Classical Antiquity and Mythology in Video Games Throughout this Spring semester of 2016, the Classical Antiquity in Popular Culture class has learned many different aspects of Greek and Roman antiquity. Throughout the weeks, we learned about Roman decadence, well-known wars of the ancient world, and Greek and Roman mythology. Narrowing in on the mythology section, there are many different platforms on which Greek and Roman mythology are expressed. In movies, heroes such as Heracles and Perseus fought monsters and showed off their extreme bravery and strength. Books such as Percy Jackson and Harry Potter follow the coming-of-age story that several demigods and heroes experience in traditional Classical tales. Examples of graphic novels such …show more content…
With the release of the first console Atari in 1972, anyone could buy this system and for the first time, actually interact with what was happening on their TV screens. It wasn’t long until the fans of the Classics came along and made games about their favorite subject. Just like movies and TV shows before it, the representation of Classics in this contemporary platform wasn’t always the most accurate to it’s source, but the characters and the plots still opened up a world many kids and teenagers had never heard of before. The first video game we will discuss in this section is the 1986 Nintendo Entertainment System, (NES for short), game titled Kid Icarus. The story features a young cherub named Pit, who has to attain three sacred treasures from the fortress gatekeepers at the end of the game's stages. According to “The Tale of Kid Icarus”, an additional booklet that came along with the game, the backstory of the game goes like this: “Before the events of the game, Earth was ruled by the goddess, or Queen of light, Palutena, and the goddess, or Queen of darkness, Medusa. Palutena bestowed the people with light to make them happy, but Medusa hated the humans, dried up their crop and turned them to stone. Enraged by this, Palutena transformed Medusa into a monster, and banished her to the underworld. Out of revenge, Medusa conspired with the monsters of the underworld to take over Palutena's residence, the sky temple. She launched a surprise attack, and stole the three sacred treasures — the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows and the Wings of Pegasus — which deprived Palutena's army of its power. After her soldiers had been turned to stone by Medusa, Palutena was defeated in battle, and imprisoned deep inside the sky temple. With her last power, she sent a bow and arrow to the young angel Pit. He escapes from his prison