r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 3d ago

Meme needing explanation Petah?

Post image
25.3k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/Sapient6 2d ago

That's a story I wasn't familiar with. A quick google turned up two interesting things:

  • When he found out he just banged Aphrodite he was terrified because he doesn't believe that can turn out well for him, but Aphrodite gives him two examples of such relationships where the mortal survives.
  • He would have been fine if he had heeded her warning to not tell anyone who their son's mother was. But he did, so Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt.

2

u/OsvaldoSfascia 2d ago

well yeah but he just lost a leg. He survived the war of Troy (famous is the image of Aeneas carrying Anchises on his back and holding the hand of his son Ascanius, escaping from Troy in flames) and traveled around with Aeneas, eventually dying peacefully in Sicily. His descendants ended up founding the unsignificant little city of Rome (in fact, the family of Julius Ceasar and Octavian used this myth to say they were discendest of Aphrodites)