古希腊掌管××的神gǔ xī là zhǎng guǎn … de shén

The ancient Greek god of X

gǔ xī là zhǎng guǎn shuì jiào de shén.古希腊掌管睡觉的神。The ancient Greek god of sleep.

古希腊掌管××的神 means “the ancient Greek god in charge of X”. You fill in the X to call someone the best at one thing, or, as a joke, the worst.

Took off: 2024
Started in: A game discussion
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

掌管 means “to be in charge of”. Greek myths have a god for almost everything, so the pattern makes anyone the god of their one special thing: 古希腊掌管奶茶的神, “the ancient Greek god of milk tea”.

It started as praise and is now often teasing. 语言文字周报 gives the example of a friend whose cooking is always too salty: he is 古希腊掌管食盐的神, “the ancient Greek god of salt”.

How people use it

It is common. Anything fits after 掌管: a skill, a food, a bad habit. Used about yourself, it is a light boast.

灯灯

我的电脑又开不了机了
wǒ de diàn nǎo yòu kāi bu liǎo jī le
My computer won’t turn on again.
找小王啊，他什么都会修
zhǎo xiǎo wáng a, tā shén me dōu huì xiū
Ask Xiao Wang. He can fix anything.
修好了！就用了五分钟！
xiū hǎo le! jiù yòng le wǔ fēn zhōng!
Fixed! It took him five minutes!
他就是古希腊掌管电脑的神
tā jiù shì gǔ xī là zhǎng guǎn diàn nǎo de shén
He’s the ancient Greek god of computers.
[Sticker] Medjed, the ancient Egyptian god, staring

More examples

我同事三分钟就能修好打印机，简直是古希腊掌管打印机的神。
wǒ tóng shì sān fēn zhōng jiù néng xiū hǎo dǎ yìn jī, jiǎn zhí shì gǔ xī là zhǎng guǎn dǎ yìn jī de shén.
My coworker can fix the printer in three minutes. The ancient Greek god of printers.
他每天睡十二个小时，是古希腊掌管睡觉的神。
tā měi tiān shuì shí èr gè xiǎo shí, shì gǔ xī là zhǎng guǎn shuì jiào de shén.
He sleeps twelve hours a day. He’s the ancient Greek god of sleep.

Where it came from

According to 语言文字周报, it began in a discussion about a video game, where people put a joke caption that started with 古埃及, “ancient Egyptian”, on a picture of the Egyptian god Medjed. Egypt later became Greece, because more people know the Greek myths.

In December 2024 语言文字周报 put it on its list of the ten top internet phrases of the year.

Detail of an ancient Egyptian papyrus: the god Medjed, a tall rounded shape with two eyes and two feet, between a bird and a kneeling woman — The original meme image. Medjed on the Greenfield Papyrus (Book of the Dead of Nestanebetisheru, about 950 BC), British Museum; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source

Sources

The Paper: the phrases of 2024 (in Chinese) (m.thepaper.cn)
Woshipm: the phrases of 2024 (in Chinese) (woshipm.com)
RealTime Mandarin, December 2024 (realtimemandarin.substack.com)

Checked November 2026. The picture at the top is our own drawing of 灯灯. The original meme image belongs to its owner and is shown to explain the meme. To ask us to remove it, write to legal@dengdeng.app.