Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained.
In today’s video, we’re going to be taking a look at Greek mythology and exploring whether
or not an immortal life can be snuffed out, whether or not you really can kill a god,
whether or not Kratos would actually have been able to rampage up the slopes of Olympus
and destroy every divine being who crossed his path.
We’re going to start things off by taking a look at a couple of monster myths, and then
we’ll go through a miscellaneous assortment of injuries and predicaments that several
immortal beings must contend with, finishing with those that were most life threatening,
or, perhaps, even life ending
The first story we’re going to look at is that of Medusa. The reason she’s targeted,
rather than either of her two sisters, is because, of the gorgon trio, Medusa is the
only one who’s mortal, meaning, in the context of the story, that she’s the only one who
can actually be killed. It would have been futile for Perseus to attempt to slay either
of Medusa’s sisters, for being immortal makes them impervious to death. I feel like
it’s quite fair to extrapolate from this story and apply the nature of immortality
that’s conveyed in Perseus’ own quest to every immortal who exists in Greek mythology.
Another monster-centric story that really highlights the deathlessness of immortals
is Hercules’ second labour, which was to slay the Lernean hydra. The strategy employed
by Hercules in slaying this monster was to destroy the heads and cauterize the stumps.
However, this strategy could only take him so far because one of the heads was immortal.
This final head couldn’t be killed, so Hercules had to bury it under a boulder after he cut
it off.
While I believe these two stories combine to make an incredibly persuasive argument
in favor of immortals not being able to be killed - sorry Kratos - neither story features
deities nor deities fighting deities.
Let’s now take a look at the grievous injuries and the dire predicaments that harrow many
deities in Greek mythology, beginning with those featured throughout the Greek creation
myth.
Uranus is the first deity to suffer a serious injury. Cronus, Uranus’ youngest son, ambushes
his father and castrates him, tossing the pair of severed testicals into the sea. This
act represented the supersession of the primordial deities by the Titans. Though seriously injured,
Uranus’ emasculation resulted in the separation of Gaia and Uranus, which was the extrication
of earth from sky, but did not result in his death.
The next Trauma suffered was by the first generation of Olympians. Cronus learned of
a prophecy that foretold his downfall at the hands of one of his children, so he consumed
each child as soon as they were born, swallowing them. However, this was an imprisonment, not
a death sentence, for later, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge his sibling; and out they came,
fully grown and unharmed.
After this there was the Titanomachy, which was the cataclysmic war fought between the
olympians and the titans. Though the war raged for 10 long years, with the Olympians emerging
as the victors, there weren’t any casualties suffered by either side. Yes, many titans
were cast down into the depths of Tartarus, and yes, Atlas was condemned to an eternity
of holding up the sky on his shoulders; but there was no god or titan who actually died.
Following this comes the calamitous head to head between Zeus and the monster Typhon.
Early accounts have Zeus soundly defeating Typhon and then imprisoning him in Tartarus.
In later, more elaborate accounts, Typhon initially overpowers Zeus, incapacitating
him by cutting the sinews from his hands and feet and then keeping Zeus in his cave. For
whatever reason, Typhon elects not to capitalize on this advantage (maybe because Zeus is unkillable)
and Zeus, with the aid of others, has his sinews restored, bestowing him with the opportunity
of a second bout in which he does defeat typhon, burying the monster under a mountain.
The next event was the Gigantomachy, but we’re going to table it for the time being and circle
back to it at the end, now transitioning into the miscellaneous injury and predicament segment
of the video.
Prometheus, whose name meant forethought, sided with the Olympians during the Titanomachy,
thereby avoiding imprisonment in Tartarus. He was the people’s champion, but he swindled
the king of the gods too many times. First he tricked Zeus into choosing the bones, leaving
the meat and the fat for humanity, and then he stole fire from Zeus and gave it back to
mankind. His punishment after this second transgression was to be chained to a rock
for eternity and have a giant bird eat his liver each day, for each night Prometheus’
liver would regenerate.
Metis, an oceanid, found herself in a predicament similar to the one of the first generation
of olympians when they were devoured by Cronus. It was prophesied that Metis would birth a
son with the power to overthrow his father, Zeus. To prevent this, Zeus tricked Metis
into transforming into a fly and then swallowed her in that form.
And this leads us to our next entry. Zeus was only partially successful when he consumed
Metis ,She was already pregnant with a daughter, which, in turn, impregnated Zeus. Later an
excruciating headache racked Zeus, so he asked Hephaestus for help. The smith god obliged
by splitting Zeus’ head with an Axe, and out came Athena, fully grown and adorned in
armor.
Ares, the god of war, was abducted by a set of giant twin brothers, Ottus & Ephialtes.
They kept him chained in a bronze cauldron for 13 months, and according to Homer, being
imprisoned in such a sorry state - so long deprived of food and drink - nearly claimed
the god’s life. Had it not been for the twins stepmother bringing the matter to Hermes'
attention, Ares very well could have died. But as we’ll see, death for a god isn’t
always what it seems.
Dionysus, the god of wine, was the son of Zeus and the princess Semele. Hera infected
Semele’s mind with doubt during her pregnancy, manipulating her into demanding that Zeus
show her his true form to prove that he really was divine. Semele asked him for a favor,
to which Zeus replied that he would grant her anything her heart desired. Now Compelled
by oath, Zeus was forced to comply with Semele's request. He revealed his true form, but of
course, it was far too much for Semele’s mortal form. Zeus appeared before her as the
lord of storms and the wielder of lightning. Semele was consumed by fire and destroyed.
The unborn fetus gestating inside her, Dionysus, survived the ordeal, and Zeus took him and
sewed him into his own thigh.
Another Version of Dionysus' birth begins with the god Zagreus, who was the son of Zeus
and Persephone, who became impregnated after Zeus took the form of a serpent and seduced
her. Of course, Hera learned of this, yet another instance of infidelity perpetrated
by her lecherous husband. She incited the titans and turned them on Zagreus. They came
upon Zagreus while he was just an infant and hacked him to pieces. But Zeus managed to
salvage the heart. He used it to brew a potion which he made Semele drink- impregnating her.
She later birthed the god Dionysus, effectively reincarnating Zagreus.
Before we move onto our last entry, let’s do a quick recap of everything that’s been
survived so far: having your testicals cut off; being swallowed and then thrown up; an
earth-shaking war between two factions of deities; a duel to the death against the most
fearsome monster imaginable; having your liver eaten each night for thousands of years; being
tricked into transforming into a fly and then being swallowed; having your head split open
by and axe and then giving birth out of your skull; being locked in a bronze cauldron for
thirteen months; being a fetus on the ground amidst the ashes of your Incinerated mother,
and being hacked to pieces and then resurrected. I think it’s safe to say that, at the very
least, the Greek perception of immortals was extremely resilient.
According to the Greek historian Plutarch, who lived between 46 AD and 119 AD, in his
work, De defectu Oraculorum, Pan enters previously uncharted territory by being the only known
example of a deity dieing. Here’s the passage:
"Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes take care to proclaim that the great god Pan
is dead."
Because there is absolutely no information given about the details of Pan’s death,
most experts don’t believe this was the case. Here are a couple of theories I’ve
come across: one is that it was symbolic of christianity usurping the position that pagan
religions previously enjoyed; the other is that it was the result of poor translation.
This last example involving Pan certainly muddies the waters, but given that no information
was given - it was just someone quickly shouting at someone else - I’m inclined to believe
that it was either supposed to be symbolic of the passing of the torch from polytheism
to monotheism, or that something was misunderstood.
Of all the above examples, what I find to be most telling is the fact that no divine
beings, Olympian or Titan, perished during the great war that was fought. If immortals
truly were able to be killed one of them surely would have been slain in that conflict. Furthermore,
after Zeus defeated Typhon, there was another war, the Gigantomachy, in which, again, no
divine beings were destroyed. The giants were a race spawned from the droplets of blood
that fell and saturated the earth after Uranus testicals were severed from his loins. Though
they weren’t immortal, the giants were extremely powerful and were not to be trifled with.
They fought furiously, but in the end, couldn’t withstand the combined might of the gods.
My belief is that if Immortal beings could be killed in Greek mythology, at least one
of them would have died during either the titanomachy or the gigantomachy, or by the
hands of the monstrous Typhon. To have one declared dead by some off-hand remark makes
no sense and is completely incongruous with everything else that happens.
And that’s it for this video! What do you guys think? Do you know of any incidents in
which gods have died?
Comment down below