# How much (mythical) punishment is enough? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 23, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577 "2022-03-23T18:17:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577/41 "2022-03-25T18:46:20Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > what happened to Stheno Hijack: Someone’s apparently never played “ **City of Villains.** ” where she’s the matriarch of a race of snake-people. Until now I didn’t realize that she was based on an actual myth, so thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577/42 "2022-03-25T18:50:08Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Hijack: Someone’s apparently never played “ **City of Villains.** ” where she’s the matriarch of a race of snake-people. Until now I didn’t realize that she was based on an actual myth, so thank you. In a feeble attempt to salvage some gamer credibility, I will mention that the name of the card from the AD&D (1e DMG) Deck of Many Things that instantly petrifies the person who draws it and is described as having a “Medusa-like visage” is _Euryale_. ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577/43 "2022-03-25T20:07:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … and nobody ever explained what happened to Stheno and Euryale afterwards. Did they just sit around on their grim Island At The End Of the World saying to each other “Have you seen Medusa lately?” > > As far as I know, they feature in no other myths. Several years ago comic book writer Roy Thomas featured them in a comic story where they crash Perseus’ wedding to avenge their sister, but I don’t remember which one it was. (It wasn’t DC or Marvel, but some other company). Stheno and Euryale also made an appearance in the Kindly Ones arc in Neil Gaiman’s _Sandman_, in which they attempted to convince Lyta Hall to take the place of their missing sister. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577/44 "2022-03-26T23:39:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The same myth as told in vase paintings often differs from the version that is written in prose, or from a recited poetic version. Just like the same myth as told in a comic book or graphic novel, will differ from the version in a TV show, an animated movie, or a live-action movie. The modern myths aren’t really so very different from the ancient ones. And @Love_Rhombus , I was going to mention that, too ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2022, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577/45 "2022-03-27T00:57:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just like the same myth as told in a comic book or graphic novel, will differ from the version in a TV show, an animated movie, or a live-action movie. The modern myths aren’t really so very different from the ancient ones. Quite right. I illustrate the idea in the first chapter of **Medusa** using Superman. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.E](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.e/32/8932_2.png) [@Mr.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.E)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577/46 "2022-04-05T03:28:50Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > The whole idea of eternal punishment always seems to me to have been made up by somebody with no notion at all of eternity. Heck, the idea of eternal reward doesn’t sound great either, in my opinion. Doomed to always exist in a land of heavenly delights, but alongside the same people doing the same things over and over forever? Eternal pain, eternal joy, how could eternal anything not inevitably lead to eternal boredom? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577/47 "2022-04-05T12:03:10Z")
> [@Mr.E](#): > > Heck, the idea of eternal reward doesn’t sound great either, in my opinion. Doomed to always exist in a land of heavenly delights, but alongside the same people doing the same things over and over forever? Eternal pain, eternal joy, how could eternal anything not inevitably lead to eternal boredom? Exactly the point Mark Twain made many years ago Among other things, he pointed out that most people can’t sing to save their lives, yet publicly believed in an afterlife of perpetual hymn-singing. And an afterlife that left out SEX! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-mythical-punishment-is-enough/961577.md?page=2)