Mythology is constantly being reincarnated into new mediums. It began centuries ago as oral stories being passed from generation to generation and has weathered the test of time to present day. Mythology influences current day literature, movies, and even video games. One video game that heavily draws on mythological themes is The Legend of Zelda created by Japanese video game designer and producer Shingeru Miyamoto. Through Zelda, gamers are exposed to and are able to play through a hero’s journey filled with mythological motifs such as the idea of creation and destruction, the struggle between light versus darkness, the subconscious in relation to reality, and the idea and distortion of time.
Creation and destruction are two ideas very central to mythology. Every culture has its own creation story, and so does Zelda. The land of Hyrule was formed from chaos. Three sisters, Din the Goddess of Power, Nayru the Goddess of Wisdom, and Farore the Goddess of Courage, descended upon the world. Each Goddess had a role in creation. Din created the land, Nayru gave it fundamental law, and Farore filled it with inhabitants. When their job was done, the three sisters returned to the heavens. The idea of the world spawning from chaos, in the form of nothingness, can be viewed in many creation myths such as that of Greece. Also, the Goddesses each play a special role in creation, which can be compared to that of Greek or Roman Gods. For example, Zeus is the King of Gods and Athena is the Goddess of Wisdom in Greek mythology. Similarly, there is a correlation between many creation myths and Zelda where once the land is created, the Gods return to the heavens and there is a distinct separation between the two. There, the Gods are able to overs...
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...of those historical oral stories to the computer generated ones of today. Drawing from a mythological foundation, Zelda has won the hearts of many and quickly risen to the top of gaming charts. Whether it is gamers being enthralled by the backstory and creation of Hyrule, the danger of uncertain destruction, or the never-ending fight against light and dark, Zelda has a little myth to offer everyone. The idea of reality pitted against the unconscious and the conception of time reaches further than the confines of the game. People play videogames to leave reality for a little bit and explore a world that is not quite their own. Suddenly, they lose track of time and find they have been lost in another world much longer than expected. Zelda serves that function. It is the unconscious, timeless, and mythological story that acts as a passage from long ago into the future.
Most cultures have a creation myth, a story of how humans came to exist in the world. Often, they involve Gods of some capacity who exist without much question or explanation. Many myths have a common idea for the origin of the world, like Earth being born from water, a golden egg, or a great monster. The Mayan creation myth and the Babylonian creation myth are similar in that they both begin with water, and account the creation and purpose of man. They also differ, as the Mayan Popol Vuh chronicles a peaceful tale of trials to forge the Earth and sentient beings to worship the gods, while the Babylonian Enuma Elish tells of wars between gods that lead to the creation of Earth and of man as a servant to the gods.
Pop culture’s mythology theory is used in many forms of media today, from The Legend of Zelda in video games to “Harry Potter in books. One example of usage of the mythology theory is the 1996 movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? directed by Joel Coen. This movie is based off Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey.” There are many similarities between the two, yet at the same time, there are many differences.
The realm of myths and magic have captivated the attention of masses for decades. Most of the myths and creatures originated from folklore from diverse cultures around the world. The mythological world usually contains myths and stories about fantastic beasts, immortal gods and goddesses, unearthly beings, and bizarre creatures that rule or roam the depths of the earth. Since the rise of the internet, classic myths like mermaids, vampires, dragons, werewolves, zombies, and unicorns continue to have a certain appeal to the public. Due to this advancement of technology, myths like vampires and zombies can tap into people’s needs or yearnings. Either by filling a psychological need, symbolizing the rejected and inexpungable or by creating an
According to Linda Seger all myths, in all cultures are much the same. In these myths it is just the time, place and setting that changes. This is why Hollywood is so successful at making good movies, because they base it off these myths. The most popular myth is that of the hero, because for most of us this is what we want to be. With this myth we can live that experience through these characters. In the creation of a hero there are ten stages, using the Matrix as an example we will look at these ten stages.
Since Hylia was weak, she was reborn as a mortal over and over, along with the Hero of the Sky, this lead to our hero, Link. Link is tasked with finding Zelda, completing the Song of Hero, surviving through the countless dungeons and defeating Demise, the demon King.
The Chinese myth describes how when Pan-gu died, his body formed huge mountains, his skull formed the top of the sky, his hair formed all flowers and plants, his bones turned to jade and pearl, his arms and legs became the four directions. Also, Pan-gu’s blood became the rivers, his breath the wind, and his voice thunder, and finally, one eye became the sun and the other the moon. In the Egyptian myth, Geb is the earth, and Nut is the sky. These two are all tangled together, so Shu, god of air, pushed them apart. After Odin and the other gods slew Ymir in the Norse creation myth, Ymir’s huge body formed the earth, his blood the sea, his flesh became the land, his bones made up the mountains, and his hair made the trees. Odin and the other gods formed the sky with Ymir’s skull by holding it up with four large pillars. In the beginning of the Enuma Elish creation, it mentions how the two gods, Apsu and Tiamat, made the sweet water sea and the salt water sea. After a war that killed Tiamat’s army, the god Marduk raised half or Tiamat’s body to form the sky and the other half to form the earth. So many things also happened in the Maori creation. Rangi and Papa formed the earth and the sky. When their children managed to push them apart because they were so tightly embraced, Papa’s blood became the red clay land, and
A creation myth is an explanation of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. Every creation myth is different, but there is similarity in most of them. Motifs are recurring ideas that help develop a theme and these motifs are common in many creation myths. Three similar motifs are the idea of a supreme being, the idea of people being created from organic material, and the idea of rulers being overthrown. These concepts appear in the Inuit, Greek, Hindu, Chinese, Norse, and many more myths. These three motifs connect to one another and are common in many creation myths.
Myths – as they are known to most of the world – give insight into the pasts of various countries and religions as the people saw them. They have been used to explain phenomena in nature or describe the tales of courageous and important men and women throughout history. Creation myths in particular define how the Earth itself was created, along with the universe, heavens, hell, people, and creatures that exist today. Genesis of Christian mythology, for instance, tells the story of how the single deity God spoke and formed everything from day and night to man and woman. Various African creation myths, such as with the Yoruba, explain the creation of the Earth through at least a couple gods working together and all life sprouting from a seed.
Ancient Greek creation story, the earth began with darkness and nothingness- a void, or Chaos, as known to the Greeks (Genesis 1:2; Tripp 159). This Chaos was the bearer (meaning that he gave birth to) of Ge/Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (underworld), Eros (love and sex), Erebus (darkness), and Nyx (night) (Tripp 159). In the Christian creation story, God is the parallel to the Greek Chaos in that he invents the same things (with the exception of an underworld; the creation of Adam and Eve and their later reproduction could be comparable to Eros) as Chaos bore (Genesis 1:1-18).
Like the Greek Theogony, the creation of the world in the Enuma Elish begins with the universe in a formless state, from which the primary gods emerge. In the Enuma Elish, “[w]hen the skies above were not yet named [n]or earth below pronounced by name, Apsu, the first one, their begetter, [a]nd maker Tiamat, who bore them all,… mixed their waters together…[t]hen gods were born within them.” Apsu, which represents fresh water, and Tiamat, who represents salt water and is later referred to as “earth mother,” are both born from the primordial waters and are the first rulers of the gods. In the Theogony, it is stated that “at first Chaos came to be,” implying that at some point in time he did not exist. In the ancient near east, the primordial waters were waters that existed at the beginning of, or even before, creation that were associated with serpents and chaos. Hence, even though chaos in Greek means “chams” or “empty space,” the primordial god Chaos can be equated with the primordial waters. “Next wide-bossomed Earth (Gaia) [came to be]…and dim Tartarus…and Eros...And Earth first bare starry Heaven…” As we can see, while both myths begin with the primordial deities, the Theogony ...
In the beginning chaos was all that lived. Out of the void appeared Erebus, The place where death dwells, and with it came Night. Everything else was silent, empty, darkness, and endless. Love was then born out of no where bringing a start of order. From love came Light and Day. Once Light and Day was born, so was Gaea, the earth. Then Erebus and Night slept together, and gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light and the earthly light to Day. Then Night produced Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, and other things that come to man out of the darkness. In the mean time Gaea gave birth to Uranus, which were the heavens. Uranus became Gaea’s mate. Together they made the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans. Uranus was a bad father and husband. He despised the Hecatoncheires. He punished them by imprisoning them by pushing them into hidden places of the earth. This severely angered Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle and tried to convince her children to attack Uranus. All were to afraid to do so expect the youngest Titan, Cronus (“Creation of the World”).
Anyone who wants to call themselves a gamer has to have some idea as to what Zelda is. It is among one of the most popular video game series out there and has created its own cultural wellspring. There have been spin off cartoons, websites, walkthroughs, forms, etc…but strangely enough the story for one of the video games doesn’t change much. You are this elf looking boy or adult named Link that is on a quest to rescue Princess Zelda, reunite the Triforce, and save the land of Hyrule from evils such as Ganondorf. That is the general idea for almost every single one of the Zelda games, but what is so different about the Zelda games is that they marked the beginning of the gamer being able to actually guide Link. The gamers are allowed to make decisions as to where Link goes next, how to fight the boss, or even what to buy. It is these decisions that allow the gamer to project his or her personal ideas and beliefs onto Link. While the gamer cannot do anything he or she wants since Link is considered the hero and there are some limits that the gamer must learn to accept, like the religion of Hyrule, there are other games that allow the gamer to have complete control over the actions of the main character such as Grand Theft Auto 5.
Since the days of mythological origin to the origin of pop culture, various mythological stories have been adopted and presented to newer generations. Some of these presented adaptations of mythological stories have significantly been modified in order to be deemed entertaining by audiences in a pop culture generation. Thus, my study will seek to compare mythological hero's during their time to how they have been depicted in modern day. Moreover, my study will analyze the similarities and differences between the Greek hero Heracles and his replica character, Hercules, depicted in Disney's adaptation of this myth. Although there are few similarities between the two versions, the differences between Heracles and Disney's Hercules are prominent. These differences help modern day audiences relate more easily to the characters in the story. Furthermore, the alterations have enabled a new aspect of heroism to emerge since Disney tailors it's movies towards youth who can seek valuable lessons from animated movies. Disney's choices through these alterations will be determined by focusing on the main plot, characters presented in the movie, peripheral details, and the notion of being a "true hero" that Disney presents.
Video games have come a long way. They have evolved from the simple game of Pong into a complex, multi-platform, multi-genre, multi-billion dollar industry.
With a vast amount of video games out there, there seems to be a similarity in most of