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Zagreus is the protagonist of the 2020 video game Hades. [92] In the game, Zagreus is the son of Hades and is attempting to escape the underworld to find his mother Persephone, who disappeared before his time, and learn why she left. [93]
Persephone was abducted by Hades, who desired a wife. When Persephone was gathering flowers, she was entranced by a narcissus flower planted by Gaia (to lure her to the underworld as a favor to Hades), and when she picked it the earth suddenly opened up. [64] Hades, appearing in a golden chariot, seduced and carried Persephone into the underworld.
Orphics also described Zagreus as the son of Hades, while also regarding Zagreus as an aspect of Dionysus. [102] The role of unifying Hades, Zeus and Dionysus as a single tripartite god was used to represent the birth, death and resurrection of a deity and to unify the 'shining' realm of Zeus and the dark realm of Hades that lay beneath the Earth.
This is paralleled with another Orphic myth, the birth of Zagreus, who was conceived when Zeus, disguised as a serpent, deceived and mated with Persephone. [7] Melinoë is born at the mouth of the Cocytus, one of the rivers of the underworld, where the Chthonic Hermes is stationed in his role as psychopomp. [8]
The Naiad nymph Minthe, daughter of the infernal river-god Cocytus, became concubine to Hades, the lord of the Underworld and god of the dead. [9] [10] In jealousy, his wife Persephone intervened and metamorphosed Minthe, in the words of Strabo's account, "into the garden mint, which some call hedyosmos (lit. 'sweet-smelling')".
Scholar Timothy Gantz noted that Hades was often considered an alternate, cthonic form of Zeus, and suggested that it is likely Zagreus was originally the son of Hades and Persephone, who was later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, owing to the identification of the two fathers as the same being. [134]
Paste writer Elijah Gonzales discussed how the game handles Zagreus' relationship with Thanatos and Megaera, talking about how his desire to escape the Underworld conflicts with the relationships he developed there. He appreciated that Zagreus was a bisexual character, feeling that action games were oversaturated by "gruff straight dude[s] with ...
The relationship between Megaera and Zagreus, as well as the potential polyamorous relationship they may have with Thanatos, was the subject of discussion by critics. The Mary Sue writer Briana Lawrence was shocked to discover that polyamory between the three was possible, enjoying watching Zagreus work out the issues he has with them over him ...