The history of the ancient Greeks is one of the building blocks of our modern world. As historians are still uncovering the truth about ancient Greece, they have found that time has altered many stories and legends and they may not be entirely true. Here are some such misconceptions.
Goddess Aphrodite was a warrior
Aphrodite is commonly considered a goddess of love and beauty. But she had a hidden side due to her relationship with Ares, the god of war. She had three children with him - Eros, Phobos, and Deimos. Aphrodite is partly responsible for the Trojan War by offering Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, the queen of Sparta. Ironically, there are several statutes showing Aphrodite in armor, a contradiction to her goddess of love image.
Achilles’heel wasn’t really his heel
Achilles was the son of a king and sea goddess and was considered the greatest warrior in the world. Her mother, to make Achilles immortal immersed him in the waters of the river Styx, making his whole body indestructible, except his heel by which she had held him. But Achilles’s heal was not actually his heal. His heel was his pride, it was a metaphor. In fact, Homer does not portray Achilles’s death in the Iliad!
Pandora did not open the box
As per Greek mythology, the first woman on Earth was Pandora. She was given a box by Zeus and was instructed never to open it. The folklore states that she did open the box letting out all the evils of the world. In reality, Pandora never had a box, but a jar. The jar was of the size of a small person often used as a burial container. Jar or pythos becoming box or pyxis is more of a mistranslation.
The Trojan Horse is all a myth
When Troy was uncovered by archaeologists in the 19th century in modern-day Turkey, they found that Troy was already ruined before the Trojan war was supposed to happen. Archaeologists revealed ruins of fortifications designed to deter chariot attacks but nothing concrete suggests the involvement of any wooden horse.
Medusa was not the only one with snake hair
Medusa has been popularized as the only woman in Greek mythology with horrific hair made of snakes. In reality, Medusa was the only mortal of the three Gorgon sisters. Her two sisters, Stheno and Euryale also had reptile hair, as terrifying as Medusa’s.
Hades, the god of death and underworld wasn’t actually a monster, but a good guy stuck with a job no one wanted. Isn’t it eye-opening?
