#Perikles

[blue-mono]

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey & Twitter (3/?)

[lionofchaeronea]

Marble bust of the great Athenian general, orator, and statesman Pericles (ca. 495-429 BCE), shown here wearing a Corinthian helmet. Pericles is credited by many historians, notably Thucydides, with guiding 5th century BCE Athens to its peak of greatness; among his achievements were the ambitious building program on the Parthenon and the conversion of the Delian League, originally formed to combat the Persians, into a tribute-paying Athenian empire. His reputation was not, however, unblemished. His political opponents accused him of aiming at tyranny, while his enforcement of the Megarian Decree--which barred Sparta's ally Megara from all Athenian harbors and was effectively an act of economic warfare--may have been the proximate cause of the Peloponnesian War. His death from plague plunged Athens into crisis and led to a succession of populist leaders such as Cleon and Hyperbolus, whose far more aggressive foreign policy ultimately proved disastrous for Athens. Though the city would survive and even make a second attempt at empire-building, it never regained the unchallenged supremacy it had enjoyed in the Periclean period.

Roman copy of uncertain date after a lost Greek original. Now in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City.

[ilovecuntyoldladies]

Athens in a nutshell.

[emmyblogging]

Assassins Creed - jumping into the time machine

Well, I probably should not call it a time machine but we‘ll come to that a bit later.

Of course I played games from time to time, but they were very limited to franchises such as The Sims and Animal Crossing. I have been a history, specifically classics or mediterranian history, for a while now and it is honestly remarkable how I just now discovered Assassins Creed Odyssey in all it‘s glory, and with that took a step into the whole Assassins Creed franchise for myself.

In the past I‘ve heard multiple people talk about the possibility to discover ancient Greece in this open world RPG, but once I went on eBay, bought a used but in good condition copy and started the game on my PS4 I should have known that my freetime was done for. In the best way possible. 

The Assassins Creed franchise, from what I‘ve played and seen in the newer games so far, has a modern day and historical protagonist. For the modern day protagonist, Layla Hassan, it is possible to get into a machine, called „The Animus“ and relive the historical protagonists life with a bit of their DNA. And just Layla, the player gets to experience history in the, for our technological advances most accessible and interactive way possible. 

Assassins Creed Odyssey takes place during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. The former of which I got to visit a week ago. The protagonist, as I played, is Kassandra, a spartan woman, banished from her home and family. She is a mercenary and grew up on Korfu, doing the dirty work for Markos, a local man, that seems to step from one trouble to the next. This setting is very quickly left behind as Kassandra starts an Odyssey, that would change her entire life. She travels through all of ancient Greece in the search of her family and with the goal to destroy a cult, whose goal is power over the entire greek world and beyond. This, of course, is a fictional story, but does not at all make the game less impressive to me. 

In this game you can discover the entirety of Greece, with replicas of historical sites, today left in ruins. Nowhere else I believe you can visit the Acropolis of Athens with all it‘s temples intact. Not only Athens, also Corinth, Mykonos, Crete, Olympia, say whatever you want. The world seemed surprisingly alive to me. The storylines are funny, beautiful, tragic and just incredibly entertaining. The NPCs lead their lives in the cities, doing daily things, selling things on the market, praying, dancing, singing, enjoying the sun. you can visit temples, markets, fishing villages, salt lakes, mountains, tombs or mycenean ruins. Of course it is not entirely historically accurate in it‘s gameplay for entertainment reasons but I was still stunned way too often over being able to see and visit these places in a way that can replicate it‘s former glory and being able to, through Kassandra, participate, interact with it. 

I have played the main story once now and have luckily gotten the happy ending, but have read that due to the decisions you can make there are nine different possible endings to the main story, some of which are incredibly tragic and heartbreaking. These are only the possibilities for the main story. There are amounts and amounts of side stories and extra content to which you can get multiple scenarios and endings again too. Decisions that you make in the game have a lasting effect on the NPCs. One for example is a little girl, that asks Kassandra to bring her gems for her friends. Once Kassandra brought her the gems it is revealed, that her so-called friends are a group of clay figures, she built, because her real family is dead and the people in town think she is strange. As Kassandra you can either make the decision to encourage her or tell her those clay figures aren‘t real friends, to which the girl will be very sad. If you choose the former and return to the island once it rained, the clay figurines will have been destroyed by the rain and the girl is crying all alone. If you choose the latter she will be mad at Kassandra, but once you return you can see her playing with kids from the town, who praise her for her skill in forming clay. Another story that left a lasting impression, was one where I had to reload it entirely due to first getting an awful ending I did not want at all. It is a questline on Mykonos called „Trouble in Paradise“. In this quest Kassandra is called to help some rebels against the Athenians, whose leaders are Kyra and Thaletas. It is possible to have a romantic relationship with either of them. In my game Kassandra got together with Kyra. There seem to be quite many possible endings for this depending on wether Kassandra gets into a romantic relationship, with who, and almost anything you choose for Kassandra to say. I do not want to spoil anything for this questline, but know, that some or most of the endings are extremely tragic. 

While I was still quite in the middle of the story I got the chance to visit real and modern Athens myself and take a trip to the Acropolis as well as the National Archaeological Museum, which displayed a few artefacts, which you can find in use in the game AC: Odyssey. Among them some statues, altars, artworks and…my personal highlight…A HERM. 

I have written an entry about herms before and in Odyssey there is sadly only one herm, what‘s design has been used at every. single. crossroad. in. the. game. But this herm, in all it‘s glory but with the phallus missing, is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. 

This entry is messy enough as it is but another aspect that got me incredibly excited about Assassins Creed: Odyssey is that you can often interact with historical figures from the time period such as: Perikles, Sokrates, Aristophanes…and…another familiar name from my entry on herms: Alkibiades. (The man, the myth, the legend, wildest guy you’ll ever meet) You also get a cool opening scene with Leonidas of Sparta fighting the Persians. Of course there are many more and also a playable storyline with mythological aspects and enemies such as the cyclops, the minotaur…

To summarize: I simply love this game. Of course it is not entirely accurate as it is still there for entertainment and…surprise to be a game. But to me and many other history nerds it is the closest thing we‘ll get to interact with ancient Greece and form fictional relationships with the idea of people that lived over 2000 years before us and to experience „first hand“ that they are not so different from us despite the time seperating us, which to me is what is the main goal of working with history. Another aspect I love is that there are many possibilities for players to really decide how they want to play their chosen character, Kassandra or Alexios, as someone serious, aloof, brutal, gentle, cold or which I did not expect and was incredibly positively surprised the amount of possible queer love stories for them, so you can really play them however you want to play them. 

[metis-metis]

Oh the irony

[findusinaweek]

Things stuck out to me while watching cutscenes in AC Odyssey: 1) Deimos almost always goes for the head. 2) Deimos has a grudge against Sparta (valid). 7 out of 9 kills in game are Spartans. Screenshot proof under the thingy. TW for violence, death

[nightwings-dumpy]

Perikles: I don’t like women.

Malina: YOU’RE A MISOGYNIST??

[ithinkthiswasabadidea]

Gonna go see my dad Perikles!!! 😊💙

[forislynx]

Statsmannen och generalen Perikles ansågs speciell som privatperson. Han skiljde sig från sin första fru och inledde en relation med och fick barn en kvinna från Miletos som hette Aspasia och som ansågs klok i politiska frågor. Hon deltog, fast hon var kvinna och metoik, i politiska diskussioner, och Plutarchos skriver att även Sokrates besökte henne för att diskutera saker och ting. Plutarchos skriver också att Perikles var så förtjust i henne att han gav henne en puss både när han gick iväg till agoran och när han kom tillbaka från den.

Tomas Lappalainen, Världens första medborgare : om statens uppkomst i det antika Grekland

[simplicius-simplicissimus]

Who was Pericles?

Pericles lifted Athens into a golden age through his support of the arts, architecture, philosophy, and democracy building.

„Pericles Funeral Oration“ after one year of war with Sparta and its allies (Peloponnesian War) shows a lot of the positive values „Western cultures“ still share today. But what is fact as well: As a democracy, Athens claimed moral superiority over Sparta - but at the same time acted as a hegemon in Greece which led in turn to the Peloponnesian War. Sounds familiar too, isn’t it!?

[blue-mono]

Tag yourself : AC Odyssey NPCs Part 2 (Part 1)

[ezloauditore]

she has me in a chokehold

[b-plot-butch]

“Thank you, Kassandra. Tell my Aspasia I was a good boy and took my drugs” yeah man. I’m sure you’re Aspasia’s good boy often enough

[the-casbah-way]

i'm nervous about my class tomorrow i don't know why i'm just in my Anxious Era it would seem

[universallyarbiterinternet]

Single-Schallplatte aus dem Jahr 1961. Perikles Fotopoulos: „Irena“.  /  Hemmann-Quintett: „Siehst du das Glück“.  Label: AMIGA – 4 50 258 mono (A036 /276 S)