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sparklightPerhaps some day people will remember that the reason there are so many demigods around in Greek myth is not just for ~fun and exciting adventures and hapless hubris stupidity, and because who cares about cheating lol, it’s because the people of Ancient Greece were “related” to said demigods through fictional genealogies, and thus related to their gods.
That is important! It’s pretty imperative for the most prominent families in ancient Greece!
They considered themselves related to their gods, and to be so, said gods, if they’re of a certain apparent age and thus married, because that’s what a man at a certain apparent age IS in this point in time, will have to cheat to create these offspring the real live humans are “related” to. It has nothing to do with the morality of cheating, but even if it did, in ancient Greece a married man could cheat without it being considered "bad" or him being considered a bad husband, as long as he didn't acknowledge any kids that came from it (and went to prostitutes, slaves, or mistresses).
The gods, on top of that, generally have sex with unmarried girls, outside of their father's home, which, again, makes the thing into much less of an issue. Alcmene, for example, isn't actually married yet when Zeus comes to her disguised as her (future) husband. In fact, Amphitryon is explicitly away to fulfil the task Alcmene has demanded be done before they marry, which he has succeeded at when he comes back right after Zeus leaves.
Then there is of course the divine wives' reactions (or non-reactions), to all this infidelity.
In Hera’s case she actually gets to express dissatisfaction with this state of affairs, which isn’t what a “proper” ancient greek wife was supposed to do. They're supposed to just accept it quietly, unless the husband tries to bring in illegitimate children into the house (... Like Zeus does, but that is never what Hera specifically acts against). Amphitrite, getting no real myths to herself, is presumably just a nice good wife who doesn’t express any undue dislike of her husband’s (far greater than Zeus’) escapades.
And Zeus also has the responsibility for populating the new order he’s at the head of, hence he needs to have divine children by various goddesses and nymphs. I honestly don’t think he would be the head of the pantheon if this didn’t happen. Either of the brothers would have been made the father of all these gods if it was one of the other two.
But hey, there’s two options here! Say Zeus is ace (which was where this is all coming from, seeing someone posting about "what if Zeus was asexual") and still gets to keep his throne.
Now there’s a whole lot of gods who don’t exist, and the one generation that does has to take on a lot more positions. Hera is undoubtedly pissed to fuck her husband isn’t doing what a good and proper husband should and having sex and children with her.
Hephaistos probably gets to exist still. Hera's motivation is now just “a child, any child, but I will of course still not either divorce or sully my vows”. Good luck for the rest. If we go with a version where Zeus alone is the source for Athena, she could exist as well, but that would undoubtedly make Hera all the angrier, but is also a further spur for her to have Hephaistos (I would probably go with both Hephaistos and Typhoeus as Hera's alone, here, like the Homeric Hymn to Apollo has her be.)
Presumably every demigod that isn't a child of Zeus is now sons and daughters of Poseidon, or they don’t exist at all and Greek myth only has the stories that don't involve children of Zeus and leave far less of a mark, because there’s a lot less there, now.
Or at least a number of them might still happen, especially the ones that come from Poseidon, so Theseus is presumably the one to assist in the Gigantomachy, for example.
Another number of them might still happen, but without any demigods involved (there’s a version, after all, where Danae’s uncle is the one who gets it on with her despite precautions, if I remember right, for example), so humans are still dumbfuck stupid all over the place and the Trojan war happens because the population needs to be culled, still. Achilles probably exists as-is, it's just that Zeus and Themis stop Poseidon from having sex with Thetis because of the prophecy and marries her to Peleus for that.
(The problem is Helen, who either doesn't exist, in which case you'd need another instigation for the war, or she's a daughter of Poseidon.)
Or! Zeus is not king of the gods since he can’t fulfil some of his positions and functions (both in-universe and meta-wise when it comes to what the point is of all the demigods) if he doesn’t actually fuck at all. He's instead presumably the god of rain and lightning, ruler of the sky without being king of the gods (since the nominal tri-partite rulership of the realm would still be possible).
Poseidon is now the king of the gods, Amphitrite, or more probably Hera, since Hera would undoubtedly still be the best choice to marry for someone who's the king of the gods, still getting cheated on left right and center, and a bit euclidean too, because this is Poseidon we’re talking about and he's a monsterfucker.
Absolutely no difference to the myths! Except the king of the gods really now has a truly staggering amount of children, because Poseidon in regular myth has more than Zeus does and now he’s carrying Zeus’ share of them as well. So now everyone really is related to Poseidon, and to whatever the Poseidon-fathered versions of Apollo, Hermes, Ares, etc would be like since they now exist to go on to do as usual.
The myths happen, no change. Amazing.
That is important! It’s pretty imperative for the most prominent families in ancient Greece!
They considered themselves related to their gods, and to be so, said gods, if they’re of a certain apparent age and thus married, because that’s what a man at a certain apparent age IS in this point in time, will have to cheat to create these offspring the real live humans are “related” to. It has nothing to do with the morality of cheating, but even if it did, in ancient Greece a married man could cheat without it being considered "bad" or him being considered a bad husband, as long as he didn't acknowledge any kids that came from it (and went to prostitutes, slaves, or mistresses).
The gods, on top of that, generally have sex with unmarried girls, outside of their father's home, which, again, makes the thing into much less of an issue. Alcmene, for example, isn't actually married yet when Zeus comes to her disguised as her (future) husband. In fact, Amphitryon is explicitly away to fulfil the task Alcmene has demanded be done before they marry, which he has succeeded at when he comes back right after Zeus leaves.
Then there is of course the divine wives' reactions (or non-reactions), to all this infidelity.
In Hera’s case she actually gets to express dissatisfaction with this state of affairs, which isn’t what a “proper” ancient greek wife was supposed to do. They're supposed to just accept it quietly, unless the husband tries to bring in illegitimate children into the house (... Like Zeus does, but that is never what Hera specifically acts against). Amphitrite, getting no real myths to herself, is presumably just a nice good wife who doesn’t express any undue dislike of her husband’s (far greater than Zeus’) escapades.
And Zeus also has the responsibility for populating the new order he’s at the head of, hence he needs to have divine children by various goddesses and nymphs. I honestly don’t think he would be the head of the pantheon if this didn’t happen. Either of the brothers would have been made the father of all these gods if it was one of the other two.
But hey, there’s two options here! Say Zeus is ace (which was where this is all coming from, seeing someone posting about "what if Zeus was asexual") and still gets to keep his throne.
Now there’s a whole lot of gods who don’t exist, and the one generation that does has to take on a lot more positions. Hera is undoubtedly pissed to fuck her husband isn’t doing what a good and proper husband should and having sex and children with her.
Hephaistos probably gets to exist still. Hera's motivation is now just “a child, any child, but I will of course still not either divorce or sully my vows”. Good luck for the rest. If we go with a version where Zeus alone is the source for Athena, she could exist as well, but that would undoubtedly make Hera all the angrier, but is also a further spur for her to have Hephaistos (I would probably go with both Hephaistos and Typhoeus as Hera's alone, here, like the Homeric Hymn to Apollo has her be.)
Presumably every demigod that isn't a child of Zeus is now sons and daughters of Poseidon, or they don’t exist at all and Greek myth only has the stories that don't involve children of Zeus and leave far less of a mark, because there’s a lot less there, now.
Or at least a number of them might still happen, especially the ones that come from Poseidon, so Theseus is presumably the one to assist in the Gigantomachy, for example.
Another number of them might still happen, but without any demigods involved (there’s a version, after all, where Danae’s uncle is the one who gets it on with her despite precautions, if I remember right, for example), so humans are still dumbfuck stupid all over the place and the Trojan war happens because the population needs to be culled, still. Achilles probably exists as-is, it's just that Zeus and Themis stop Poseidon from having sex with Thetis because of the prophecy and marries her to Peleus for that.
(The problem is Helen, who either doesn't exist, in which case you'd need another instigation for the war, or she's a daughter of Poseidon.)
Or! Zeus is not king of the gods since he can’t fulfil some of his positions and functions (both in-universe and meta-wise when it comes to what the point is of all the demigods) if he doesn’t actually fuck at all. He's instead presumably the god of rain and lightning, ruler of the sky without being king of the gods (since the nominal tri-partite rulership of the realm would still be possible).
Poseidon is now the king of the gods, Amphitrite, or more probably Hera, since Hera would undoubtedly still be the best choice to marry for someone who's the king of the gods, still getting cheated on left right and center, and a bit euclidean too, because this is Poseidon we’re talking about and he's a monsterfucker.
Absolutely no difference to the myths! Except the king of the gods really now has a truly staggering amount of children, because Poseidon in regular myth has more than Zeus does and now he’s carrying Zeus’ share of them as well. So now everyone really is related to Poseidon, and to whatever the Poseidon-fathered versions of Apollo, Hermes, Ares, etc would be like since they now exist to go on to do as usual.
The myths happen, no change. Amazing.
