50 Funny Myth Memes That May Have You Laughing Like Hades At Family Drama

The word Mythology comes from the Greek words "mythos," which means story-of-the-people, and "logos," which translates to speech. Basically, it's the spoken story of a people.

Myths weren't really meant to be funny. The stories were created to teach people about something important and meaningful. Often, concepts that were hard to understand. Like illness and death, or earthquakes and floods. Good and evil; the meaning of suffering; human origins; the origin of place-names, animals, cultural values, and traditions; the meaning of life; the afterlife; and of course, celestial stories of the gods or a god.

The Ancient Greeks believed that gods and goddesses controlled every aspect of every person's life. And therefore, they prayed to the gods for help and protection.

They also offered up gifts for them, always trying to stay in the good books. If the gods were unhappy with someone, they would mete out punishment. Or so the Greeks thought.

In case some of the memes have flown over your head, or you've forgotten who is who, here's a quick refresher:

Zeus was the leader of the gods, and believed to be in charge of rain and the sky. Hera was his wife, and the goddess of marriage and childbirth. Poseidon was the god of the sea. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and Hades was the god of the Underworld, where the dead lived. Ares was known as god of war and battle.

One of the most well-known Greek myths is that of Demeter, goddess of grain and the harvest, and her daughter Persephone, the Queen of the Dead.

"In this story, Persephone is kidnapped by Hades, god of the underworld, and brought down to his dark realm. Demeter searches desperately everywhere for the maiden but cannot find her," explains the World History site.

"During this time of Demeter's sorrow, the crops fail and people starve and the gods are not given their due. Zeus, king of the gods, orders Hades to restore Persephone to her mother and Hades obliges but, because Persephone has eaten a certain number of pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, she has to spend half the year below the earth but could enjoy the other half with her mother in the world above."

If you read between the lines, the story explains how the seasons change in Greece.

"When it was warm and the fields were bountiful, Persephone was with her mother and Demeter was happy and causes the world to bloom; in the cold and rainy season, when Persephone was below the earth with Hades as his queen, Demeter mourned and the land was barren," the site explains.

The myth also breaks down how people learned to cultivate the earth.

Some other well-known myths include that the one about a woman called Pandora, who opened up a box full of all the bad things in the world, and let them out. That's where the "Pandora's box" phrase comes from.

The Theseus and the Minotaur myth is about a prince who chases a monster through a labyrinth to save the woman he loves. While the one about two inventors called Icarus and Daedalus follows them as they try to build wings in order to fly away from prison.

Then, there's Perseus and the Gorgon. This myth is about a man called Perseus who has to deal with a woman who has the ability to turn people into stone, just by looking at them.