Zeus
Article
Zeus is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 4 times across 4 issues between June 07, 2022 and November 12, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “Like a character in a Greek tragedy saying that not even Zeus can harm him”; “Zeus’ forehead”; “the statue in Babylon, which was called the statue of Zeus”. It most often appears alongside Athens, Alexandria, Athena.
Metadata
- Category: People
- Mention count: 4
- Issue count: 4
- First seen: June 07, 2022
- Last seen: November 12, 2024
Appears In
- My Bet: AI Size Solves Flubs
- Your Book Review: Njal’s Saga
- Book Review: The Alexander Romance
- Book Review: The Rise Of Christianity
Related Pages
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- Athens (3 shared issues)
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- Alexandria (2 shared issues)
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- Athena (2 shared issues)
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- Christianity (2 shared issues)
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- God (2 shared issues)
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- Greek (2 shared issues)
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- Jesus (2 shared issues)
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- Norway (2 shared issues)
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- Rome (2 shared issues)
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- Russia (2 shared issues)
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- Syria (2 shared issues)
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- 1 Peter 3 (1 shared issues)
External Links
None.
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
And when I do this, “Gary Marcus post talking about how some AI isn’t real intelligence because it can’t do X, Y, and Z” feels like a concerning sign. Like a character in a Greek tragedy saying that not even Zeus can harm him. Or a billionaire investor saying we’ve entered a new paradigm where recessions are impossible.
And cites as evidence for this the birth of Athena herself, who was born parthenogenetically from Zeus’ forehead. This is dubious even within the context of Greek mythology - the modern synthesis says that Zeus had previously swallowed his pregnant consort Metis - but presumably Aeschylus was working from different sources. In any case, Athena herself endorses this description, so it’s Word of God(dess) for this play.
When Alexander [said his last goodbye to his horse Bucephalus], the whole army howled, making a tremendous noise. The treacherous slave who had prepared the poison and who had plotted against their lives thought that Alexander was dead, and came running to see. When Bucephalus saw him, he cast off his morose and dejected look, and, just as if he were a rational, even a clever man - I suppose it was done through Providence above - he avenged his master. He ran into the midst of the crowd, seized the slave in his teeth, and dragged him to Alexander; he shook him violently and gave a loud whinny to show that he was going to have his revenge. Then he took a great leap into the air, dragging the treacherous and deceitful slave with him, and smashed him against the ground. The slave was torn apart; bits of him flew all over everyone like snow falling off a roof in the wind. The horse got up, neighed a little, and then fell down before Alexander and breathed his last. Alexander smiled at him. Then the air was filled with mist, and a great star was seen descending from the sky, accompanied by an eagle; and the statue in Babylon, which was called the statue of Zeus, trembled. When the star ascended again to the sky, accompanied by the eagle, and had disappeared, Alexander fell into his eternal sleep.
Search for meaning. In some cities, 50% of the population died. The survivors must have been shell-shocked and looking for some sort of meaning behind it all. Paganism had nothing for them - “sorry, we don’t do that kind of thing, would you like to hear another story about Zeus raping a woman and turning her into an animal?” Christians, who had wise words about how God tests the faithful and sometimes brings people to Heaven before their time, must have been a vastly superior alternative.