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/lit/ - Literature

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8812203 No.8812203 [Reply] [Original]

I've been reading a few different myths lately and I am curious about Apollo's character development throughout the entirety Greek mythology. My current scope is quite small and so I was wondering if those of you who know more could enlighten me :) For example, in the myth from Ovid when Apollo and Pan have a dual with the Lyre, Minos disagrees and then Apollo turns his ears into donkey ears because he thinks Minos has a poor taste in music. Has Apollo always been so prideful?

>> No.8812363
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8812363

>>8812203
I'm not sure to what extent the myths became censored over time, though for obvious reasons the blasphemous moralists of civilization would tend to constrain the gods to civilized human morality.
This is due to their fundamental misunderstanding of the origin of the idea of 'right'. It is not some 'metaphysical' reality, but merely the conventionalization of a certain agreement (that men keep their oaths, or will not steal from each other), usually backed by the threat of violence. 'Right' is derived & sustained either only by love, or, more usually, also by the threat of greater might.
The gods, according to the archaic conception, cannot be (negatively) prideful or do wrong, since right & wrong are thus contingent on the circumstances of the individual in the society & world that constrains him. The gods are mighty & free except when threatened by Zeus's even more greater might, or perhaps by their natural love for him as their father.
tl;dr: the gods are not really constrained by morality since morality is the result of humans acting to their own advantage within their field of action as determined by the gods.