What They Left Out

What we call Greek mythology is a palimpsest — layer upon layer of editorial decisions made over centuries. The myths we inherit are not the myths the Greeks told.

Survival itself was selective. A myth lived on only if someone chose to copy it, and the most disturbing stories were the first to be quietly dropped. We often know the tame version of a tale simply because the raw one was never written down again.

When you meet a Greek myth, ask who preserved it and why. The smoothed-over story usually hides an older, stranger one underneath that still shapes Western culture in ways most people never notice.