedly been married to Hephaestus, she's been having an affair with Ares since forever, including having his kids.
Ares is a whole other ballgame, being a bully and the god of war that really has no business sitting on any council of diplomatic solutions, but he's got to be here. His notable achievements are picking fights with demigods and getting kidnapped by giants, but you have to hand it to the guy - he got the girl.
Which, sadly, Hephaestus didn't manage. Then again, Hera sort of created him and then chucked him from Olympus because he was so ugly. This wouldn't be the last time he flew off the top of the mountain, either, Zeus kicked him out one time, too. But being the god of smiths and volcanoes, you can see why it would be really cool to have him on your side. Plus, he could make you a golden llama!
The next two gods were twins, but as different as night and day: Apollo was the self-absorbed god who literally loved himself, and everyone else. He was one of those fickle creatures you didn't want to piss off, however, but then again he also became the patron of the arts so there are two sides of every coin.
His sister Artemis was a different story, becoming a maiden goddess and going on the hunt for monsters and eventually swearing off anyone who wasn't a young girl to join her in said hunt. Of the two, she was probably the more intelligent, but it's arguable who's the deadlier, and I don't think ANYONE wants to find that out.
Hermes, the god of literally anything you can think of, went and stole Apollo's cattle when he was just a baby so he had a reputation, but eventually he became the messenger of the gods, among other things, and he was skilled in doing the dirty work no one else would want to do.
And finally, Dionysus created wine and madness and frolicked all over the world down to India and back before returning to settle into married life with one Ariadne.
Fin!
Whew, that's a whole lot of topic to cover, but it's what Riordan does best, which is to ensure you have fun while reading about the old deities and learning the facts through things that make you laugh. This has to be one of my golden, favourite books, and its sequel, the Greek Heroes, is on the same shelf with it in my mind.
After all, when you're reading about Ancient Greece, you might as well have fun with it!
xx
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment