“This Greek sun god loved Hyacinthus, a beautiful young man”
I thought it was Helios
first one contestant said “Helios” and they ruled it wrong
then another contestant said “Apollo” and they ruled it right
but a lot of times Apollo and Helios are the same deity
I thought they should have accepted Helios
wiki says Apollo and Helios are sometimes identified together Helios - Wikipedia
I guess the Hyacinthus part of the clue must refer specifically to Apollo and not Helios. idk I’m not familiar with Hyacinthus
I think that is the relevant point. While Helios and Apollo may share some common stories, it is quite likely that the Hyacinthus story only exists with Apollo.
I looked at the Wikipedia article. It looks like Hyacinthus is attached from early days to Apollo, not to the sun god. (Identification of Apollo with the sun came later.)
So, no, probably not typically a Helios story. (The great thing about Hellenistic mythology, of course, is that you can write your own version of a given myth, and there are a lot of variations.)
Good point. I wonder if the popularity of super heroes/action stars/legendary humans is related to the predominance of monotheistic religion in the modern world.
An analogy I’ve made many times, as have others. I compare the growth and development of the Superman “mythos” to that of the Greek myths in the first chapter of my book. I tie changes to responses to different media, since the medium strongly shapes the myth (although it’s not the only factor). But it’s not limited to superheroes – you can do a similar observations in changes to modern monsters – the Vampire since 1800, or the Werewolf “myth” after Hollywood got its hands on it.
Regarding the confusion between Apollo and Helios (or Sol), that seems to be a relatively late development. Virtually all Classical poets refer to Phaethon as the Son of Helios or Sol for instance. I don’t know of any who call him the Son of Apollo, even centuries after Christ. See here, for instance:
While we’re at it with the superheroes, a lot of the stories of the saints feel much the same, too.
And even during classical times, a lot of people regarded the Greco-Roman mythological figures as only as real as we would regard Superman (fictional but fun to tell stories about) or Uncle Sam (real only in some metaphorical sense).
I’m a few days behind, still watching the super-player. How the hell did he miss Greece in the final J question about the European Union and different alphabets??? The guys’s fricken genius, and he can’t think of that?
Reminds me of the time I was in an academic competition held Jeopardy style. The question was, “Who was the goddess who helped Ulysses?”
Since it was the Roman name of the hero, I said, “Minerva.” I was ruled wrong at first, but when they gave the answer as “Athena”, I protested, saying that should have been paired with “Odysseus.”
We were awarded the points after the judges conferred.