Why did Varadkar say he wanted to be Athena to Johnson's Hercules?
If you missed the meaning of this today...here it is in all its priceless glory, lol
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/09/leo-varadkar-athena-hercules-boris-johnson-why
Why did Varadkar say he wanted to be Athena to Johnson's Hercules?
<snip>...But it is perhaps her most dramatic intervention in the life of Hercules that Varadkar was obliquely referring to.
Hercules was obliged to perform the 12 labours as an act of penitence after he had descended into madness and murdered his wife, Megara, and his children. At the moment he was about to go on and kill the man who had fostered him, Amphitryon, Athena intervened. Seeing that he had gone mad, she struck Hercules down and knocked him out to prevent him causing more bloodshed and doing more damage than he had already done.
Very much what you would hope for from a friend and ally, but maybe not what you would want to hear on the international stage at a moment of tense diplomacy.
(More) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/09/leo-varadkar-athena-hercules-boris-johnson-why
