'Reyna Doesn't Owe Nico Anything And She Is Free To Do What She Wants With Her Life And Join The Hunters'

HOW RICK PORTRAYED THE GREEK GODS AND WHY IT WAS SO IMPORTANT

So people are going to notice that a lot of my complaints aren't just in PJO but extend to media portraying Greek Myths in general. But I want to focus on Percy Jackson and not other media, so I'm going to focus on Percy Jackson and not other media.

Starting off.................

The way Rick portrayed the Greek Gods was important because PJO was the most read book series that heavily centered around Greek Mythology he pretty much destroyed their images at the time.

There's an entire anti Percy Jackson tag as well as an anti PJO tag for you to scroll through to see how Rick Riordan portrayal of the Greek Gods was terrible. Be my guest and treat yourself to it. Search it up.

There are also people like @alatismeni-theitsa, @margaretkart and @katerinaaqu to ask for correct information on Greek Mythology. So be their guest too.

Today, we have PJO fans running around having incorrect perceptions of the gods and flinging hate and abuse at the real Greek Gods while Greeks and Hellenistic Pagans have to suffer through all this bullshit.

The torture is REAL. Just ask them.

I mean, you have people claiming that they are the CHILDREN of VIRGIN GODDESSES.

Artemis, Athena, Hera and Hestia don't have any demigod children.

If you really want to, call yourself their chosen champion. Not their child. It's disrespectful to Greek culture and religion to do otherwise.

Rick Riordan read about and taught Greek Myths in school, so he must have read the actual versions of the myths.

And knowing these, he decided to twist them into his terrible, inferior, crappy versions.

That man literally wrote Hephaestus, a rapist, as a poor guy trying to get a girl, oh, he's so sad and pathetic, and Athena's such a mean bitch for not accepting his advances even if she doesn't want it!

I'm not joking.................and I don't have words for this. I just don't.

Riordan doesn't really have any tact, does he? None at all.

And no, Greek people and Hellenistic Pagans cannot get away from these horrible portrayals, because there are too many Percy Jackson fans clogging up the Greek God tags with their Rick Riordan written PJO versions of the gods, which is kind of terrible for the Hellenistics who just want to be able to read devotional things about their gods and other people who just want to read about real Greek Mythology, not Percy Jackson. And this happens in real life, too. I mean, people using PJO as a substitute for real Greek Mythology.

Pro tip for PJO tumblr users: if you're typing about a god, use the Greek God PJO tag, like PJO Apollo or PJO Aphrodite, not just Apollo or Aphrodite, ok? Thanks for reading this.

There are many common misconceptions about Greek Mythology due to Percy Jackson. So, if you're not sure about something, please search it up on verified academic websites or ask real people-you can do this online too.

Now I am aware that Rick has the creative license to portray Greek Gods however he wants-

but let us as educated people all be aware of the fact that we should not always take portrayals of the Greek Gods in modern media depicting them seriously and if you want to read up on the actual gods, then read the myths and the Odyssey, Iliad etc.

Now, to name another shockingly appalling writing choice-

In the very first book, WW2 is atrociously used as a plot point

Yes, that's right-Rick Riordan, beloved author of a bestselling franchise for children and adults alike, reduces WW2, one of the most bloody and complex conflicts in history with a multitude of a reasons for its existence, to a fight between fictional demigods of the Big Three simply to have a reason for the Big 3 not to have children.

Do you know how serious this is? Do you actually know how bad this is, though?

Millions of people even today are affected by the WW2 due to generational trauma and abusive parents. WW2 killed millions of soldiers and civilians alike, and the Holocaust was so horrible that some people would faint just reading about what happened.

I will not go into the bloody, gory details here, but if you still don't believe this, go search up WW2 and Holocaust torture and treatment of Jews and other minorities as well.

Jews today still have gaping holes in their family trees because of it. And to have Rick Riordan portray it in such a callous way, to make a literal Greek God sire war criminals in modern history, when there were other methods he could have used to intertwine the mythological world and demigods and history.........it makes you wonder what was running through his mind at the time.

There were so many other ways he could have portrayed the prophecy-make it so that Big 3 children were constantly causing natural disasters and fictional wars in the mythological world, not the real world, and constantly dividing the cabins at CHB. Maybe they had their own war parallel to WW2. There were so many ways to do this- and none of them had to do what was ultimately done.

PJO WWII IS THE ULTIMATE INSULT TO THE GREEKS

What makes this even WORSE is that during World War II, the Greeks were in fact part of the ALLIES.

The Allies were fighting against the Axis powers, the latter of which contained Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Japan.

When the Nazis invaded Greece-well, it's never a good thing for a country to be invaded by enemies during a time of war.

At least 250,000 people died during the Axis occupation and its Jewish community was pretty much killed off. And the country's economy and infrastructure were ruined quite horribly.

And generations of Greeks are traumatised because of this, even today. Not just Greeks-thousands of people. Millions of people all over the globe are still traumatized from this war, be it direct experience or generational trauma.

And to make ANCIENT GREEK GODS responsible for WWII is simply, totally and absolutely unforgivable on Rick Riordan's part.

To make the Greeks' enemies the sons of their ancient gods........no. Just no.

And yes, Hitler is a son of Hades in canon. Rick later changed it because of the backlash. He's absolutely disgusting.

WHY THE HELL ARE THE GREEK GODS IN AMERICA?

Now.........the Greek Gods are in the USA!

But..........they're Greek, right, which means that they should be in Greece! So why now are they in the USA?

Well.........here's Rick's explanation for it.

Apparently, the Greek Gods started with the fire of the Western Civilisation and then moved onto other places.

'Flame of the West' crap my ass. Search it up-there's this great article called the Whitening Thief. Read that.

What's meant by Chiron's explanation is that apparently Greece is too bad for Greek Gods now, which is terrible, because that's literally where they originated. And their explanation for leaving it and coming to America is extremely half-baked and just reeks of white American superiority.

@margaretkart

@alatismeni-theitsa

@katerinaaqu

These are all good blogs to disillusion yourself with Percy Jackson and learn about what really happened in Greek Mythology.

And I just want to say-Percy Jackson is an ok start for venturing into Greek Mythology as long as you've read up some basic background beforehand, but-

But-

Do NOT, under ANY circumstances whatsoever, take RICK RIORDAN'S portrayal of the Greek Gods as the REAL Greek Gods.

Never do that. That is the one thing that must not be done.

Hera doesn't just love perfect families. She literally lives in the most dysfunctional family to ever exist. And she loves you if you try. She really does.

Hades would not threaten to eternally torture literal children just because of what their parents did to him. His literal job is to uphold justice in the underworld, and sending a child to Tartarus just because her father angered him and he couldn't punish the father isn't justice now, is it?

Ares loves his children and as for why Rick made him hate them-

Rick has a hate boner against the war god, that I will swear on. Read this post and the explanation for why Rick shouldn't have done it.

And the gods are actively depicted as cruel, neglectful, abusive parents, when in the myths they are quite the opposite.

Real Aphrodite loves her son Aeneas and frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield. She also tells him to not marry a woman (TO GIVE UP LOVE, HER LITERAL DOMAIN) so that he can fulfil his destiny of becoming a king.

Real Ares loves all his children. He tries to avenge his son Cycnus when Heracles kills him with good reason for being a cruel tyrant-and they were even riding chariots together when Heracles came across them. He avenged his daughter even at the cost of being punished by Poseidon and Zeus, neither of whom liked him.

Now, what I want to tell you is that the PJO Greek Gods are Rick's interpretation of them.

An interpretation of a Greek God by a modern author (who isn't Greek, by the way, please take note) is not the same as the real Greek God. Please understand this and accordingly adjust your views.

This also goes for Madeline Miller, Rachel Smythe, etc.

And lastly, one of the most ironic things is that though Richard uses the Greek Gods in his books, he has never ever added a single Greek character in it.

I'm talking about a modern Greek demigod who comes from Greece. Imagine them teaching the other demigods Modern Greek and Greek culture, language and traditions!

It's very ironic that he includes Chinese, African and Native American culture in his works and then turns around and pretend that Greek culture doesn't exist.

The demigods are in Athens, but for how much time before they go back to America? Barely any at all. And nothing learnt about culture while they're there.

(No hate to his already shitty representation. I'm merely making a point that there should have been a Greek character in a book that heavily centers on Greek Gods and their children, even if it's in America.)

RICK DOESN'T USE GREEK CULTURE OR RELIGION AND IN FACT INSULTS GREECE IN HIS WORKS

So, if you've read the title, let me tell you something-

Do you know that Greek Gods are still worshipped?

Some of you do, some of you don't, but let me tell you, they are still worshipped.

And accordingly, you must respect them and their worshippers, just like you would do for Christians. You cannot maliciously ridicule and condemn Hellenistic Pagans and Greek Gods just because they are a minority.

And if you've read the myths and think that the Greek Gods being cruel......

They're not, actually. I mean, yes, you think they're cruel, but most of the myths aren't taken literally by Hellenistic Pagans.

What the Greek Gods do is supposed to be symbolic.

Hades kidnapping Persephone symbolises death ripping children from their grieving parents' arms. It's an explanation for the seasons and it finally represents the fact that daughters could be given away by their fathers with the mother having no say in it whatsoever.

Demeter's grief and her actually being able to do something about her daughter's marriage and Persephone being returned to her is supposed to be a comforting tale for grieving mothers who have lost their daughter.

Artemis' cruelty towards certain people? It represents the cruelty of nature towards humans and what it will do to humans if they provoke it.

Zeus' infidelity and abuse of his power? Well, it represents what kings do. Zeus represented the kings of Ancient Greece, and kings abused their power and had many mistresses besides having a wife.

Many Greek kings also claimed to sons of Zeus or descendants of the gods, so it the idea that Zeus had many affairs with ladies and princesses of royal lineages was conceived.

The link above provides many good reasons for why the Greeks wrote Zeus having many affairs with mortal women, so check it out.

Also, Zeus is symbolic of storms. Storms are volatile and raging, and so was Zeus at times. He was a god of storms and as such symbolised them.

Hera punishing the mistresses and children in a jealous rage to bother Zeus? That's what queens did back in the day since they couldn't directly punish their husbands.

Dionysus being charming and fun but also being mad and wild? Well, he represents breaking away from social norms and going fully wild. Also, wine can make people fun and charming, but at the same time, it can turn people into mad, raging creatures.

The point is, most of what the Greek Gods did was symbolic to their domains. And no, contrary to popular thought, Greeks did not live in fear of their Gods striking them down every moment. In fact, many of them genuinely devotionally loved their gods.

And Greek Gods themselves are very kind and benevolent to their devotees, even today, as long as you don't provoke or seriously insult them. Just ask Hellenistic Pagans and you'll be surprised at the results. I'm serious.

The problem here is that we're trying to moralize divinity.

According to the Greeks, gods weren't humans. They were modelled after humans, but they were above humans and human flaws.

And the Abrahamic gods do terrible things too, but do we mock them? No, we don't, because their worshippers say that they are above humans and human flaws, so similarly, the Greek Gods are above humans and our flaws.

CONCLUSION

And no one cares about the fact that a guy is objectifying and making money off a culture all the while removing its significance and turning it into a joke.

Even though Greeks have a millennia old and rich culture, people are always bastardizing it. Non-Greeks really must stop doing this. It's very culturally disrespectful.

I've also seen grown adults saying that the Greek Gods are American so they're allowed to do what they want with them now, and that's absolutely disgusting. It's cultural appropriation, that's what it is. Do not condone it.

Ah, sorry, not conclusion-let me add one last thing here.

Rick Riordan has a series called Trials of Apollo in which Apollo is cast down to Earth as a human for the third time to defeat Python.

What I want to talk about here is Apollo's human name-Lester Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulos is a common Greek Christian surname that means 'son of a priest'. One of Apollo's domains in prophecy and he has many priests, so maybe this is a reference to that.

But what is most upsetting is that this name is used for comedy.

It's belittled, laughed at and ridiculed for its longevity and hard pronunciation when it is in fact a very normal Greek surname. Even if it's not an American surname, even if it doesn't sound normal and sounds ridiculous to you, it's not ridiculous to others and you should respect it.

Can you imagine how Greek people with that last name read the books and felt bad about their last name? Or felt furious. I know that I would be FURIOUS if my last name was used like that.

And the fact is that Papadopoulos isn't even that hard to pronounce! It's literally just 5 syllables that you can repeat a few times until it doesn't twist your tongue.

And if you can't repeat this simple name, then you need to go back to kindergarten. Hell, go back to preschool even.

And there are people who have the audacity to say that the Greek Gods belong to America and are American. Grown adults, actually, on Twitter, no less. Tweeting it for the whole world to see their absolute foolishness and audacity.

They're pretty tactless, huh?

The Greek Gods were and always will be GREEK. Foreigners are not their rightful descendants-the Greeks are (Greek immigrants included). I mean...........this is bizzarre.

To conclude, (really conclude this time) though it's a series heavily entwined with Greek Gods, the only Greek thing about the series is the Gods. There's no Greek culture, religion or language, and even the Greek Gods are heavily Americanised, which is pretty disappointing. I hope that other authors will do better handling the Greek Gods than Rick Riordan.

(Side note: If you think anything I've said is wrong, tell me. I'll correct it immediately.)

@fandomloverangel

I haven't read KOTLC or Shadowhunters in quite some time but if Cassius was Sophie's father (this is never happening, but hypothetically) do you think Shannon would pull some Clary/Jace incest pining type of shit.

My theory as to why Rick added the judo flip

I was thinking about how weird it was that Rick added the judo flip scene to the reunion and I have a theory for why he did it.

Percabeth's reunion was supposed to be happy and romantic, and a judo flip is the antithesis of that.

My theory (And keep in mind that this is only a theory, so don't take it as canon) is that he added the judo flip in to make the scene unique.

Listen-every reunion scene like Percabeth's is happy and romantic, right? Happy couple is separated, they go on a journey to find each other and when they do it's seventh heaven and euphoria again. They kiss, hug, laugh, cry happily and declare that they'll never leave each other again.

Rick probably wanted to do that with Percabeth but he also didn't want to make it just another generic scene-he wanted to add somethjng distinctive that made it stand out. Not just 'Oh, it was a really sweet reunion scene' but 'Yeah, she judo flipped him! Crazy, right?' Something that people would remember, not just dismiss as another lovey-dovey reunion scene.

Annabeth's gut punch isn't toxic or abusive per se, but in the larger context of their relationship, it's just another incident and showcase of her toxicity towards Percy.

I think that Rick should have written Annabeth tackling Percy to the ground in a hug and sob-laughing into him and both of them just rolling around and laughing instead of the judo flip. That would have been way better.

Thank you for this criticism of my post. It's helped me a lot.

I'm embarrassed at the way I thought that Hellenistic Pagans only worshipped Greek Gods and I apologise for that. I've changed my post to correct that.

I've also deleted the part about Jews. I was only stating facts, but I see how you think I used them as canon fodder to appeal to my audience. Your irritation is valid.

I also get your point about how the gods were not only and never Greek and their creation and being passed down.

I never stated that Rick was only allowed to use one version of a myth in my original post, I only criticised the way he rewrote the myths and expressed my annoyance. I never intended to say that there was a correct or canon version of mythology, but I see how I might have fallen into that trope.

But the rest of your post is wrong.

They are quite literally saying that Americans own Greek Gods out in the open on Twitter. I said so in my original post.

The way Rick Riordan justified the Greek Gods was saying that without Westernisation, there is no culture, only chaos and darkness, and it is extremely racist to non-Western countries. I have every right to criticise that. I should have made this clearer in my original post, which I will edit to reflect this, and I'm also stating it here.

I'm not saying that non-Greeks can't write about Greek Gods, but there's a line between respectfully writing about them and disrespectful, and Rick Riordan has definitely crossed that line.

In the original myth, Hephaestus tried to rape Athena and she only defended herself from him. Rick is allowed to rewrite that, but the way he writes it is that Hephaestus is a sad, pathetic man who only wants a girlfriend and Athena is terrible for not comforting him when she just doesn't want to deal with Hephaestus' nonsense.

That reeks of using 'nice guys' and putting girls down for just not wanting to be a guy's participation prize rebound. Hephaestus literally got up on her and ejaculated on her thigh. That's a severe violation of boundaries. Athena had every right to be disgusted and defend herself. And even in PJO, Hephaestus keeps bothering her when she doesn't want to deal with his BS and he actually buries his face in her thigh. Athena had every right to kick him away.

As someone who didn't want to deal with a nice guy like that and got put down for it when I was just tired of dealing with his bullshit, I'm angry about that, and I rightfully can be.

I took comfort in this story knowing that I could try to fight off someone if they try to rape me, just like Athena. I looked up to her for this, and reading Rick's rewrite was extremely aggravating. People like me-and trust me, there are hundreds just like me-have every right to criticise it.

I did say that he was allowed to portray the Greek Gods however he liked in the name of creative license and I stand by that, but I'm also allowed to criticise his portrayal of them and how he rewrites the myths.

Athena is an unmarried virgin goddess for a reason. Her domains are strategic warfare, wisdom, intelligence etc. If she falls in love with men and has children with them, she can no longer be a goddess of those domains, because love would cloud her judgement.

Athena wouldn't randomly dump a child onto a man without preparing him to raise it and form it without asking him for consent. It's cruel, and she has no reason to be cruel. Other gods might do this, but not Athena-she's the goddess of wisdom.

She knows better than to do what she did in Percy Jackson, so it doesn't make sense for her to do such a thing. She would only do it if she wanted to be cruel, and she doesn't want to be cruel to Frederick and her other lovers. Why would she?

The way Percy subtly dropped comments about Athena that were malicious and also unnecessary shows us Rick's dislike for her. When Athena says that she has a plan for a fair competition between her and Poseidon for the honour of being the patron of Attica, Percy says that it was typical and she always had some sneaky idea. There's literally nothing sneaky about this-it's just another malicious comment designed to subtly turn us against her.

I'm not saying that there's a canon basis in Greek Mythology that Rick Riordan has to use. He can use whichever version of a myth that he likes. But like I said before, there's a line between being respectful and disrespectful when portraying the Greek Gods, and Rick ran over it long ago.

People who worship Greek Gods sacrifice a portion of their food in honour of the gods. Rick Riordan turns this into something that they're required to do and they don't like. In his show, he says that the gods like the smell of begging-that is, the children sacrifice the food to the gods so that they can get attention.

This isn't true. People sacrificed food to the gods to honour them. By turning this sacred practice into a derogatory begging ritual, Rick dishonours it. It's not ok.

He divorces the Greek gods from their homeland using the racist excuse of flame of the Western Civilisation and also says

Rick Riordan also used WW2 as a rhetorical prop and a plot device just to justify why the Big 3 couldn't have kids anymore. He literally made Greek Gods of an ancient culture the fathers of people who caused one of the most horrible wars on Earth. His books said that Hades was the father of Hitler and he only changed it later to avoid backlash.

Using ancient gods from an ancient culture to blame for GODDAMN WORLD WAR TWO? I'd say that's pretty fucking disrespectful.

There are multiple people other than me who are angry about this, especially Greek people, because it's the ultimate insult to them to make their gods be the fathers of their enemies, that too ones who caused WW2? Nope.

Listen, I'm really sorry if I offended you and I understand that some of my takes in this post were incorrect and I've changed them. However, I'm also criticizing Rick on his portrayals which I am allowed to do.

My last message is to emphasise that Percy Jackson is not part of Greek mythology and Rick Riordan is not a source of information on mythology like Homer or Hesiod or Apollodorus are and I'd like people to recognise this. They wrote their writings with respect to the gods and culture in mind, and he didn't do this.

Do not equate Rick Riordan or his works with the poets and playwrights of Ancient Greece.

HOW RICK PORTRAYED THE GREEK GODS AND WHY IT WAS SO IMPORTANT

So people are going to notice that a lot of my complaints aren't just in PJO but extend to media portraying Greek Myths in general. But I want to focus on Percy Jackson and not other media, so I'm going to focus on Percy Jackson and not other media.

Starting off.................

The way Rick portrayed the Greek Gods was important because PJO was the most read book series that heavily centered around Greek Mythology he pretty much destroyed their images at the time.

There's an entire anti Percy Jackson tag as well as an anti PJO tag for you to scroll through to see how Rick Riordan portrayal of the Greek Gods was terrible. Be my guest and treat yourself to it. Search it up.

There are also people like @alatismeni-theitsa, @margaretkart and @katerinaaqu to ask for correct information on Greek Mythology. So be their guest too.

Today, we have PJO fans running around having incorrect perceptions of the gods and flinging hate and abuse at the real Greek Gods while Greeks and Hellenistic Pagans have to suffer through all this bullshit.

The torture is REAL. Just ask them.

I mean, you have people claiming that they are the CHILDREN of VIRGIN GODDESSES.

Artemis, Athena, Hera and Hestia don't have any demigod children.

If you really want to, call yourself their chosen champion. Not their child. It's disrespectful to Greek culture and religion to do otherwise.

Rick Riordan read about and taught Greek Myths in school, so he must have read the actual versions of the myths.

And knowing these, he decided to twist them into his terrible, inferior, crappy versions.

That man literally wrote Hephaestus, a rapist, as a poor guy trying to get a girl, oh, he's so sad and pathetic, and Athena's such a mean bitch for not accepting his advances even if she doesn't want it!

I'm not joking.................and I don't have words for this. I just don't.

Riordan doesn't really have any tact, does he? None at all.

And no, Greek people and Hellenistic Pagans cannot get away from these horrible portrayals, because there are too many Percy Jackson fans clogging up the Greek God tags with their Rick Riordan written PJO versions of the gods, which is kind of terrible for the Hellenistics who just want to be able to read devotional things about their gods and other people who just want to read about real Greek Mythology, not Percy Jackson. And this happens in real life, too. I mean, people using PJO as a substitute for real Greek Mythology.

Pro tip for PJO tumblr users: if you're typing about a god, use the Greek God PJO tag, like PJO Apollo or PJO Aphrodite, not just Apollo or Aphrodite, ok? Thanks for reading this.

There are many common misconceptions about Greek Mythology due to Percy Jackson. So, if you're not sure about something, please search it up on verified academic websites or ask real people-you can do this online too.

Now I am aware that Rick has the creative license to portray Greek Gods however he wants-

but let us as educated people all be aware of the fact that we should not always take portrayals of the Greek Gods in modern media depicting them seriously and if you want to read up on the actual gods, then read the myths and the Odyssey, Iliad etc.

Now, to name another shockingly appalling writing choice-

In the very first book, WW2 is atrociously used as a plot point

Yes, that's right-Rick Riordan, beloved author of a bestselling franchise for children and adults alike, reduces WW2, one of the most bloody and complex conflicts in history with a multitude of a reasons for its existence, to a fight between fictional demigods of the Big Three simply to have a reason for the Big 3 not to have children.

Do you know how serious this is? Do you actually know how bad this is, though?

Millions of people even today are affected by the WW2 due to generational trauma and abusive parents. WW2 killed millions of soldiers and civilians alike, and the Holocaust was so horrible that some people would faint just reading about what happened.

I will not go into the bloody, gory details here, but if you still don't believe this, go search up WW2 and Holocaust torture and treatment of Jews and other minorities as well.

Jews today still have gaping holes in their family trees because of it. And to have Rick Riordan portray it in such a callous way, to make a literal Greek God sire war criminals in modern history, when there were other methods he could have used to intertwine the mythological world and demigods and history.........it makes you wonder what was running through his mind at the time.

There were so many other ways he could have portrayed the prophecy-make it so that Big 3 children were constantly causing natural disasters and fictional wars in the mythological world, not the real world, and constantly dividing the cabins at CHB. Maybe they had their own war parallel to WW2. There were so many ways to do this- and none of them had to do what was ultimately done.

PJO WWII IS THE ULTIMATE INSULT TO THE GREEKS

What makes this even WORSE is that during World War II, the Greeks were in fact part of the ALLIES.

The Allies were fighting against the Axis powers, the latter of which contained Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Japan.

When the Nazis invaded Greece-well, it's never a good thing for a country to be invaded by enemies during a time of war.

At least 250,000 people died during the Axis occupation and its Jewish community was pretty much killed off. And the country's economy and infrastructure were ruined quite horribly.

And generations of Greeks are traumatised because of this, even today. Not just Greeks-thousands of people. Millions of people all over the globe are still traumatized from this war, be it direct experience or generational trauma.

And to make ANCIENT GREEK GODS responsible for WWII is simply, totally and absolutely unforgivable on Rick Riordan's part.

To make the Greeks' enemies the sons of their ancient gods........no. Just no.

And yes, Hitler is a son of Hades in canon. Rick later changed it because of the backlash. He's absolutely disgusting.

WHY THE HELL ARE THE GREEK GODS IN AMERICA?

Now.........the Greek Gods are in the USA!

But..........they're Greek, right, which means that they should be in Greece! So why now are they in the USA?

Well.........here's Rick's explanation for it.

Apparently, the Greek Gods started with the fire of the Western Civilisation and then moved onto other places.

'Flame of the West' crap my ass. Search it up-there's this great article called the Whitening Thief. Read that.

What's meant by Chiron's explanation is that apparently Greece is too bad for Greek Gods now, which is terrible, because that's literally where they originated. And their explanation for leaving it and coming to America is extremely half-baked and just reeks of white American superiority.

@margaretkart

@alatismeni-theitsa

@katerinaaqu

These are all good blogs to disillusion yourself with Percy Jackson and learn about what really happened in Greek Mythology.

And I just want to say-Percy Jackson is an ok start for venturing into Greek Mythology as long as you've read up some basic background beforehand, but-

But-

Do NOT, under ANY circumstances whatsoever, take RICK RIORDAN'S portrayal of the Greek Gods as the REAL Greek Gods.

Never do that. That is the one thing that must not be done.

Hera doesn't just love perfect families. She literally lives in the most dysfunctional family to ever exist. And she loves you if you try. She really does.

Hades would not threaten to eternally torture literal children just because of what their parents did to him. His literal job is to uphold justice in the underworld, and sending a child to Tartarus just because her father angered him and he couldn't punish the father isn't justice now, is it?

Ares loves his children and as for why Rick made him hate them-

Rick has a hate boner against the war god, that I will swear on. Read this post and the explanation for why Rick shouldn't have done it.

And the gods are actively depicted as cruel, neglectful, abusive parents, when in the myths they are quite the opposite.

Real Aphrodite loves her son Aeneas and frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield. She also tells him to not marry a woman (TO GIVE UP LOVE, HER LITERAL DOMAIN) so that he can fulfil his destiny of becoming a king.

Real Ares loves all his children. He tries to avenge his son Cycnus when Heracles kills him with good reason for being a cruel tyrant-and they were even riding chariots together when Heracles came across them. He avenged his daughter even at the cost of being punished by Poseidon and Zeus, neither of whom liked him.

Now, what I want to tell you is that the PJO Greek Gods are Rick's interpretation of them.

An interpretation of a Greek God by a modern author (who isn't Greek, by the way, please take note) is not the same as the real Greek God. Please understand this and accordingly adjust your views.

This also goes for Madeline Miller, Rachel Smythe, etc.

And lastly, one of the most ironic things is that though Richard uses the Greek Gods in his books, he has never ever added a single Greek character in it.

I'm talking about a modern Greek demigod who comes from Greece. Imagine them teaching the other demigods Modern Greek and Greek culture, language and traditions!

It's very ironic that he includes Chinese, African and Native American culture in his works and then turns around and pretend that Greek culture doesn't exist.

The demigods are in Athens, but for how much time before they go back to America? Barely any at all. And nothing learnt about culture while they're there.

(No hate to his already shitty representation. I'm merely making a point that there should have been a Greek character in a book that heavily centers on Greek Gods and their children, even if it's in America.)

RICK DOESN'T USE GREEK CULTURE OR RELIGION AND IN FACT INSULTS GREECE IN HIS WORKS

So, if you've read the title, let me tell you something-

Do you know that Greek Gods are still worshipped?

Some of you do, some of you don't, but let me tell you, they are still worshipped.

And accordingly, you must respect them and their worshippers, just like you would do for Christians. You cannot maliciously ridicule and condemn Hellenistic Pagans and Greek Gods just because they are a minority.

And if you've read the myths and think that the Greek Gods being cruel......

They're not, actually. I mean, yes, you think they're cruel, but most of the myths aren't taken literally by Hellenistic Pagans.

What the Greek Gods do is supposed to be symbolic.

Hades kidnapping Persephone symbolises death ripping children from their grieving parents' arms. It's an explanation for the seasons and it finally represents the fact that daughters could be given away by their fathers with the mother having no say in it whatsoever.

Demeter's grief and her actually being able to do something about her daughter's marriage and Persephone being returned to her is supposed to be a comforting tale for grieving mothers who have lost their daughter.

Artemis' cruelty towards certain people? It represents the cruelty of nature towards humans and what it will do to humans if they provoke it.

Zeus' infidelity and abuse of his power? Well, it represents what kings do. Zeus represented the kings of Ancient Greece, and kings abused their power and had many mistresses besides having a wife.

Many Greek kings also claimed to sons of Zeus or descendants of the gods, so it the idea that Zeus had many affairs with ladies and princesses of royal lineages was conceived.

The link above provides many good reasons for why the Greeks wrote Zeus having many affairs with mortal women, so check it out.

Also, Zeus is symbolic of storms. Storms are volatile and raging, and so was Zeus at times. He was a god of storms and as such symbolised them.

Hera punishing the mistresses and children in a jealous rage to bother Zeus? That's what queens did back in the day since they couldn't directly punish their husbands.

Dionysus being charming and fun but also being mad and wild? Well, he represents breaking away from social norms and going fully wild. Also, wine can make people fun and charming, but at the same time, it can turn people into mad, raging creatures.

The point is, most of what the Greek Gods did was symbolic to their domains. And no, contrary to popular thought, Greeks did not live in fear of their Gods striking them down every moment. In fact, many of them genuinely devotionally loved their gods.

And Greek Gods themselves are very kind and benevolent to their devotees, even today, as long as you don't provoke or seriously insult them. Just ask Hellenistic Pagans and you'll be surprised at the results. I'm serious.

The problem here is that we're trying to moralize divinity.

According to the Greeks, gods weren't humans. They were modelled after humans, but they were above humans and human flaws.

And the Abrahamic gods do terrible things too, but do we mock them? No, we don't, because their worshippers say that they are above humans and human flaws, so similarly, the Greek Gods are above humans and our flaws.

CONCLUSION

And no one cares about the fact that a guy is objectifying and making money off a culture all the while removing its significance and turning it into a joke.

Even though Greeks have a millennia old and rich culture, people are always bastardizing it. Non-Greeks really must stop doing this. It's very culturally disrespectful.

I've also seen grown adults saying that the Greek Gods are American so they're allowed to do what they want with them now, and that's absolutely disgusting. It's cultural appropriation, that's what it is. Do not condone it.

Ah, sorry, not conclusion-let me add one last thing here.

Rick Riordan has a series called Trials of Apollo in which Apollo is cast down to Earth as a human for the third time to defeat Python.

What I want to talk about here is Apollo's human name-Lester Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulos is a common Greek Christian surname that means 'son of a priest'. One of Apollo's domains in prophecy and he has many priests, so maybe this is a reference to that.

But what is most upsetting is that this name is used for comedy.

It's belittled, laughed at and ridiculed for its longevity and hard pronunciation when it is in fact a very normal Greek surname. Even if it's not an American surname, even if it doesn't sound normal and sounds ridiculous to you, it's not ridiculous to others and you should respect it.

Can you imagine how Greek people with that last name read the books and felt bad about their last name? Or felt furious. I know that I would be FURIOUS if my last name was used like that.

And the fact is that Papadopoulos isn't even that hard to pronounce! It's literally just 5 syllables that you can repeat a few times until it doesn't twist your tongue.

And if you can't repeat this simple name, then you need to go back to kindergarten. Hell, go back to preschool even.

And there are people who have the audacity to say that the Greek Gods belong to America and are American. Grown adults, actually, on Twitter, no less. Tweeting it for the whole world to see their absolute foolishness and audacity.

They're pretty tactless, huh?

The Greek Gods were and always will be GREEK. Foreigners are not their rightful descendants-the Greeks are (Greek immigrants included). I mean...........this is bizzarre.

To conclude, (really conclude this time) though it's a series heavily entwined with Greek Gods, the only Greek thing about the series is the Gods. There's no Greek culture, religion or language, and even the Greek Gods are heavily Americanised, which is pretty disappointing. I hope that other authors will do better handling the Greek Gods than Rick Riordan.

(Side note: If you think anything I've said is wrong, tell me. I'll correct it immediately.)

@fandomloverangel

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.

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.'

Why leave, did I not give you enough?

Madoc was standing in the house once again, reliving his worst memories-Eva and Justin's deaths. The house where Vivienne had vowed to hate him. The house where Jude had screamed at him and hit him. The house where Taryn had sobbed, shaking her mother's dead body, though Eva would never get up again. It was empty. No one had bought it even after 3 years-the deaths still haunted them. It looked normal-a red plastic FOR SALE was mounted on the lawn and the wind chimes jingled in the comforting breeze. He wondered if ghosts existed. Would Eva and Justin be staring at him with contempt in their eyes? He hesitated, just as he had 3 years ago on that fateful day. Oh, how he wished he had grabbed Vivienne and Eva and ran. Would Justin come after him? Perhaps. But maybe he would take care of his daughters first. Madoc didn't know-Justin had been such a strange man. He didn't want to go inside. He didn't want to relive the bloodstained carpet and smell of wet blood.

He swallowed. He was a redcap. He was brave, and he slept at night knowing that he had killed thousands of soldiers. He could go inside and endure the ghosts of the past. He inhaled, curled his hands into fists and stepped inside. Nothing. It was empty, scrubbed clean, like no one had lived inside it at all. There were ornamental decorations and a pleasant perfume permeated the air. All dressed up to make it look flashy and attractive. Nothing could ever attract Madoc to the house, except for the fact that his daughters had run away. Just like Eva. Just when he had thought that they had begun to like him-they had sat on his lap, eating out of his plate, and played Nine Men's Morris with him. Taryn had stopped flinching every time she saw him, and Jude had smiled at him, even coming to have a somewhat twisted affection for him. Vivienne, of course, had not stopped. The weight of her vow would never leave her, and she had been so angry that she could not speak to them for days. Had she guilt tripped them into leaving? Most probably. Though they loved him somewhat, they would never be able to forget their real parents. The ones that he had murdered right in front of their eyes. Blood on the kitchen floor and the heavy smell of blood. He forced his feet to move, up, down, up, down. Into the kitchen where Eva once lay. Into the backyard where Justin's forge once stood. Into the bedrooms- He stopped, inhaling sharply. The beds were clearly made with gray and yellow covers. The room was airy and sunlit, dust motes dancing in the sunlight. A peaceful, drowsy afternoon. Was this where his daughters had slept? Where they had played with each other? Where they had watched, what did humans call it, TV? Television? Eva had told him of it and he had watched the strange pictures dance across the screen. They had watched it together, she laughing, he not understanding but smiling and playing along. He closed his eyes. He opened them again. Any question of them being here was gone, though they might have come for a brief visit. Were memories too painful for them as well? Footsteps made him spin around. Standing there was a woman, wearing a suit that hinted that she might be a-what had Eva called it-a 'real estate agent', someone who sold property. 'Sir,' she said. 'I don't know what you're doing here, but you need to leave, unless you're a potential buyer. How did you get in here?' He hit her on the side of the head and she crumpled. His heart wildly richocheted and suddenly she was Eva. He had killed another person. He stepped back and fell against the wall, screaming into his bundled cloak. Was she dead? His eyes were wild, his heart pounded as he scrambled to find out. No, Eva, please don't be dead- She had a pulse. She was bleeding, but she would be all right. He couldn't stay here. He had to leave-he barely had a few minutes to go back before he would have to attend a meeting. He took her phone, called the police (911, was it?) gave them directions and then stepped out. Suddenly, he didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay here and drink in the memories of a family, torn apart by him, that he had so desperately tried to put back together. And now that they had run away, he might never be able to. He took the silky black horse back to Elfhame. His memories took the form of knives, stabbing into him as he recalled their painful shapes and colors. They took the form of needles, slowly sliding into him as he silently screamed, feeling the cold, sharp pain of memories upon him.

Does anyone just really like platonic SoTam? Because Sophie with all the other boys just feels wrong and annoying due to the romance thing, but Sophie and Tam? Only platonic.

I'm a SUCKER for boy-girl platonic relationships and friendships. I love those. Shannon, more SoTam, please?