Comic:The Pantheon
From CGWiki
| The Pantheon | |
|---|---|
| (image coming) | |
| Artist: | Rahball |
| Writer: | Rahball |
| Characters: | Satan, Metrobius the goatherd, Pan, Jesus, God and assorted other deties. |
| Updates: | Completed |
| Began: | 5th December, 2000. |
| Ended: | 1st April, 2005 (yes, that's a coincidence). |
| Art style: | Comic book |
| Rating: | Web-MA |
| Website | [The Pantheon Website] |
The Pantheon is about the day-to-day lives of our gods. It is chiefly concerned with the doings of Satan, who avoids being evil because he knows God wants him to, but also features deities from a range of other belief systems, including ancient Greek, Egyptian, Hindu and Islamic/pagan Arabian.
Contents |
Plot
The earliest Pantheon pages are single stand-alone episodes with a joke at the end. Multi-page storylines begin to occur as the comic progresses. Most of the comics that are found on the website have been collected into physical comic books printed by the author.
Chapters
Satan meets and makes friends with the ancient Greek god Pan. Pan is subsequently introduced to Jesus, who is actually a friend of Satan's, in spite (or perhaps because) of the fact that they should be mortal enemies. At this time, Satan also meets his mortal lover, an ancient Greek goatherd named Metrobius. The other episodes in this book tend to be concerned with What It's Really Like in the world of the gods (such as Satan's neighbourly disputes with Hades, and his explanation of why he tempted Eve and not Adam). Of particular relevance to later storylines is the revelation that mortal belief powerfully influences the divine world, as seen in the appearance of deities such as Santa Claus and William Shakespeare.
This storyline is found solely on the website and concerns the fate of fictional villains in Satan's Hell. Viewers' belief brings these characters to life and when they die, or their story finishes, they appear in the underworld like real people.
Book 2 : "Metrobius in the Underworld, Oblivion and Temptation"
Satan takes Metrobius to visit Hell, which smells strongly of sulfur. There are goings-on of a carnal nature. Subsequently, they take a trip to the curiously blank world of Oblivion, where they are caught up in the creation of the gods of the Gribble species. The subsequent storyline, "Temptation", has Satan battling his addiction to tempting mortals and reveals God's annoyance at having to find himself a new scapegoat, as well as Jesus's irresistable allure to the deities of Mount Olympus.
Book 3 : "Thoth and Ganesha Take on Humanity"
The Egyptian god Thoth and the Hindu god Ganesha meet in the Library of Alexandria and get talking. They feel that humans believing them into having silly animal heads is a sign of disrespect and that something must be done. Their solution is to put up a lot of anti-mortal posters. Unfortunately, the only one who pays attention is the lioness-headed Sekhmet, who takes it upon herself to destroy humanity, as in the real Egyptian myth.
Book 4 : "The Virgin and the Unicorn"
In which The Pantheon reaches new heights of blasphemy. Jesus's friend Artemis gives him a unicorn, but this makes his pet sheep Beryl jealous and she runs away to hide in Apollo's flock. When Jesus tries to get her back, he finds that Hermes has stolen all the sheep as a joke. Hermes, who has a massive crush on Jesus, is only too willing to return them, but... where did they go? In the process of recovering the sheep, Hermes manages to effect a heroic rescue of Beryl, which makes Jesus extremely grateful. Yes, that sort of extremely grateful. But fortunately for Christendom, Jesus has his believers' welfare foremost in his mind and it is not to be. He does find a good home for the unicorn, though.
Book 5 : "The Day of the Phallus"
A group of phallic deities, led by the Greco-Roman Priapus, attempt to have an exclusive private conference. Through the efforts of Satan, Epona and a horde of giggling nymphs, it ceases to be exclusive and private rather quickly.
Book 6 : "The Daughters of God"
The latest conflicts between Christians and Muslims send Jesus (with Satan and Metrobius in tow) in search of Allah to sort things out once and for all. But Allah is not interested in communicating with his mortals, he's still peeved that they stopped worshipping his daughters. Our heroes do their bit to effect a reconciliation.
The incomplete final storyline, in which centaurs Archibald and Horatio go to Italy to borrow the adamantine sickle Kronos once used to sever his father's genitals (a real Greek myth). They wish to use it for "an historical recreation" on Priapus, who has stolen the goddess Epona away from them. The story got bogged down in its attempt to also be a crossover with The Sinner Dragon.
Characters
Major characters
| Character | Appearance | Bio/description |
|---|---|---|
| Satan | Black hair, pointy beard, horns, goat legs, black wings, green dragon's tail. You'll recognise him. | Originally a Judaeo-Christian angel named Lucifer. He was expelled from Heaven and transformed after attacking God for deception. He spent some time making life hard for Christians, as the Devil is generally believed to do, until he realised that being Evil was only benefitting God (by giving him a convenient scapegoat). As such, he now amuses himself socialising with the gods of other belief systems and avoiding responsibility. |
| Pan | Light brown hair, big moustache, little beard, horns, goat legs, bull's tail. | The son of Hermes and... somebody. Possibly a goat. Greek god of woods and shepherds and things (and the token straight character). Generally cheerful and uncomplicated, except in the presence of the Olympian gods, who think they're too good for him because their mothers were not goats. |
| Jesus | Like they painted him in the Renaissance. | The son of God (Yahweh/Jehovah) and Mary. Technically a demi-god. Jesus's philosophy is very simple. If people would just be decent to each other, the world would be a much better place. It distresses him that people never absorb this message for more than two seconds at a time. |
| Metrobius | Short dark brown hair and beard, usually wearing a purple tunic and a flower behind his ear. In later episodes he has four parallel scars on his right cheek from an accident where Satan went postal. | Satan's current Other Half. An ancient Greek goatherd who lives in Arcadia some time after the invention of Christianity. Like Jesus, and in opposition to Satan, he likes righting wrongs and doing good. These include events that are technically far in his future, as the gods move about through time with impunity. |
| God | Again, refer to the Renaissance. | Yahweh/Jehovah refuses to acknowledge the existence of the other gods, but at the same time, he has set himself up as the most superior god for mortals to worship by using Satan as a scapegoat. He won't admit to having planned it that way, but he paints himself as the Ultimate Good and Satan as the Ultimate Evil. This has been known to cause conflict between him and his son. |
Links
- The Pantheon - home page
- Dark Lord's Garden - new comic by the same author.
- The Comics Go To Hell by Fredrik Strömberg - in which The Pantheon is honoured with a mention.
