We are in an era of remakes and reboots and revivals and retellings of stories that were just remade and rebooted and revived and retold less than a decade ago. An era of cinematic universes whose stories sometimes don’t feel like they go together, characters that seem to suddenly change in power and personality. Sometimes it can be enough to make even the most chill movie goer wonder where all the new ideas are. 

But, this isn’t anything new in storytelling. The greek myths are pretty much the blueprint for the modern cinematic universe. The way we tell stories, hero stories, adventure stories, sword and sorcery stories, all stem from the gods of Mt Olympus and the lives they meddled in. The wars they waged and the petty grievances they exacted upon one another. 

But these are more than just stories. They’re the narrative of a very real people, the history - if often allegorical - of a very real place where these very real people still live. These gods still have worshippers from within that culture all around the world. And, these gods have worshippers from outside of that culture all around the world. 

With thousands of years of their own retellings and reimaginings that have taken the stories of Greek gods and heroes out of their culture of origin and sprinkled them about as though they are their own, separate thing. This has led to some struggle as Greek scholars, Greek people, and Greek culture enthusiasts are all colliding in recent years to ask who these gods belong to and who should be centered in the telling of their stories. 

Angelo Nasios is one such scholar. He has a Master’s Degree in Ancient History, is an author writing about the history and practice of Greek religion, and is the host of the podcast Hearth of Hellenism where he explores this murky intersection in depth. And he is my guest today.

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