Flavor Wins of Theros #2: Titan of Eternal Fire is Chained to the Rocks

This time we're going to double dip on Flavor Wins of Theros with Titan of Eternal Fire and Chained to the Rocks.

I wonder who gets chained to the rocks...

Titan of Eternal Fire is a riff on Prometheus. Prometheus was one of the Titans, the generation that ruled before Zeus other threw Chronos, his father and notorious baby eater, and brought about the rule of the traditional Greek Gods. This is important because it basically casts Prometheus as a traitor to his people to fight with the Gods. 

Not the first Prometheus to betray people.

But Prometheus loved us. Us being humans. You see in Greek Mythology we didn't always have fancy things like Tools or even Fire. We were huddling naked, cold and alone, pretty much existing to give Zeus something to have sex with that wasn't his wife. And Prometheus didn't think that this was good enough for humanity. So he stole fire and gave it to the humans, and in some versions brought them enlightenment with it, creating arts and music. Music being represented by pinging for a red.

But this left Zeus pretty unhappy. Like chain a guy to a mountaintop unhappy. Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock with eagles to tear at his liver until Zeus saw fit to release him. Then he forgot all about it, probably because he was busy having sex with women while in the form of a swan or something else equally ridiculous.

So was that it for Prometheus? Of course not, the Greeks weren't one to leave a plot thread dangling, even if it took them a while to work it out. Prometheus was eventually freed from his chains by everyone's favorite oaf Hercules!

Nope, still not this guy.

Herc was on his way by while doing the 11th of his twelve Labors, gather golden apples, he found Prometheus chained to his rock with an eagle eating his liver and did what any sane person would do. He killed the eagle. Then he talked to Promethues and let him know that he had no idea where the apples were or how to get them. Lucky for Herc Prometheus knew where he needed to go and even walked him through the trickery he'd need to execute to get them. Hercules breaks the chains free with his freakish demigod strength and Prometheus was free!

Flavor Wins of Theros #1: Hercules and the Lion

The new Magic: The Gathering set is almost out and its shaping up to be one of the sweetest sets for Flavor in years. One of the coolest things is that so many of the cards are pulled directly from Greek Mythology. Cards like Fleecemane Lion.

But while you might think that thanks to the name Fleecemane its a reference to Jason, The Argonauts, and the quest for the Golden Fleece I think you'd be wrong. It's totally a Hercules riff.

No, not this guy.

The first Labor of Hercules was to kill the Nemeian Lion, a seemingly invulnerable lion that had been stalking... Nemea. Hercules found that both arrows and clubs were unable to damage the beast, so he did what any idiot would do. He went into hand to hand with a freaking monster lion and god damned choked it to death. Hercules was many, many things but he wasn't a quitter. Or overly intelligent. And to add insult to injury some versions say that he skinned the bastard and wore him as a cloak after.

Nah, it was no big deal. Lemmie tell you
about the snake in my nursery...

And this was just Herc's first Labor. It's also not the only one that gets referenced in Theros, but that'll be for another post.