Miscellaneous Myths: Athens 

“The most frustrating part of Athenian history is that they are almost as great as they’re constantly insisting they are.” - Blue

Athens: "... And we're like, super cool and dope, just read this totally true story about our origins!" Sparta: "Did I?" Athens: "Did you what?" Sparta: *"Did I ask?"*

"If I had a nickel for every ancient Greek city founded by a semi-deific snake person, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice." -Red Doofenshmirtz

*awkwardly raises hand* "Ancient Athenians, how does one have, and I quote 'snakelike legs'?"

Athena is the goddess of "fight smarter, not harder"

Athena:makes a tree All of Athens: *I’LL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK*

In Percy Jackson, "Poseidon and Athena working together to make the Chariot" basically meant she created the thing people stand in and he supplied the horses.

Snakes when they crop up in religions: "I am... inevitable." Seriously though, they pop up more often then the idea of a god.

So, Athens is that kid who was average in high school then became a CEO who now feels like they have to have an inspirational childhood to really drive home how successful they are

General Rule: Everything Always Comes Back To Snakes At Some Point.

“Guys, we need to convince everyone that we’re cool and important now.” “Someone wrote this random fanfic about Athena and Poseidon and our city that’s kinda neat.” “MAKE IT CANON.”

Ancient Athenian scholars: “history will be kind to me, for I intend to write it”

Poseidon after Athena is chosen: "Fine, I'll make my own ancient city! With crystals! And mechanical sea creatures!" *makes Atlantis*

I've come to appreciate how often Red and Blue's chosen subjects overlap... or are sometime practically interchangable.

“ they’re so cute when they’re power-hungry.” That sounds like something Zeus would say.

my little brother walked in while I was watching this and asked "Is that the owl lady?" referring to red. Which can only mean that Red has the same energy as Eda from the owl house

Ah yes Athens a myth to scare all young spartans like the boogeyman

Sneks: settling down, making homes for themselves Gods: "It's free real estate"

Concept: Athena and Poseidon were still angry with each other after this whole thing, so Zeus forced them to work together with the Sneeple King guy to invent the chariot. Sneeple King is credited with the invention because Athena and Poseidon were too busy arguing the entire time.

The thing I find retroactively funny is that, if Poseidon's spring was just a never ending flow of water, today that would be insanely more practical then a single tree. Like just for hydro-power alone.

Other Greek Cities: "Oh yeah we were founded by some great hero-" Athens: "WE HAD THAT AND WERE ALSO CLAIMED BY THE GODS THEMSELVES"

So Athens is basically that one kid in middle school who think's they're cool and when a single cool thing happens to them they just won't shut up about it for weeks

"Hubris is dangerous, so decrees the best city EVAR!" -Athens

So, the original founding myth of Athens was that Athena's adopted snake son named it after his mom?

Athens saw itself as the shining city on the hill In truth, it was on the hill, but more on base of it, and it wasn’t really glowing, more just painted bright lime.

My guess as to why Poseidon also occasionally gets some credit for the creation of the chariot is that he’s associated with horses (for some reason) and saying the first chariot ever made was the combination of the craftsmanship of Athena and Poseidon’s personally breed horses gives it a bit more of an epic mythical vibe. Also it’s kind of a nice story if he’s involved since it involves 2 Olympians who don’t really like each other working together for something that isn’t murder or sex related.

What's ironic is the saltwater from the spring Poseidon made could've been used to brine the olives from Athena's tree, making the two gifts symbiotically tied to each other.

Isn't it interesting that the sheer visceral 'otherness' of reptiles, particularly serpents, has made them into major mythological figures in basically every culture? As far back as we have knowledge we've been fascinated and repulsed in equal measure.

The original founding myth with the half dragon kid seems way cooler to me than Athena and Poseidon butting heads.

"Can't believe all my mythological conspiracy theorying finally led me to friggin' snake people" That one's going in the OSP Out of Context video

As icky as his origins are, Erechtheus becoming an inventor king and building a big statue of his kinda-mom is sweet, as is the implication Athena still raised him well enough for him to build a statue of her.

Just when I'm about to start a Mythic Odyssey of Theros campaign, OSP descends from the heavens with *Inspiration*

Athens: we were fought over by two gods! Thebes and Sparta: we got to kick Troy off the map! Macedonia: we got this prince, see-

Red: his birth story is frankly really gross Me: whaaaaaat??? A gross Ancient Greek birth story??? Who could’ve foreseen this????

(When Red says the snake behind Athena's shield is Erechtheus) My brain- "Protec teh snek boi..."

Kinda amazed you didn’t cover this till now

this story is by far my favorite because i think the art for this would be just ✨

I was always struck by how the ancient Athenian philosophers, could be so incredibly insightful one moment, and the next moment start a rambling Socratic dialogue that eventually ends on the conclusion that the absolute best possible existence just so happens to be that of a philosopher living in specifically Athens.

You know, Red probably just get a PhD in mythology now considering that she's already done half a dissertation on this channel.

In another version of the Athena/Poseidon myth, Cecrops quickly realizes that choosing between Athena and Poseidon would inevitably result in one of the two getting mad at him. So instead, he decides to leave it up to a popular vote among the citizens of Cecropia, in hopes that at least that way he won’t directly be pissing them off. By all accounts he succeeded in avoiding the wrath of the gods, but as for the rest of the city, things started to get a little complicated. All of the men in the city voted for Poseidon, while all of the women voted for Athena. Since there were more women than men in Cecropia at the time, Athena won, and Cecropia was renamed Athens in her honor. However, Poseidon got all butthurt and flooded the city and surrounding areas. In order to appease Poseidon, the women of Athens had to be punished; from that point on, the Athenian women could no longer vote, pass on their names to their children, or even have any official claim to Athenian citizenship. As much of a bummer as that was for the women of Athens, the punishment did successfully get Poseidon to chill out, and he let Athens keep his original gift (near which a temple in Poseidon’s honor was later erected). A similar version to this is that, instead of having the citizens of Cecropia take part in the vote, Athena and Poseidon left the decision up to their fellow Olympians. Zeus and Hades both abstained, and out of everyone left over, all of the male gods (Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus) voted for Poseidon, while all of the goddesses (Hera, Demeter, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Hestia) voted for Athena. This made the final tally 5-4 in Athena’s favor, though Poseidon still got butthurt and the women of Athens were still punished as previously noted.

The pins look so good! You know a lot of the popular misinterpretations of these myths can be traced back to Percy Jackson. They probably did exist before but that series really made it seem like common knowledge. The teamwork on the chariot and Hestia abdicating for Dionysus were stuff I definitely learned from that series

1:50 "In some versions having warped/snake like legs" Snakes in Greece: 🐍 🦵🦵

I'm still working my brain around the concept that Gaia gave the child to Athena, and Athena, in turn, was such a good adoptive mom to the kid who managed to get conceived with another woman during the process of someone trying to rape her (Athena), that said kid founded a city and immediately raised a giant statue to said mom. That level of Grade A, I-am-good-peopleness just goes to further demonstrate how much Ovid can get bent.

This erechtheus dude seems pretty neat honestly. Wild that a monster-human hybrid has a role in this story beyond being killed by theseus.

Athenians: *Nerds who think they're the best.* Spartans: *Jocks who know they're the best.*

Red: "No other city did this by the way." Athens: "Well duh, no other city is Athens."

Athena is so Adorable at 4:43

I read a version where Hephaestus requested Athenas hand in marriage in return for freeing Hera from her throne, and Posiedon was still salty (hehe) about Athens so he convinces Zeus that there's no need to ask Athena before deciding, after all arranged marriages are the style at the time. So after the Hephaestus gets the "No Horny" bonk and Athena once again has to be the Responsible Big Sister of the pantheon for Erichthonius, Heph is just bitter and angry and demands Aphrodite so that at least he has the hottest goddess for his wife. The Olympians all say "Sure, whatever" and Aphrodite just continues to bang Ares because it's not like she agreed to this any more than Athena did.

Just ordered these last night. Was confused at first, then realized the next day was Friday.

And Python is why the Oracle of Delphi is also called "The Pythia."

Considering the track record, I'm surprised Posideon didn't make a ruler fall in love with that Olive Tree

It’s crazy how Greeks fail to follow their own morals; they write down in their own myths explaining why having too much pride will cause your downfall yet most Greek cities during history let..pride be their downfall

If blue isn't in this one i imagine he's busy fighting ninjas, trying to get in it

Red: They were born from it, molded by it. They didn't see anything that wasn't Athens until they weren't already a man, by then it was nothing to them but nowhere near as cool as Athens! Me: I understood that (Bane) reference.

Thank goodness Erechtheus just was a Serpent King and never called himself Serpent King. Otherwise he'd be chilling under the mountain with Johnny Snake-Shoulders

I’m so stoked… to see if Blue interrupts this episode

The Sneople conspiracy hole is truly a deep one

For the past few months I've been wondering just how Athena's patron city seemed so prideful and cocky and such an eyeroll at times. How could Athena allow HER city to become what it was under her influence. Then it hit me... Maybe they did follow her in her footsteps. Maybe she's more like them than we would have thought. Also... Erikthonius is her son. I can't see it any other way.

Ya know what. I’m not even surprised at this point. Of course Athens made an entirely new origin story, OF COURSE

3:10 I love the way you used that triumphant bit of Nightwish there, right in between the more classical takes. Symphonic metal being all symphonic XD

Athens touted their horn so loudly that history has echoed it, but then you look closer and it’s… kind of a bad tune.

I'm now imagining Athena throwing Hephaestus out of his wheel chair and just waking around him to wreck his shop

"Everybody wants to rule the world" And this is Red's second time covering this song I guess the first attempt at world domination didn't go so well for OSP...

Shoutout to Erechtheus for apparently having "snake-like legs". Let that sink in.

I hope Athena was a good adoptive mom

I just want to say, Red's singing at the end. _Beautiful._

So the whole "Sneople" conspiracy theory actually has historical precedent? Great job with the video.

I did some research on Athena, found out she was once a snake goddess….this was Wikipedia though, , I guess that explains Medusa sort of

I read this as "Miscellaneous Myths: Athena" and got really excited for another half hour long video about the legends of one god. was a little confused when I saw it was only 6-7 minutes.

2:00 So haphaestus is on the ulgier side and his legs don't work, but he's the greatest badass inventor and forgesmith of all time, huh? What a nerd's icon! He probably has a cool robotic mobility chair, maybe one that hovers and flies.

I think my favorite Greek founding city myth is probably Thebes. Idk I just think it’s cool to have your founding Royal family be a Phoenician hero like Cadmus and a minor Goddess in Harmonia. And how they would end up the grandparents of Dionysus

What I've learned from binging this series is that 1. Every powerful figure, both benevolent and malevolent, in European mythology/folklore eventually leads back to Odin 2. Every Indo-European love goddess is a stepping stone on the path to get to Aphrodite (and eventually the Virgin Mary) 3. Every mythos at some point will involve an inordinate amount of snakes 4. Dammit Christianization, why you gotta do us like that?

I have to say I love the perfect usage of Nightwish's Ghost Love Score @ 3:03

@2:15 The "icky part of the process" is Hephaestus ejaculatued on Athena's thigh while he was trying to "assault" her. She wiped it off and threw it onto the ground. That's how Gaia was impregnated.

Okay, this made me morbidly curious about the Hephaestus-Athena encounter, so I looked it up, and first of all, ew, second... How did the Olympians clean up without spawning more and more heroes and city-founders every time?

Huh... The most popular version of the story is that when they were choosing the god of the city, the athens were the ones choosing. Each god presented a gift, Poseidon a horse (I think) and Athena the tree. And here's the thing: there were more woman than men (like 1 more person), so Athena chose a gift that was going to convince them. And so she won. But I guess it is kind of weird that, in a city where women had no rights, they would let them choose...

I would really like to hear one of Reds full song covers

Gods: now fighting over sponserships! Honestly sounds like a rad add on to urban fantasy settings.

I feel like she should do a trope talk about snakes in myths at this point

Stop making pins Red! I keep buying them and I'm going to run out of room on my backpack!

When will Olympians learn that Athena always wins?

Makes me wonder if the snakes being bad guys in Greek Mythology, but seemingly having used to be good guys, has to do with the tradition that existed in the Middle East of creating myths where one’s god or gods defeated the preceding civilization’s god or gods to symbolize conquest, which also happened to often feature turning the previous gods into snakes (see Yahweh defeating Leviathan)

Man, Mediterranean civilizations really had a thing for "Gods/magical people who are also (kinda) sneks".

You know, given how much religion and mythology this channel covers, I'm surprised by the lack of SMT stuff since they also do games.

Red can you do a goddess break down on athena like you did with dionysus and aphrodite?

I wish one day OSP makes a timeline of the events for the Greeks Myths that starts from Chaos of whoever was there first to whenever it ends.

"Python was unsurprisingly a snake" Me - _oh I thought he was a FISH_

2:43 translation: “Those stupid Percy Jackson books”

I say we start calling the chariot the “War Wheelchair”.

Fun fact : Pseudo-Apollodorus is also sometimes called "Apollodorus the mythograph", which is just the coolest name ever devised.

4:17 If anyone’s wondering, the music used in the background is _United We Stand, Divided We Fall_ by Two Steps From Hell.

That bit with Apollo and Python might be part of the PIE tradition of the hero god and the Serpent/Dragon/Monster which apparently has corresponding mythos with Thor and Jormungandr, Heracles and the Hydra, apparently some mythological tales in Iran and India, and also St. George and the Dragon of christian Mythos, through which the archetypical tale seems to descend into modern lore as the knight the dragon and the damsel (although that could arguably also be attributed to yet another hero and serpent myth from the Greeks, Perseus's rescue of Andromeda, in fact the details of both St. George and Perseus's tales are SO similar that it's making me wonder if St. George's story is just christian stamp of approval Perseus's story)

"Oh, I know that story." *7 minutes later* "Well, didn't know THAT story."

so Erechtheus had trouble walking. Meaning Erechtheus, had a dysfunction? .... I'm sorry! I'm sorry! the joke grabbed me by the throat!

Ah, Ghost Love Score is back again. Your epicness not quite hitting the epic heights you feel it epically deserves? Nightwish has you covered.

When I first saw the title I thought “Wait… isn’t Athens a real place? My whole life is a lie…”

If Poseidon offered an olive branch to coincide with Athena's olive tree, he probably would have been granted a piece of Cecropia thereby not slithering away his chance of adding snake people to his mythos.

I love when you get into the older, somewhat forgotten gods. It's so cool.

5:37 When Delphi is so awesome, that Witcher 3 music starts playing😎

Red, has anyone ever told you that you have a goddess voice for singing? :D Also, your guitar playing is so amazing, and I wish there was a way for me to listen to a whole playlist of all your guitar covers.