Its funny. I have been thinking of this more and more. The Gods of old are around but they have changed from what they were in ancient times. They have come a long way to help guide us. I am not talking about Athena on a cell phone but more of interpreting all sides of the Gods for our day and age.
Let me give you an example: I have been honoring Hera, as my personal Goddess lately. She is queen of the family. We always see her in the old stories as a shrew of a wife, angry at Zeus' transgressions...but we have never really heard about how she interacts with her children (except Hephaestus and, really, every mother has been annoyed that their kids didn't turn out to be what they wanted...it doesn't mean they don't love them). We also haven't really heard about what she was like BEFORE Zeus "took" her. We only ever hear that she is mad, angry, jealous. Well, you would be pretty pissed off if anything anyone knew of you was just the story of how you got married!
I see Hera is a compassionate Goddess. She is Earth. She loves the sea and sky. She knows the darkness of death and rebirth. She is wisdom and she is a feminist. I think that this is why she is so angry. She knows that her stories were co-opted by Zeus and the men of that age. She is Athena's mother (sprung out of Zeus' head...really?) She is sister to Aphrodite (or maybe Hera is another side of the sexiness). She is Mother. She knows where things come from and she tries to be good to her children. She gets lost in her work...and she is frustrated easily. This is one Goddess who isn't afraid to show that she is pissy.
The Hera you see in Disney's Heracles isn't a bitchy woman who makes her stepson do chores to appease her. The Hera you see is a loving mother of her son (a son who was stolen from her and she is in mourning for most of the movie). At the end of the movie tells him how proud she is of what he has done (you don't hear any of the Greek stories telling you that!)
The point I am trying to make is that The Gods are not set in stone. They are guides that can be reborn to help us now. Jason Mankey writes about this and the new conclusions that he has found about Pan in Raise the Horns here.
What new interpretations of the Gods do you have?
DM
