#potamoi

tethys aesthetic [titaness of fresh water]

the titans

As of now, Hades 2 has 4 levels for each path. But are there any other areas from the world of Greco-Roman stories that could be explored? I thought of this:

Wilderness of Thessaly:

Melinoë ventures through Greece's rugged hills and mountainside on her journey to Mount Olympus, as she crosses forests, rivers, grottos, and abandoned temples.

This is inspired by the myths centered around the rustic countryside of Thessaly and Arcadia, just like the Rift of Thessaly is a homage to the Odyssey and other sea-faring Greek myths. The first god to be met would always be Artemis and her nymph huntresses, in their main camp. Each "chamber" is a clearing in the woodland, and the trees are opened to the next section.

New Enemies:

Centaurs: A tribe of half-horse wildmen. They have taken a liking to the chaos brought by Chronos' army and will battle the player with boulders and tree-branches.

Golden Sheep: Voracious golden-fleeced sheep with sharp horns and poisonous bites. Inspired by the sheep whose wool Psyche is commanded to fetch in the tale of Eros and Psyche.

Spartoi: Vicious warriors sprung from sown dragon teeth. They would keep spawning from the ground until all of them are defeated.

Carpi: Nature spirits of fruits and grains, who attack the player with whirlwinds of seeds.

Ideas for Friendly Encounters:

Rhea (Title: Titaness of Motherhood): The mother of the gods and Melinoë's grandma meets the player on her lion-drawn chariot as she wanders the mountain wilds. This character could help to flesh out Chronos as she tells her story of how she saved Zeus from sharing his siblings' fate.

Chiron (Title: Mentor of Heroes): The friendly centaur who once mentored Heracles and Achilles could improve Melinoë fighting skills or teach her new abilities for the rest of the run. Being a son of Chronos, he could also flesh out his character.

Pan (Title: God of Shepherds) or Silenus (Title: God of Wine-Making): Both of these rustic gods are associated with satyrs, and could offer knowlegde on why have they allied themselves with Chronos.

Gaia (Title: Earth Incarnate): The personification of Earth itself and Melinoë's great-grandmother could give several special nature-related boons and bring up Chronos' motivations.

Wardens (sub-bosses):

Calydonian Boar: The loathsome giant boar once sent by Artemis to ravage Calydon now stands against Melinoë after being ressurected as part of Chronos' undead army.

Eurytion the Centaur: One of the Centaurs from the Centauromachy, he is much stronger and more durable than the average centaur enemies.

Ideas for Guardians (Main Boss):

Achelous (Title: Largest of Rivers): The river-god of the river of same name, defeated by Heracles for Deianira's hand in marriage. His moves would revolve around controlling water and shapeshifting, going from snake form to his man-headed bull form. His prize would be a Cornucopia, fashioned from his lost horn in myth.

If Hera and Zeus divorced, who would Hera marry (if she did)?

Versus, who do you think she’d marry if Zeus never married her in the first place?

Although I do think Hera x Iris is the best Hera ship besides Zeus, I can't bring myself to say I like it. Despite betraying Hera that one time, Iris does a lot more for Hera than the other way around and I think the bare minimum in a relationship is that both parties put effort into the relationship.

If Hera and Zeus divorced, I'm not sure if she'd marry again. Despite the hell Zeus put her though, there is no one equal to or close in status to him, and I can't see her remarrying to someone below her.

And I can't see Zeus remarrying if Hera divorced him either. He's definitely not going to stop sleeping around, but I don't think he viewed any of his mistresses as worthy of being his Queen.

After all, he had the opportunity to replace her when she left him in the wooden bride myth yet didn't. Can you even see hubristic bratty Semele being a Queen? Or shy reclusive Maia? And there isn't anything Leto can do that someone else can't do better.

In the case they divorced, I think they'd both just spend eternity pining for each other, but overall everything would be more peaceful because Hera wouldn't be chasing down his baby mamas and bastards.

If Hera never married him in the first place...

I'm interested in river Gods but most of their myths are related to origin of the river names or heroes journey like how in the Iliad we have Scamander for example who Achilles battle or another one where we have lines saying they all attends the Gods gathering when Zeus called for them except for Oceanus (lol). And that's the thing too, usually when in referring to Oceanus the Titan, his daughters the Oceanids plays more role than the river Gods, and they all also have prominent figures like Metis and Styx to named a few. It's just that we have Amphitrite who is the queen of the sea and Thetis who is kind of unofficial leader of the Nereids so I was wondering if the river Gods at least have some equivalent to that?

Oh my gosh this is such a great question! Forgive me dear Anon for being so late to take it I had like a bunch of stuff going on! Hahaha

Now as you brilliantly stated it is not always clear from the sources what is going on with river gods since their parentage is mostly the one that is mentioned (coming from Oceanus and Tethys usually or in some version they are named as "children of Zeus" but I think these are mostly just to show how Zeus is the "father of all" by title rather than by parentage)

Now we do see that since Zeus is the king of gods and heavens he is the general leader of all, including the river gods. In the Iliad we even hear that in terms of power Zeus is stronger than the River Gods so he and his line are stronger than the lines of the River Gods.

and since Zeus is stronger than the rivers that reach the sea, therefore the lineage of Zeus is stronger than the one of the rivers!

(Translation by me)

So Zeus is the king of kings, including the River Gods. However given that Poseidon is the king of the earth and everything on it, he is the god of waters of all kind, AND one of his epithets is Φυταλμιος (phytalmios)= plant-nurturer, I think is safe to assume that he is also a river god-related deity hahaha

But a rather interesting leader that seems to command at least some of the river gods is Apollo. Apollo and Poseidon are oftentimes associated with each other. Apollo in particular as the protector of youth he is often associated with the offspring of gods or kings etc but in this case he appears also to command some river god (for example Hesiod mentions such a thing in "The Shield of Heracles" and Apollo is in it because of Cycnus. Apollo has also been linked with bodies of water before for instance the famous Castallia is the source of water that purifies his sacred lands, Delphi which he released from the grasp of the snake/dragon. Of course Poseidon, god king and protector of all kinds of water in various sources, he appears to command river gods do his bidding. That latter makes sense if one thinks also the cycle of water and how rivers eventually reach the sea or how water from the sea that evaporates finds itself through the sky into rivers and lakes.

Also a bonus question if you know: Do River-goddesses and Oceanids have a distinction? Theoi.com does a thing of placing Lethe at the Potamoi section and not at the Oceanid section, since she is technically a river, but the Potamoi are notably called “sons” (unless Lethe was actually trans, which isn’t possible at all by old accounts but fun to think about)

I only know of her being oldest of all the daughters of Okeanos, as Hesiod calls her: "terrible Styx, eldest daughter of backflowing Ocean." (δεινὴ Στύξ, θυγάτηρ ἀψορρόου Ὠκεανοῖο πρεσβυτάτη), πρεσβυτάτη being a world that can mean both eldest in age or most revered, most honoured.

Personally I think that the best contenders for the title of eldest child of Okeanos are Styx herself and Acheloos. She because Hesiod says that Okeanos gave her a whole tenth of his waters and it makes sense for me (and feels less awkward) if he would have done so out of enthusiasm for the birth of his first child and since he did not yet have other offspring to consider; him because Acheloos seems to have been considered an especially important river, greatest/mightiest after Okeanos himself, as in this passage from Iliad 21: "And as Zeus is a greater god than the gods of the sea-bound rivers, so is his offspring greater than a river’s child. Now a great river washes your feet, but cannot save you, for none can fight a scion of Zeus. Not even Achelous vies with him or the mighty and deep-flowing Ocean, source of the rivers and the sea, the springs and the deep wells: even he fears Zeus’ lightning, when dread thunder crashes from the sky." His name is sometimes used to refer to water in general, in the Derveni Papyrus Zeus recreates Okeanos and after him Acheloos, and it seems that the historian Ephoros of Kyme and the mythographer Akousilaos of Argos referred to this river as most ancient and honoured among the 3000 sons of Okeanos. I guess Acheloos and Styx could be twins, why not?

As I discuss at more length elsewhere, I believe Okeanos and Tethys to be the eldest Titans and to have started having children long before any of their other siblings did, but even without that interpretation I find it quite likely that many of their river sons and Okeanid daughters are actually closer in age to their aunts and uncles than to their cousins. So Asterion (assuming that he is a son of Okeanos) being younger than Styx and nevertheless being the father of Hera's nurses would still make sense to me.