Greek mythology has been around for thousands of years and its traditions have inspired artists working in nearly every medium. What brings me joy is that each writer, visual artist, director–or in the case of Hades 2, a team of game developers–can explore a unique vision of the characters and events they choose to highlight. With the sequel to its popular hack-and-slash roguelite Hades, Supergiant Games explores the worlds of Greek gods from the perspective of Melinoe, the princess of the Underworld.
As the playable protagonist of Hades 2, Melinoe shows players a new side of life in the Underworld. Unlike her brother Zagreus, the young witch didn’t grow up with her family in the main palace. She instead lives in a ramshackle camp on the outskirts of Hades’ domain. The distance between her and her loved ones is palpable, and her only connection to her family is a single drawing enshrined in Melinoe’s make-shift room. The game starts when Melinoe, brooding yet powerful, decides to save her family from the Titan of time, Kronos, and finally close the gap that’s always separated them.
Yet Hades 2 is far from the only modern reinterpretation that hones in on the women of Greek mythology, and Melinoe’s plights soon reminded me of another story that follows a Greek goddess and witch: Madeline Miller’s Circe. Published in 2018, this retelling follows the story of the goddess Circe, a witch who was banished to the island of Aeaea by Zeus. If you’ve read The Odyssey, you might know the character as the duplicitous sorceress who transformed Odysseus’ men into pigs. However, Miller’s book gives the reader the chance to imagine the events from her side of the story.
If you really like Hades 2–and if you are at all interested in the witches of Greek mythology or reading stories that aren’t only about violent dude-bros starting wars–Circe is required reading. I don’t just say this because it’s easy to read and incredibly entertaining; The book also deepened my appreciation of Hades 2 and helped me understand where the story told in the game could have explored certain themes with more depth.
In Circe, witchcraft is seen as a threat to the higher gods. Unlike the Olympians, who derive their power from their bloodlines, witchcraft draws its strength from the earth. Any person, god, or goddess can harness this power through constant toil and practice. To become a strong witch, Circe grinds–and I mean this literally because she is constantly using her mortar and pestle to process herbs and flowers–day after day in her kitchen, honing her elixirs. What culminates is a very feminine power–one that grows with the steady housewife-like work of maintaining a garden and pantry.
Similar to Circe in the novel, Melinoe must toil repeatedly in order to collect herbs and flowers that upgrade her powers and camp. As a player, I too began to feel like a witch as I honed my powers–learning how to play the game better and slowly collecting resources I needed to upgrade my attacks and stats. Still, Melinoe’s journey is quite different from Circe’s. Her main source of power comes from the other Olympians, who upgrade her sorcery with various boons and stat buffs.
Melinoe is also the daughter of Hades. Thougher father discourages her quest, he still provides her aid in the form of character upgrades and resources. Playing as Melinoe doesn’t feel like navigating the world as an ostracized witch. Instead, every Olympian meets her with a smile or some chipper quip. The great Zeus–a god known for being a perpetrator of sexual violence–greets her with a chuckle and lends her his power at a moment’s notice. Melinoe, unlike the goddesses in Circe’s world, gets to choose her suitor.
Supergiant Games’ take on the story casts a shiny veneer on the world of Greek mythology. This feels odd at points because, as other critics have pointed out, the stories of Greek mythology typically portray the brutal nature of the gods. Still, the overall cheeriness makes sense given Hades 2 is more-or-less a fun dating simulator with compelling hack-and-slash gameplay. But even given that, it made me feel like Supergiant copy-and-pasted its popular formula with a female protagonist without doing the deep work of trying to imagine how a Greek myth might be different when viewed through a women’s perspective.
In the book, Circe is a lesser god in every sense of the term. She’s not stereotypically attractive compared to other goddesses, so she can’t be married off (which is how her value is defined in the world of the gods). She’s the daughter of a Titan, so she’s considered to be a tier below the Olympians on Mount Olympus. She doesn’t have the inherent raw power of her father Helios, a sun god and who regularly lashes out against her. Unlike Hades 2, Circe is fundamentally a story about transformation–of a woman who finds her own source of power to defy the hierarchy of the gods.
I don’t think every story about a woman needs to be hard, or marred by some sort of trauma. Hades 2 feels like good, somewhat shallow, fun. I can eat up the gameplay like popcorn and romance hot characters. It’s fun to play and I’m glad we have both kinds of stories. But if you want a story that really sinks its teeth into the deep–and very oftentimes difficult–lives Greek witches, then you should definitely give Miller’s Circe a read.
