Greek Mythos

The following cards sets fall under Greek Mythos:

Greek Beasts:
Griffin King
Medusa
Cereberus
Baphomet
Cthulu (not really for this case, as the Cthulu mythos is simply a creation of HP Lovecraft)

Greek Gods:
Poseidon
Apollo
Hepheastus
Athena
Artemis

Enchantresses:
Circe
Cassandra
Medea


(To be updated)

Bahomet isnt Greek either imo, while the words may seem to be Greek in origin, the concept of a goat headed diety stems from many ancient central asian to European cultures.

It was the very idol that brought down the Knight Templars. Accused of witchcraft and the order excommunicated and members burned at the stake.
Baphomet often associated with occult practises these days.

Go on Larken, I want to see what you have to say about the Greek Pantheon.

I'll get to work on it soon. Actually had one large chunk typed out last night, but accidentally closed the page and lost it all

Good point about Baphomet. Wasn't too familiar with its origin myself.

After reading up on Circe, seeing her with a pig seems appropriate now. Medea happens to be her niece too

Can't wait to read this! Specially about Medea   

Medea's story is indeed an interesting one, it involves Prolicide out of spite.... Never piss a woman off lol.
But i'll let Larken tell it

Greek Myth Backstory
Ahem. Well, Greek Mythos is primarily based on (imo) tales of acts of  arrogance, jealousy and spite, which sets the foil for the heroic acts (which often end in tragedy). Greek mythos has so many heroes and the entire story is so convoluted that I'll probably go dizzy telling it (and waayyyyy too many tales to keep track of); though most of it is centered around the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Quick cliff notes; pardon me while I try to speed past certain stuff.

Greek mythos begin with Chaos (not the generic term), but referring to something more like nothingness, or the void. Out of this void emerged Gaia (which really is a huge problem in all creation myths - they share a similar issue with The Big Bang Theory; i.e. how IS the first being created). Gaia, is followed with several other being, Eros (love), Abyss (Tartarus - kinda like Hell, but for Titans)), Erebus (Darkness) - each of these are termed as primordial beings, which precedes gods.

Gaia gave birth (without a partner) to Uranus (the Sky), which 'fertilized' her (doesn't sound quite 'right' here, but let's move on) - where the first Titans are borned - a total of 6 males, and six females. After one named Cronus was born, it was decreed (some said by Uranus) that there will be no more Titans, but there were actually two more, Cyclopes (famous enough name) and Hecatonchires (The hundred armed giant); which on the orders of Uranus, were thrown into Tartarus (really doesn't make sense if the Abyss was anthropomorphic, but fine if its just high-level concept). This in turn made Gaia furious (basically, Uranus sent two of his kids into Hell) - and Gaiga convinced Cronus (the youngest and most terrible of Gaia's children) to castrate his father (ouch).

Cronus then became the ruler of the Titans with his sister Rhea (who is also his wife) - and the rest of the Titans became his court.

As Cronus betrayed his father, he was afraid that his own offspring might do the same - and everytime Rhea gave birth, he ate the baby.

Everyone with me so far? Pretty nasty stuff going on here, as you can see.

Cronus was eventually confronted by his own son, Zeus (yay. finally someone more familiar); who survived because Rhea got sick of Cronus' nonsense and swapped the baby out for a stone, which Cronus ate instead. When Zeus grew up, he drugged Cronus, causing him to throw up - and out came all of his brothers and sisters (and the stone) - which was in Cronus' stomach, and challenged him for the throne. With the help of Cyclopes, Zeus and his siblings won, establishing the Greek Pantheon of Gods, while the Titans were thrown down into Tartarus.

Now, you may think Zeus would be a good guy, but......... he did the same thing as his dad. After a prophecy that his wife would give birth to a god greater than he was - Zeus swallowed his wife. But his wife was already pregnant - and when he did that, Athena was said to 'burst forth from his head' already grown up and dressed for war.

Zoom zoom zoom

That's pretty much the backstory of how Zeus came to power and established his court - and this included the major gods, some in the TOS game, some not.

There's Zeus, and Hera (his wife - which was the primary antagonist for the trials of Hercules; generally portrayed as a jealous, spiteful goddess, but come on, her husband does go around sleeping with so many women (which resulted in so many demi-gods and their tales). She kinda has reason to be pissed.)

There's Poseidon - his domain being the seas. Others in the game would include Athena (Goddess of Wisdom, among others), Apollo (God of the sun, truth and prophecy etc etc), Artemis (said to be Apollo's twin sister in some tales - and goddess of the hunt, and animals), Hephaestus (God of blacksmiths, craftmans, anything to do with fire and metal).

Not in the game: Demeter (some believed to be Artemis's mother), Hermes.

Keep in mind that if this was a story, the above is just only the backstory to the bulk of the greek mythos, which was main centered around the gods meddling with the affairs of men, and how some heroes emerged (and some demigods - quite a few out of Zeus' philandering mishaps).

There is also some overlap with the cards of other series - i.e. Persephone, Ares etc.

I'll just stop here for the greek gods. You guys would probably find more detailed accounts for each god online; way too much to actually write out.

Medea, Circe and Cassandra's stories are indeed very interesting, I'll save that for the next update. Do chime in, Eardrum   

I agree that we can search online for more detailed information. But i'm enjoying to hear the story from your point of view. I also, pardon me, enjoying the "debate" too lol. The "debate" open so many side story, which is very interesting.

Even now i refrain myself from googling medea, and want to hear the story from you first. Can't wait for the next episode

I'll try not to disappoint   But to be honest, Greek mythology is not something I would say I'm well-versed in.

Medea's story is a little weird - both tragic and brutally unsympathetic by my count, and there are several versions of it (the endings, at least; as well as the motivations behind her actions). But it all starts in the same place.

First of all, who is Medea?
CrazyAchmed had already mentioned that she was the niece of Circe (who was a pretty famous witch who was known to turn those who displeased her into animals; thus the pig in her card). Medea was the princess of Colchis (now present day Georgia; the one in Eurasia, not the one in US).

In most myths, she is heavily identified as an enchantress (or witch - depending on the spin - that had heavy inclinations towards the aspects represented by the goddess Hecate, who was associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, fire, light, the Moon, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, necromancy, and sorcery; interesting note - I wonder if this had anything to do with the crossroads demons stories you hear in American folklore nowadays.) Hecate is mostly known (in present time) as the Hag or The Crone - an old lady, stumped over, wrinkled - the stereotypical witch. Interesting, she has other images that is less witchy in appearance - but that's quite another long story to tell; as Hecate is sometimes said to be pre-Olympian (meaning that she was there before Zeus had even formed his pantheon). Her link to Medea was mostly in terms of Medea's inclinations towards witchcraft, herbology and poisonous etc etc; though in some accounts, she had been depicted as a priestess of Hecate; which I don't really agree with, especially since Hecate wasn't actually part of the Greek pantheon, but somewhat on the border of that.

Medea was also said to be the grand-daugther of Helios, the god of the sun. Now, you're probably thinking, isn't Apollo the Sun God? Yes. The distinction here is that Helios was in fact, a Titan (some say he's Hyperion), while Apollo was a Olympian (and in some contexts, Apollo was not revered as the sun god, but instead a god of light - another digression that will be dealt with in another update; clue: Apollo has quite a big part in the story of Cassandra). It's also kinda weird imo that Medea was the granddaughter of a Titan (remember that all the Titans were cast into Tartarus?). It would make sense that this tale happened prior to the establishment of the Greek Pantheon, but there's of course other problems with this theory.


Her Story
Medea's story began when Jason (hero of the story, Jason and the Argonauts) arrives in Colchis, seeking the Golden Fleece - a treasure held by the kingdom, a symbol of kingship and authority; why he is sent to get it is another story altogether involving yet another offspring of another god (this time, Poseidon).

Now, the King of Colchis (Medea's father) promised to give Jason the Fleece only if he manages to complete several tasks (a familiar motif in Greek myths - i.e. the Twelve Labors of Hercules); of course the king had no intention of doing so, and was expecting Jason to die in the attempt. But Medea had fallen in love with Jason - and promised to help him with the task if he takes her with him and marries her after he gets the fleece.

The first task: Plough the fields with fire-breathing oxen; Medea gave him a unguent that will protect him from the flames (see the elemental affliation her in respect to the card?), that made it easy-peasy for him to complete the task.

The second task: Next, in the same field, he had to sow the teeth of a dragon. Somehow, the teeth sprouted into an army of warriors (which would have killed Jason, except he was forewarned by Medea; I wonder how she knew?) Jason threw a rock into the army, and hid. The rock hit someone, and like a bunch of dumbass trolls, they fought and killed each other. Thus completed the second task.

And, in the tradition of all fiction, there is the third and final task: Fight and kill a dragon that guards the Golden Fleece. Medea put the dragon to sleep with her herbs, Jason then took the fleece and sailed away with Medea, as promised. The King of course gave chase.

To distract her father, Medea killed her brother Absrytus (wow. just wow.) In some versions of the tale, to further delay her father, she dismembered and scattered her brother's body parts on an island, so her father would stop and retrieve them for proper burial. (her own brother man..... fraticide count: 1)

Now, before anyone condemns her entirely - it is said that Medea fell in love with Jason only because Hera convinced Aphrodite or Eros to make her fall for Jason. In view of that, it is entirely plausible that she wasn't exactly thinking clearly. But still.

Some versions of the tale state that Medea stopped by Circe's island so that she could be cleansed of the murder of her brother (but I honestly wonder how can she not be blamed for something like that).

When Jason returned to his own country with the Fleece, King Pelias (a descendant of Poseidon) still refused to give up his throne (that was the deal, Jason finds the Fleece, Jason becomes King). So Medea tricks Pelias' daughters into thinking that she could turn Pelias young again; by cutting up an old ram into pieces, boiling it with magic herbs, and somehow making a young ram jump out of it. Excited to make their father young again (god knows why), they cut Pelias into pieces and threw him into the pot, which resulted in Pelias' death. (Kill count: 2)

The King's death however, didn't mean that Jason would be the next king. No, Medea's actions has caused any hope of that to vanish by then, and together, Medea and Jason fled to Corinth. It was said that she had six children with Jason in Corinth, with whom she was happily married with for ten years; her sons Mermeros, Pheres, Alcimenes, Thessalus, Tisander and a daughter, Eriopis.

This is where the endings start to diverge a little.

How it ends

In Corinth, Jason abandoned Medea for the king's daughter, Glauce. Medea in response, poisoned Glauce and her father. (kill count: 4)

It was said that Mermeros and Pheres were killed by the Corinthians for their part in the murders.

There is one account (by Euripides) who state that Medea continued her revenge on Jason by murdering her other two sons, Tisander and Alcimenes to hurt Jason further; but keep in mind that Euripides was a poet in the tragic tradition - and this might have been a twist in the tale by him; but of course, this established Medea as a prime example of someone who went to both extremes of love and hate (for the same person no less) - which explains the TOS card's demarcation as Love-Hate Enchantress, Medea. (here's the fillicide)

The alternative hypothesis: it was posited that Medea actually killed them to spare them the torture that awaits them if they were taken by the Corinthians. Or that it was actually by an accident that Medea killed the two.

One son, Thessalus did survive (no mention of the daughter). Which begs the question in either situation; why kill 2 sons, and leave 1 son and 1 daughter (?) alive? Either way it didn't quite make sense, but he filicide does go on to become a standard for writers writing about such topics; though scholars believe that Medea's deliberate murder of her children to be an invention of Euripides.

As an additional note, it was said that she left Corinth and flew to Athens on a golden chariot (driven by dragon) sent by her grandfather Helios (remember the point about the Titans being locked up in Tartarus? This would imply that this particular event hadn't taken place yet in Medea's story).

However, there are follow up tales to Medea's escape; Medea made her way to Thebes where she healed Heracles (Hercules), who was an Arognaut, in return for a place to stay (apparently, her actions didn't make her very popular; go figure). Now, this IS a problem in terms of continuity. Remember that Heracles was a son of Zeus, and Zeus locked up the Titans before establishing the Olympians? So one question is, if Helios is out and about, able to send chariots to save his grand-daughter, Heracles should not have been borned yet (getting a little fuzzy here in terms of timeline).

Eventually, Medea was driven out of Thebes, and she fled to Athens, where she married another man, Aegeus (so much for true love, huh), who was the King of Athens. She had one more son, Medus, and all was well for a while, until the arrival of Aegeus' long-lost son, Theseus, who threatened Medus' inheritance to the throne.

So what does she do? She tries to poison him, but her attempt was foiled by Aegeus, who knocked the cup from Medea's hand when he recognized Theseus' sword (his own, that he left for his newborn son in the past; as a note, the story of Theseus is pretty big in itself, and quite well-known in TV and cinema). It would also be another interesting fact that Theseus is said to be the son of both Aegeus and Poseidon (disturbingly, his mother slept with both men in one night); which would bring the story in a circle (remember Pelias too, was a descendant of Poseidon).

Medea then had to flee again - and this time, it was said that she returned to Colchis, where her father had been overthrown by his own brother, who became king. She killed her uncle and restored the kingdom to her father (I wonder how that worked out? Killing her own brother was a real evil move. I bet their dinner conversations were real awkward if this was true.).

In another version of the ending, it was said that Medea and Medus fled to the Iranian plateau on her flying chariot, and lived among the Aryans who changed their name to the Medes.

So in summary; Medea killed her brother, the King Pelias (who was in fact Jason's uncle; an evil uncle at that), King of Corinth and his daughter Glauce, her two sons, the attempted poisoning of Theseus, and finally her uncle.

Those wondering what happened to Jason might be pleased to know that as a result of breaking his vow to love Medea forever, Jason lost his favor with Hera and died lonely and unhappy. He was killed by the falling stern of his rotting ship, the Argo as he slept; he also makes an appearance in Dante's Inferno where he is seen by Dante, in the Eighth circle of Hell to march through the circle for all eternity while begin whipped by devils; his sin being a 'panderer and seducer' - likely for his role in Medea's story.

Huge wall of text, sorry about that.

Edit: There's probably a few mistakes I've made wrt to the timeline of Medea's tale with respect to when the Titans were overthrown, Zeu's founding of the Olympians and the part of Hercules's timeline; so if anyone knows something about those, that'll be great

Let me just add to the awesome stuff that  Larken wrote about Medea.

Im just going to put context to Medea in terms of what she is best known for ~ The murder of her two children out of spite!

Basically the key points to remember about Medea is this:

She sells out her country, her people and her father (who was king of colchis) for a stranger (Jason) whom she barely knew so he can get the fleece. (Her country's most important treasure)

If that already didnt ring any alarm bells....

She returns with Jason to Greece and Jason marries her and they have two children together. (There are different versions, but Lets stick with two children for the purpose of this exercise)

Some years past, eldest son is about 9 or 10 (can't remember) youngest about 4 or 5?
Anyway Jason accepts the offer to marry the Corinthian princess.

Medea feeling spurned, gets into one of her jealous psychotic moods and lace the crown with poison (she is a master herbalist) and the princess and her father gets prick (cus you know... Crowns are super sharpe in those days lol) and dies!
(Some versions its not a crown but a gown.... Bah details!)

Knowing that Jason will be furious, Medea takes her two sons and runs. When Jason gets back he finds that his bride has died and his children missing. In desperation he jumps on his horse and goes after his children. (Even though Jason and Medea are not in good terms, he still very much loves his children, and Medea knows this. This is an important point to remember)

He rides for days in search of Medea's trail and eventually he finds its. It leads towards the beach where Medea is to take a boat and leave the land forever.
Medea was nowhere to be found, presumably she has sailed with the tides.....

What Jason finds instead... Is a tree with two small bundles hanging from its branches. When he approches, he worst fears are realised as the bundles are the bodies of his two children hanging from the tree. A spiteful parting gift from his former wife Medea.
Jason falls on his knees and breaks down at that point.

Basically she murders her own children to spite Jason, her need to hurt Jason was far greater than anything she felt for her children. Medea is interesting because she is a character of emtional extremes, and does things (pre planned, calculated moves) to satisfy her strong emotional hunger.

The silhouette image of a tree with two children hanging from its branches is sometimes used to symbolise tragic prolicide/filicide in literary circles. This is in direct reference to Medea.

Medea's behaviour and motives are often analysed in psychology and literary classes. Medea in popular literature represents the archtype of a spurned vengeful woman that will do anything for revenge.
The popular saying of "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorned" very much applies here lol!

Wow thx for the story, it really surprised me. In tos, i really like her, but her story make me wordless.

Anyway thumbs up for the story. I'll wait for the next episode :p

You can see the her active skill in ToS is somewhat (loosely) reflective of her story.
Think of yourself as Jason, you do 50% more damage (Medea loves you) but you also take 50% more damage (Medea hates you) lol.

It was my lrcture in school. We had to read all greek mythology. (the official one) U Cant include all the most important things in just 2-3 posts
I recomend if someone is interested, to look up for yourself cuz its extremaly interesting.

Oh. Just read about Medea.
Larken, Titans could make some actions while being in Tartarus. They where just 'sealed' couldnt release all their power, but quite often helping some bad characters

For instance: Kronos used to help Ares in some cases. Dont have time to check but u can find it on ur own

sory for double posting

That would make sense. I remember watching some movie a few years ago (I think it was called Clash of the Titans) and I was so very disappointed by how they basically turned the titans into something resembled cavemen that was put in a cage.



I'm not too familiar with the titans' part to be honest, since they do not feature prominently in the stories of the Olympians and demi-gods, which was more popular when I was younger. When you say the 'official one', which texts where you referring to?

Illiad and Odessey?

official one. I mean the polish translation. Thats the chosen ones. I think the most important. The book is called 'Mitologia Grecka' Which simply means Greek Mythology. Collection of Myths.

And yeah, titans where interposing the mortals lives, even though they werr sealed

There is no one "official" story for Greek and Roman mythology. Greek myths is a collection of many stories. The constant being that the gods are all more or less the same in every story.
Unlike Norse which is more about the gods than mortals (Siegfried saga being one of the few exceptions) Greek is more about how the gods favour certain individuals and not others.
The Greek gods dont have a central theme like the Norse gods do with Ragnarok.

Notable stories include:
Illiad (Account of the Trojan war)
Odessey (Ulyses Journey back to Ithaca that took 20 years lol)
Promethius (mortal who stole fire from the gods)
Jason and the Argonauts (basically like the avengers lol)
Perseus (widely known as "clash of the titans" in modern cinema)
Orpheus and his journey to the Underworld (one of my favs)
The twelve labours of Hercules
Apollo and Dionysus
Blah.. Blah... Blah... And so many more.

The point being that is a collection of stories with no overarching theme amongst them all.

Yeah thats the point I just can not wear it with words like Eardrum does