I’ll admit I was over Greco-Roman mythology. I grew up with Disney’s Hercules and reading children’s collections of Greek Mythology and even the most accurate depictions in an adolescent anthology require omission or glossing over of a lot of wrath, rape, and infidelity. Finding an original myth was quite the disappointment.
Hercules is far from Disney’s sweet farm boy and most if not all “conquests” by the gods, particularly Zeus, are rape and usually solved by turning the victim into some kind of animal. Even the goddess of wisdom does everything out of vanity and hypocrisy, turning a superior weaver into a spider and conspiring against Paris after he declared Aphrodite more beautiful.
Suffice it to say, as a modern woman, the foundation of Western literature just didn’t appeal to me much anymore. Until Lore Olympus.
Lore Olympus – Bringing the Gods Back Down to Earth
The Eisner nominated Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe premiered on Webtoon two years ago. One of the unique aspects of Webtoon is its wide variety of web comics in genre and artistic style. There’s something for everyone.
Currently in its second season, Lore Olympus is the most popular webtoon across all genres and, for their female audience, most popular across all age groups. In its opening pitch Lore Olympus promises a glimpse of “what the gods do…after dark. The friendships and the lies, the gossip and the wild parties, and of course, forbidden love. Because it turns out, the gods aren’t so different from us after all, especially when it comes to their problems.” True to its word, we get a personal look into the conflicts and motivations of the Greco-Roman Pantheon in this great story.
Lore Olympus’s style stands out even for Webtoon’s diverse platform. Rachel Smythe, the artist behind Lore Olympus, blends different comic and animation styles with watercolor textures and rich colors that make the characters and their world leap from the page, or in this case, screen. Smythe’s style clearly borrows from Japanese manga with exaggerated displays and thoughtful introspection of feelings and emotional moments. She seamlessly incorporates meme culture with funny arrows and captions putting a comedic button on awkward yet relatable moments.
Mixed Media Storytelling – Color and Sound
Perhaps the most compelling quality of Smythe’s style is the colors and how they’re used to foreshadow. It’s the colors that clue readers into the moods and motivations of her characters. Smythe has mentioned in Q & A posts that “There is meaning behind all the colors but it ranges from ‘functional’ to ‘complementary.’”
The young Goddess of Spring, Persephone, is a radiant pink and while mastering her powers and emotions, we get glimpses of her thoughts and moods by the color of flora that spring from her.
Smythe has also mentioned that she made the Underworld in dark blues “because I wanted Persephone to really pop out every time she is in the underworld and [vice versa] for when Hades is in Persephone’s environments”.
Being on an internet platform, Webtoon provides opportunities for integrating sound, some of the most touching chapters have a “Sound On” note so you can listen to the comic as well, adding another element to an already wonderfully moving story.
Revamping Old Tales with Lore Olympus
The Taking of Persephone is a pourquoi tale meant to explain the changing of the seasons and “may also reference the Greek practice of girls marrying in their early teens, a loss to their mothers.” The later interpretation is where modern retellings have drawn their focus, allowing Persephone more agency and rebellion, creating a love story versus a kidnapping.
My own introduction to the Persephone story was through the young adult series, “Myth-O-Mania” by Kate McMullen, comically told from Hades’ point of view, debunking Zeus’ exaggerated versions of the Greek myths. (Which, let’s be honest, is so Zeus.) In McMullen’s retelling, Persephone is the one chasing Hades as he continuously tries to get her to phone her mother. Insanity ensues until love wins the day.
More recent adaptations, like the Percy Jackson film and YA series , “The Lightning Thief” and the Broadway musical “Hadestown” by Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin, draw further back to the darker elements of the tale in which Persephone is tricked by Hades. In Hadestown, which takes place long after the events of the original Myth, Persephone is portrayed “as a tornado of resentment and rascally rebellion” as a woman wooed, won and eventually neglected over time (Syme).
Persephone as a Coming of Age Story
Smythe has said that she created Lore Olympus because she wanted to make a love story, but the real core of Lore Olympus is Persephone’s ‘Coming of Age’ in a modern context. Persephone is trying to make her own way in a fast-paced work culture and away from a loving but overbearing helicopter mom.
She has more agency than in the original story, but she still worries about Mom whisking her away or ruining her reputation as a pledge to the “Goddesses of Eternal Maidenhood.” She questions what she wants versus what is expected of her.
Setting the Scene – Ancient Gods in a Modern Setting
Smythe cleverly sets the world of the gods and goddesses in modern cityscape settings that are recognizable and relatable to modern readers while maintaining the mortal realm in Ancient Greece and Rome, where the gods and goddesses dress the toga clad part that mortals expect.
The dual, time-warped settings keep the gods and goddesses relatable to us while maintaining a presence of ancient civilizations. At one point, Smythe indicates that there may be a way for the gods to interact with the Norse pantheon (perhaps we will get a modern look at the Norse mythology in the future!)
Smythe has said that she put Lore Olympus in a modern setting because she’s “really interested in deconstructing these myths and applying modern day social conventions to them.” And how! Within the first few chapters Eros points out that our heroine is a “cinnamon roll,” and Persephone gets her first phone from her roommate Artemis, after having been sheltered in the mortal realm under her CEO helicopter mom, Demeter.
Empathizing with Ancient Gods
My favorite parts of Lore Olympus are when Smythe applies timely modern conversations to these ancient myths; she has the stories and characters call themselves out. While readers delight in the playful and witty chemistry between our romantic leads, Hecate and Hera impress upon Hades (and us) the age difference and dangers of Hades grooming Persephone. Even better, Hades is uncomfortable with the imbalance of power and acts to hold himself accountable as well, doing his best to respect the boundaries set.
Another interesting thing to note, while the conversation about age and power imbalance is definitely modernized, it appears to complement Hades’ character in the original myths as well.
Smythe says she finds Hades interesting because “unlike his brothers, he doesn’t have affairs (or one depending on the source material) and is pretty well behaved in comparison.” Contrary, we get a beautiful case study of a gaslighting narcissist in Apollo, who acts exactly like someone who thinks the sun shines out his ass, much like the original.
It’s no secret that the gods in Greco-Roman mythology have their damage, making them reflections of human nature but the way Smythe approaches these characters, their relationships and their struggles, with such compassion and understanding of human behavior through modern conventions you really feel it.
Reading Lore Olympus, we’re not simply told that Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are brothers, their sibling-like arguments and constant teasing communicate it viscerally.
Smythe offers redemption for characters that learn from their mistakes and take accountability in some way for their actions. Early on, Aphrodite coerces Eros into playing a harsh prank on Persephone for which Cupid immediately comes clean and explains himself, thus wrapping in the story of Eros and Psyche as well as keeping Eros in our good modern graces.
Lore Olympus and the Dark Side of Godly Humanity
This doesn’t mean that the darker side of these myths and human experience aren’t explored. Several chapters of Lore Olympus come with trigger warnings for content portraying and related to sexual and domestic abuse. As fun as it is to see the gods in modern attire, using cell phones and 2020 slang, the most moving parts of Lore Olympus are when we see them working through their relationships and mental health issues.
It’s one thing to read about Chronos eating his children until Zeus takes him down, it’s another to get a look at the PTSD and feelings of worthlessness that would follow experiencing and living through that.
Hera’s jealousy over Zeus’ many affairs and her wrath against his illegitimate children is legendary but what’s it like to see the Goddess of Marriage struggle with her own marriage and deal with the fall out of an egocentric husband?
I had to run to Wikipedia because I did not even know that Hades had a nymph lover before Persephone (seriously, look up the story of Minthe) and I’ve been intrigued to see her brought to the forefront in exploring how that relationship would or wouldn’t have worked given their class differences.
My disappointment in realizing “a god falling madly in love and pursuing a conquest” as plain rape is transformed into exhilarated vindication as I cheer on the survivor of that “conquest” as, supported by friends, she fights back and confronts her gaslighting abuser.
Conclusion? Experience Lore Olympus Yourself on Webtoon
As much fun as Smythe clearly had reimagining each of these colorful characters in modern styles and jobs, she’s also taken a lot of care to read between the lines and add the part that I, and I’m sure many other readers, miss from the strictly classical versions of Greco-Roman mythology…the human part. Now, in terms that we recognize and understand as much as the ancient Greeks and Romans would the originals.
With everything going on in the world today and most of us stuck at home, Webtoon is a great, no-cost go to for when you need a break from reality and looking for something new and different, maybe even ground breaking.
I highly recommend Lore Olympus, even if you’re not into the romance genre. It’s a work of art for our time utilizing stories often considered the foundation of Western literature. Timely and timeless at once, The Greek Pantheon still has adventures to take us on to remind us what’s important, what makes women goddesses and what makes us all, y’know, human.
About the Author
Harlequin Curio is a writer and performer based in L.A. with her freeloading cat, Lance.
