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Greek myth - divine childhood
Oct. 25th, 2020 01:38 amIt’s both incomprehensible and incredibly amusing to me that divine babies in greek myth are apparently superprecocial (yes, that’s a thing), so they can do things hours or days after birth a human baby would need to be 5-10 years (probably closer to 10 or even more) to do. Even discounting any baby/child level of divine strength (and flight) which means they would be able to lift things no mortal child and probably barely any mortal adult would be able to, they are just very capable. They do still need protection and to be reared on some level, considering Zeus' childhood, the fact that Hermes is still treated on some level (and expects his "am baby" alibi will work) as not fully fledged, so to speak.
Hermes, in fact, is the/one of the most glaring and probably easy examples. But he’s of course not the only one, as Artemis helps Leto give birth to Apollo days (if the switch from Ortygia to Delos and then Leto being stuck in labour like that) or at leats minutes after she herself is born.
Apollo, in one version, kills the dragon at Delphi four days after he’s born (I cannot take a tiny baby hopping around to avoid a giant dragon attempting to gobble said tiny divine baby up, and he'd be wielding a tiny, tiny bow and equally tiny arrows. Seriously what the hell)! At least one other version is inconclusive about his age and only notes he was still delighting in his long hair and didn’t have a beard, but since Apollo never cuts his hair (for adulthood reasons) or gets a beard, that would give you anywhere from, say 5-20 at least. Either way, lots of evidence for what divine babies/children can do long before mortal ones can.
I’d put such individuals as Athena and Aphrodite, who are explicitly and implicitly born adult, in a slightly different category, just because they have adult bodies to go with the superprecociality. But they, too, still need to grow up as much as the divine children actually born in child bodies do, I’d bet. It’s just less obvious since, thanks to actually having adult bodies to go with the superprecociality, they can do more, more easily.
As funny and honestly ridiculous as it is, I do on some level like it because it underscores that divinities are different, even from birth.
Hermes, in fact, is the/one of the most glaring and probably easy examples. But he’s of course not the only one, as Artemis helps Leto give birth to Apollo days (if the switch from Ortygia to Delos and then Leto being stuck in labour like that) or at leats minutes after she herself is born.
Apollo, in one version, kills the dragon at Delphi four days after he’s born (I cannot take a tiny baby hopping around to avoid a giant dragon attempting to gobble said tiny divine baby up, and he'd be wielding a tiny, tiny bow and equally tiny arrows. Seriously what the hell)! At least one other version is inconclusive about his age and only notes he was still delighting in his long hair and didn’t have a beard, but since Apollo never cuts his hair (for adulthood reasons) or gets a beard, that would give you anywhere from, say 5-20 at least. Either way, lots of evidence for what divine babies/children can do long before mortal ones can.
I’d put such individuals as Athena and Aphrodite, who are explicitly and implicitly born adult, in a slightly different category, just because they have adult bodies to go with the superprecociality. But they, too, still need to grow up as much as the divine children actually born in child bodies do, I’d bet. It’s just less obvious since, thanks to actually having adult bodies to go with the superprecociality, they can do more, more easily.
As funny and honestly ridiculous as it is, I do on some level like it because it underscores that divinities are different, even from birth.
