Ahh, but The Mythos is synchronous and eternal - there's no linear chronology. It's perfectly reasonable, therefore, that Hera (and/or Zeus) should have birthe

Ahh, but The Mythos is synchronous and eternal - there's no linear chronology. It's perfectly reasonable, therefore, that Hera (and/or Zeus) should have birthed Hephaestus on her own as revenge for (now-trans?) Zeus birthing Athena on his own from his forehead, without Hera (but with the help of Hephaestus, who had already become a skilled midwife just in time for his older sister's birth). Athena, similarly gifted, is thought to sometimes arrive to the battle with Medusa already wearing her severed head ("aegis not in inventory", "serpentine aegis-cloak"): https://collections.mfa.org/objects/154107 https://collections.mfa.org/objects/154107 https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P23.7.html https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P23.7.html The First Olive Tree (that never dies, like the flame) has multiple origin stories - at least three Greek myths per se (Acropolis, via Athena/Poseidon, Zeus/Olympus via Herecles, Delos via Apollo/Artemis), plus general Hyperborian propaganda that they'd brought it from their (far superior) homeland - and of course claims on the other side of the Mediterranean. An apocryphal tale links Athena's Olive Tree to Washington's Cherry Tree, most recently during a ceremony held on Washington's birthday when repairing damage from WWII bombing, to commemorate the bonds between The Old World and New or somesuch. Unfortunately, I can't find a good source for that, beyond the same generic sentence about 1952, but perhaps that's because it was actually Lincoln's Cherry Tree all along? :thinking_face: :thinking_face: :thinking_face: (For, on the eve of Washington's Crossing, Poseidon appeared to supply him with the finest cherry rowboats, replacing the crude oaken ones of the rebel forces and ensuring the first victory of the war. Athena gave 13 cherry trees to Lincoln and 13 apple trees to some guy named John, sending them westward to populate The New World with at least two candy flavors. Romulus, infant wolf-boy and founder of Rome, obviously wanting to one-up the Greeks, gifted America her Freedom by chopping both trees into splinters and neatly bundling the sticks together. The French, attempting to one-up the gods, gifted America a 1776-foot-tall automaton, but it was much too tall and noisy to be walking around NYC. In her rage, The Statue of Liberty squished the man who designed the bridges too short between her toes, to which Rudy Giuliani responded by tossing her batteries into the ocean and imprisoning her on Ellis Island forever. Okay, okay, I'm done.) Anyway, is it just me, or did we all call it the "mandala effect" back in high school?