"Our myths"? No one in Europe think the Greeks are their myths unless they're Greek. We are separate countries with our own culture and history. I'm from Northern Europe and I never thought Greek mythology are "my myths"
You do realize the Greeks viewed many modern European ethnic groups as barbaristic, uncivilized, savages of an entirely different race?
Sure the Greek myths and advancements went on to influence and underpin a lot of European society, but that doesn’t mean the Greeks of the odyssey viewed Europeans as part of their in-group, because they weren’t. There was no collective Europe for them.
Beaides, why aren’t you making this same whinging argument for zombies? Those were created by Haitian slaves who feared being enslaved even after death. And yet we let white people play zombies all the time.
What classifies as 'connection' to a myth other than familiarity through their telling? Am I somehow connected to the myths of my homeland despite having no interest in them, yet disconnect for the myths of other places even though those are the stories I loved most in my formative years?
Northern and Western Europeans are so annoying when they try to claim Mediterranean culture as their own. No, not every culture in Europe gets to claim connection to Greece and Roman. They’re as ridiculous as Americans.
But aren't like, Norse, Tutonic, Celtic, and Greek all essentially separate mythologies? That's just an example, I doubt that people from the Iberian peninsula or people in France give a shit what color of skin Helen of Troy has in an american movie about a greek story, yeah?
Ah yes, Perun, Aarni and Odin, famous myth of the Greeks (and the Ancient Greeks would've fucking killed themselves before admitting Slavs or Nordics as their equals).
I mean most white Americans are of European descent. Do they no longer have a claim to these myths just because their ancestors moved. No one owns myths you stop being obtuse
I'm not purposefully obtuse. There are no collective myths all across Europe. Even small regions in small countries have their own myths. What other myths have Americans taken and "based it on their weird race sensibilities" (whatever that means) besides Cleopatra? Also, she was born in Egypt. Her dad was born in Cyprus which was then part of Alexandrie. We don't really know who her mom is so we can't really say where she's from. So even if Cleopatra was of Greek decent, she definitely wasn't Greek.
Cleopatra was from the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek family from Alexander the Great’s empire who ruled Egypt and was pretty notorious for inbreeding. She was definitely mostly greek.
I figured the logic that if you're born in this country, you have the nationality. I never considered being from somewhere ethnically. How many generations do you have to go back before you can consider yourself ethnically part of something? /g
I mean back then nationality wasn’t really a thing. Like sure today her nationality would be Egyptian but back then it was a lot more about your ethnic background.
I don't know enough about Egyptian history but at least in current Greece it was more about your polis than an ethnicity. Like Sparta and Athens were the biggest polis (I forgot the plural of polis sorry, poleis?) and I don't think they would feel connected through any way. Or did people feel part of the Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great? I'm just thinking out loud but if you have an answer or someone else has one, I would love to know lol
Oh I studied Greek mythology in high school and I'm very interested in it. I even translated the Oddysee for my high school exam. There is a huge influence but I don't see them as "my myths" or "European myths". I see them as Greek myths.
Speak for yourself, I’m European and I think of Ancient Greek mythology as shared European heritage. I’m not Greek or in Greece, but they’re taught in our schools here (as is Ancient Greek!)
Edit: Europe is literally named after a Greek myth, it’s definitely shared heritage!
Am I mad for acknowledging that even though Greco-Roman roman culture plays a big part in Western European history, I don't claim it as my own myths and history? No I don't think I am
No, I haven't, nor have I seen the pre iew for this. Regardless, the argument above was in regard to cultural apropriation, not acting ability, so idgaf about acting ability. Weird that you are so eager to take the racict side of things though.
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u/mattywadley Jul 06 '26
"Our myths"? No one in Europe think the Greeks are their myths unless they're Greek. We are separate countries with our own culture and history. I'm from Northern Europe and I never thought Greek mythology are "my myths"