# Jeopardy clue about Greek mythology (spoilers for October 20) game **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316 "2015-10-21T02:15:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/1 "2015-10-21T02:15:22Z")
“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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios#Helios_and_Apollo) I guess the Hyacinthus part of the clue must refer specifically to Apollo and not Helios. idk I’m not familiar with Hyacinthus thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/2 "2015-10-21T02:27:06Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/3 "2015-10-21T06:39:36Z")
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.) ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/4 "2015-10-21T13:20:31Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > (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.) It reminds me very much of the comic book world. We all know _the_ Batman story. But how many variations on it are there? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/5 "2015-10-21T13:32:17Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > It reminds me very much of the comic book world. > We all know _the_ Batman story. But how many variations on it are there? 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. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/6 "2015-10-21T13:50:30Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > We all know _the_ Batman story. But how many variations on it are there? And that’s just 75 years of slightly boxed in storytelling, not a couple millennia of myth and belief. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/7 "2015-10-21T13:56:21Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > It reminds me very much of the comic book world. > We all know _the_ Batman story. But how many variations on it are there? 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: > **[PHAETHON - Son of the Sun-God of Greek Mythology](https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Phaethon.html)** > > In Greek mythology Phaethon was a youthful son of Helius who begged his father let him drive the chariot of the sun. The god reluctantly conceded to the boy's wishes and handed him the reigns. But his inexperience proved fatal, for Phaethon quickly... According to Wikipedia, > [@](#): > > In Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios, Titan god of the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene, Titan goddess of the moon.[1] In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the 1st century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII (161–215).[2] Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE. > **[Apollo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo)** > > Apollo\[a\] is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the kouros (ephebe, ... ---
**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:** [October 21, 2015, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/8 "2015-10-21T14:12:04Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/9 "2015-10-21T14:20:05Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > 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. Huh? cf Hercules, Achilles, Odysseus, Jason, Aeneas and possibly dozens of others a scholar of (polytheistic) Greco-Roman culture could name. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/10 "2015-10-21T14:42:02Z")
I think that **Tripolar** means that since we don’t have demigods any more, we now have superheroes as the modern replacement. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/11 "2015-10-21T15:00:40Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/12 "2015-10-21T17:48:41Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-clue-about-greek-mythology-spoilers-for-october-20-game/735316/13 "2015-10-21T18:04:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that **Tripolar** means that since we don’t have demigods any more, we now have superheroes as the modern replacement. Yes, thank you. And a number of the ancient gods and demigods do show up as modern superheroes now.