Benjamin Cavallaro, Period 6, 09/15/23

 Benjamin Cavallaro

Period 6

9/15/23

     Throughout my life I’ve always found myself attracted to Greek mythology. Ever since my second grade Greek mythology unit I’ve been fascinated by the stories and characters within these myths, and as I’ve learned more about them my interest and perspective has only grown. With what I know now I think my interest lies largely in how subversively human the world of Greek mythology is. Many religions mythologies have felt off putting to me because of how cold and inhuman they are. Greek mythology isn’t like that. Every Greek god is rooted in human flaws and virtues, every story is rooted in a part of the human condition, and the stories often include levity. So, naturally, I was excited to revisit Greek mythology as part of Mythology class this year. 

     One of my favorite aspects of Greek mythology in our modern culture is the retellings. A benefit of the humanity of Greek mythology, and the malleability of folk stories in general, is that it lends itself to reinterpretations with modern themes or novel ideas. In elementary school the Percy Jackson novels were some of my favorites, and I found myself empowered by the way it showed characters persevering and even being special because of their learning disabilities and not fitting in. Just last school year I was enthralled by the way Hadestown used the dramatic irony of how well known the original story is to its advantage. Throughout the show it pushes the audience to hope for a happy ending, part of our human nature, even though we know it could never happen; just like how Orpheus’ human nature forces him to look back at Eurydice despite knowing it will kill her. These stories catered to elements of the human experience that I found personally impactful using stories I was already familiar with to make something impactful.

     When we were asked in class who our favorite Greek gods were I naturally leaned towards Dionysus. At the beginning of that lesson when we were asked to rank a list of virtues I found them to be kind of joyless. Being kind, or strong, or smart, may be important, but something I value just as much, if not more, is expression and social interaction. I thought beauty fit this idea the best, so I ranked it as one of my highest virtues. Once we were prompted to connect our list of virtues with the god we picked the reason I liked Dionysus started to make more sense. His association with art, and the joyful and social parties he brings, are the closest to my idea of beauty out of any of the Greek gods. I think that makes him, in my mind, one of the best examples of the humanity of Greek gods. The more we talked about Dionysus in class the next day the more that idea was affirmed.
    The next day was a lesson on Dionysus, Demeter, and Persephone. This lesson pointed out some things that I’d never noticed about these gods and the myths about them that I didn’t really notice before; the connection to coming of age, lifecycles, and rebirth. For example, although I understood the changing of the seasons as a metaphor for aging, I never really connected the pomegranate seed in the Hades and Persephone myth to sex and coming of age. I also didn’t really know that Dionysus was widely portrayed as a god of rebirth, dying every winter and returning every spring. Once this was pointed out to me I started to notice this theme across other myths following Dionysus, like how in the myth of king Midas after realizing his mistake Midas begs Dionysus for forgiveness and after having it granted to him is metaphorically reborn as a better man. In these stories the changing of the seasons and the literal death and rebirth they bring is used as a symbol for growth, often through failure. This realization made me think a little bit more about one of my favorite retellings of Greek mythology ever, the 2020 videogame Hades. 

    Hades follows the story of a teenage, at least in development, god Zagreus, who is the secret son of Hades and Persephone. The story perfectly replicates the humanity of Greek mythology because it essentially follows the story of a rebellious teen struggling with the divorce of his parents and failing to live up to the expectations of the adults around him. Hades and Persephone split up after a perceived miscarriage, and after Zagreus turns out to be alive his father is harsh to him and hides who his true mother is all to do what he believes would be in Zagreus’ best interest. Zagreus eventually finds out the truth about his mother and sets out to escape the underworld, setting the scene for the game. The conflicts and characters of the plot are human and realistic, like what I’d imagine the themes of a Greek myth about a modern topic would be like, but they also connect back to the symbolism of the deities like Greek mythology. 

     Although I didn’t know it at first, Zagreus is not a wholly original character, but rather a kind of reinterpretation of  Dionysus. Dionysus does exist in the game, but he exclusively serves as a god of partying and wine, and strays from the Dionysus of myth because he lives in Olympus rather than the surface world. Zagreus represents the part of Dionysus that I learned about in our lesson on Dionysus, and acts as a god of rebirth. In the beliefs of Orphic legend, one of the “mystery” cults which revered the poems of Orpheus, Zagreus is the name of Dionysus’ first incarnation of Dionysus who died in the war with the titans. In Hades Zagreus follows this idea because despite being a god he can die, and after death will be reborn in the river Styx. The connection is also thematically relevant to the story of Hades since Zagreus must fail over and over again in attempting to confront his father and bring his mother back to the underworld with him. Only after repeated failure can his relationship with his family, and how he feels about himself, be reborn into something healthier. Zagreus also helps or witnesses many mortals being literally and figuratively reborn in the Underworld throughout the course of the game. For example, he finds Sisyphus in Tartarus, and sees that rather than fighting or resenting his punishment Sisyphus has learned to appreciate what brings him joy in life and have a jolly outlook despite the situation. The player through the gameplay is also forced to interact with this theme on a personal level because of its structure. Hades is a roguelike, a game genre based around singular playthroughs of the game being relatively short, but also being difficult and making you restart from the beginning when you die. Because of this as a player you too are improving through multiple failed attempts just like Zagreus is in the story. Additionally, in order to finish the game’s story you have to beat the game 10 times. By the time I was done with Hades I went from feeling awful at the game to confidently beating it every attempt which instilled a sense of personal growth that made Zagreus’ story of growth all the more believable. 

     Being able to face failure head on and grow from it is something that I’ve slowly gotten better at over my life. I used to be so terrified of failure that I could barely live my normal life while stressed, but now I think adapting around failure is one of my strongest traits. Greek mythology, and retellings of it, give me a venue to reflect on myself like few other stories can because of the universal human expression and emotion that underlies every element of the stories. Retellings of Greek mythology have the opportunity to be particularly powerful because they can use new ideas and techniques to enhance the messaging, and taking time to understand the original myths can make these new stories even more impactful.