#medea hades

[freenos]

I think it’s so interesting how Medea is the person Melinoe tends to discuss moral quandaries with, especially on her way to battling Prometheus.

[solarfalling]

God forbid a woman has hobbies (murder)

This is an older piece!! Like months ago now. Shes just been marinating in my folders

[xxcrystalinerose]

KEEPSAKE ART!! KEEPSAKE ART!!

I've been waiting for this in particular and there are some very interesting looking keepsakes so let's talk about them!

Hecate's is just the sigil we can find on and around characters allied with the Unseen (Nemesis) or witches (Medea, Circe). So I'm going to assume the sigil itself is called the Silver Wheel.

I had to research what Odysseus' is supposed to be (because I haven't ever read the Odyssey) but it turns out this is a type of game of chance called knucklebones? Interestingly it's something taught by Palamedes to his countrymen during the Trojan War, and Palamedes was the guy whose trickery forced Odysseus into the War and Od never forgave him (in most accounts, Od also killed him later). Oof.

I've wanted to make keepsake-based art for these, but since I don't know what they're supposed to be I was forced to speculate. But I don't need to any longer!

Nem's keepsake is... a literal evil eye charm. I don't know what I expected really! But it has a thread on it, so maybe Nem wears it on her armor? Hung on the back of her cuirass perhaps, to ward off malice directed against her back as she leaves after dealing retribution?

The skull on Moros' keepsake looks adorably polite (just like the man). I like that the 'pin' part is similar to one of those tiny sewing pins. It has the color of the Fates on it; did they give this to him? From its appearance, it's likely the Pin was supposed to be worn to fasten his sash.

Hermes' keepsake is a vial of mercury. Also known as quicksilver. 100/100 pun game and mythological reference here, Supergiant.

Artemis' keepsake is likely a reference to the sacred hind of Artemis, which is said to have golden antlers (likely represented by the golden accessories on the antlers).

Heracles' keepsake is from the name itself without a doubt a fang from the Nemean Lion, whose pelt he is also wearing on his person (my favorite iteration of this trope by the way).

Medea's is almost definitely the Golden Fleece, but looked like that either due to her curses, vengeance, or she just decided to singe it out of spite, as the in-game name is blackened fleece. The Medea we meet in game is likely her after enacting vengeance against Jason (can we see what's left of him? Or his shade? Please?).

I did not expect Circe's to be an ADORABLE pink crystal piggie. I wonder if SGG will discuss Circe's tendency to curse people into animals, judging by the pink sheep pigs on her island... and the entire Odysseus situation, because hoo boy.

Icarus' keepsake is a slightly modified Daedalus hammer. It doesn't look that much different, maybe to signify his doubt of his own skills and his belief that he will never escape his father's legacy and shadow? He's not yet found the courage to come into his own.

[fedezzzsigart]

I love her and can't wait to see the final version in the game

[linzer-art]

wip of my new wife

[izzytheace]

The fact she has banged his dad and gave birth to his half brother and tried to poison him

[greeknerdsstuff]

"She's literally an insane murderer" "She tortured a man"

Have you considered that she is my wife?

[violencedistrictresident]

medea fans?

[lostshots]

you're talking to the most spiteful woman in greek myth, mel

(deserved tbh)

[freenos]

a witch!

[ifishouldvanish]

This line is so good I'm obsessed with it??

[nemaliwrites]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Medea/Melinoë (Hades Video Game) Characters: Melinoë (Hades Video Game), Medea (Hades Video Game) Additional Tags: POV Second Person, Vaginal Fingering, Body Horror, Loss of Control, Canon-Typical Violence, Trick or Treat: Trick Summary:

Your ghost arm refuses to obey your command. There's really only one person to go to.

[amaryllis-sagitta]

Not at all. After defeating Prometheus 3+ times and Chronos 5+ times now, as more dialogue unfolds with side characters, there's a lot to say about both gods and witches with divine ancestry:

Medusa's face on the Aegis, that Athena is wielding, looks miserable in a deeply sympathetic way. It instantly caught my attention, considering the Ovid's telling of Medusa's/ Gorgon's myth portrays her as a rape victim who was turned into a monster, silenced and isolated by gods themselves. Athena helps seal Medusa's fate by aiding the hero Perseus in slaying her. Though it is said that this telling of the myth was Ovid's personal anti-authoritarian protest to a great extent, it has ingrained itself into the modern culture to the point of Medusa becoming a symbol for SA survivors.

Feminist readings of Arachne's myth also point at Athena's role as an enabler and defender of the gods' wrongdoings, since the tapestry that Athena wove in her contest with Arachne was basically a warning against fucking with Hera and Zeus. meanwhile, the one woven by Arachne exposed... many sexual exploits that the gods carried out on mortal women in disguise, often shapeshifting into animals.

The Circe/ Odysseus relationship so far is depicted very... euphemistically. In Odyssey, Circe drugged Odysseus's crew and turned them into pigs, and in order to save them Odysseus lived with her for a year. That included sexual servitude, as Circe gave birth to sons after Odysseus left.

I had a moment with Medea where she said something along the lines of "I found your blood on the battlefield and used it for spells :3". Melinoe replied "Maybe ask me before you do it next time", to which Medea replied "How about I do whatever I want and never even tell you again :3". So, both the surface witches might yet be shown to have a... murky concept of consent even in regards to Melinoe. (Though Medea herself has an interesting status, since in some myth tellings she was charmed by Hera and Aphrodite to fall in love with Jazon in the first place, adds some shades of gray to Medea's infamous murder rampage after Jazon abandoned her).

There's also room for a Heracles & Hera arc. Heracles was prophesized to be a child who would overthrow Zeus just as Zeus overthrew Cronos (or at least he was 1 of 2 half-mortal Zeus bastards that fit the descriptor), and Hera tried to thwart him since the very moment she found out about him -- she even messed with his birth.

A cherry on top: after the first time I defeated Prometheus, I got a conversation that almost confirmed to me that 'Dora is a shade of Pandora or a throwback to her (just like 'Dusa in H1 is Medusa or Maid-Dusa, or at least a throwback). And Pandora of the myth was basically a plant (as in "industry plant") created by the Olympians to torment humanity after Prometheus gave them fire, both by her allegedly vile character and by the "box of plagues" she unleashed. This arc is vital to how Chronos's Golden Age ended.

So Hades II has been dropping not so subtle hints that the gods are in the wrong and Melinoë may have to question the morality of the war she's been fighting for her entire life. It's present in the way the gods justify their treatment of mortals, it's present in the way Nemesis talks about justice and the fates of characters like Arachne, it's present in the way Chronos talks about his goals (though of course, it's easy to see how he could be lying about the new golden age, even though the history of the mythological golden age does hint at him being right).

But, to me, the number one sign that Melinoë may be on the wrong side of this conflict is the newest boss. I can't think of a single mythic figure who is more instantly sympathetic or more likely to be genuinely fighting for the wellbeing of mortals than Prometheus. I can't think of a single god, titan, or hero who cares more about humanity and its progress. I haven't studied up on Prometheus more than just reading the famous myth about him, but I have never really heard him discussed unsympathetically. I know this may be a biased perspective as a puny mortal, but my gut tells me to side with whoever Prometheus is throwing in with. But I guess we'll see if I'm putting too much stock in him as the plot continues to unfold.

[soranatus]

Best “witches” to you this Halloween! By Jen Zee, from Supergiant

[izzytheace]

Medeus/Medus in Hades has such comedic potential. He's Medea and Aegeus's ship name basically. Theseus's evil half brother. He just hates him. Wants him dead again. He's super prissy but he's kinda nice to Zagreus just because he hates Theseus and wants to help kill him again. He triggers every complex Theseus has in one sentence and it causes him to have a mental breakdown, and he's just doing it because he's pissed that he didn't get to kill Aegeus and steal the throne first.

[savleye]

Hades 2 early access art for Circe, Hades, Icarus, and Medea