The (Re)Rise of the Gods

I hate to start a post by saying I’ve been slightly remiss in updating lately; I’ve seen that spell the beginning of the end of many a fine blog. The posts come fewer and further between, the reasons for skipping them multiplying. But- I’ve been slightly remiss in updating lately. Nothing so nefarious as waning interest. Rather, two other distractions. (Author’s note: the former consultant in me REALLY wanted to obey the rule of three and list another reason. However my posts already tend to run long. Possibly due to excess use of parentheticals.) First- the DC weather began it spring shift from bone-seepingly damp cold to pollen-coated moderate warmth. This is all together preferable so long as you’re heavily medicated and don’t mind a yellow tinge to your car, food, furniture, loved ones, etc. (Second note: summer is also miserable. Humidity levels mandate one must hold their breath to avoid drowning. DC’s actual motto is something akin to ‘but it’s really nice for about three weeks end of September/beginning of October, promise’!)

Second reason for the blog inattention- I’ve dedicated most of my free in-home hours to playing Persona 5. I got the game as a gift a couple birthdays ago and it sat untouched until the last few weeks when I’ve logged an embarrassing number of hours. Persona 5 is Japanese Role Playing Game (spelling out acronyms here in case anyone is unfamiliar) and, as the name implies, the fifth game in a series (though my first). I mostly play open-world style adventure games with first persons shooters functioning as palate-cleansers in between. Nominally some of these games are RPGs; you can play white hat or black hat, and you choose stats to prioritize through skill points or grinding. Generally though if you’re willing to spend enough time you can max all your stats.

Persona 5 doesn’t give you that option and instead uses an in-game calendar. Leaning HEAVILY into anime tropes, the main character is a transfer student to a Tokyo high school. Your days are spent in classes, leaving only two timeslots per day (afternoon and evening) to improve your stats (knowledge through studying, proficiency through batting practice, charm through actually bathing for a change, etc.) or develop and deepen relationships with other characters (‘confidants’ based on Tarot Cards) to unlock benefits. The main plot driver (more on this in a second) is always days-limited to stave off game-ending consequences, meaning your in-game actions and day management are actually consequential.

The game’s central conceit is you and your group of thieves are able to access the ‘Metaverse,’ a distorted, hidden reality where the evil desires of the antagonists manifest as ‘Palaces’ to protect their ‘treasure.’ By infiltrating the Palaces and stealing the treasure, you force the bad guys into real-world changes of heart where they confess their sins and begin the process of repenting (all-in-all not a bad solution to the suspension of disbelief problem of what can a bunch of high school kids actually accomplish). In the Metaverse you and your party manifest Personas, representations of your true-self that engage in turn based combat. Persona-users are rare, but perhaps uniquely your main character is able to use multiple Personas (captured Pokémon-style through selecting the right dialog options based on the personalities of low-level baddies after defeating them in turn-based combat).

Despite dozens of hours of playtime I hadn’t given much thought to the Personas themselves. Some looked like demons, others monsters or else abstract shapes like teardrops. I recognized some for sure, but by-and-large I channeled Marge Simpson in just thinking they’re neat. All that until yesterday morning when my wife found me downstairs playing to distract myself whilst in the throes of post second Moderna-shot side effects, shivering despite sweatpants and a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, robe, blankets, and slippers (PSA get your shot. Seriously. 30% of Americans- over half of those yet to receive a vaccine- don’t plan on it which is horrifying. Drop this ‘personal freedom’ nonsense and do the consensus right thing to protect those in your community who ACTUALLY can’t get vaccinated you muppets).

Back to my meandering point. You see a being’s true name if you take them as Personas. I was battling something with the body of a snake and torso of a human when the wife walked-in and, after taking a picture of me looking miserable on the couch for posterity’s sake, remarked “oh, that’s Naga.” I won the fight and took the Persona, sure enough, Naga. Huh. The wife watches a lot of anime with Japanese or east/south Asian folklore references. Nāga, apparently, are semi-divine beings residing in the netherworld in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism (and probably the inspiration for the snake Nagini in Harry Potter).

The teardrop creatures I mentioned earlier, Ara, Nigi, Saki, and Kushi-Mitama are based on a Shinto belief of one spirt and four souls. A deeper dive told me the game wasn’t just Japanese or geographically adjacent mythologies. Berith (another Persona) was worshipped in ancient Canaanite religions. Lamia from Greece, Leanan sídhe from Celtic lore, Flauros and Orobos the Goetic demons, Nearly 200 in-game Personas based on one mythology or another. This (admittedly belated) realization along with a few recent book conversations got me onto how much classic mythology representation I’ve seen in modern storytelling. Not just situations like Persona 5 featuring, but not focusing on, the myths. But actual bona fide stories that I’ll break into two categories: interpretations and adaptations.

Interpretations: Familiar to some but new to me

I’m defining interpretation as when the storyteller stays more-or-less faithful to a common version of the myth. I’m deliberate in avoiding the word ‘original’ here. By definition classical myths have existed for hundreds or thousands of years and have gone through widescale changes. Sometimes these changes were accidental or coincidental. Stories pre-dating mass produced printing relied heavily on oral tradition and changed from one re-telling to the next. Researchers translating fragments or writings from dispersed libraries may each have developed their own ‘correct’ version of a story. Other times changes were intentional; the Romans, in a brilliant PR move, incorporated gods from conquered cultures into their pantheon while slowly Latinizing them. Passover, which I wrote about in my last post, is undoubtedly timed to co-op and assimilate Pagan spring festivals. The same for Christmas and the winter solstice. Yet at some point in the last 150-or-so years these legends coalesced into widely-known versions, ending their periods of metamorphosis and entering relative stasis.

I’m always going to have a soft spot for D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, published in 1962 but more importantly first read by me in school sometime around 1996 or so. Its bright-yellow cover is still seared into my mind and it, along with the Redwall series, are probably most responsible for my love of fantasy. We all know some of the classic characters from myths. Gods like Zeus, Odin, or Ra. Weapons and artifacts like Mjölnir, the Holy Grail, or the Ark of the Covenant. Monsters like dragons, Grendel’s Mother, or the Minotaur. Coming across these names in anthologies or retellings sparks that serotonin-jolt of recognition from stories we’ve heard since we were children. And then the world building of those extra legends, the ones we forgot about or never knew. Maybe we remembered Thor or Hercules but forgot Yggdrasil and Gaea. I read and loved Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and have wanted to get into Stephen Frye’s Mythos. Myths always evoke the sensation of campfire stories, and deeper dives into legends scratch that world-building itch in much the same way a prequel would to a popular story, or that ‘where are they now’ credit scroll popular in movies from the 70s and 80s.

Adaptations: Fanfic of the Gods

The second broad category contains adaptations- tales that use many of the central characters or plot points but tell different stories. In other words: fanfiction. Reusing characters from another story is a practice from time immemorial. Jason and the Argonauts, with its collection of heroes, reads like a comic book character mashup a la The Avengers. In the days of murky copyright laws, published authors frequently introduced existing characters into their own stories. Arsene, your starting Persona in Persona 5, is based on the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin create by author Maurice Leblanc. Leblanc was a contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle and pitted Lupin against Sherlock Holmes in some of Leblanc’s books. Fanfic in its modern iteration appears to have taken off, from what I can tell, with the Star Trek fandom and several fanzines like Spockanalia in 1967, then with the rise of the internet and sites like FanFiction.net (est. 1998).

Fanfic, I’d argue, appeals to those who care less about the world building aspect of stories than the characters themselves. To make a Dungeons and Dragons reference, fanfic for the players more than the DMs. You don’t need to set up the background or the backstories; we already know them. Let’s instead take characters or situations with which we’re familiar and get different outcomes. I don’t say this to disparage fanfic. One of my stronger pulls in stories is stage-setting and development so fanfic isn’t necessarily my first choice. But I’m always, always going to advocate you enjoy whatever stories you like. And not to say I haven’t been guilty of once in a while of ‘shipping’ (pushing for or developing your own stories where characters wind up in different relationships than they did originally).

In the last decade(ish) alone I’ve seen an incredible number of stories in this genre; Hadestown (a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth) made its off-Broadway debut in 2016, the same year as the critically-panned film Gods of Egypt. Madeleine Miller’s wildly successful Song of Achilles and Circe reimagine scenes from the Iliad and the Odyssey. My wife has been in and out of the Winternight trilogy drawing from Russian Folklore. Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, the TV show Grimm. The Witcher books, games, and show. American Gods book and show again. These adaptations allow character development and exploration while freeing up the page count and time requisite for one-offs (in contrast with series) and young adult novels.

Have a mythology adaption you’re into lately? Wildly disagree with any of my arguments? Let me know!