In some comments I had put on AO3 and other sites, I said that for the "What If Percy Jackson..." section I would do a version of a Percy Jackson as the son of the Mycenaean/Mionic Poseidon, or I could do the same as in some fan theories that say Percy is Greek and Roman at the same time, so the chapters I add to the "What if... ?", Percy will not only be Greek, he will also be Mycenaean.
What fan theories of the characters written by Riordan am I talking about?
Of the theories that fans say that the reason why Percy Jackson is stronger than the other characters despite how little he trains compared to characters like Jason Grace the son of Jupiter, who was supposedly given to Lupa at the age of 2 or 3 years. But just days before his 16th birthday, Jason fought on an equal footing against Percy who was just over two months shy of his 17th birthday, when both were being controlled, but Jackson was far from any source of water; while Percy arrived at Camp Half Blood approximately two years before his 13th birthday, but for a year he was not attacked and did not train as he should.
But Percy arrived at Camp Half Blood about two months before his 13th birthday, but for a year he was not attacked by monsters probably because of Tyson's presence, and he did not train as he should.
With Percy taking more seriously and/or better understanding the danger that there is in his life as demigods until the deaths of Bianca and Zoe occur, the first deaths of other half-bloods that he witnesses, which is when Percy is about 14 years and 4 months old, making him have less than two years of training to really prepare for his future fight against Kronos. And if we take into account that Percy goes to school, trying/wanting to have a somewhat normal life, it would be like less than a year of real training.
While Jason has trained basically his entire life, Percy has only really trained properly like 1 year and a half at best, because after Kronos' defeat he and the others took things slow until Jackson was kidnapped by Hera, was in a coma for a while and then a few weeks of training with Lupa.
That is why there are fans who say that Percy is both the son of Poseidon and Neptune, using the fact that he speaks ancient Latin with great ease despite being Greek, making his divine side stronger than that of the rest of the demigods. Because he is both Greek and Roman, although his Greek side is more noticeable in his way of being.
So for future Percy Jackson fics for the " What If " or if I do a complete fanfic, where Percy has the Mycenaean features of Poseidon, here is the explanation of the Mycenaean forms of the gods of what I could find.
Here are some simplified but crucial basic knowledge.
Difference between the Mycenaeans and the Greeks
As with the Etruscans (of whom I will speak later) and Romans who also worshipped the Greek gods, the way they viewed the gods was different and they also had different names, some only slightly, while others completely different. And the Mycenaeans, as well as the Minoans, are older than the Greeks as we know the Greeks.
The Minoan Era is considered to cover the period from approximately 3400 to 1700 BC
The Mycenaean civilization developed in the Late Helladic period, in other words, the latter part of the Bronze Age, between 1700-1050 BCE. approximately
The Dark Ages, so called because almost all records of this time have been lost, spans from 1050 to 800 or 750 B.C
The time of Archaic Greece is taken from where the dark ages ended until 500 B.C.
The period of Classical Greece is considered to span from 500 B.C. to 323 B.C.
And the period of Hellenic Greece from 323 B.C. to 146, This period begins with the death of Alexander the Great and ends with the Roman conquest of Greece after the battle of Corinth.
The dates are not entirely exact because historians debate when the Mycenaean, Dark, and Archaic eras ended or began, varying between decades and a century or two.
And if we base ourselves on the fact that the myths of Heracles, Perseus, Orion, Theseus occurred before the Trojan War, they are basically located in Mycenaean times
Now the gods, Religion of Mycenaean Greece.
Poseidon
Essentially, Poseidon was the King of the Gods in Mycenaean times and was called as Posedao, Poseidao or as Poseidawone, he was a chthonic deity, more related to earthquakes, referred to as Enesidaone, Ennosigaios or Ennosidas, the earthshaker, Anax or Wanax which was an ancient word for "king".
The most important god or one of the most important along with the Mycenaean versions of Demeter and Persephone.
He was not a god of the seas, but he was a god of the rivers, which coincides with the fact that in some myths his son Triton was a god of the river, not of the sea. As a chthonic deity, Posedao was related to earth and death, but it is unclear whether as a water/river god he was related to all the rivers of the underworld or only to the Stygian river which was seen as the river that divided the world of the living from the world of death.
However, another reason why it is assumed that he was a god of the underworld was because they called Wanaka and the translation means something like god, master of the underworld.
He also had the epithets of phytalmios and Ptorthios, which are associated with or refer to the fact that he is the lord of the earth, husband of the earth, promoter of vegetation. In addition to the fact that he was worshipped in some of the ancient cities as a god of vegetation, but it is not clear if he was one in the Mycenaean era, since those epithets have at least been traced back to the Archaic era, they could have been from the Mycenaean, Myonic era, or if they date back only to the dark age of Greece.
But others are of the opinion that the reason it is theorized that it might be from the Mycenaean era was because of the other epithets of the time, such as Posedao Wanakate, which means something like Poseidon of the two queens or the king and two queens. So it is assumed that he was married to two goddesses, but it is not clear to which ones.
However, it is not clear to whom, historians generally assume that these are the Mycenaean versions of Demeter, Persephone or Amphitrite, of two of them three.
Although it is believed that Posedao's possible wives were others such as some goddess whose name was lost or with a goddess named Potnia who was related to horses, but other historians say that this was a kind of title associated with Demeter by her son horse known as Arion and also associated with Athena by the chariot. While other historians contradict the meaning of Potnia, which means wife or mistress.
Another reason why it is most assumed that his wives were Demeter and Persephone, as well as the possible reason why Posedao was worshipped as a god of vegetation, was because Demeter and Persephone were called as Wanassoi or Wanasso which means the ladies or queens, and they could also mean: the two ladies/queens and the lord/king.
It should be noted that at this time Persephone, then known as Despoina, was the daughter of Posedao and Demeter, known as Damate.
And it is not clear what Poseidon's role was as the bearer of the storm in the Mycenaean era, whether it is preserved or that trait arose during the dark ages of Greece, because by the archaic era he was already the god of storms and sea.
Demeter and Persephone
The goddess of agriculture was called Damate by the Mycenaeans, her domains seem to be the same as Demeter, but as Damate they also give her a greater association with horses.
Also in the Mycenaean era Persephone her domains as goddess of spring and vegetation could have been completely her mother's, because for the Mycenaeans she was the lady/queen of the Underworld, she was not married to Hades, she alone ruled the underworld of the dead.
Although by another aforementioned epithet of Poseidon/Posedao, this being Wanaka, by which he was associated like master, king or god of the underworld, the possibility increases that the Mycenaean Persephone was one of his two wives.
Persephone was called Despoina, Preswa or Despoena, by the Mycenaeans and by the Greeks she was turned into two goddesses, Persephone and Despena (the goddess of the Eleusinian mysteries)
Hades
Hades is nowhere to be found among the Mycenaean gods identified so far, so there are two theories:
The first theory was that Hades was a minor god by another name, who has yet to be identified
And the other one that was Hades is a god that was introduced later, during the dark ages of Greece
Aphrodite
The same situation applies as with Hades, since there are theories that its origin can be traced back to Ishtar the Babylonian goddess.
But according to some of the historians and even the philosopher Plato is that they considered that they were two goddesses with the same name, something similar to Eros the primordial and Eros the son of Aphrodite and Ares, we also have as another example Kronos, the king of the titans and there was also the primordial, Chronus, with whom Kronos was frequently confused.
One of the two Aphrodites was Aphrodite Pandemos, the Aphrodite of the people who was sometimes taken as the daughter of Zeus (for this reason there were perhaps two), who was the most associated with carnal pleasure, beauty, lust, desire, sex.
The other was Aphrodite Urania, who was the Celestial Aphrodite whose divine domains are more linked to the soul, the spirit and the heavens, apparently also to the more sentimental and pure side of emotions and love, as a "purer and less promiscuous version of Aphrodite Pandemos", more similar to how historically the Romans saw the goddess Venus, in the following ways Venus Victrix (related to war), Venus Verticordia (about sexuality expressed within socially permitted limits, hence marriage), Venus Urania, Venus Physica (Venus as a natural and universal creative force that informs the physical world), Venus Libertina (goddess protector of funerals and undertakers), among others.
Aphrodite Urania is also seen as a goddess of war or at least in Sparta she was, however, it is speculated that Aphrodite Urania dates back to the times of the Trojan War or even earlier, that she was perhaps of Mycenaean or Mionic origin rather than Babylonian, as the Trojan War is unclear when it occurred, but historians place it between 1200 B.C. and 900 B.C.
Athena
Athena was known as Athana or Atana by the Mycenaeans, she was represented with animals, birds and snakes, with sacred trees, poppies and lilies, she was also represented with swords and double axes. She was a hunter and goddess of sports, armed or presiding over ritual dances, and is at the same time goddess of the hearth, goddess of the palace, goddess of vegetation and fertility, mother and maiden.
However, who her father was for the Mycenaean era is a mystery, her best-known origin that was born from the mind of Zeus, a motherless goddess that born from the thoughts of the god of lightning. This version was the most accepted or popular during the Hellenic era and with Hephaestus being born after Athena due to Hera's wounded pride and anger at Zeus.
But for the previous centuries there were more varied versions of the birth of Athena, in Classical and Archaic Greece there were more versions of her birth and about her respective progenitors.
From the version in which she forced her way out of Zeus' head, forcibly with spear and shield, after her mother Metis was turned into a drop of water and swallowed by the god of lightning, to the version in which Hephaestus opened Zeus' head, in other versions it was Prometheus or Hermes. Then Athena was raised by Triton until she kills Pallas, Triton's daughter.
But in another version he states that his mother was Metis and her father was Brontes, one of the three Cyclops sons of Gaia and Uranus. In another version, Athena was the daughter of Hephaestus.
The versions of the myth where the winged giant Palante and a Titaness are the parents of Athena.
Where Zeus is once again the father of Athena and her mother is the Titaness Themis.
But there were also several versions of Poseidon with a nymph, such as Tritonis or also called Tritonide who was a nymph-goddess of salt lakes, other versions with Poseidon as her father put that his mother was the water nymph or Oceanid known as Polyphe (with some historians considering that it was another name for Metis) or the water nymph Halia. And in one of these versions Pallas was her sister... but she was angry with Poseidon, and placed herself under the orders of Zeus, who adopted her as his daughter.
Artemis
To the Mycenaeans, she was not the sister of Apollo, nor the daughter of Leto.
Artemis was the daughter of Demeter and was called Atemito or Atimite, she was a goddess related to vegetation, to the cult of trees, static and orgiastic worship. It was also related to mountains and bears.
Zeus
Zeus had another quite different name, he was known as Diwe or Diwo, Zeus was only a god of the sky, the daytime sky was the most detailed data I could find after reviewing various sites with the information about the Mycenaean Zeus, because in all they consider him a god of the sky.
But Zeus was far from having the relevance and importance he had during the Hellenic era or when the Romans were polytheists.
Hephaestus
There is no information other than their possible names in the Mycenaean era: Apaitijo, Hāphaistion, Hēphaistos and Hēphastos
Hera
There is no information other than their possible names in the Mycenaean era: Era and Qowiya, with the latter having a meaning that could be translated as "the one with the eyes of a cow" or "the one with the cows"
Ares
There is no information other than their possible names in the Mycenaean era: Are or Enuwarijo. Although the second name is under debate as to whether it was his or one of his sons.
Hermes
Hermes during the Mycenaean era, was known as Ema, Emaha or as Areja, however it seems that by this time Emaha was usually both the Greek Hermes and Pan. The theory of historians is that Emaha was turned into two gods centuries later, two father and son gods (Hermes and Pan) since Emaha represented aspects of both Greek gods.
But other historians theorize that Emaha was not divided into two, but three gods, with the third being Thanatos or Charon, as Emaha fulfilled the role of bringing the souls to the Underworld.
And he was also a god of war, with Areja as a possible epithet for Emaha as a god of war.
Hestia
Hestia is the same situation as Hades and Aphrodite, so far no references have been found about her in the Mycenaean era, so she could have another name and a minor role.
But by the archaic era she was worshipped by the Greeks, so just as Aphrodite possibly came from the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, Hestia may have originated from the Scythian goddess known as Tabiti, the primordial fire goddess the most revered of all Scythian deities.
Dionysus
Dionysus was known to the Mycenaeans as Diwonuso which means: son of Diwo (the Mycenaean name of Zeus), with the god having a role related to nature, death, rebirth and apparently orgies too.
Possibly as Hermes was divided into two, the Greek Dionysus and the Greek Zagreus who is the god of rebirth, son of Persephone with Hades or with Zeus
Apollo
As for Apollo, he seems to be in the same situation as Aphrodite and Hermes.
It seems that Apollo was known to the Mycenaeans as Perjo, Perjone, or as Dirimijo. But there is another possibility that his name was Pajawone, which is the apparent Mycenaean form of the word Paean, which was both an epithet used to refer to Apollo and Asclepius, and at the same time Paean was a god related to medicine/healing. So it could be the same situation as with Emaha, the Mycenaean Hermes who was divided into two or three gods for the Greek-Greeks
But the other possibility is that Apollo was preceded by a series of forerunners in other polytheistic religions such as Apaliunas, a patron deity of the city-state of Wilusa. Wilusa, along with Ilium are another way in which they referred to early Troy. However, Apaliunas is a hunter god, as that is the apparent meaning of his name.
Another possibility about Mycenaean Apollo is Appaluwa who was worshipped in the kingdom of Arzawa in western Anatolia, a state allied with the Mycenaean Greeks that had its capital in the city of Apasa which later became the Greek city of Ephesus. And Appaluwa was apparently a deity associated with plagues.
Another presumed predecessor of Apollo is Aplu, the Hurrian god of plagues, who was Apollo's original domain before his absorption of Paean, the Greek god of healing. Aplu, in turn, was an adaptation of Aplu Enlil, an epithet of the Mesopotamian plague-bearing deity, Nergal, meaning "son of Enlil." So, Apollo has a very ancient past that even predates his appearance in Hellenic polytheism.
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