Bro, can you imagine if, like, you're mastering Spinjitzu to battle an ancient dragon, but then suddenly you're in a breakdancing battle against a giant ninja mech?
LEGO Ninjago, what's your hero story?
The stories featured in Greeking Out are original adaptations of classic Greek myths.
This week's story features moons, beautiful people, extremely questionable courting practices, and inappropriate reactions to having a crush, including kidnapping, transforming your crush into a herd animal, transforming yourself into a herd animal, memorializing them through astronomy, and Rick Riordan?
The greatest stories in history were told in Greek mythology.
Gods and heroes, amazing feats.
Listen and you'll see it's... Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.
Rick Riordan?
Best selling author.
Rick Riordan.
Rick Riordan?
What's going on here, Oracle?
My friend Rick is here today.
I am going on vacation.
Where does an Oracle go on vacation?
Delphi.
I'm off to visit my great-great-great-grandmother, Yassas.
That means goodbye in Greek.
Okay, well, have a good time, Oracle.
And I can't believe I'm saying this, but hi, Rick Riordan.
Wow.
Yes, hello, I'm Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson series.
And I'll be your Oracle for the day.
This is an honor and also kind of weird, honestly.
Word on the Wi-Fi is that you're doing an episode all around Zeus, the king of the Greek gods.
That's an enormous responsibility.
Yeah, all around Zeus is exactly right, Oracle.
I mean, Rick, Rick, Rick, Rickacle, Rickle, Rick or Rick, Rickacle.
Today, we've got tales about the moons that orbit or rotate around the planet Jupiter.
Ah, yes, Rick Riordan here again.
I've been reading a lot about Hecate recently, who is associated with our moon.
So this seems appropriate.
Wait, we've been talking about Selene as the moon goddess.
And what about Artemis?
I mean, you know.
All three goddesses blended into one in stories that came later.
And both Hecate and Artemis are associated with the moon and various myths and legends.
But Selene was the titan who was responsible for riding across the sky at night.
So we can give this one to her.
Ah, okay, right, it's complicated.
Anyway, we're talking about the moons of Jupiter, which is named after a Roman god.
Now, there typically isn't a god for moons of other planets, but we have named them after different people in mythology.
Jupiter is the Roman god of the sky and thunder.
He's usually compared to the Greek god Zeus.
They did that a lot, actually.
Hera, for instance, was considered to be similar to the goddess Juno, Jupiter's wife, the goddess of love, marriage, and childbirth.
Exactly.
And naming the planets after the gods is a tradition that actually starts with the Babylonians, who influenced the Egyptians and the Greeks straight on through to the Romans and us.
For example, the Babylonians named the planet that we call Venus after their goddess Ishtar.
Who was equated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Roman goddess Venus, which is what we call the planet today.
Oh, the Oracle left some notes for me.
Let's see.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.
Earth could fit inside it 1,300 times, and it is larger than all the other planets combined.
That's huge.
Wow, this is kind of making me dizzy, Rickicle.
I mean, to be honest, space kind of freaks me out in general.
I mean, it's so big and empty, and the vastness of space...
There are no snakes in space.
Really?
There are no snakes in space?
Et tu, Rick Riordan?
Wow.
It says here in my contract I have to mention snakes at least twice.
Of course it does.
Anyway, let's move on to our first myth, Ganymede.
Now, Ganymede was a man who was just tending to the royal sheep in his homeland of Troy.
Ganymede was actually a prince of Troy, but at the time, the world had a lot of princes, and he had some brothers who were first in line for the throne, so he really wasn't all that important.
His job was sheep.
And that might have been the end of it.
But Ganymede had a problem.
He was hot.
A looker, a snack, a hunk.
He was good-looking.
Too good-looking, in fact.
In Greek mythology, this is usually bad news.
You are right, Rick Riordan.
This can be a real issue for mortals.
Oftentimes, the gods are jealous of good-looking humans.
Or the gods wind up falling in love with them, and it ruins their lives.
This happened to Andromeda of Ethiopia, Cassandra of Troy, Helen of Sparta, many others.
The gods wouldn't leave them alone because they were all beautiful.
And Ganymede was the most beautiful mortal on earth in his day.
So when Zeus spied Ganymede, he fell in love and wanted him up on Mount Olympus too.
Have you all seen this guy?
He said he's incredibly good looking.
I mean, you know.
This is not a new look for Zeus.
No, it is not.
Zeus is always falling in love with mortals and ruining their lives.
It's kind of one of his things.
Remember, listeners, just because Zeus is the king of the gods doesn't make him smart or good or right.
Because what Zeus does next...
That's called kidnapping.
Yeah, Zeus sent an eagle down to the plain where Ganymede was shepherding in blissful ignorance.
The bird flew closer and closer and closer to Ganymede until he was like, yeah, huh, that's a weird bird.
I wonder what it's, whoa!
In a moment, the eagle wrapped its talons around the man's shoulders and lifted him up into the sky.
But what about my sheep?
He flew Ganymede up and up and up past the clouds all the way up to the top of Mount Olympus, the home of the gods.
Welcome, Zeus boomed.
I bet you're wondering what you're doing here.
Well, you're just so good looking that we all thought you belonged up here with us.
You're welcome.
Now, this must have been a real whirlwind for Ganymede.
I mean, taken from his homeland, his family and his sheep.
But you don't argue with the gods.
Uh, thank you, Ganymede said.
So what do you want me to do?
The gods had just the job for this handsome man.
Official cup bearer.
Which, if I'm being totally honest with you, sounds like a totally fake job.
Hi, it's Rick Riordan again.
Actually, in ancient times, the role of the cupbearer was an important and honored one in a noble household.
So he basically ran back and forth to the fridge bringing Zeus sodas all day?
I mean, that sounds like an easy gig, but you know.
In the past, people who were in power were constantly concerned about being poisoned by their enemies.
So, having a trusted person get you drinks was kind of essential.
Oh, I get it.
Okay.
And if you recall, Zeus had poisoned his own father in order to get his siblings back.
So it would make sense for Zeus to be worried about this.
Right.
OK, so if you really wanted to be the king, how hard would it be to sneak into the kitchen and pour a little poison into the king's nectar?
So a cup bearer would not only pour the beverages, but also have a sip of the drink first to make sure it was safe, right?
Exactly.
That person needed to be very trustworthy.
Although the gods were immortal, they still wanted someone to take care of this task, someone to pour ambrosia, the nectar of the gods that kept them immortal.
That someone would be Ganymede.
In return, Ganymede could also drink ambrosia, achieving eternal youth and immortality.
Well, meanwhile, back on Earth, Ganymede's family mourned his loss.
They had no idea where the bizarre eagle flew him off to.
And Zeus actually took pity on them.
He offered them two beautiful horses in exchange.
Just as a side note, stealing people is not okay.
Even if you offer two beautiful horses in return.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
So not a fair trade, right?
I mean, horses for a beloved family member?
Bad deal.
So Zeus offered one more consolation.
He'd place Ganymede among the stars in the night sky where his family could always see him.
Today, we know that as the constellation Aquarius, sometimes called the Water Bearer.
Ganymede is also the name of Jupiter's largest moon.
The moon Ganymede is larger than the planet Mercury.
It is the largest moon in our solar system, and scientists suspect...
That there is a saltwater ocean under the surface of Ganymede that is ten times deeper than the oceans of Earth.
So, Ganymede got to live forever on Mount Olympus serving drinks to the gods, and he has a salty moon named after him?
I guess that's a good deal.
I mean, I generally don't feel good about that one, but if Ganymede is happy, I'm happy for him.
We'll let you decide after you hear what happened to a few more of Zeus's crushes.
I'm feeling a commercial break right now.
I think this is a good place to take a moment.
We'll get a break.
We'll come back with more Greeking Out in just a little bit.
What if the fairy tales you thought you knew weren't the real stories?
What if I told you that the real Grimm fairy tales were often dark and scary and gross, and that I was telling them on Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest to a classroom
Full of kids who like to interrupt me and make jokes and annoy me and basically make my life miserable.
Season six of Grim Grimmer Grimmest is now releasing exclusively on the Pinna app.
So do you want to hear a real grim fairy tale?
Okay, thanks for that.
And now we're back with more Greeking Out.
Up next, Io.
She was a priestess devoted to Hera, Zeus' wife.
Io tended to Hera's temple and oversaw ceremonies dedicated to the goddess, and she was good at her job.
And because women in these stories always are, she was ridiculously beautiful.
Uh-oh.
Uh-oh is right.
Yeah, we can guess what happens next.
Zeus, that old gas bag, fell in love with her.
The planet Jupiter is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium.
The planet has the density of water, so calling Zeus a gas bag makes a lot of sense.
And that's definitely what I meant.
I was not in any way insulting the king of the gods.
Anyway, Zeus fell in love with Io, and at first, she tried to just ignore him.
She loved her work, and she wanted to continue to serve Hera, and she knew that any romantic involvement with Zeus would end her career and maybe her life.
This isn't a Greek mythology fact or anything, but when someone says no...
They mean no.
That's just a life fact.
Bingo.
But Zeus was persistent.
And in the end, when Hera heard about her husband trying to court one of her priestesses, it didn't really matter that Io wasn't interested.
Hera was furious.
So Zeus tried to hide Io from his wife the best way he could think of.
He transformed her into a white heifer.
A cow.
And he'd go visit her.
To hang out with her.
As a cow.
Not exactly the most romantic thing, considering one, Io didn't want to be there, and two, this meant Io could no longer work on the temple or, you know, like, be a person.
She was just a cow, you know?
Overall, Io's life got a lot worse after tangling with Zeus.
And guess what?
It didn't even work!
Hera knew she'd lost one of her priestesses, a really beautiful one, and she quickly put two and two together that the cow that Zeus was hanging out with all the time probably wasn't just like, you know, a random cow.
So one day, clever Hera approached her husband.
Oh, Zeus, she said, you know what I've always wanted?
A beautiful cow, a lovely cow to keep in my pasture and look at and, you know, just have around.
It's been my lifelong dream.
Can I have a cow?
In fact, can I have that cow?
She pointed to the beautiful white heifer down on Earth.
Now Zeus was caught, and he knew it.
His mind raced, trying to find a way out.
I mean, did Hera know something?
Or did she really just want a cow?
If he even hesitated, she would know something was up, so...
Of course, that cow means nothing to me.
Totally just regular cow.
It's yours.
You have it.
Take it.
Maybe Zeus thought he'd still be able to visit Io when Hera wasn't looking, but Hera was smarter than he was.
Hera called upon Argus Panoptes, a.k.a.
All-Seeing Argus.
This guy was the best watchman ever because he was a giant and he was covered in 100 eyes all over his body.
Plus, Hera cast a spell over him so that he'd never fall asleep.
Argus would sit by Io the Cow and make sure that Zeus never came around.
And so, the cow and the hundred-eyed giant sat down beneath an olive tree.
But not for long.
Zeus was not going to leave Io alone so easily.
He ordered Hermes, messenger of the gods, to get down there and do something about this.
So Hermes disguised himself as a human shepherd and approached the pair.
He was whistling a tune absentmindedly as though he were just an ordinary guy out for a walk.
But the song was magic.
It lulled Argus to sleep, and each of his hundred eyes became heavy.
As the song continued, the giant fell into a deep, deep slumber.
And while the giant slept, Hermes approached and killed him.
Io was free.
She could go wherever she wished.
But she was still a cow.
And of course, Hera saw all of this happening.
To reward Argus, her faithful guard for his service, she preserved his hundred eyes on the feathers of the peacock, which was her symbol.
Oh, I know a cool fact about peacocks.
Peacocks are male peafowl.
The females are called peahens.
Peahens have light brown feathers.
Oh, cool.
Bird facts are always appreciated.
Anyway, even after all this back and forth, Hera was still determined to punish her former priestess for betraying her.
So she sent a gadfly, a fly that bites livestock, to torment Io.
Zeus and Hera really keep one-upping each other, huh?
Yeah, they're definitely a weird pair.
Not exactly a healthy relationship.
And they like to make it everyone else's problem, too.
For many years, Ayo wandered the forests, mountains, and hillsides of Greece, and the fly troubled her everywhere she went.
Biting her skin, making her itch.
Her cow tail wasn't long enough to swat the enchanted fly, and having hooves instead of hands, she couldn't even scratch herself.
Poor Ayo couldn't escape the tireless pest no matter what she did.
Nearly out of her mind, Io actually jumped into the sea off the west coast of Greece.
She swam, peddling her hooves as hard as she could.
At last,
She was somewhat relieved from the biting fly.
I mean, he couldn't bother the parts of her that were beneath the water anyway.
And the fly followed her for a while, but the cow kept swimming and swimming.
For miles and miles and miles she swam until the shore disappeared behind her.
Finally, the fly gave up and returned to Greece.
But Io kept swimming.
Hi, Rick Riordan here with a cow fact.
Cows are naturally good swimmers.
In 2019, three cows in North Carolina were swept out to sea during a hurricane.
They swam up to five miles back to shore.
Well, Io swam hundreds of miles at least because she kept moving until she reached the shores of Egypt.
Today, the sea off of Greece's west coast is called the Ionian Sea in her honor.
Okay.
Once on the shores of Egypt, the magical spell lifted and Io was human again.
While she was in Egypt, she gave birth to a son.
And that is how hardworking Io escaped the clutches of the dueling married god couple and lived out the rest of her days in Egypt.
So basically...
Zeus just upended her whole entire life, made her suffer for years, and in the end, all she got was a sea and a moon named after her.
The moon Io is the most volcanically active celestial body in our solar system.
It has hundreds of volcanoes.
Some of them spew lava dozens of miles high.
That seems kind of like an angry moon.
I like that for Io.
And according to Ovid, she was worshipped as a version of the goddess Isis in Egypt.
So you could say in Egypt, she transformed into her best self.
Nice.
I like that even more for her.
Now, the last moon myth we're going to talk about today is the tale of Europa.
She was a princess of Phoenicia, a region that's now part of Lebanon.
And of course, she was beautiful.
Absolutely right, Rick, Rick, Rick, Rick, Rick, Rick, whatever, what he said.
Yes, beauty.
We could be talking about any of her personality traits, any of her accomplishments or hobbies, but all the gods really care about is beauty.
I feel bad for any and all attractive people in ancient Greece, actually.
Anyway...
One day, the princess was lounging on the seashore with her attendants when Zeus laid his eyes on her and, once again, immediately fell in love, of course.
But this time, he wanted to try a new strategy.
Maybe he got the idea from his romance with Io because Zeus decided to transform himself into a bull to woo the princess.
Woo!
He walked up to Europa and her attendants in all his bovine glory.
And Europa was astonished to see such a beautiful creature in front of her.
Its fur was a pale, brilliant white.
It was enormous, but oh, so gentle and calm.
Ovid goes out of his way to mention Bull Zeus's beautiful dewlap.
Wait, what's a doolop?
It's the loose skin at the throat of a bull or another animal.
Apparently, it was very beautiful.
Okay, I don't know why I asked.
Knowing doesn't make this make any more sense, but whatever.
Moving on!
Thinking that the bull looked so sweet, Europa and her maidens gave him some pets and snacks and hugged him.
They even weaved colorful flower garlands for him to wear around his neck.
It seemed to Europa that this bull might be docile enough to ride, so she climbed up on the creature's back...
And Zeus had her.
He quickly jumped into the sea and swam away with Europa.
More swimming bovines.
More kidnapping.
Yeah, it's kind of a theme, right?
Not only is Zeus doing all the bad things here, he is also not exactly an innovator in the space.
He stole the princess from her home in Phoenicia and took her to the Greek island of Crete.
And he stayed with her there a while, but eventually abandoned her, leaving her with a few gifts.
He left her the automaton Talos to protect her.
An automaton is like an ancient robot, a machine that does a task by itself.
In fact, by the fourth century BCE, Greek engineers were making all sorts of mechanical creations, including robotic servants and flying models of birds.
The city of Rhodes was famous for its automatons.
And there's some indication that there was a theater full of automatons in Alexandria, Egypt that put on plays.
Okay.
I did not know that they had so many robots in ancient Greece.
That is really cool.
Man, if I didn't know.
Wait, hold on, where was I?
Talos, the automaton.
Right, okay, yeah, right.
Talos the automaton was there to protect Europa.
Zeus also gave her a necklace forged by Hephaestus that ended up being cursed, so thanks a lot for that, Zeus.
He gave her a dog that would never fail to catch its prey and a javelin that would never miss.
Seems like he could have spared himself the trouble and not kidnapped her in the first place.
I know, right?
I mean, that would have been the right thing to do, but apparently not the Zeus thing to do.
Anyway, our girl Europa became queen of Crete, so things turned out okay for her despite everything.
And in honor of this, Zeus created a representation of himself as a bull in the stars, and this became the constellation Taurus.
Why did he do that?
My only guess, he's self-centered and wanted to congratulate himself for stealing a person and overall being a really bad boyfriend and an even worse husband.
Zeus, he'll take your job, upend your life.
And turned himself into a constellation to celebrate.
Yeah, but at least Europa also got to be a moon.
Scientists think Europa the moon also might have a salty sea beneath its icy surface, as well as an atmosphere composed mostly of oxygen.
That makes it a candidate for finding life beyond Earth.
That's actually super cool.
And also, her name might be where we get the word Europe, right?
So the last of Jupiter's four largest moons is named after Callisto.
We've told her story before.
I have a note here that says the episode is called Stories of the Stars.
Yes, thank you, Rick, Rick, Rick, Mr. Riordan, Rick, whatever.
For the full story, check out that episode.
She was a follower of Artemis.
Zeus fell in love with her.
And as punishment, she was turned into a bear and later became the constellation Ursa Major.
Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto.
Four people who were just living their lives, minding their own business, and Zeus had to pull them into his orbit.
Literally.
Those four moons were the first moons discovered beyond our Earth.
They're called the Galilean moons after the astronomer who first found them in 1610 CE.
Oh, that is cool.
Jupiter has up to 95 known moons.
And we certainly do not have time for all 95 stories today.
But we've got to talk about one more.
Space fact.
Even though Zeus Jupiter gets to live up there in space with all his crushes rotating around him, NASA has their eye on him.
In 2016, a NASA probe entered orbit around Jupiter to study the planet.
The probe's name...
Was Juno.
Juno, like the Roman goddess associated with Hera?
Yep.
They sent Hera to check on him.
I love that for him.
I really do.
Nice.
So, Rickicle, how did you like filling in for the Oracle?
I think I did an okay job.
No, I'd say you did a great job.
I mean, you know, honestly, if you ever wanted... Snakes.
I'm sorry?
I promised the Oracle I'd say two things about snakes, and now my work here is done.
Yeah, okay.
Well, yeah, snakes.
Yeah, forget what I was saying before.
It's snakes.
Yay, snakes.
And thank you, Rick Riordan.
Way to go, Rick and Cole.
Thanks for listening.
Special thanks to Rick Riordan, who played himself this episode.
Check out his new book in the Percy Jackson series, Wrath of the Triple Goddess, available wherever books are sold.
Listen and you'll see it's Rick and Cole.
This episode of National Geographic Kids Greeking Out was written by Allison Shaw, a Nat Geo Kids magazine editor, and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the Oracle of Wi-Fi.
Audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam, and our theme song was composed by Perry Grip.
Dr. Adria Haluska was our subject matter expert.
Emily Burkett and Lori Broda are our producers, and Emily Everhart is our senior producer.
