Halloween Enthusiast

ANGEL // 3.07 "Offspring"

The Vampire Lestat 3.07 The Failures

like. we can defy the christian god, in a way, because we can choose to not do what he says we ought to. sure. but we cannot defy greek gods in the same way, because the god is not just an entity that commands you but the very thing you are doing. apollo does not just send plagues, he is plague. you know apollo is real because there is plague. plague is not apollo acting in the world, it is an instance of apollo, in the same way that insight is athena, love is aphrodite, harvest is demeter, storms are zeus. gods are not commanding nature and sending signs and acting upon the world, because signs and nature and human nature are themselves the gods. the gods cannot be absent, because we still get ideas, and harvest, and go to war, and feel desire, and hunt. the gods cannot be defied because you cannot defy "getting ideas" or "harvesting" or "having sex" or "dying." to attempt to is entirely futile. like you cannot defy poseidon because you cannot defy the sea. you cannot defy aphrodite because you cannot defy love and reproduction. nature and human nature are unbeatable, and so the gods are unbeatable, because they are nature and human nature.

It's also presentism: they don't want to see the actual accurate history, they want to see themeselves and their values and views; so they show you ancient greeks "defying the gods", ancient Rome as a place of excess and extravagance, where "pietas" is completely absent (but they don't know what "pietas" is anyway); the Middle Ages as devoid of color, with stupid and dirty people and an almost secularized society.