To add to what krellor already mentioned: It’s hard to find one definitive image of a specific Greek deities, because they were worshipped over hundreds of years and not only in Greece, but also in Greek colonies (for example Sicily) and places that were heavily influenced by Greek culture (for example around the Black Sea). Most of these places had their own particular interpretation of what a Greek deity was or wasn’t.
So it was no contradiction that Artemis could be a “man hating, out lesbian” in one place and an “aro-ace ascetic” in another. Unlike in modern monotheism, there was no overarching dogma people could refer to and places often had their very own myths and stories about the deities. Only some of those have survived until today.
So our modern interpretation of Greek deities is something of a puzzle with many pieces missing and no way to confirm if the pieces that we have ever were part of the same picture in the first place.
That’s a good point. One of the things people struggle with I think is understanding the full scope of what was considered Greek and over what period of time. That and the competing representations of figures and the timeline of events means it really is like taking in a series of vignettes, each with its own take.
Stephen Fry did an excellent job making an updated and streamlined version of the mythology, effectively choosing from the myths what to accept as cannon in his retelling. If you haven’t read his books I would recommend them as being a wonderful story. He also narrated them himself on audible, which were also excellent.
To add to what krellor already mentioned: It’s hard to find one definitive image of a specific Greek deities, because they were worshipped over hundreds of years and not only in Greece, but also in Greek colonies (for example Sicily) and places that were heavily influenced by Greek culture (for example around the Black Sea). Most of these places had their own particular interpretation of what a Greek deity was or wasn’t.
So it was no contradiction that Artemis could be a “man hating, out lesbian” in one place and an “aro-ace ascetic” in another. Unlike in modern monotheism, there was no overarching dogma people could refer to and places often had their very own myths and stories about the deities. Only some of those have survived until today.
So our modern interpretation of Greek deities is something of a puzzle with many pieces missing and no way to confirm if the pieces that we have ever were part of the same picture in the first place.
That’s a good point. One of the things people struggle with I think is understanding the full scope of what was considered Greek and over what period of time. That and the competing representations of figures and the timeline of events means it really is like taking in a series of vignettes, each with its own take.
Stephen Fry did an excellent job making an updated and streamlined version of the mythology, effectively choosing from the myths what to accept as cannon in his retelling. If you haven’t read his books I would recommend them as being a wonderful story. He also narrated them himself on audible, which were also excellent.