When i first started playing dota, i remember
thinking it was weird that zeus from our irl
myths was there, while most other things were
new unique things to the dota universe.
And then i got really annoyed when the greek
and roman pantheons got mixed, when mars was
announced.
I was very happy to see that they explained
the last part, but its still a bit weird that
one of the few things that keep showing up
in the dotaverse from our own world is the
grekoroman pantheon.
The only other thing that comes close is the
rumusque, omniscience and knights of the fold
who may believe in the dota equivalent of
christianity, and brewmasters peoples yoy
and oyo which is basically yin and yang.
But they at least bothered to change the names
to distance the dota ideaology a little bit.
So why is the greek mythology from dota 2
the exact copy of the irl one?
Who is zeus and mars and whats their relationship?
What else from the dotaverse is related to
greek myth?
Keep watching to find out.
So one of my theories about why the grecoroman
pantheons exist in the dota universe as well,
is because the reality of the dota universe
was once part of our own multiverse.
It was part of a huge mesh which held all
of reality, and weaver was given a small part
of it to maintain.
But when he started to tinker with it, he
was punished by having that part cut off from
the rest, before they rewove the part without
him, and banished him to seclusion.
While it was meant to punish him, weaver was
happy, because now he could finally do what
he had dreamed of.
Instead of just maintaining reality, he could
reweave it with his own original ideas.
Weaver is basically the writer of the dota
universe.
And if the writer loved some parts of the
old reality, such as still including humans
and human culture, the same languages, laws
of the universe etc, then its not such a hot
take to say that maybe weaver is just a big
fan of greek myth, so he carried it over.
Of course what i mean is the original dota
1 writer did, but thats projected onto weaver.
In my theory.
I believe the grecoroman gods are from the
same plane of existence as the spirit brothers,
who are a kind of godly being called celestial.
We see this place called celestarr in zeus’
cosmetic, which may be the place celestials
live.
The celestial, elemental or the spirit plane
or whatever you wanna call it, could be the
one we in real life know as the 5th plane,
where divine - but not the creator - is found.
IRL thats buddha and jesus, but in the dota
world - if my theory is correct, that means
stuff like the celestials aka the spirit brothers,
the greek and roman gods, and original dota
gods like for example selemene, nyctasha and
the omniscience.
Now.
Who are the greek myth heroes?
Zeus is, according to himself, the lord of
heaven and father of gods.
Up until mars, it was heavily debated wether
or not he was actually a god, but now its
pretty clear he was tellign the truth.
Zeus is incredibly promiscuous, and will breed
with almost anything, despite having a wife
and children.
His wife, probably hera, eventually grew tired
of this, so she divorced him, made him a mortal
and took half of his power, and he is now
on earth to prove he can be faithful.
One of their children, is mars.
Buit zeus is greek, and mars is the roman
equivalent of the greek ares.
How does that make sense?
Well, that is actually basically mars’ lore.
As the god of war, he used to wage a lot of
them.
But eventually he grew tired of it, and decided
it was time for a change of authority.
He rebranded himself as mars, and is now trying
to extinguish the old pantheon, to build his
new one.
That is likely the roman one.
Mars confimrs the existence of both his mother,
which is likley hera, his uncles and zeuses
brothers, who are likely poseidon and hades,
and as a whole he is walking proof that we
can assume all the greek gods exist.
So thats the grecoroman gods.
But heres also a few other heroes referencing
greek myth.
Medusa is a gorgon, who may be related to
the meranth people.
Both becaue they were born of a sea goddess,
and because of how similar for example naga
siren and the naga culture is to medusa, and
its heavily greek in aesthetic.
Medusa was the only mortal among her sisters,
so when the gorgon realm was invaded and her
sisters kidnapped for probably the slave trade
in revtel, she herself was ignored.
Her mortality did not interest them.
To help avenge her people and save her sisters,
she begged her sea goddess mother for power
in exhchange for her beauty.
And if the exchange was proportionate, that
her current immense power should be a good
indicator of how beautiful she once was.
While dota medusas story is sad, its nothing
compared to the IRL medusa.
She was also an extremely beautiful maiden,
but she ignored suitors and instead dedicated
herself in service to her favourite goddess
- athena.
But athena grew jealous of medusas fairness,
and when medusa was raped by poseidon in one
of athenas temples, athena cursed medusa with
serpent hair that would petrify anyone who
looked at her face.
She was punished for being raped.
Athena also helped perseus later slay the
gorgon, by using her shield as a mirror so
he could look at her, and fight her.
And as he murdered her, her unborn child from
poseidons rape sprung out, as pegasus.
Yeah, greek myth can be pretty metal.
Abaddons house of avernus is a reference to
avernus, which is believed to be the entrance
to the underworld.
Banes name, atropos, is also the name of one
of the three greek fates - death.
The three fates are birth, life, and death,
and is symbolized by a thread.
The youngest sister weaves it, the middle
sister maintains it, and the oldest, atropos,
cuts it.
Broodmothers name, arachnia, may be a reference
to the greek character arachne.
She like medusa, made the mistake of being
better than athena.
She was a master weaver, and declared she
was even better than athena herself.
They held a contest to test their skill, and
started weaving.
Athena weaved a picture of the gods above
men, not equals.
Arachne on the other hand, weaved what ways
the gods have abused mortals, zeus in particular
for tricking and seducing women.
Arachne had not just insulted the gods, but
also managed to weave a better piece than
athena, so in jealousy she raged, tore arachnes
creation to shreds and hit her on the head
three times.
Ashamed, arachne hanged herself.
Athena would not allow her to get away so
easily though, and turned her to a spider
so she would weave forever.
Nys axxassins goddess, Nyx, is also the name
of the greek goddess of night.
But they are probably unrelated.
While the phoenix in dota 2 is a living sun,
the phoenix of greek myth is a bird that can
be reborn from its ashes.
This video is dedicated to my patron Gellfling.
Thank yuo so much for your support and generousity!
Until next time, peace!
