Categories
Games Mythology and Folklore

I wrote another game

These are really fun! To write that is. I have no idea if these are playable or even Role Playing Games. They’re certainly storytelling games and you play a part in them so I guess they are, but they’re a far cry from XP and d20s.

This game is called Flesh of the Gods, it’s a way to collectively create a pantheon and mythology. A way for Gods to get involved in the affairs of Man both vital and petty, and for them to end up with strange combinations of domains (Behold! It is I! The God of Sunlight, Poetry, and, er.. Plague).

A pantheon of Gods tell tales of their attributes and patronage.

Each player writes a:

– Divine domain (e.g. Storms, Agriculture, Cats)
– A treasured possession
– Body part

Players randomly select one domain, possession, and body part to create their God.

Players also write three prayers (i.e. requests of a God), these are shuffled into a deck. Prayers can be as grand, solemn, trifling, or selfish as you like.

The starting God is whoever last ate an apple. The player opposite is the Village Elder this round and draws a prayer. They beseech the God for aid, the God must use the powers of their domain to answer the prayer. The God to the Elder’s left jealously intrudes and adds a complication. The God to the beseeched God’s left uses their possession to help overcome the complication. The beseeched God now gains an additional domain based on the prayer and the next God is beseeched.

Second time around it is the Gods to the right of the Elder and beseeched God rather than the left.

On the final round no other Gods intervene, the beseeched God must sacrifice their body part in order to answer the prayer.

Categories
Art

Odysseus

odysseus

By Norman Lindsay.

Categories
Mythology and Folklore People Words

Interpretatio germanica

I’m surprised I’ve never thought about this before:

More on Odin/Mercury from Wikipedia:

Scholars have noted, most recently Anthony Birley, that Odin’s apparent identification with Mercury has little to do with Mercury’s classical role of being messenger of the gods, but appears to be due to Mercury’s role of psychopomp. Other contemporary evidence may also have led to the equation of Odin with Mercury; Odin, like Mercury, may have at this time already been pictured with a staff and hat, may have been considered a trader god, and the two may have been seen as parallel in their roles as wandering deities.

For the week in full:

  • Monday/Lundi = Máni (personification of the Moon)/Luna (the Moon)
  • Tuesday/Mardi = Tyr/Mars (both Gods of War)
  • Wednesday/Mercredi = Woden/Mercury (as above)
  • Thursday/Jeudi = Thor/Jupiter (thunderbolts and lightning…)
  • Friday/Vendredi = Frigg/Venus (love)
  • Saturday/Samedi = Saturn/Day of Sabbath
  • Sunday/Dimanche = Sunna (personification of the Sun)/Day of God
Categories
Comics Mythology and Folklore

The Gaeneviad

This is just marvellous, the tale of a mortal who saves the life of Zeus. This mortal to be exact:

gaeneviad
Categories
Film

Clash of the Titans

I hope it’s awesome. I have fond memories of the original, though it’s hard to believe it came out the year after Empire (1981) – the similarities to 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts probably don’t help.

Categories
Art

Oedipus and the Sphinx

oedipus_and_the_sphinx_gustave_moreau

Oedipus and the Sphinx by Gustave Moreau