Mythic Beings of Divine Divinity

Those of Godly Splendour

Fantasy equal: Greek Pantheon

I am personally thankful that in many of today’s role-playing games almighty gods beseech you to perform an essential quest on their behalf. Something that must be done and only you can perform or finding an ancient relic they simply cannot live without. Sometimes even they demand you to take on a malevolent god and its followers. I love the idea of a higher power choosing you, a mere mortal, to locate a certain relic or perhaps watch over a certain person or item dear to them. Once these quests are fulfilled, that particular god always bestows you with some sort of power or a wondrous item (weapon or piece of armour) that would enhance your abilities.

In the game Oblivion, many shrines dedicated to specific deities are erected all across the terrain. If you were to be favoured by a particular god, he/she would grant you an audience. This was no easy feat, however, since all these gods had certain prerequisites, some of which were impossible to meet. In some cases you had to be a particular race or class for the god to consider you worthy. This allowed for some degree of replay-ability.

There is one game however, that revolves around gaining the favour of your gods, and that is the ancient Greek building game, called Zeus, Master of Olympus. (There is in fact another game, called Age of Mythology, which is similar in concept to Zeus) Zeus is a game I don’t believe many people played, or got quickly bored of due to no feature of killing something by launching a rocket at it. In Zeus you are a governor who builds up a city from scratch. Not only do you prosper by satisfying the needs of your people, but you have to satisfy the needs of your gods as well. Were you to dissatisfy your people, they would rebel and cause riots, but anger a god, and he/she would strike your city with plague, a monster or a curse, which can cause havoc to your city’s hygiene, economy and/or army.

The aspect of Zeus I liked the most, is that if you were to build a sanctuary in the name of a particular god, he/she would actually grace your city with his/her presence; walk down your streets amongst your people and even bless some of your buildings! Blessed buildings produce more than double the actual amounts of produce, for example. I used to build Apollo’s Oracle, not for the benefits of having him in your city (the other gods had better benefits), but because he was this giant, attractive, glowing half naked god. Many ladies and several gents must have severely swooned at the sight of him!

This collection is a tribute to the skilful artists out there who delight us with illustrations of the splendorous physiques of great deities.

“Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.

Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth explains the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and other mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology