Classical Mythology Writing Prompts

“I thought the goddess of love would look…different.” The wrinkled old woman waved a dismissive hand, leaned closer, and smiled. “You are thinking of my daughter, the goddess of passion and romance. Dearie, I am the goddess of LOVE.”

You would think that the God of Death has no respect for life. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, out of all the gods, it is the God of Death who has the most respect for life, for all too often have they been forced to watch mortals throw their lives away.

Every 1000 years all of the Gods get together for a contest to see who can collect the most souls with a single catastrophic event. Last time Poseidon broke the 1M mark with a Tsunami/earthquake combo. You’re up.

Congratulations! You’re getting reborn. On the plus side, you’ll be a god/goddess. Downside, you’ll be a Greek god/goddess and Zeus is mad at you. Good luck.

In your youth you helped a group of horsemen in trouble. When the apocalypse came many years later, four vaguely familiar faces knocked on your door. They are the horsemen of the apocalypse and they offer you a place among them as the fifth horseman in thanks for your help all these years ago.

Your parents listed Hades as your godfather as a joke, That would not be an issue if it were not for the 3-headed puppy delivered to your doorstep by Persephone and Hades themselves, planning to protect you from the Olympian's shenanigans due to Zeus' bulldickery

While touring the Greek Islands on a sailboat with your friends, you pull into a grotto. As you leave, a beautiful siren appears, and seductively asks to come aboard you boat. You kindly refuse. In a fury, she demands to know why.

One day a priest prayed for a prophet and was answered by God. “I have sent thousands of prophets. They are among the writers, philosophers, activists, and scientists. Yet you have condemned them as heretics and silenced them in one form or another. Why should I send more to be ignored?”

You are perfectly immortal. You can't age, you can't get any wounds, you can survive anything, and even if the universe were to end you are immediately taken to another universe. Not because you are demi-god or a wizard, but because the god of death's daughter is in love with you.

"I am sorry, he named it WHAT!?" Said Oedipus before storming towards the afterlife that houses Sigmund Freud

When his champion returned after many years, proudly spouting off his many accomplishments, the God could only stare, dumbfounded. "What the hell do you mean you saved the world? You were supposed to destroy it!"

As the first Mars-born human draws his final breath, the Martian God of Death prepares to argue his case for ownership over his soul.

You're supposed to be the god of death, so naturally, it's a bit awkward when the rest of the gods find out you're expecting a child.

When someone dies, the afterlife they go to is determined by WHERE they died. Dying in Scandinavia sends the soul to Valhalla or Hel, but dying in Greece lands them in Hades, and so on. You have just died in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Tired of love stricken mortals making up a sizable chunk of the underworld’s traffic, Hades decides to help mortals with their love problems before Aphrodite can answer them. It turns out that mortals are a lot more satisfied with Hades’ help than with Aphrodite’s.

Like how Prometheus gave fire to man, you too have followed in his footsteps and gave fire to the corvids.

You are the child of a sea god, and a gang of pirates has just kidnapped you in order to bargain with your father and secure a safe voyage. Little do they know that your father has perished and passed his powers on to you - and the pirates have just angered the only one in charge of their fate.

You are a divorce lawyer, the best in your field. You have just received word that you will representing the Greek goddess Hera in her divorce from Zeus.

Man-eating sirens have plagued these waters for as long anyone can remember. Now, as you sail across the ocean with your crew, siren songs begin to entrance everyone on board. In a desperate move to save the others, you try something no one else has tried before; you sing along with them.

You are a sailor, however a Siren in training is trying to get you as you watch her sisters encouraging her from afar.

You are a great warrior that heroically fell in defence of your city. As a reward the gods resurrected you to be the its eternal defender. Now, centuries later, your city has been abandoned and is nothing more than rubble, but your mission remains. You will defend these ruins with your life.

It was once common knowledge that any sufficiently labyrinthine structure will eventually manifest a Minotaur at its heart. Today, your local IKEA opened its newest extension.

"Pick a god and pray" they said, and you did, praying to every god you knew. And as you did this a name popped into your mind, one you didn't recognize, yet you prayed to them all the same. In response the air stood still, like even the world had forgotten their name.

You're a deity of something small and seemingly unimportant. You're the first one the people stop praying and sacrificing to when things get dire. Oh, what fools they are.

When the truly ancient gods were rediscovered, they didn't seek vengeance on a world that had forgotten them - rather, they were happy that the humans they were so fond of remembered them once again after untold millenia of loneliness.

You are an elder god. Your followers have just summoned you to the mortal realm... to celebrate your birthday.

Adam and Eve wrote the Bible to cover up the real evil they committed that got them kicked out of Eden. This is the story of what really happened.

"I am the Bookwyrm, keeper of lost knowledge. My hoard contains encyclopedia from ancient, long dead civilizations, and love stories written in glyphs that haven't seen use in a thousand years. So tell me little morsel, what have you brought to add that's better than your flesh and bones."

The gods exist. All of them. And they walk among mankind. And the reason you know this is because you just found out your poker group is where they all gather once a week to let off steam.

You decided to take a boat out to sea in the dead of night. When the water is calm and the stars hide away in fear, an inhumanly beautiful song could be heard beneath the waves. Unfortunately for the beast, you came prepared.