You know, I really have to say this.
I don't think that Greeks, Hellenistic Pagans and other people who know Greek Mythology would be as frustrated as they are today if people DIDN'T TAKE MODERN SOURCES DEPICTING GREEK MEDIA AS ALWAYS ACCURATE.
Bear with me now.
All right, so, we all know about Percy Jackson.
And PJO was basically the Greek God make or break of its time and it broke the Greek Gods. Greeks and Hellenistic Pagans had the unfortunate experience of being bombarded with false, incorrect interpretations and thoughts about their deities.
And we have to remember here that to these Hellenistic Pagans, their gods are as sacred to them as God is to Christians. Maybe they wouldn't kill people over their gods, an added bonus, but we must respect the fact that they worship the gods and we must be respectful of Greek Gods when interacting with them.
See, I'm not saying that you can't be lighthearted. You can joke around and all that-it's just that actually hating and condemning the Greek Gods shouldn't be done when you're interacting with their worshippers.
Now that I'm done with that, well, Rick Riordan fucked up with Greek Mythology big time. Making Athena have children, HIS MISOGYNY. THERE ARE ENTIRE TAGS DEDICATED TO RICK'S MISOGYNY, NOT JUST OF HIS FEMALE CHARACTERS BUT OF ACTUAL ANCIENT GREEK GODDESSES. If I did a whole essay on his misogyny, I'd have to make multiple posts.
Rick done fucked up with them. I do not have to be the first person to tell you that.
HOWEVER, I am obligated to say that any author is freely able to portray the Greek Gods as they want (unfortunately at times).
And so Rick is free to interpret them how he likes.
Let's also remember that Rick thought terribly of the Gods and their worshippers when he was writing Percy Jackson and the other series.
Of course, he HAS changed for the better. Now he's more respectful of Pagans and has apologised, which is nice, but I just thought I'd let you know.
See, now we can accept and criticise Rick's writing, but before-
Well, before, it was absolutely awful for Greeks and Hellenistic Pagans. I mean, it's still awful, but it was more awful back then because almost nobody criticised Percy Jackson about depicting Greek Gods terribly. Everyone said that Greek Gods were American and belonged to America-ugh, that was horrible. It's absolutely appalling to do that, no less to Greeks themselves. People ranted about how horrible the gods were.
And I mean yes, the Greek Gods could be awful by modern standards, but we need to remember two things-
The Greek Gods were based on an ANCIENT SOCIETY with DIFFERENT MORAL STANDARDS. Judging them by modern moral standards isn't going to do anything.
The actions of the gods were SYMBOLIC, NOT LITERAL.
a) Artemis' cruelty towards humans? That's the cruelty of nature towards him. Artemis was a nature goddess and she hunted and resided in the wild.
b) Dionysus being kind and charming but also mad and ruthless at times? Well, that's what wine does. It can make people funny and charming to a point, but it also drives people mad and makes them violent.
c) Hades kidnapping Persephone? Well, Hades represents death, and that's what death does-it rips children from their parents' arms. Also, it signifies the fact that daughters and mothers did not have a say in their marriage, the father could give the girl away to any man in those times. Demeter actually being able to get Persephone back was a comfort to grieving mothers.
d) Zeus cheating on Hera multiple times?
There are multiple explanations for this one.
First, kings and princes often claimed to be descendants of Zeus, so Zeus was said to have many affairs with royal mortal women so that their claims to divine lineage could be accurate.
Second, Zeus' rain represented fecundity and fertility. As I said above, the actions of the gods are symbolic and they represent their domains, so he had multiple affairs and loads of children to signify his fertility.
Third, the Greek Gods were based on Ancient Greek society where multiple men took concubines and lovers. And Zeus did this too, because he was a king!
e) Hera punishing the lovers and bastards? That's what queens did to some concubines for revenge, since they couldn't take it out on the king.
It's all either symbolic or based on Ancient Greece. The gods that humanity created were based on those times, and they were created millennia ago, when things were different in nearly every way possible.
Anyway, what I'm trying to tell you is that we're allowed to have fun with these stories and retellings that include Greek Mythology, but if you really want correct information on Greek gods, go and read the myths and the compositions of Ancient Greek poets and playwrights (Homer, Hesiod, etc).
Because many people, when reading these modern retellings and the like, think that they are actually real mythological information and accordingly spew nonsense.
People call Apollo 'Asspollo' and harass his worshippers because of one incorrect comic that came out in 2018. Apollo never raped Persephone.
And people also view famous figures like Odysseus and Achilles incorrectly because of incorrect translations that don't correctly capture the original and CERTAIN RETELLINGS (cough-Madeline Miller-COUGH)
And there are so many more examples I could give, but then this would be too long to post.
See, it's not that the writers completely rip the original lore out. They keep a lot of it, but they also add in some incorrect information. And sometimes this isn't that bad or malicious, it's just incorrect.
So if you're not sure about whether something in a retelling or story depicting Greek Gods is true, you should search it up online or ask someone who knows.
Because Greeks and Hellenistic Pagans are constantly frustrated at how their gods are portrayed and that everyone just takes the retellings as mythologically correct.
TLDR Greek mythology retellings can be fun for you to read but don't take all of the info in them as mythologically correct. You can be lighthearted about the Greek Gods but please don't actually loathe or mock them with others who believe in them and worship them. If you're not sure about info in a retelling or story, then search it up or ask someone you know.
There are multiple blogs on tumblr who can tell you more information about the actual Greek Gods and they're pretty nice about it too, so don't be too afraid.
Ok, is anyone going to talk about Gunilla bullying Samirah? This is Magnus Chase from the Riordanverse BTW.
So we know that Samirah became a Valkyrie when she was fourteen and she's 16 in the MCGA series. And it states that Gunilla actively disliked and maybe even bullied Samirah because of her father.
Gunilla was 18 when she died and had centuries of experience under her belt. She should be more mature about this. And then she decides to go and bully Samirah, a teenage minor, over her parentage, something she can't control? Samirah doesn't even LIKE Loki and Gunilla still bullies her because of the whole terrible romance with the son of Loki.
Samirah, who was 14, 15 and then 16, who was living out a very stressful double life with her grandparents who COULD NOT be exposed to the magical world as it would destroy their brains, and really wanted to keep her Valkyrie job. Are you listening to this ridiculousness? And Gunilla also sabotages Samirah further editing her video footage of Magnus. Brilliant, Gunilla. Really Valkyrie worthy!
Yeah, ok, Gunilla may have died at the end of the first book, but I don't really care for her. (IMO she died because Alex was coming and Rick couldn't let them clash. Would've been so interesting to see though.)
Why not make Gunilla a mentor to Samirah? Like, she sees this poor teenage girl who's struggling to live a double life and she could help her with it. Enroll in her high school (cue the comedy). Just make excuses for her every time and cover for her with her grandparents, saying that she's a fellow tutor. It would make Gunilla more likable and her death more tragic and meaningful.
I've been thinking about two lines-
One from the Demigod Files, where Annabeth says that Percy is smart but acts pretty dumb sometimes, and the second from the Mark of Athena where Piper notes that Annabeth wasn't around to 'rein Percy in' when he was taunting Bacchus.
Does this mean that Annabeth often has to stop Percy from pissing off the gods and that it exhausts her? There's reasonable evidence for this.
He pissed off Ares in TLT, Hera in BOTL and Bacchus in MOA. We know that Percy has a history of pissing off gods, which is why it's such a trademark characteristic of his in the fandom. Piper notes that Annabeth isn't around to rein him in, which means that Annabeth would have stopped Percy from pissing off Bacchus if she had been there. Given how Percy acted towards Bacchus, he wouldn't have been to easy to stop. And keep in mind that that's a god. It doesn't matter if it's Percy Jackson talking to him-there's a very real chance of them killing him, because if Zeus can give Percy 3 quests after Percy saved the world twice, then any god can kill Percy and not suffer divine consequence.
If that's the case, then I feel sorry for Annabeth because she has to calm him down and stop him from pissing off the gods. It must be exhausting for her.
what do you think of the court of shadows in the folk of the air?
I love them. They're the healthiest relationships that Jude has had in ages. I simply love the Bomb and Jude-it's nice to see good female relationships.
TBH I really think that the Bomb is Jude's healthiest female relationship other than Heather. Vivienne and Jude have a relatively healthy relationship, but there's a lot of unpacked trauma and understandable resentment on both sides. So yeah, the Bomb is her healthiest relationship with a female.
(I mean, there was that one time when the Bomb thought that Jude was the assassin and tried to kill her, but they cleared it up and the Bomb was actually sorry for what she had done. It's a good apology scene too).
And THE ROACH? Girl, he's my favorite character apart from Vivienne. I need to see more Roach. He's so chill, I love characters like those.
And the Ghost is amazing too. I love how complex he is too. Poisoned Liriope, but helped Locke. And he was kind of forced to obey Madoc and Locke, so yeah, there's that. And he literally told Jude to kill him so that he couldn't help Madoc-that right there is a whole other level of bravery, loyalty and dedication to his friends. And his scenes with Oak? Amazing. I also liked his scenes with Jude-killing the spy, training, etc.
Every Ghost, Bomb and/or Roach scene is amazing and so immersive for me.
To be honest, I don't care for the Bomb and Roach's romantic relationship, but I don't dislike it either-I just don't care for romance in general.
I love the whole Court of Shadows together, especially with Jude. They're all so funny and classy-Dain really knew what he was doing when he recruited them.
Magnus Chase, The Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson all should've been set in separate universes.
It's just, the mythology is all so tangled up. How does Rick justify the beginnings and endings of the world, seeing as some of them don't really have an ending (like Greek mythology) and some of them do (Ragnarok).
So why not set them in universes? Something like Daughter of the Deep and Percy Jackson-neither are in the same universe, but they're both written by the same author. So do that for MCGA, TKC and PJO.
And Percy and Annabeth definitely could have been written out with some assistance. The crossover literally didn't have to happen.
(Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it, I think all the pantheon gods interacting with each other could be a fun concept, but I don't care for this particular concept, though that's just my opinion).
I think that it would be infinitely funnier if Rick had made Artemis and her Hunt be clueless (also somewhat wary) and have a superiority complex about being separated from men and living in the wild and turn it into a comedy.
'Men do THIS? No wonder you're so behind! We in the wild do (something completely absurd and simply undoable in modern society that can be done in her Hunt because it's timeless and magical and in the wild and she's also a goddess). Far superior.'
One thing I've noticed is that so many of the relationships in Percy Jackson had in common was jealousy.
Annabeth is jealous of Rachel, Calypso, Reyna and even Hazel for a few seconds because they're close to Percy.
Percy is jealous of Luke because of his close relationship with Annabeth (this is not romantic, but it's still jealousy).
Piper is jealous of Reyna and even Annabeth at one point because the latter was comforting/helping Jason.
Calypso is jealous of Reyna because she thought that he was Leo's girlfriend.
Frank is jealous of Leo because..........Leo's great grandad was Hazel's first love. And he thought that Hazel and Leo might have had something.
Nico is jealous of Will staring at Paolo to assess how his arms are working. (And it's treated as cute, too, which is something else that's bad.)
Grover is jealous of Juniper thinking that Luke was handsome.
Reyna is jealous of Piper and Annabeth (it's not unfounded, honestly, but she's still jealous).
It's a very interesting pattern I've noticed. It seems like main characters in PJO can't be in a relationship without having at least one jealous moment. Rick Riordan don't make your characters jealous of others for flimsy reasons challenge (impossible?).
Then again, they're teenagers and their hormones are high (I should think) so it might make sense that they're jealous, but Rick never touches on or says this in his books.
Also, all of them are teenagers and they're jealous. The adult couple, Jo and Emmie, were very healthy, probably the best couple with no jealousy.
Thoughts?
Mitchell stared at his mother. Her skin was pale silver, and curly black ringlets framed her face, the rest being pulled back into a high ponytail. Her eyes, however, changed every moment, like a kaleidoscope. 'M-mother,' he stammered. He didn't know what to do-was this really his mother, or was she a hallucination? After losing Capture The Flag, Sherman had taunted him about his parentage. 'Aphrodite's children could never fight as well as the rest of us. Your mom is the goddess of lust and beauty, what's so strong about that?' Mitchell had punched him in the face. In retaliation, Sherman had nearly scratched his eyes out and left him with bruises that might last for a month. And then, in front of the whole camp, Mitchell had burst into tears and ran away, even as Silena called for him and Drew hissed at Sherman. And he had come to the forest, where he really liked to be alone. Thankfully, there were no nymphs or dryads now. Well, there was one, and he had turned to leave, but she called his name and beckoned him over. And then she had told him that she was actually his mother, Aphrodite. He had been told that if, by a rare chance, a god was actually encountered, they must be given the utmost respect and consideration. One's own needs were practically nonexistent, one always agreed with them no matter what. She patted a moss cushioned rock beside her. 'Oh, do sit down! It's been ages since I've talked to one of my children.' He sat down, assuming a respectful posture, hands folded in his lap. 'Ah…………uh, to what do I owe this honour?' 'Oh? Sometimes I secretly visit Camp Half Blood and watch Capture The Flag for fun, and, well, I saw what happened today.' Embarrassment heated his face. Was she going to tell all the other gods? Would he be made a laughingstock among them? Or would she turn him into something for embarrassing her? 'Oh, cheer up.' she patted his cheek and he blinked in surprise. 'I'm not going to humiliate you further. I felt that I ought to tell you how bad my children can have it, especially my sons. The patriarchy negatively affects men as well.' He swallowed. Ah. So……..she was going to comfort him? Would she expect something from him after this? Was she going to send him on a quest to prove himself or something? His throat constricted. He'd heard stories of campers going missing or worse. And there was that horrible tradition of weaving a burial shroud for a quester.
Imagines flashed through his mind, of his siblings weaving with trembling hands, of tears sliding down their cheeks, of the designs that they would struggle to choose from. 'My children are often dismissed and treated as frivolous. The gods are changed by how we are viewed, and people have begun to view me as a silly, fragile little thing who would sooner walk away then get my hands dirty. And the same goes for my children, which I cannot control, though I fervently wish I could.' Does she want to control us? Mitchell thought uncomfortably. Or is she talking about her image? 'My sons bear the brunt of this horribly-misogyny and misandry can be two versions of a terrible, useless coin. Feminine men were often mocked back in the day-well, they still ARE mocked, but you understand me.' And the point of this is? 'The point of this is to assure you that you are not alone. Other feminine men, even ones not my sons, suffer from the same discrimination. And my daughters are also mocked and called useless for the simple crime-' she wrinkled her in nose in distaste, '-of being feminine, even though femininity and fighting are intrinsically intertwined since the dawn of time. Women have silently fought their wars, not the ones with politics and weapons, but the ones with misogyny and violence from both men and women alike-and those battles have dragged on for millennia, and every generation has been witness and victim to them.' A beautiful monologue, worthy of Athena, Mitchell thought, smiling, then he was glad that his mother couldn't read his thoughts. 'And so……….' Aphrodite waved her hand, 'go back and fight, my son. I was once worshipped as a war goddess, and feminine people can still fight. Go and show them that you are a worthy son of mine.'
You know, I've found the fact that Rick Riordan chose to make his main black character, who is also a girl, the youngest demigod of the Seven an odd choice.
Of course, Rick done effed up with Hazel's representation, and this is my critique on her age and why she didn't need to be thirteen.
Hazel Levesque is actually fourteen years old in Son of Neptune. But many readers think that she's thirteen years old because she states that she was thirteen when she died and she never acknowledged that she was fourteen years old.
But if we fit the pieces together-Hazel was thirteen and a half when she died. She came to Camp Jupiter a month before Jason was taken, which meant that by the time Son of Neptune happened, 8 months had passed, making her fourteen years and two months old.
But as I said before, we never get explicit confirmation from Hazel or any other character that she is fourteen, leading most of the readers to think that she is thirteen years old. We must fit the pieces together ourselves.
If Rick himself didn't bother to outright say that Hazel was fourteen, then he must have written the Frazel dynamic to make a 13 year old BLACK girl date a 16 year old boy. Because why wouldn't Rick have Hazel state that she was 14 years old? Why would he just have her state that she was thirteen when she died, but not make her state that she had since turned fourteen? Nothing about her fourteenth birthday?
If he intended to make Hazel fourteen and have us know, then he would have stated that she was fourteen, but he never does, which means that he was actually writing Frazel to be a 13-16 year old dating. Wow. Just.........wow.
In fact, I personally believe that Rick was writing Hazel and Frank to be 13-16 BECAUSE HE LITERALLY HAS HAZEL SAY THAT FRANK IS 3 YEARS OLDER THAN HER. HE NEVER ARGUES AGAINST THIS EITHER.
HAZEL BEING 14 WAS 99.99 PERCENT ACCIDENTAL ON HIS PART.
If there is actually a sentence saying that Hazel is fourteen years old, please tell me and I'll change this post. But I need explicit confirmation.
(And do not get started on that Hazel is confused crap. Rick was confused-Hazel is a fictional character who has no autonomy. If Rick had truly intended her to be fourteen, he would have made her say it at some point in the series.)
All right, I'm going to tell you my thoughts about Frazel. I'm going to summarise my opinions and then elaborate beneath.
1) The Frazel age gap is controversial. Hazel is 13 and a half while Frank is newly 15. It's one and a half year (correct me if I'm wrong, please). While some accept this, to others, it's not a good age gap and the maturity levels are different
2)They feel forced and rushed. We know that they knew each other for 8-9 months, but we don't see this, so it's rushed and forced to us. They skip the pure platonic friendship and jump straight to the romance-the Frazel moments in SON were heavily streaked with romance, not just platonic feelings
3) BEHAVIOURALLY SPEAKING, however they're the best couple in the PJO universe. Better than Percabeth, Caleo, Jiper and Solangelo
4) Frazel could have been one of the top ships of PJO if Rick had made Hazel older and if he had given us more memories and reminiscences of their time at Camp Jupiter
I don't understand why Hazel had to die at thirteen years old. Why not make her die at fourteen or fifteen? It would change nothing except making Frazel acceptable regarding the age gap.
See, Frazel's age gap is controversial. I mean, if Hazel was thirteen and Frank sixteen, it would've been taboo entirely, but since she's fourteen and he's sixteen with a 1 year and few month age gap, some people like it and others don't.
And when scrolling through the Anti Frazel tag, I see that most of the posts have the age gap as their main argument, which further cements the fact that Frazel's age gap is really what makes most people dislike it in the first place.
Technically, if Hazel turned 14 in December and Frank was still 15 but turned 16 in June, this makes their age gap one and a half years, which is very weird to some people but acceptable to others.
Hazel and Frank met at 13 and a half and 15 years old respectively and started to gain feelings for each other, which is very, very odd to some people but ok for others.
But if Hazel had died at 14 and been brought back, then she would have turned 15 in December and would be biologically half a year younger than Frank, which would push it from controversial to acceptable by all.
And in case you're thinking about the Great Prophecy in the OG PJO series, Hazel died before it came out, and she could have died at 14 and it still wouldn't have come out. Hell, she could die at 16 and it wouldn't have come out. It came out after WWII ended which is in 1945, and Hazel would turn 16 in 1944 because she was born in 1928.
2) They're way too rushed.
Ok, we get one book with them, and that too, they've already jumped to the romance. They were friends, but now they both romantically like each other but don't know that the other person likes them.
There's no platonic friendship here, only crushes. And a ship needs to have platonic friendship and development to be a proper ship that's accepted by the fandom, otherwise many readers will think that it's boring.
As I said above, my only bones to pick with Frazel is that I think that the age gap is weird and that they were too rushed. In the end, that's all.
3) BEHAVIOURALLY SPEAKING they are the best couple in the PJOverse hands down. No other ship compares.
All right so Percabeth is toxic. Search it up. Annabeth's behaviour towards Percy is toxic. Search it up. I do not need to tell you, it's too long for this post.
Caleo? I don't need to tell you how Calypso yells at, belittles and hits Leo, thus chipping away at his already crumbling self-esteem.
Jiper? Piper literally claims Jason as hers in front of the entire Aphrodite cabin WHO WILL MOST CERTAINLY TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS without Jason's knowledge or consent. And she's jealous when he brings up another girl, even his sister. And while she may not be physically abusive, she's still manipulative, and that's very bad.
Solangelo? Will Solace victim-blames Nico and literally tells him that he knows what's best for his health even though Nico can and has taken care of himself. There's also jealousy written terribly that's supposed to be a cute moment that never gets resolved.
Frazel, though.........they're behaviourally amazing for each other. No physical, verbal or mental abuse. No dismissing the other's intelligence. They're sweet to each other and aren't possessive of each other.
Of course, Frank gets suspicious when Hedge makes that comment about Hazel and Leo, but the way it was worded was bound to make Frank misunderstand. Also, Frank and Leo make it up and Frank does not use Leo on Hazel like Annabeth uses Rachel and the others on Percy.
Frank understands where they went wrong and accepts it. The others don't.
Of course, they're also a biracial couple where both of them are POC, so this is also a huge win. Best couple in PJOverse is also biracial POC couple. YEEEEEESSSSSSSS (Even if Rick fucked up while representing their ethnicities)
PS: I'm not anti Frazel
Can we talk about how much the Aphrodite kids are a wasted/lost potential? How RR made them vain, vapid, mean and only useless pretty faces until Piper came? (Which is one of the characters I dislike in the books for all her internalized misogyny and the way she judged her siblings and cabinmates before even getting to know them properly). Aphrodite was worshiped as a goddess of war in her own right. Give me children of Aphrodite who are as beautiful as they are deadly, they wield their beauty both as a shield and as a sword. Give me Aphrodite kids that are so deeply loving and loyal towards each other, willing to move mountains and brave the harshest storms to keep their loved ones safe. Give me cabin 10 members being the ones that other campers go to because they know there will be no judgement there.
Can we talk about how much the Aphrodite kids are a wasted/lost potential? How RR made them vain, vapid, mean and only useless pretty faces until Piper came?
Aphrodite was worshipped as a goddess of war in her own right. Give me children of Aphrodite who are as beautiful as they are deadly, they wield their beauty both as a shield and as a sword. Give me Aphrodite kids that are so deeply loving and loyal towards each other, willing to move mountains and brave the harshest storms to keep their loved ones safe. Give me cabin 10 members being the ones that other campers go to because they know there will be no judgement there.
Exactly! Your vision for them is amazing. Of course, if they had had a writer who actually cared about fleshing them out, they could have been amazing, but unfortunately, Rick is too much of a misogynist to think past 'pink, pretty clothes, concerned about looks' = 'vain, shallow, conceited'.
The fact that his main female characters are able to look good without trying is such a cliche. A girl who looks good because she takes care of herself and is concerned about her looks (though not to the point of vanity) is much more interesting than 'Effortless Without Trying'-which is present ad nauseam in 2000s YA literature.
A son of Aphrodite would be extremely interesting to read about. How would he deal with his feminine side when he was a boy? How would others have seen and treated him? We all talk about masculine girls and feeling uncomfortable in masculinity, but talking about a feminine boy and his feminity would have been so interesting, especially in the PJOverse where Aphrodite is seen as weak. How differently is he treated from his sisters? Do they expect him to be tougher or weak just like them? How does he feel about his heritage and his mother?
Wasted potential, though we have fanfiction, discussions and headcanons, so there's that.
(Piper is one of the characters I dislike in the books for all her internalized misogyny and the way she judged her siblings and cabinmates before even getting to know them properly).
I do think that it's unfair to dislike Piper for that because she was raised in Hollywood, where it would be easy to take on such a mindset and lose yourself in it. Besides, the girls that were bullying her (both at the Wilderness School and Drew Tanaka) were all pink and feminine, so it would be easy for her to dislike them and think that they were shallow and stupid.
I'll have to reread the Lost Hero to look at her arc and how it was handled, so I'll add my thoughts after this happens.
On an unrelated note, I wish that we had gotten Piper and Drew making up. The fact that two teenage girls of color fight over a white guy and presumably don't make up again is just so aggravating to me, because female solidarity and platonic relationships are absolutely wonderful to read about.
Hi, it’s “Rick really shot himself in the foot when he tried to differentiate Greek and Roman mythology and failed” anon again, and I just learned that apparently Rick is not only misrepresenting the gods and Greek culture, but actual Ancient Greek philosophers, and that really pisses me off as someone with a degree in philosophy.
I haven’t been a part of this fandom in a long time. I never finished HoO (I dropped it before the series was even finished), but I saw something upsetting the other day. I’ve seen a few posts talking about this one passage from HoO (Or, at least, I think it was from HoO. If I read that part, I don’t remember because It was a long time ago.) talking about “a story by Plato about how male and female were created because they used to be the same being that was split in half, and now they’re two halves of a whole looking for their soulmate or whatever” and this was supposed to create angst or something because then Nico didn’t know how he was supposed to fit into that equation.
Again, I don’t exactly know the context (I tried Googling it, but I couldn’t find anything), but I do know that it’s referencing The Symposium. The Symposium just so happens to be one of my favorite pieces of philosophical writing, and once had to write over 20 pages on this bad boy for an academic paper, so believe me when I tell you - that story is a load of BS, and I will not tolerate Plato slander.
First of all, that wasn’t even Plato that said that. It was Aristophanes. Yes, The Symposium was written by Plato, but he was essentially just documenting stuff that was said at a dinner where a bunch of dudes got together and decided to philosophize about what love is (there are 6 speakers in total, that all lead up to Socrates, and Aristophanes is just one of them). People debate about whether all the people and situations Plato wrote about were even real, or if they’re just a device to bounce ideas off of each other, and there’s even this whole theory that Socrates wasn’t a real person - but I’m not going to get into all of that. What’s important is that we DO know that Aristophanes was a real person, and it’s important to note that Aristophanes was NOT a philosopher. He was a playwright and basically the Ancient Greek equivalent of a comedian. I have seen a lot of people act like it was some profound theory of how humans came to be, but it was never meant to be taken seriously.
Now, I have seen that story be taken out of context many times, and it always annoys me, but this might be the most egregious one yet. The Symposium is not heteronormative in the slightest. In fact, it is VERY queer, which is what drew me to it in the first place.
The ACTUAL story that this is trying to reference is when Aristophanes tells a story where originally humans had 2 heads, 4 arms, and 4 legs, and there were 3 genders - male, female, and androgynous (which represented the sun, earth, and moon, respectively). The gods were intimidated by the humans, so they split them in half. The ones that were originally male became men who were attracted to men, the ones that were female became women attracted to women, and the ones that were androgynous became men and women attracted to the opposite sex. That is the very short version, but needless to say, very inclusive of homosexuality.
I see how what Rick was trying to do could’ve worked for asexuality or aromanticism, however, this is only just one small part of The Symposium, and there is actually a lot of stuff in The Symposium that I would argue are very ace and aro coded, but I’m not going to get into all of that, though, because this would be very long and that’s beside the point.
(Just one thing, though, because I can't resist. It’s not relevant to this, but it’s cool, and it relates to my previous ask. At one point, one of the speakers, Pausanias, tries to define love as a complex being and says that Aphrodite is the personification of love. He acknowledges that there are two different versions of Aphrodite that the Ancient Greeks believed in, from different parts of Greece (again, this is pre-Roman), and instead of trying to determine which is the “true” Aphrodite, he embraces both of them and says they are the personifications of two different kinds of love, which eventually results in him basically figuring out the split attraction model 2000+ years before it was called that, and I love it so much.) Anyway, everyone should read The Symposium, it’s public domain.
All that to say, this means one of two things. Either Rick knew this story and intentionally changed it to be heteronormative to create angst, or he read some other version of the story, that was not a primary resource, where someone else had already changed to be heteronormative - and that really freaking bothers me, because it could not be farther from the truth.
As a queer person who found a lot of comfort in The Symposium, I find it disgusting that it was twisted for the sake of making a queer character feel bad about themself for extra angst (and don’t even get me started on how Nico’s character was handled, that is a whole other thing I can go off about, but I won’t because this is about Plato). Shame on you, Richard.
Again, I haven’t touched HoO since I was in high school and it was still being released, and I honestly don’t remember reading that part. So, if I am taking this out of context and later in the book they say “Wait, but that’s not actually how the story goes!” then I will be pleasantly surprised for once, and you can disregard all of this.
You are wonderful, anon, and I love you and this message that you've sent so much. I will definitely check out Plato's Symposium sometime soon.
Don't worry-you're not taking this out of context. What you're talking about is, unfortunately, written in either HOH or BOO-I clearly remember that.
Rick Riordan does tend to misrepresent cultures in his stories-especially Greek culture, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was true. His views on Hellenistic Paganism and Greek Gods when he was writing PJO and HOO were unfortunately very derogatory and it's clearly reflected in his writing.
The fact that he changed a story to fit his version does not surprise me at all, though it's painful to learn that he has committed yet another infraction regarding Greek Mythology.
It's terribly discouraging to me when I see how many people think that what Rick Riordan writes is true and urge them to read up on real sources regarding Greek Mythology. This twisted version of Plato's Symposium is only one of many examples in Percy Jackson.
Knowing Rick Riordan, he either read the full version and twisted it to form his own terrible version, which he has done before (Hephaestus' attempted rape of Athena) and is quite good at or he read a version that wasn't the primary resource and just took it to be the real thing (like he did when researching for Piper Mclean).
Nico's moment there was pretty poignant, very relatable for many LGBTQ readers wondering how they would fit in to heteronormative society...........
But unfortunately, a lot of nice moments in PJO come at the cost of incorrectly interpreting Ancient Greek Gods and culture. It's pretty sad, honestly. Rick really likes to slander Greece in his works. First with the flame of the West, then with slandering all the gods and all those mythological inaccuracies, now with this twisted Symposium version of his.
Rick Riordan doesn't even do his research properly, so of course he said that Plato said it and not that Plato wrote down what Aristophanes said out loud. I wonder if it would actually kill him to do some more research. Is he really that bad at it?
Anyway, I will read the Symposium to gain more insight onto how Rick could have handled it better. I really like aro-ace coded stuff, too, so I'll love this one.