Explaining Greek God Mythology for Children

[adam86]

My first born is only a couple of weeks away. I am starting to find most of my Gods and Goddesses are centered more towards the Greek Deities. With some of the stories in the mythology, it talks about Hades and the underworld. But, I don't believe in a hell like place. Is there any way to raise my child with these similar deities, but exclude Hades when he starts asking questions?

[Nachtigall]

My first born is only a couple of weeks away. I am starting to find most of my Gods and Goddesses are centered more towards the Greek Deities. With some of the stories in the mythology, it talks about Hades and the underworld. But, I don't believe in a hell like place. Is there any way to raise my child with these similar deities, but exclude Hades when he starts asking questions?

It depends.
Normally I would say that you cannot exclude a God from a pantheon just because you don't like him (and as Death itself is a very important part of the world, I'd also say that excluding Hades or similar deities would be very unwise). But, if you want to teach your child some form of Eclectic Neopaganism, there's nothing to stop you from picking and choosing any parts of traditional Polytheism you want.

[HeartShadow]

My first born is only a couple of weeks away. I am starting to find most of my Gods and Goddesses are centered more towards the Greek Deities. With some of the stories in the mythology, it talks about Hades and the underworld. But, I don't believe in a hell like place. Is there any way to raise my child with these similar deities, but exclude Hades when he starts asking questions?

Hades isn't a hell-like place.

Hades is the place dead people go. good people, bad people, whatever - He collects the dead. It's not the same thing at all.

Yes, you could just exclude Hades - but then how would you explain the myths of spring, of Persephone and Demeter? of renewal, and how the goddess of flowers and spring is also queen of the underworld? Of how people prayed to him for wealth, for he was in the ground where riches are?

Chopping Him out is like trying to talk about life without ever mentioning death happens. You end up with a system that doesn't really work.

[adam86]

You guys have a point. I guess I have some reading to do, I didn't mean to offend any one if I did. I'm still in the process of learning about all the Great Gods and Goddesses of the Greek pantheon. I want to teach my child the right way of things, and to not learn half of everything. This is how morons are born.

Hades isn't a hell-like place.

Hades is the place dead people go. good people, bad people, whatever - He collects the dead. It's not the same thing at all.

Yes, you could just exclude Hades - but then how would you explain the myths of spring, of Persephone and Demeter? of renewal, and how the goddess of flowers and spring is also queen of the underworld? Of how people prayed to him for wealth, for he was in the ground where riches are?

Chopping Him out is like trying to talk about life without ever mentioning death happens. You end up with a system that doesn't really work.

[Tana]

Is there any way to raise my child with these similar deities, but exclude Hades when he starts asking questions?

You are aware that the Christian concept of hell is not equal to the concepts of Underworld in many other cultures and religions?

Since your child won't have need for complicated answers for another 2, 3, 4, 5 years, you might should find out what path you want to walk first and what it actually is that you want to teach it.

Just taking out everything that could be related to death and the not-so-nice things in life seems a bad idea imo.

[Fagan_the_Pagan]

With some of the stories in the mythology, it talks about Hades and the underworld. But, I don't believe in a hell like place. Is there any way to raise my child with these similar deities, but exclude Hades when he starts asking questions?

At the risk of sounding like people are ganging up on you or joining the "dog pile," Hell and Hades are really not the same at all. Pop culture, Hollywood, our fear of death, and mainstream religion have CAST Hell in the role of Hades, if that makes any kind of sense. They've been artificially equated, when in fact, Hades wasn't considered a particularly bad place. It's just, as has been stated, the land of the dead.

Hades as a god gets a bad rap too. Mostly because as ruler of the underworld, he gets equated to "The Devil" just as the Hades (the place) gets wrongly equated with Hell. The other thing people point to is the "rape of persephone." From everything I have seen, the story actually uses the archaic definition of "rape" as an abduction. Perhaps I have always read watered down versions of the story, but I've never seen one that explicitly states that he violates her in any way. Even if he did violate her, Zeus rapes people left and right, and everyone seems to ignore this fact because he's the "good guy." So saying Hades is evil while Zeus is good, even when Hades statistically does less "evil" things than Zeus does isn't exactly fair.

I guess the point I am making is that a lot of the gods do things that aren't pretty. None of the gods are all good or all bad. Hades is no different. If you are sticking to Greek mythology, he has an important place. Use parental judgment in how you talk about things, but don't leave him out because he is the god of something unpleasant.

[Melamphoros]

At the risk of sounding like people are ganging up on you or joining the "dog pile," Hell and Hades are really not the same at all. Pop culture, Hollywood, our fear of death, and mainstream religion have CAST Hell in the role of Hades, if that makes any kind of sense. They've been artificially equated, when in fact, Hades wasn't considered a particularly bad place. It's just, as has been stated, the land of the dead.

Hades as a god gets a bad rap too. Mostly because as ruler of the underworld, he gets equated to "The Devil" just as the Hades (the place) gets wrongly equated with Hell. The other thing people point to is the "rape of persephone." From everything I have seen, the story actually uses the archaic definition of "rape" as an abduction. Perhaps I have always read watered down versions of the story, but I've never seen one that explicitly states that he violates her in any way. Even if he did violate her, Zeus rapes people left and right, and everyone seems to ignore this fact because he's the "good guy." So saying Hades is evil while Zeus is good, even when Hades statistically does less "evil" things than Zeus does isn't exactly fair.

I guess the point I am making is that a lot of the gods do things that aren't pretty. None of the gods are all good or all bad. Hades is no different. If you are sticking to Greek mythology, he has an important place. Use parental judgment in how you talk about things, but don't leave him out because he is the god of something unpleasant.

Using this post as a good jumping off point: it should be noted that compared to the other Greek Gods, Hades was the GOOD one. He was the only one who didn't regularly smite mortals for rather petty reasons. And when he did deal out punishment, it was because someone legitimately deserved it (such as screwing with the natural order of life and death) or, as in the case of Pirithous, do something incredibly stupid (like thinking one can abduct the Queen of the Underworld).

Speaking of Persephone, one must take cultural context into account when looking at her story. In most of the versions I've read, he did get Zeus's permission to marry Persephone....it's just that no one thought to tell her overprotective mother.

[Fireof9]

My first born is only a couple of weeks away. I am starting to find most of my Gods and Goddesses are centered more towards the Greek Deities. With some of the stories in the mythology, it talks about Hades and the underworld. But, I don't believe in a hell like place. Is there any way to raise my child with these similar deities, but exclude Hades when he starts asking questions?

You don't have to exclude anything, all you have to do is keep it age appropriate. Keep it within the childs level of understanding.

My 6 year old feels he must hail Thor every thursday with a Dr. Pepper and Odin on Wednesdays with corndogs. I am not going to tell him that Odin lives off of wine till he is old enough to drink it. LOL

[adam86]

You don't have to exclude anything, all you have to do is keep it age appropriate. Keep it within the childs level of understanding.

My 6 year old feels he must hail Thor every thursday with a Dr. Pepper and Odin on Wednesdays with corndogs. I am not going to tell him that Odin lives off of wine till he is old enough to drink it. LOL

That is pretty funny. Sounds like a blast Thanks for your input and everyone elses'.

[dragonfaerie]

My first born is only a couple of weeks away. I am starting to find most of my Gods and Goddesses are centered more towards the Greek Deities.

Here's a link to a list of children's books of Greek Mythology.

Karen