The way that some of the gods acted in several of the stories was very surprising to me, especially Jupiter. In the story of Io, the story of Callisto, and the story of Semele, he has affairs with women other than his wife Juno. Jupiter raped Io, who he then turned into a heifer so that she would not be found out about. In a later story, he rapes the nymph Callisto. Juno knows of this, so she turns Callisto into a bear to punish her. In the next story, the story of Semele, Jupiter has an affair with Semele, who becomes pregnant with Bacchus. All of this seemed very odd to me because I had not read many of the Greek mythology stories and I did not imagine the all-powerful Jupiter (also called Zeus) would ever have affairs with women or rape anybody. Juno also surprised me because I would have pictured her as a calm and smooth-tempered goddess, but she acted out of anger against women that her husband raped, even though they had no choice in the matter.
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| (Painting of Zeus and Callisto by Jean-Honoré Fragonard) |
Another god that really surprised me was Phoebus. When Phaethon asks him to drive his chariot through the sky, Phoebus tries to talk him out of it but Phaethon is too arrogant to take his father's advice. In the end, though, Phoebus does allow him to drive the chariot and even gets it ready for him and tells him how to control it. Phoebus knew that his son would die and it would be a danger to the world, so I was surprised that he let him drive the chariot in the end.
Overall, the way that the gods and goddesses bossed those below them around and took advantage of them whenever they wanted was a little surprising to me. Several of the things they did were definitely not morally just, which is not what I would expect from gods and goddesses.
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