History Myth / ClassicalMythology

* ''Webcomic/GoofyGodsComics'' was a SliceOfLife web comic on Website/{{Webtoon}} with these gods set in the modern world.

Greek Mythology has been very influential in literature, art, and many other things so it is named [[TropeNamers/ClassicalMythology a lot of tropes]]. In fact, of all the pagan mythologies of Europe, it had the largest impact on the modern occidental culture (hence, it is the Greek myths we call "classical", not the {{Myth/Norse|Mythology}}, {{Myth/Celtic|Mythology}}, or Myth/SlavicMythology), as when the European artists and poets sought new inspirations outside the universal (for that time and region) Christian/biblical artistic dogma, they discovered them in the classical antiquity. This was particularly prevalent during UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, which was characterized by the rediscovery of ancient artistic canons and daring mergers of the Christian tradition with the classic paganism (codified by Dante Alighieri in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''). Characters from this period are universally recognizable to viewers thanks to a dress code heavy in drape-and-cinch unpatterned linens, plus, they've all made the uncanny decision [[TheQueensLatin to speak with]] a UsefulNotes/BritishAccents.

*** [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyOlympians Apollo]] had medicine as one of his domains, and was the father of the god of medicine Asclepius.

*** Menrva was an Etruscan goddess of war, art, wisdom, and medicine. She later lost the medicine domain and became the Roman war goddess [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyOlympians Minerva]].

** Zeus himself {{Defied|Trope}} this with the next generation; when he was told that Metis would bear him a son that would overthrow him as his father and grandfather did, Zeus turned her into a fly and swallowed her whole. Metis was already pregnant with a daughter, Athena, at the time, leading to Athena being born from her father's skull. The son who could have repeated the cycle never came to be, and Athena never showed any inclination toward picking up the mantel.

Greek Mythology has been very influential in literature, art, and many other things so it is named [[TropeNamers/ClassicalMythology a lot of tropes]]. In fact, of all the pagan mythologies of Europe, it had the largest impact on the modern occidental culture (hence, it is the Greek myths we call "classical", not the {{Myth/Norse|Mythology}}, {{Myth/Celtic|Mythology}}, or Myth/SlavicMythology), as when the European artists and poets sought new inspirations outside the universal (for that time and region) Christian/biblical artistic dogma, they discovered them in the classical antiquity. This was particularly prevalent during UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, which was characterized by the rediscovery of ancient artistic canons and daring mergers of the Christian tradition with the classic paganism (codified by Dante Alighieri in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''). Characters from this period are universally recognizable to viewers thanks to a dress code heavy in drape-and-cinch unpatterned linens, plus, they've all made the uncanny decision to speak with a UsefulNotes/BritishAccents.

The Epicurean writer Lucian of Samosata was already [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructing]] popular religious stories in the second century AD. Belief in the Greco-Roman gods gradually waned between the third and sixth centuries, largely due to the spread of the then-new religion UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}. In fact the Romans' dislike of Christians stemmed from the fact that Christians refused to accept any god but their own, which the Romans considered arrogant (as well as treasonous, in a state where the Emperor was also the head of the Imperial cult and many if not most past Emperors had been deified[[note]]To the point where the great DeadpanSnarker Emperor Vespasian is reported to have said shortly before his death, "''Ut puto, deus fio''", roughly, "Oh, ''fuck'', I think I'm becoming a god."[[/note]]). Later, the Greeks and Romans got tired of what they perceived as their gods' antics and weren't spiritually fulfilled, hence the conversion to Christianity. Eventually the worship of the pagan gods was outlawed by the late Roman Empire. However, the Christian Church continued some of the practices of Greco-Roman religion; for example, the old practice of adopting foreign gods into the pantheon was adapted into the canonization of Saints as divine beings, and the nature of the Pope as semi-divine originates with the cult of the Emperor.

!!Ancient Rome
[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Heroides}}''

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman''

''Literature/TheAeneid'' was a sequel to the 'Literature/TheIliad'', which is attributed to Creator/{{Homer}}. ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' was the original (surviving) sequel to the ''Iliad'', written in Greek and supposedly by the same guy who wrote the ''Iliad'', though we really don't know (especially since Homer was a blind, illiterate poet who relied solely on oral recitations). Both were part of Literature/TheTrojanCycle, which included six other lost epics.

* ''Art/CupidAndPsycheBouguereau''

Classical mythology is also known as "Greco-Roman Mythology", or just as "Greek Mythology" by people who don't think the Romans contributed much or who take the two mythologies separately. However, contrary to common belief, the Roman version isn't ''completely'' identical to the Greek one; Rome's own legends became closer to Greek mythology around the end of the monarchy and the foundation of [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic the Republic]]. Ancient Greek and Roman religions descend from a common Proto-Indo-European religion, hence the similar characters not only to each other but also Myth/NorseMythology and Myth/HinduMythology. That said, Roman mythology was ''probably'' (though records are sparse) influenced by that of the neighboring Etruscans, while Greek mythology was ''probably'' influenced by their Near Eastern neighbours in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Take, for instance, the Roman emphasis on complicated divination methods that were alien to the Greeks (of which augury--reading the future from the behavior of birds--is merely the most famous). Or the fact that some of their gods, such as [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Mars]] (his Greek counterpart Ares is a dumb brute, while Mars is a highly competent badass) or [[HeroWithBadPublicity Saturn]], are [[AdaptationPersonalityChange largely different from their Greek counterparts]]. While the Romans generally tried to identify their deities with the Greek ones, there were a few Roman/Italic ones for which no exact Greek equivalent could be found, e.g. '''Flora''' and '''Bellona'''. The former was a nymph-like goddess of flowers and spring (most similar to '''Chloris'''), and the latter was a goddess of war variously identified as Mars' wife or sister (most similar to '''Enyo'''). The Roman religion (the actual practice of worshipping the gods in question) was also extremely different from the Greek one, dealing more with human representatives of the remote gods rather than stories of the gods themselves. Essentially, Roman mythology is a little bit like a ContinuityReboot of Greek mythology with some elements borrowed from Etruscan myth (as mentioned earlier).

''Literature/TheAeneid'' was a sequel to and imitation of ''Literature/TheIliad'', which is attributed to Creator/{{Homer}}. ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' was the original (surviving) sequel to the ''Iliad'', written in Greek and supposedly by the same guy who wrote the ''Iliad'', though we really don't know (especially since Homer was a blind, illiterate poet who relied solely on oral recitations). Both were part of Literature/TheTrojanCycle, which included six other lost epics.

** Hestia, Athena and Artemis are three virgin goddesses.

* SadlyMythtaken: Hestia never gave up her place to Dionysus. This was made up by modern authors to explain why Hestia appears to be the twelfth Olympian in some stories, while in others it's Dionysus.

* MurderByProxy: One legend about the sorceress Medea (told in the play ''Peliades'' by Eurypedes) has her trick the daughters of King Pelias by offering to teach them a spell that can make the old young again, and demonstrates the spell's power by conducting an illusion in which she butchers an elderly ram, places its remains in a cauldron and pulls out a healthy, newborn lamb. The daughters then decide to murder their father in order to try the spell on him, only to realise too late that the spell isn't real.

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