Andrew Fiackos

Course: Classical Mythology, ENGL-225
Professor: Isabel DeFeo
Assignment Title: Representation of Athena in Supergiant Games’ Hades

Assignment Details

In this short video essay, I analyze how the ancient Greek goddess Athena is represented in the video game Hades, a game which draws heavy inspiration from Greek myth. Using Greek myth and a historic statuette for comparison, the project explores questions about how accurately the modern video game character represents the ancient Greek goddess as depicted in ancient Greek art and myths. Specifically, the video essay considers what details and symbols from ancient depictions have been closely recreated, altered, or omitted from Hades’ version of Athena, and are there clear reasons why?

Application

My field of study is digital media, with a focus on video editing. In fact, many of the techniques I learned from CCC’s own Digital Video course were used to create this video essay. However, at the time of creating this project, I had never made a video essay before. This led me to continue to develop  and explore my own style of video editing and my passion for the process, which I am sure will stay with me long into the future.

Results/Conclusions

The overall conclusion of the project determines that Supergiant Games’ version of Athena is rather accurate overall to the ancient understanding of the Greek goddess. Details such as the owl in the right hand are recreated with great accuracy, likely for symbolic reasons. However, the video essay also concludes that some details, such as how the gorgon head are represented, are likely to vary from ancient myths and art. This is due not only to lack of consistency within the myths themselves, but also for reasons of game design.

Challenges and Successes

Most of the challenge that came from this project stemmed from the amount of organization and planning required. It was difficult to ensure that I had obtained all visual and audio assets necessary to compile the full project, such as video footage, screenshots, and music. This, alongside creating a script with an analysis of the topic, made the project’s organization and planning challenging, but rewarding, to complete.