The other day, I heard my eleven year old daughter watching something on her phone. I wasn’t paying attention—just background noise—until I caught some words like this:
"...was cutting off his testicles."
That stopped me cold. Probably some brain-rotting YouTuber, some clickbait nonsense designed to hijack attention. So I asked, cautiously, "What are you watching?"
She answered, without a hint of irony, "It’s about the creation of Aphrodite."
I blinked. Not what I expected.
Greek Mythology: The Original Clickbait
Turns out, Aphrodite was born from testicles. When Cronus castrated Uranus, the severed parts landed in the sea, foamed up, and out came the goddess of love. Brutality and beauty, intertwined.
And then it hit me—was Greek mythology really that different from modern YouTube?
-"God Gets Castrated—What Happens Next Will Shock You!"
-"Epic Betrayal! Son Murders Father—And a Goddess Is Born?"
-"The Dark Truth Behind Aphrodite’s Beauty—You Won’t Believe Her Origins!"
The Greeks knew how to hold an audience. They used shock value, extreme stories, unforgettable images—but they wrapped it in meaning.
The Difference Between Then and Now
Both ancient myths and modern content hook people with spectacle—but only one was meant to make them think. The Greeks used stories to explore power, fate, morality—not just to kill time.
Today, we still crave the outrageous—but we expect nothing deeper.
Maybe the problem isn’t that we seek spectacle—it’s that we don’t demand anything more from it.
And next time my daughter starts watching something weird, I’ll remember—whatever it is, it might just be the start of something profound.