So in mythology, most gods and goddesses are immortal. But you can't really live once you have your head cut off.
So, specifically Greek mythology, what would happen if your head got cut off, and you were an Olympian or lesser god??
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6Kronos was chopped into pieces and scattered across Tartarus, but it's specifically noted that said trip through the celestial Cuisinart did not kill him. (Some stories later have it that Kronos was released from Tartarus and set to rule over the Isle of the Blessed.) If being julienned isn't enough to kill an immortal, mere decapitation probably isn't either. Not to mention all the divine cannibalism that went on.– Lauren-Clear-Monica-IpsumCommented Feb 14, 2016 at 23:53
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Cuisinart? You mean Chef Ramsey in Hell's Kitchen!– Anthony PhamCommented Feb 15, 2016 at 1:49
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@C.M.Weimer Done. I only posted it as a comment because I couldn't locate any sources for Zeus's slice-and-dice. The story is repeated in many places and on many wikis, but I can't put my finger on the original.– Lauren-Clear-Monica-IpsumCommented Feb 15, 2016 at 19:19
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@C.M.Weimer The stories I've seen don't say that Zeus decapitated Kronos. They say that Zeus chopped him up into pieces and scattered the pieces. (How the pieces were then knit back into one being isn't mentioned.) The problem is that I've seen many references to this sequence, but not "Hesiod says in Theogony..."– Lauren-Clear-Monica-IpsumCommented Feb 16, 2016 at 1:56
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Why is this primarily opinion based?– blehCommented Mar 15, 2016 at 18:37
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4 Answers
Zeus didn't have his head chopped off, but one could argue that the damage from having an adult armored female inside his head, which was removed by cracking open his skull should be equally lethal or incapacitating. Yet all he felt was a headache.
Born from his sacred head, in battle-array ready dight, Golden, all glistering. Fear took hold of them all at the sight-- Them, the Immortals; but she, before Zeus of the Ægis-shield, Burst and flashed and leaped in birth from the deathless head, Shaking a sharp-edged spear.
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Reasonable answer, but in the future, use more credible sources next time. See meta.mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/105/…– blehCommented Mar 15, 2016 at 16:47
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1I hope this addition is good enough. Thank you for the advice.– 169134Commented Mar 16, 2016 at 11:16
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I personally think this is the best answer. The operation performed on Zeus' head wasn't exactly surgery and must've been ghastly. It also is the closest example we have of a full-fledged deity in Greek mythology losing his/her head.– AdinkraCommented Jun 19, 2016 at 18:04
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This type of brain surgery (trepanning) was written about by Hippocrates and is believed to date to the Neolithic period. Thus, the idea of brain surgery to relieve the pressure on Zeus' skull per Athena was not radical nor considered fatal.– DukeZhouCommented Mar 31, 2017 at 20:22
Kronos was chopped into pieces and scattered across Tartarus, but it's specifically noted that said trip through the celestial Cuisinart did not kill him. (Some stories later have it that Kronos was released from Tartarus and set to rule over the Isle of the Blessed.) If being julienned isn't enough to kill an immortal, mere decapitation probably isn't either. Not to mention all the divine cannibalism that went on.
answered Feb 15, 2016 at 19:17
Lauren-Clear-Monica-IpsumLauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
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Well, titans are a lot more powerful than Olympians. I made an edit to see if there is a credible source on actual gods and not Titans. (sorry for misunderstanding)– blehCommented Feb 15, 2016 at 21:12
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1@bleh "Well, titans are a lot more powerful than Olympians" [citation-needed]– yannisCommented Feb 15, 2016 at 21:45
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1Love the handle "Lauren Ipsum," by the way :-) There simply is no instance in the original mythology of Kronos ever having chopped up (much less even suffered an injury during the 9-year-long Titans' War) by anyone; nor does any such thing ever happen to any other Titan. (The closest example of this is the Titaness Aura ripping apart and devouring one of the twin boys whom she bears to the god Dionysus but the baby's paternity technically makes him a non-Titan.)– AdinkraCommented Jun 19, 2016 at 18:16
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1As for the divine cannibalism, there is a fair bit of that on the parts of both Kronos and Zeus [the latter of whom swallows his own wife Metis], but you'll notice that those who are devoured by these two characters are engorged whole, seemingly intact and are never consumed, perhaps because it's impossible to destroy them. The story of Zeus swallowing "Wisdom" is supposed to be an explanation for how he becomes so wise, and the idea moreover is that Metis is the one who, while stuck inside Zeus, clothes Athena with the armour and furnishes her with the weaponry with which she is born.– AdinkraCommented Jun 19, 2016 at 18:23
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1Wonderful. Let's not forget that Pelops, a mortal, was re-assembled after being chopped up and served for dinner by Tantalus, and that Dionysus was also torn apart by Titans and reborn.– DukeZhouCommented Mar 30, 2017 at 20:18
It would cause them pain, but the gods are immortal. It would likely work just like it did with Prometheus, it would just grow back. Granted, Prometheus just lost his liver every day, not his head. Also, Zeus had his skull split open to get rid of the headache that was Athena, and that worked out fine.
You really want to look at Ravana from Hindu mythology. Chopping off his head was not effective as a means of killing him (and in fact, Ravana is quite content to chop off his own heads;)
In terms of death per dismemberment, to further support Lauren Ipsum's answer, Zeus' son, Dionysus, was torn apart by titans and bounced back. ("He's a fighter" in the parlance of modern, medical dramas.) Thus, if the father of Zeus and the son of Zeus both survived dismemberment, it would be a reasonable assumption Zeus would also survive it.
Osiris was also famously dismembered and returned to life, demonstrating the ancient origin of this idea.
Norse Gods can be killed. Greek gods not so much.
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1you make a very good point about the Norse gods: They were pretty specifically cited as not being immortal or unkillable. Ragnarok is entirely about the death of the gods. Baldur was killed by mistletoe. Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 0:10