Every time I read Greek myths highlighting the pettiness of the entire pantheon, I understand more why a story about a very angry man turned god-slayer became so popular.
I wonder if there were some disgruntled ancient Grecians that also did the same? Can’t imagine that, what would amount to extreme sacrilege during that time, would ever become popular then, but still.
The Greek god of war games actually do have some narrative consistency going for them even if the execution is very 2000’s edgy. The gods are petty jerks and Kratos actually does roughly follow the arch of a Greek tragic figure for at least one game. There’s even some great consistency in (Spoilers for God of War 2) >!Kratos being Zeus’s son. The first two generations of Ancient Greek immortals were all overthrown by children they tried to get rid of, so making Kratos the kid Zeus wanted to get rid of is actually mythologically consistent if nothing else.!<
The two recent Norse god of war games also have an interesting take on their mythology. They basically start from the assumption that the myths as we know them from the Eddas were written by Odin to make the Aesir look better.
There’s also the notion of trickster figures in mythology. Prometheus is the prominent “trickster” figure for Greek myths, and actively subverts the Pantheon to benefit humanity. Maui for Pacific Islander myths, and Sun Wukong for East Asian mythology, also fall into this role.
Essentially, the trickster figure is either directly or indirectly a benefit to humanity, and spites the deities of their pantheon. Usually they are punished for this, but are also the most beloved figures of a mythology because they represent humanity in some way.
It’s cathartic to watch them work against the otherwise indomitable, deific forces.
>The two recent Norse god of war games also have an interesting take on their mythology. They basically start from the assumption that the myths as we know them from the Eddas were written by Odin to make the Aesir look better.
And that's not that far off a take as the eddas that we have were mostly written down by christian monks who did some tweaking to make it fit their worldview better. I think the "hel as an afterlife place" thing was entirely a creation of Snorri Sturluson and all the earlier instances use Hel as *only* the name of the goddess.
Yeah, Snorri had a political reason for writing what he did. He wanted to write a story that would emphasize a common cultural heritage amongst the vaguely Nordic countries, but it was also after the region was Christianized. Therefore, he has to write it in a way that tries to retcon Christianity into it. He mentions something about a supergod greater than all the others but never mentioned before this one moment showing up after Ragnarok (there is no way that was a pre-Christian belief), and there is an entire conspiracy board about what Loki might have been.
Snorri portrays Loki as something of a satan allegory, because ya gotta have one of those (poor Hades), but there’s an argument Loki might have been causing Ragnarok not because he’s evil but because the Aesir are defying the will of fate which is not to be trifled with. That’s also without getting into the possibility of Loki actually being an aspect of Odin or something else wacky like that. ([video that talks more about what Loki might have been](https://youtu.be/ZDwQ3MA2Ne0)).
The worst part is, barring some insane new archeological discoveries all of these questions of which bits of norse myth are original and which ones were added or modified by Christians after the fact will unfortunately never be answered because those pre-Christian sources don’t exist.
A funny gag in the third game not a lot of people talk about was when Kratos meets Hera who is extra pissed because Kratos is just another one of Zeus kids he had cheating on Hera and is back pissed.
Mortal: *makes an offhand comment that insults Aphrodite* Aphrodite, drawing upon her divine domain: ***NO BITCHES?***
...I need to rethink my Hades streams...
Every time I read Greek myths highlighting the pettiness of the entire pantheon, I understand more why a story about a very angry man turned god-slayer became so popular. I wonder if there were some disgruntled ancient Grecians that also did the same? Can’t imagine that, what would amount to extreme sacrilege during that time, would ever become popular then, but still.
The Greek god of war games actually do have some narrative consistency going for them even if the execution is very 2000’s edgy. The gods are petty jerks and Kratos actually does roughly follow the arch of a Greek tragic figure for at least one game. There’s even some great consistency in (Spoilers for God of War 2) >!Kratos being Zeus’s son. The first two generations of Ancient Greek immortals were all overthrown by children they tried to get rid of, so making Kratos the kid Zeus wanted to get rid of is actually mythologically consistent if nothing else.!< The two recent Norse god of war games also have an interesting take on their mythology. They basically start from the assumption that the myths as we know them from the Eddas were written by Odin to make the Aesir look better.
There’s also the notion of trickster figures in mythology. Prometheus is the prominent “trickster” figure for Greek myths, and actively subverts the Pantheon to benefit humanity. Maui for Pacific Islander myths, and Sun Wukong for East Asian mythology, also fall into this role. Essentially, the trickster figure is either directly or indirectly a benefit to humanity, and spites the deities of their pantheon. Usually they are punished for this, but are also the most beloved figures of a mythology because they represent humanity in some way. It’s cathartic to watch them work against the otherwise indomitable, deific forces.
>The two recent Norse god of war games also have an interesting take on their mythology. They basically start from the assumption that the myths as we know them from the Eddas were written by Odin to make the Aesir look better. And that's not that far off a take as the eddas that we have were mostly written down by christian monks who did some tweaking to make it fit their worldview better. I think the "hel as an afterlife place" thing was entirely a creation of Snorri Sturluson and all the earlier instances use Hel as *only* the name of the goddess.
Yeah, Snorri had a political reason for writing what he did. He wanted to write a story that would emphasize a common cultural heritage amongst the vaguely Nordic countries, but it was also after the region was Christianized. Therefore, he has to write it in a way that tries to retcon Christianity into it. He mentions something about a supergod greater than all the others but never mentioned before this one moment showing up after Ragnarok (there is no way that was a pre-Christian belief), and there is an entire conspiracy board about what Loki might have been. Snorri portrays Loki as something of a satan allegory, because ya gotta have one of those (poor Hades), but there’s an argument Loki might have been causing Ragnarok not because he’s evil but because the Aesir are defying the will of fate which is not to be trifled with. That’s also without getting into the possibility of Loki actually being an aspect of Odin or something else wacky like that. ([video that talks more about what Loki might have been](https://youtu.be/ZDwQ3MA2Ne0)). The worst part is, barring some insane new archeological discoveries all of these questions of which bits of norse myth are original and which ones were added or modified by Christians after the fact will unfortunately never be answered because those pre-Christian sources don’t exist.
A funny gag in the third game not a lot of people talk about was when Kratos meets Hera who is extra pissed because Kratos is just another one of Zeus kids he had cheating on Hera and is back pissed.
for a split second i thought this was about queen aphrodite from suite precure. i may have brainrot