Mythologies are powerful tools for storywriters.They provide a vast foundation of stories that many readers are already familiar with and that the writer can build off of, and they provide an immediate emotional connection because of the associations developed within readers over a lifetime of reading other stories referencing these mythologies. At the same time, using mythologies deepens and emphasizes the message of the writer where the story and mythology differ – because there are such deep established interpretations of myths, it is an immediately noticeable contrast when a writer diverges from the traditional presentation to provide a new perspective.
This mechanic is not unique to traditional novels, however. Other media can just as easily use the vast library of mythos to create a narrative or thematic foundation and then build from that in unique ways. However, different media can accomplish this through different methods – this holds especially true for games. While games can have many of the narrative methods of conveyance that other media do – such as dialogue, visual iconography, and structural layout – they also have the unique element of interactivity. In Mark Wolf’s essay “Genre and the Video Game,” Wolf presents the interactivity between the player and the game as a unique lens that can be applied to the distinction and analysis of game genres. Genre is very functionally similar to mythology in this scenario, in that both provide a wealth of works that are similar in some aspects and thus provide an opportunity for a work to both build from their foundation and also diverge to emphasize new interpretations. Thus, the lens of interactivity is also a very useful tool in examining how games use mythology. (And, I’d like to clarify, I’m not using interactivity as a totally ludologically-focused lens: it is my understanding that more narrative aspects, such as how the player’s interpretation of narrative or visual style are affected by the methods of interaction, are equally important to interactivity analysis) Having thus armed ourselves with a new analytical weapon, we come to the question: Do games build from existing mythologies in the same ways as other media, or does interactivity create an entirely new way for games to converse with their inspiring mythologies? I would like to claim that games both use traditional methods to their fullest extent and also create unique methods of building from mythologies through interactivity at the same time. To do this, we can examine the game Hades – released in 2018 by Supergiant Games, this dungeon-crawler adventure roguelike interacts with mythology by placing the player in the Greek underworld and creating evolving stories and relationships between the player and various characters from Greek mythology. This makes it an excellent case study for the use of mythology in games.
Hades uses Greek mythology to help establish its world powerfully with the player. Many people are familiar with at least some myths of the Greek underworld – in modern myth-inspired series like Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan it features as a dangerous location in the hero’s journey; several ancient stories and their contemporary counterparts describe the fiery geography of Hades; and commonly taught ancient Greek stories such as The Odyssey by Homer draw on the spirits of the underworld as characters in their tales. Immediately the dark, flaming environment of the game Hades recollects these stories and conveys the terrible weight of this purgatory. The game works with this atmosphere by drawing on this established imagery of hell, and also uses game-unique, often non-diegetic methods such as the overbearing “There is no escape” message to enhance this feeling.
At the same time, Hades also creates a unique interpretation of the mythology, just as any other story that isn’t just a retelling of the myths would. One of the biggest divergences is that Hades portrays mythological characters long after the events that the myths told of. For instance, in the original myths Orpheus tried to bring his lover Eurydice back from the realm of the dead, but in the end a slip of doubt caused him to fail. The traditional tales end the story at around this point, explaining simply that Eurydice remained dead and Orpheus later also died after a short continuation of despair. However, in Hades, the player encounters both of these characters long after their initial deaths. Orpheus is found in the lobby of the House of Hades, devastated by despair and unable to even play one of the songs he was once famous for singing. In contrast, Eurydice is found singing and brewing stews in the Fields of Asphodel, and greets the player with a warm welcome in every encounter. Hades adds new life to a couple that the original tales consigned to an unhappy ending, and it presents the idea that they could go on even separated, when their myths focused on how their bond was everything to them. Perhaps most interestingly, Hades implies a continuation of their stories regardless of the player. In stories about Orpheus and Eurydice, the events are presented for the benefit of the audience, moments deemed unimportant to the audience’s experience are ignored, and the story must end by the last page. However, in the game, the player encounters both of these characters in the midst of other tasks. They both speak with the player, but they continue on without the player as well – the game’s processes direct them to continue brewing or brooding even when they leave the player’s field of vision, and if the player ever leaves for a time and then returns, the two characters will still be found going about their lives and not following the strict path of a story made for the audience. This perspective is not only novel and divergent from the mythos, but it is one that could only be conveyed to such effect through a game.
Thus, Hades performs to excellence the traditional media methods of conversing with mythology. It uses the characters, environments, and tales of the ancient myths through visual establishment of setting, dialogue, and written recounts of legends to build on and diverge from the themes of the traditional mythology. At the same time, it also converses with the mythology in ways unique to games. Through non-diegetic visual and aural details, the implications of processes that continue with or without the player, and other game-unique mechanics, Hades utilizes and complicates the interpretations of ancient Greek myths in a way that other media pieces could not. Games offer new ways of creating interpretations with the audience, and these tools become even more interesting when combined with culturally potent mythologies and other time-established narrative techniques.
