The hit 2020 roguelike action game Hades is set in the underworld of Greek mythology. Traveling repeatedly through each of the Underworld’s procedurally-generated environs, the young god Zagreus slowly solves the mystery of his Lady Mother’s disappearance. Zagreus’ determination sets him in conflict with his foreboding father Hades, the Lord of the Underworld. With the assistance of Nyx, Goddess of the Night, Prince Zagreus grows into the power of a Chthonic God.
Unsurprisingly given Hades‘ setup, the player experiences quite a bit of Greek mythology along the way. Much of this mythology is surprisingly accurate for a video game. Hades provides surprising and satisfying epilogues for many Greek myths that players might be familiar with, as well as introducing some they might not be.
This article discusses Hades. Spoilers, including for Epilogue content, are unmarked.
10 Hades And Persephone Are Parents
The story of Hades and Persephone’s marriage is the Greek myth that narrates the changing of the seasons. Because of this, very little narrative space is given to the obvious result of marriage. It makes their combined story an incomplete cycle.
The Hugo Award-winning game takes this cycle and combines it with the fragmentary and contradicting mythic strains about the god Zagreus, whom the Greeks inherited from the Minoans. Zagreus, said to be the son of Hades, becomes the child of Hades and Persephone. Strained by an unhappy childhood, Zagreus seeks out his missing mother, kicking off the events of the game.
9 Flooding The Plains Of Asphodel With Fire
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The plains of Asphodel are where the good Greeks spend their afterlife. Neither the doers of great deeds who populate Elysium, nor the damned souls suffering in Tartarus, Asphodel is described as an eternal meadow of lush green.
Asphodel in Hades, however, is currently suffering from a flooding of fire from the River Phlegethon. And this unfortunately means that the good souls are bathed in fire and sulphur. Fiery lovers can be seen in many areas holding hands while they wait for Hades to drain the flood and return their lands to verdant afterlife.
8 Orpheus Becomes The Court Musician Of Hades
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The Greek musician Orpheus, one of the prophets of the Greek religion of Orphism, was said to have delved into the underworld to rescue his wife, the nymph Eurydice. However, she fell back into death just before they reached the living realm because Orpheus looked behind him to see her. Orpheus wandered the world teaching and playing music in honor of his lost love.
On death, in the game Hades, Orpheus has become contracted to play and sing for Lord Hades in the underworld, a task he performed for centuries. As the game progresses, Orpheus composes a hymn in praise of Zagreus, who is understandably uncomfortable — especially since the hymn is full of wild claims that Zagreus made up to entertain himself.
7 Odysseus Might Be Zagreus’ Punching Bag
The Odyssey is the pattern for all heroic journeys to follow. Its hero is clever Odysseus, a wily seaman and one of the most popular Greek heroes. The ten-year journey of Odysseus from Ilium to Ithaca is a special irony given the reputation of the hero as the great-grandson of swift Hermes.
Zagreus’ punching bag, Skelly, claims to be a Cretan sea captain named Schelemeus. Skelly is probably lying about who he is. And Odysseus, who once spent months posing as “Nobody” to fool the cyclops Polyphemus, is the most famous liar in Greek Myth.
6 The Heroes Of Elysium Are Unfulfilled
In one of the game’s opening cutscenes, Hades says Elysium is filled with the great, not the good. Kings and killers populate the Elysium fields, often one and the same. The inhabitants of Elysium are those who have made their mark on history.
Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, that these selfsame “kings and killers” are bored out of their wits. Existing in a world where they can fight to their hearts’ content and never die, nor change the place in any lasting way, they have grown dissatisfied and restless. Knowing this, it’s no wonder they attack Zagreus with such glee.
5 Sisyphus Learns Humility
King Sisyphus is one of the most famous stories of the futility of defying the Gods. His attempts to arrogantly cheat death were harshly punished by Hades. According to myth, his shade was doomed to forever push a boulder up a hill while being scourged by the Furies.
In Hades, the player acting as Zagreus can befriend the now-humbled Sisyphus and discover that the dead king has become a kind and chatty shade. Accordingly, Zagreus can commute Sisyphus’ sentence, only to find that the King has become so accustomed to his labors over the centuries that he continues. Sisyphus is grateful, however, to “Prince Z.” for staying the Furies’ whips.
4 Medusa The Gorgon Becomes Hell’s Favorite Maid
Few Greek mythological beings suffer a more unjust fate than Medusa. Once a priestess of Athena, one of the gods the player can gain boons from, her punishment for being sexually assaulted by Poseidon and claimed as his wife was transformation into a beast and banishment. She is eventually then slain by Perseus.
As this incredibly painful thread continues in Hades, the player is introduced to the Household of Hades’ chief Maid, Dusa. Besides being one of the more painful puns in the game, this allows the player to be introduced to Medusa as the shy girl she was before her monstrous transformation. It also creates in modern gamers a feeling of sympathy for a creature hideously wronged by the gods.
3 Theseus And The Minotaur are friends
The Bull of Minos, known to the Cretans as Asterius and the Etruscans as Thevrumines, is an infamous figure in fantasy and myth. In Greek mythology, Asterius was the offspring of a bull and the Queen of Crete, Pasiphae. He menaced the people of Minos until he was slain by Theseus, King of the Athenians.
In the game Hades, the story tells that King Theseus found the Bull laboring in Tartarus and successfully petitioned Lord Hades for the creature to be freed and join him in Elysium. Over the centuries, the two became fast friends and battle partners in the arena at the end of the third layer of the Underworld, where they reign as champions.
2 Achilles And Patroclus Continue Their Song
The 2011 novel The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller examines the close relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, his dear retainer and friend, through a romantic lens. Patroclus, who in The Iliad took up his blade and was slain by the warriors of Troy, was avenged by Achilles. Achilles, in turn, fell in battle.
The greatest of the Greeks made a deal in Hades to secure his beloved a place in Elysium, at the cost of his eternal service to the House of Hades. Centuries older and much wiser, Achilles teaches young Zagreus about affairs both martial and wise. In return, the young god searches the libraries of the underworld for a way to reunite both stoic Achilles and despondent Patroclus.
1 Orpheus And Eurydice Fill The Underworld With Music
Before his death, Orpheus was married to a nymph — a minor forest deity — named Eurydice. Eurydice was a friend to all creatures. After her death by snakebite, Orpheus quested to the Underworld to retrieve his beloved, and nearly succeeded. He was undone at the last by his faith faltering enough that he turned around to make sure she was following.
Eurydice finds a home in Asphodel, which remains secure to her after the flood of fire shown in Hades, and helps Zagreus along the way. In return, Zagreus seeks out and amends the contract of Orpheus, allowing the musician and his muse to finally reunite. The game’s storytelling credits its music to the pair, including its haunting final duet, In The Blood.
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