[The Bear's Lair] God of War: Ascension and Greek mythology

From the first, uncertain and timid passages of this column, I had the intention of writing about one of the videogame sagas most steeped in mythology throughout history of videogames, for better or for worse; now, with the appointment number twelve with the Bear's Lair, the time has come to put under our lens - standard equipment for theinvestigator of the occult- the heavy chains that bind God of War: Ascension and Greek Mythology.

I decided to start from God of War: Ascension, published in 2013, because in this case I prefer to follow the timeline of history and not chronological order of the saga that began in 2005.

And what's atbeginning of God of War?
What are the reasons that push what, to all intents and purposes, is one among the most gruff heroes and bears that have ever been brought to our screens?

Let's find out together, starting from the foundations on which the saga of God of War, just as this topic is - at least in my mind, not Euclidean but bearded too - one of the cornerstones of this column dedicated to fans of mythology and to all gamers opposed, in principle, to multi player.

God of War: Ascension

And just the multi player was one of the new elements introduced by God of War: Ascension: since that distant March 2013, in fact, those who have one PlayStation 3 can play in cooperative or competitive mode to what, in essence, constitutes a prequel of the first, highly acclaimed God of War del 2005.

Well, in hindsight I shouldn't have written that the column is dedicated to those who can't stand the chaos of the multiplayer context, given that this title revolves, in part, around this.

But no regrets! So much by now the Norns the Fates the Moire they have already decreed that you will read this article, and fate cannot be opposed.
Or maybe you can? Let's find out on another occasion, maybe. Pretty please with sugar on top.

Disclaimer: Below you will find spoiler on part of the saga of God of War, and in particular on Ascension. I warned you.

 

The God of War: Ascension prologue

Ascension it's a prequel? Yes, strictly speaking, although some of the flashback that we see in the rest of the saga tell us some fragments of the intricate story of the protagonist, Kratos, and of the ancient world that serves as a backdrop and stage.

Yeah, why GoW: Ascension opens the curtain six months after the casus belli, when Kratos was just a guy. Let's do a very brief summary of the prequel background, so to speak.

A bet between gods which, of course, involves mortals.
Greek general and commander of a large army, Kratos finds himself on the verge of death at the feet of the commander of the Eastern Barbarians: Alrik, a distinctly Germanic name (do you remember Alaric, king of the Visigoths?).

In that moment Kratos implores Ares, Greek god of violence - and only partially of war, as we will see later -, that is the Greek equivalent of Mars, and vows to put himself at his service. Ares ex machina, the hero is safe, hurray, bla bla bla. But Kratos now he is chained, quite literally, to the will of the warlike god.

War, death, raids, deceptions, conspiracies and spite among the gods, until Ares does not think it well to concoct a prank against Kratos: in his fury and thirst for blood, the protagonist devastates a temple of Athena within which, however, there were also his wife and daughter. There were. The ashes of his loved ones cover his skin, and then he is born the Ghost of Sparta.

The plot of God of War: Ascension

Fast-forward, six months later. Start Ascension. Our Kratos, understandably, he snaps because of the joke of Ares, but at the time there were no unions that supervised the relationship between divinities and mortals, and therefore the Erinyes (which in the game are called Fury like in Roman myth), under the orders of Ares, grab him by the scruff and imprison him.

Inside a giant with a hundred hands. Yes, sometimes it's best not to ask, in mythology.

Torture, chases, confused memories, fights, combos, puzzles and lots and lots of blood.
And at some point in the game we see the Queen of the Furies, Alecto, which turns into ... Charybdis.
Yes, the neighbor of Scilla. THE sea ​​monsters most famous ofHomer's Odyssey.

…Ok.

The fundamental role of Orkos

Le illusions of the Furies undermine the health of Kratos, but in the course of the adventure we learn that the current Guardian of the Covenants his name is Orkos, and he has the task of making mortals respect the pacts made with the gods. We'll write it down for later. Trust me.

Orks tends a lot towards alignment Legal - Good, unlike his mothers - so to speak - Legal - Neutral-marked-leaning-towards-the-Evil. Perhaps it is for this reason that he takes a liking to us and tries to help us in all ways.

In fact it is thanks to him that among oracles, artifacts, Urobori and time travel, we also find that we happened in the middle of a subversive plan of a divine scale: Ares and the Furies intend to overthrow the Zeus administration and seize power over the Mount Olympus.

But how to get rid of it the Father of the Gods? With the help of a mortal: the perfect warrior, the only one able to mate Zeus himself. just Orks was the first candidate for this role, but was discarded by Ares.

Il Guardian of the Covenants becomes our friend, but unfortunately for him the coils of Ares wrap tightly around the protagonist: to break free from the bond of the god of war, in fact, Ares must take his own the life of Orkos.

He kills him, but reluctantly, and then honors him with a funeral pyre worthy of a friend. There is a certain sense of exquisitely Greek tragedy: you do not escape your destiny, even if you can make an effort to try.

Free from the bond of Ares, Kratos is attacked by memories of atrocities committed, and begins to do the tightrope walker on the edge of the abyss of madness.
But with a titanic desire to slap Ares ugly face.

Greek mythology in God of War: Ascension

As we have seen, sometimes the interpretation of the Greek mythology in God of War: Ascension part by the tangent and mixture different pantheons, episodes of Supernatural, Mario Brega and heavy doses of war methamphetamine.

'It is hand little they fero and little they feather. -Kratos

Let's quickly see the main ones mythological figures appearing in Ascension, or those that impressed me the most.

Kratos lives!

About Kratos: in Greek myth un Kratos it really existed. Son of a titan, Pallante, and of the nymph that gives its name to the river Styx, Kratos was an ally of Zeus in the Titanomachy, that is the war between the new gods Olympus and Primordial Titans.

Nella Greek mythology Kratos has three brothers and sisters: Nike who personifies the Vittoria (not the well-known clothing brand!), Bia la Violence e Zelos theardor, while Kratos è the avatar of Power.

Kratos, as I said, fights for Zeus and even goes as far as chaining the same Prometheus, Chaotic Titan - Good and incarnation of progress, who steals fire from the gods to give it to mortals.

Kratos' father, on the other hand, is on the other side of the front: the of Athens, daughter of a Zeus headache, defeats Pallante - who had tried to rape her - and builds a shield, the famous aegis, with its skin. Would-be rapists consider themselves warned.

In short, the Kratos of myth it's not exactly the same as in the game, is it?

Orkos and Erinni / Furie

Le Erinyes, for the Greeks, they were winged women with snake hair; born from the blood gushed from the genitals of Uranus, father of the Titans emasculated by his son Crono (mythology is splatter, I know), Aletto, Tisiphone and Shrew they had the task of avenging them violations of the Moral Order e blood crimes, especially those against loved ones.

Furthermore, the Erinyes are in a certain sense the godmothers of Orks, which in the myth personifies the terrible curse which affects whoever utters it a false oath.

The part the small confusion between the Greek and Roman pantheons, we can say that God of War, in this case, he remained quite adherent to the myth, at least before being corrupted the Erinyes / Furies byAres ambition. Ah, e in God of War le Erinyes / Furies are born from blood of Nemesis, wounded by Ourea: Nemesis and Ourea they are both primordial entities present in Hesiod's Theogony, but with different roles.

Okay, maybe they weren't all that adherent to Greek mythological tradition.

Ares, the god of violence (not war)

If in the game Ares is the hated and feared god of war who plots to overthrow Zeus, in Greek myth he is not the god of war strictly speaking: in his portfolio there are the thirst for blood and violence in battle, so it is more a berserker than a strategist.

THEstrategic aspect and cunning of war, in reality, it is the prerogative of his sister, Athena, which often emerges victorious from the frequent clashes between the two gods.

In the game as in the myth, Ares is the son of the same Zeus and Era, sister of Zeus (yes, she married her brother) and goddess of marriage, childbirth and conjugal fidelity. The latter aspect is a bit problematic, given that her husband is also one of the most unfaithful and prolific gods of all the pantheons of planet Earth.

Furthermore, the ancient royal Greeks did not trust the snares of Ares at all, to which they attributed all forms of violence and outbursts of anger, whether it was linked to the war context or not.

Castor, Pollux and the Oracle of Delphi

The tragic figure of Aletheia, that is, theOracle of Delphi (or Delphi), there is no myth in the myth; however it must be said that aletheia, in Greek, means revelation. The oracle of Delphi, however, really existed, and the ruins of its temple can still be visited today.

Il Delphi temple, according to some myths, it was founded by Apollo same; according to other sources, however, the Greek god of the Sun, of music, pestilences, prophecies, arts and sciences, namely Apollo, had to snatch him from the mighty clutches of dragon Python, owned by Gea, the primeval deity of the Earth (also known as Gaia).

Let's move on to Castor and Pollux: in the game they are deformed Siamese twins, who usurped the temple of the Oracle andamulet of the Uroboro, which gives them powers over the flow of time.

In Greek mythInstead, Castor and Pollux are known as Dioscuri, they protect sailors from the fury of sea storms, and - according to some sources of the myth - they are the result of the peculiar love triangle between the unaware King of Sparta, his wife Leda e Zeus… In the form of a swan. On the other hand, Zeus' babysitters were satyrs and nymphs, he had no possibility of coming up otherwise.

 

A curiosity: from the same union, and therefore from the paternity not really carved in marble, they are also born Tindaro and the very famous Helen of Troy.

Kratos prison

Our hero is locked away from Erinyes in a huge prison with a particular appearance and an even more interesting history: it is not an ordinary construction in stone or other materials, but it was excavated in the still living and conscious body of a primordial entity: Briareo, one of the Hecatonchiri (Centimani), son of Uranus (Heaven) e Gea (the earth).

In Greek myth the giant Briareo and his two brothers Fired bricks e gige are banned in Tartar (the dark outskirts of the Underworld) from his father Uranus, who feared its unimaginable strength as well as the hundred arms and fifty fire-breathing heads with which they were endowed. The three Hecatonchiri they make a pact with Zeus: they will be freed, and in exchange they will have to fight for him in the war between Mount Olympus and the Titans.

They will do it and will be decisive for the victory of the Olympic gods, to the point that Zeus will name them guardians of the gates of Tartarus, but Cotto and Gyges they will break their covenant; Zeus will then throw them back into their prison, and Briareo will remain the only giant to guard the Tartar, in which all the primordial entities survived the Titanomachy.

In Canto XNUMX dell 'Inferno, Furthermore, Dante Alighieri designates it as guardian of the Cocytus, the ice lake that makes up the Ninth Circle of Hell; there is a cameo of Briareo also in the Purgatory, in corner XII, as an example of punished hubris (pride).

The subject of parricide

It is not one mythological figure but a rather common topos in all myths, together with theincest -And apparently to sexual relations with the counterparts of Zeus transformed into various animals-: I'm talking about the parricide. One of the worst types of crime: a son who kills his own father, often to take his place.

In the Greek myth the patricide among gods it is quite common.

In the beginning it was Chaos.
From Chaos came Gea, the Earth and the mother, which he generated Uranus, Heaven and the father.
From the union between Gaea and Uranus i were born Titans, the Cyclops and Hecatonchiri.

Uranus saw that Cyclops and Hecatonchirs they were monstrous (but powerful), he rejected them and locked them in Tartar, the darkest and most remote part of the infer. Gea, then, he asked the children left free, i Titans, to rebel against the father Uranus.

Only the youngest son, Crono, he answered his mother's call: with a real backstab I will emasculate the father and usurped its throne, so to speak. Then, for good measure, he apparently decided to do Uranus in small pieces, while the latter cursed him, warning him that he too, in the future, would be given the same treatment.

From blood of Uranus the Erinyes, as already seen, while from the member cut off and thrown into the sea he was born Afrodite. Remember this detail the next time you say "you are as beautiful as Venus" to compliment a girl.

But let's get back to us. As they say: whoever does it, you wait for it.

Crono joins his sister Sale, and generates Estia, Demeter, Era, Ade e Poseidon; having experienced the parricide, and aware of his father's curse, Crono he decides to eliminate the root problem: he devours all his children, one by one.

Sale, which she still carried in her womb Zeus, on the advice of the mother Gea gives birth in secret, and causes a to devour Crono a large stone instead of the baby. After some time, Zeus - now grown up - he defeats his father Uranus and makes him vomit the children he had devoured, thus saving his brothers and sisters who, together, will become the gods of Olympus.

But that's not all: Zeus also gets into a fight with other relatives.
La Titanomachy, in fact, it is essentially the story of the family war between Zeus and brothers against their titanic aunts and their father Crono.

The events of Kratos continue

In the coming weeks we will see how it goes on the story of Kratos in the next chapter of the saga, that is God of War: Chains of Olympus.

I anticipate that the plot will also involve Atlas, and will resume the family quarrels of lineage of Uranus. Atlas, in fact, it was born from Giapeto e Climene, both sons of Uranus and Gaea; it is therefore grandson of Uranus and Gaea, but then it is also cousin of Zeus!

I got a headache of… titanic proportions.
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Did we say? Oh yes.

We find Atlas and his family tree rather messed up in the novel as well Percy Jackson and the Curse of the Titan, of which - from what we know - we will not see the cinematographic transposition, at least for now.

Un film prequel su God of War?

Speaking cinematographic transpositions: mythology is charging back on our screens, both in the form of triple A video games, both in the guise of Marvel movie and also of Netflix TV series or signed by CBS / Warner Bros.

In 2005 it was announced un film su God of War. One of the authors of the series, David Jaffe, he made it known that the film would be taken care of Universal Studios, and that the script was initially entrusted to David Self; the role of Kratos no less than theAgent 007 in person, Daniel Craig, but he refused.

in 2012 Patrick Melton e Marcus Dunstan, who have already worked on some chapters of the saga of The Riddler (Saw IV, V and VI), were commissioned to write a film adaptation of the history of God of War, for which it was earmarked a budget of 150 million dollars.

Apparently the film, or at least the first film of a possible series, will deal precisely with the events of God of War: Ascension that we have seen in this article: we will start from a Kratos mortal and more human who lives with his family, up to at least the divine intervention of Ares on the battlefield.

For the role of director, so far, he said he was interested Steven S. DeKnight, whose works include titles such as Buffy, Smallville, Pacific Rim - The Uprising and the first season of the Daredevil TV series; DeKnight also toyed with the idea of ​​entrusting the interpretation of Kratos a Dave Bautista: Drax of Marvel Cinematic Universe. Personally I would see him very well in the role of the Phantom of Sparta.

At this point all that remains is to wait for the release of the film and, in the meantime, watch a playthrough completo di God of War: Ascension su YouTube.
La Bear's Lair gives you an appointment at next week.