At any rate, why just the Greek pantheon, Riverwolf? What about them in particular is worse than, say, the males in the Egyptian pantheon or Japanese pantheon?
I don't think I ever answered this. lol Must have missed it.
In any case, a lot of it is just because of how they, in particular, have been presented to me over the years: misogynistic airheads.
...though it does occur to me that that presentation could entirely have been through Christian lenses trying to make the Old Gods look as depraved as possible when compared to the New, Morally Perfect (
) God, to discourage their worship. I recall Plato saying that stories depicting the Gods in these depraved manners were just that: stories, and furthermore, offensive to these Gods and their followers. In any case, I don't believe that Athena would be taking part in a beauty contest where she offers a bribe to secure a victory, so why do I trust an old book on Greek mythology from Middle School that claimed Ares was a crybaby if he got wounded once?
In the years since my original statement, my views have altered sufficiently that when I go to Greece, I'll be attending the ceremonies that are going on at that time, regardless of who they're for. 'Sides, turns out the Ese (Aesir) can be real pricks in their own rights. ^_^
Speaking of which...
Well, for starters, Loki is murderous with little to no care for the rest of the gods
Well, his status as murderer is certainly true (though also kinda true for all the Ese/Aesir), but lately I've been thinking a lot about him, and the story Lokasenna (aka, the story where he crashes a party and slanders the Gods one-by-one until Thor chases him away). Loki is a Trickster God, and as such is a Jester/Joker/Clown archetype. IOW, he'd most certainly be a patron of comedians, or at least comedians that are any good. Internet game critic/comedian Yahtzee (host of the show Zero Punctuation and writer of the Extra Punctuation articles), wrote in one of his articles the following:
...I'm a comedy writer, and comedy is arguably dependent on breaking taboos. ...
If you asked me whether I'd prefer to tell a joke that two people found mildly amusing, or a joke that one found hilarious and the other found offensive, then I'd say the latter. Someone has to be pushing at the boundaries because otherwise the boundaries will shrink, and the area that's considered 'acceptable' will get smaller and smaller.
The PC Master Race Discussion: Political Correctness vs. Language Police | Extra Punctuation | The Escapist
It's highly likely that every single one of the accusations Loki makes against the Gods are true. (Though, reading it earlier today, I found it... interesting that he focused on some form of sexual infidelity for all the Goddesses). Good comedians force uncomfortable truths to the light so they can be faced, by revealing that they're not worth getting so worked up over. Even the Death of Balder could be read in this manner, assuming that Loki is also a cynic and was trying to use an ironic joke to drive home the fact that the world is horrible and doesn't deserve someone as "good" as Balder (though there's another variation on this story that doesn't involve Loki, where Hod isn't blind, and both brothers are hardened warriors: this euhemerized version, by Saxo Grammaticus for his book,
Gesta Danorum/
History of the Danes, has Hod kill Balder over a dispute over who gets to be with the maiden Nanna). Of course, if this reading is true, then it backfired hard, because it means Balder wasn't there for Ragnarok, and thus got to come back afterwards to lead the new world into greatness.
Personally, I interpret Loki not as uncaring, but rather harshly caring. He does care, but what he doesn't care for is pretentiousness, which is most exemplified (at least to him) by the ever-watchful and ever-dutiful Heimdall. When he sees the Gods acting all high-and-mighty, he shows up to take them down a peg. Sure, Thor chased him away and this led him to being bound, but even that act of retribution is partially what instigated Ragnarok.
