Gods Sighting
/One of the nerdiest things I love to do is scrutinize appearances of Greek Gods in pop culture (like this post about Disney's Hercules). Here we go on another one, yay!
LATEST POP-UP SIGHTING: Supernatural, Season 8, Episode 16!
So in this episode, Prometheus (aka the Titan who gave fire to mortals and royally pissed off Zeus) is embodied in a drifter Sam & Dean discover, who dies every day. The cause of his death is random, anywhere from cars hitting him to sudden heart attacks. This is an homage to the nature of Zeus's punishment for Prometheus in the myths, which was to strap Prometheus to a mountainside and let an eagle carve out his liver every day for a tasty snack. Every night, he would die. Every morning, he'd get resurrected just for the fun of it.
Apparently, Zeus had lost track of Prometheus and he'd fallen to earth, hence him dying by random means and not the daily eagle attack. So Zeus sent out his best assassin, a.k.a. daughter Artemis, goddess of the hunt, to go after him.
Things I liked about this portrayal of Artemis/Zeus:
- Artemis was badass and impossible to beat in a fight
- Sam & Dean acknowledged the fact that Artemis was THEIR goddess, since they're hunters and she's the mack daddy of ALL hunters
- Artemis was a thinking goddess, not a one-track killing machine
- Artemis was strong enough to take down Zeus
- Zeus wore a classy suit and looked steely
- Zeus respected his daughter's power
Things I didn't like:
- The inexplicable black leather pantsuit Artemis was wearing
- Zeus as mindless revenge seeker - I could see him going after Prometheus, but his son too? Just for the fun of it?
All in all I was happy to see them represented, as always. And props to making Artemis strong but also a thinking, feeling goddess (albeit still in a leather pantsuit). Yay!