Maciej Paprocki

Scylla from Hades II (2025, Supergiant Games) saying "Ohh, youwent looking through our work! So what if a few ideas go unused here and there? If you don't cut... you never get to the good stuff."

printing this out and hanging it near my desk to look at next time I need to follow word counts

A collage of Cronus, Zeus and Apollo

tinyurl.com/jdh4uaay

As Kronos came to his senses, he was all bound
His powers were missing, he could make no sound.
So he made a vow in Tartaros under the sod
That he'd wait for his grandson, some angry young god
to break Zeus' bolts, make him so riled
And so this god comes: Leto's vicious child!

🚨 New publication alert (OA!) 🚨 I argue that unruly Apollo—far from ⚡ Zeus' ⚡ loyal son—was a potential challenger to his father’s throne. In Prometheus Bound (907–12), the curse of Kronos looms… and Apollo could've avenged Granddad and deposed Zeus! #Classics #GreekMyth
doi.org/10.14746/spp...

I was lucky enough to ask the screenwriters for their inspirations and they said they didn't really think of Greek Calypso when writing Tia Dalma (instead, they named... Ainu myths) 🤔

I think modern authors often imply these goddesses were cursed because they cannot fathom that some deities simply liked to live off the divine grid, in their secluded enclaves.

Spatially, Aeetes rules in the East (Colchis), Pasiphae in the centre (Crete) and Kirke in the West (Aiaia), with all these locations being places over which the Sun shone in his journey.

I can't think of much classical evidence to call them 'cursed' to stay at these islands as well. It's more that they personify a trope of an enchantress in her secluded above, I believe! Tia Dalma has little to do with Calypso (in fact, I wrote a chapter likening her to Thetis!)

Sounds exciting! Let me know once you start planning! 👍😍😀

Oooh! I need more details about this volume! <3 <3

I concur with @alexvandewalle.bsky.social and @joelagordonnz.bsky.social in that this is probably a placeholder phrase for the current misotheistic bent in ancient world cinema. Then again, Odyssey is all about Poseidon's wrath and how Odysseus continues to defy him... 🤔

YouTube video by Polskie Radio Bogowie w filmach Marvela. Czego możemy nauczyć się z MCU o mitologii?

🎧 Marvel +mitologia = coś więcej niż tylko Thor i Loki.
Dr @maciejpaprocki.bsky.social tłumaczy, dlaczego świat MCU przypomina nowoczesny Olimp. Od Wakandy po Asgard, od Kapitana Ameryki po Bastet–Marvel jest dziś nie tylko fabryką hitów,ale i współczesnym mitotwórcą www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFnL...

I was honoured to be interviewed for this excellent and thought-provoking piece: a must-read for all game studies/reception scholars interested in mythology! ⚡⚡⚡📜

In many ways. First, genre, which makes excellent use of the Muse character to marry musical to a murder mystery. Second, characterisations: all gods are written with nuance and flair. Third, storytelling: the narrative flows smoothly and the world feels alive.

Hades and Stray Gods

That's the highest praise one can get 😀 Thank you so much for your thoughts and presence, and to all of our wonderful participants! #mythgames2025
@alexvandewalle.bsky.social

I suppose those suffering could at times create a personal worldview in which their pain was somehow god-touched and thus part of a greater order of things. How effective would that be, I don't know.

You'd think that Greek love of marvels and wonder would account for some people just being born different... but then, they're not really people, but terata, aren't they?

The fact is that these mortals aren'tt killed, but fundamentally transformed. And this transformation takes, unlike other temporary godly disguisings, like those shapes taken by the gods to interact with humans. The aetiological explanation is simple:we need a just-so story of how things come to be.

Right, several mental paradigms vying in their minds for primacy. We want to use logic for healing, give gods some space for miracles and coopt magical practice, but sanitised (because Magic is What the Bad People Do). 😁😅

But I think there's a marked difference here between spilling ichor and spilling haima, mortal blood. The former brings no mortal pollution--although it often has cosmic consequences.

All true! From the dramatic viewpoint, gods must leave when encoutering human pollution. Artemis in Euripides' Hippolytus says as much when he lies dying:
"Farewell: it is not lawful for me to look upon the dead or to defile my sight with the last breath of the dying."

This vivid image shows us that even in Ovid's day, the idea of Olympians sending Night's children to do their dirty work was somewhat popular, enough to be included into a great mythological poem. Did this paradigm always hold? Most likely not. But it sheds some light on Greek notions of pollution.

So in Ovid's Metamorphoses, when Ceres/Demeter wants to punish King Erysichthon, she sends Hunger (Fames/Limos) to torment him. Although "Demeter and Fames(so the Fates decree)may never meet", Fames did Ceres' bidding, though their aims are ever opposite," entered the king's body, aided by Sleep.

It may be said that two orders of beings exist: the first group governs all that is dark and gloomy in human life, and the second one personifies well-being. Maybe, when Olympians want to punish a human, they withold their blessings so that the ontological vacumm is filled by negative forces.

Most of these personifications have their opposites, ‘positive’ personifications: Olympian deities or their descendants. Deceit counters Alētheia, the spirit of truth,
daughter of Zeus. Old Age is balanced by Hebe, the goddess of Youth. Strife opposes Harmonia, daughter of
Aphrodite and Ares.

As Northrup and others have shown, in Hesiod's Theogony we have two groups of gods who funtion as opposites. All children of Νύξ (Night) represent phenomena related to human corruption, exclusively personifications of negative aspects of human existenc: Death, Old Age, Strife, Hunger, Toil...

All very useful thoughts! I think that Greek divinities could send pollution as punishment to the mortal world, but it wasn't necessarily 'their' pollution. There's an intriguing theological concept, already present in the Greek worldview in Hesiod's day (if not earlier): divine powers form dyads.

If you go into scholia and supplementary material, then yes, often someone will draw such an analogy or provide an explanation why a given plant works the way it does. It evinces the Greek mythmaking impulse ;) But it's less of a system and more a sparkling constellation of loose mental associations

The gods don't like the miasma of death or pollution in general terms, it appears. Not that it could harm them (probably!), but it went against their nature. But I'm not sure if it's connected to monsterhood, which is another category without a clear definition.