Hi. So, we as a community have written on this a lot. Elani of Baring the Aegis wrote “Why do gods have sex with mortals?” (I’m on mobile so I can’t hyperlink), soloontherocks wrote “A list of Reasons” on her old blog (google soloontherocks-moving-refollow a list of reasons). This is just extra reading so you can get more than just my perspective.
The whole of it, though, is that the myths aren’t real. The myths aren’t our sacred text, and they were written by mortals in a sexist society, more sexist than ours is now. It’s not Zeus’ fault that the men who took it upon themselves to write stories about him decided he was going to do some bad things by our standards. You have to understand the societal context that surrounds the myths; the things Zeus did were things that were largely acceptable in Ancient Greece.
Also, even if we were to toy with the idea that they did happen, we can’t…. prove that he did anything. You know? We weren’t there, we didn’t witness anything, and nothing can be proven.
So, all in all, the way you work around this is by reminding yourself that a) the myths were written by sexist mortals who were conditioned by and perpetuated a sexist society, so it’s reflected in their stories and b) he is an amazing god.
He is so much more than his mythology. He is a wonderful and just King, a loving husband, and a gentle hand. To me, he is also a father figure that I did not have in my mortal father. I am in the process of incorporating him into my practice more as well.
I hope this helps. Feel free to drop another line if you have more questions.
No, it definitely did help and Solo’s List of Reasons is one hell of a resource (but the tumblr URLs need to be changed to “soloontherocks-moving-refollow”). And I’m still new enough that I’m following like crazy to find my way around the community.
I suppose because I’m “culturally Christian” (raised in an atheist household), I automatically assumed the myths to be a collection of holy scripture. I’m quite pleased that’s not the case. The ancients wrote myths for their culture, at that time, to display Zeus’s power and might in ways that they understood.
And, since they’re not holy scripture, I’m gonna assume writing myths for the Theoi (from a point of worship and respect) in our current culture would be alright? Taken out of the context of scripture, they’re more like fables to explain the glory of the Gods?
This is something a lot of new Hellenics run into, especially those of us that switched from a Christian faith. It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that we don’t really have one sacred text. The only thing I can think of that even comes close is the Pillars, but even then, there’s so many authors writing on it that it’s important to craft your own Pillars for your practice.
Also, yes! It’s definitely okay to write myths on the Theoi in a religious sense. Retellings are also pretty common, I know @pomegranateandivy has one about Zeus wooing Hera that I particularly love.
I’m glad this was able to help. 🙂
Hiya, I’m new and still building my practice right now. I really want to incorporate Zeus and worship him (I came to Hellenic polytheism through Aphrodite) but, like a lot of people, I’m feeling pretty uncomfortable the more research I do. I was wondering how you reconcile some of the myths with your practice, as a woman. I know you just had an argument with some fuckface who was very rude about this same topic, so feel free to shelve this question until you’re feeling better.
Published
flowerfaag 