My Greek Mythology Headcanons (Part 2)
Hey everyone! I previously shared 7 of my headcanons, and today I wanted to share 5 more. If you'd like to share yours in the comments, feel free!
I imagine the Gorgon goat (Hyginus Astronomica 2.13) as having a goat's body, a boar's head with snakes on its head (so that it still has an animal appearance but based on the Gorgon), and finally with bright eyes (because it is the daughter of Helios).
Medus, son of Aegeus and Medea (Diodoro Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 4.55.5-7; Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.9.28; Pausanias 2.3.8), is the same as Medeus, son of Jason and Medea (Hesiod, Theogony 988-101; Pausanias 2.3.8). In my headcanon, Medus was conceived before Medea fled Corinth for Athens, and upon marrying Aegeus, she passed him off as the son of her second husband (by making it appear as if she had been born prematurely or by magically delaying her pregnancy).
In one version (Hyginus Fabulae 154), Phaethon is not the son of Helios but his grandson, through Clymenus (husband of the nymph Merope, and father of the Phaethonides). My headcanon is that Clymenus's mother (who is never named) is Clytie, the nymph who loved Helios and was transformed into a heliotrope (sharing the same fate as her supposed granddaughters, the Phaethonides, of becoming a plant).
Diodorus mentions that Saon, the first king of Samothrace, is the son of Hermes and Rhene (Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 5.48.1). My headcanon is that this Hermes is the same as Cadmilus [identified with Hermes in Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3.373–4.292]. Therefore, Saon would be a brother of the Cabeiri, or even part of the Cabeiri themselves (Strabo, Geography 10.3.19).
Deianira, Heracles' second wife, wears a leopard skin, a gift from her divine father Dionysus (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 64; Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 129), to match Heracles' lion skin.