Hades 2 - Will Melinoe Return in Hades 188?

The announcement of a sequel to Hades 188 has been met with excitement from fans of indie darling Supergiant Games. The reveal trailer showcased a return to the game’s vivid art style and satisfying gameplay, as well as a new protagonist. However, many are curious as to how Hades 2 will feature the character of Melinoe and what role her brother Zagreus will play in this narrative arc.

There is little clarity in the Odyssey about spatiality, real-world or otherworldly. Odysseus’ meetings with shades of the dead are cryptic and mysterious, with only a few hints about directions and duration of movement being provided. The only exception is the trip to Hades, which was made clear by Circe’s instructions and magic.

Although there is some debate about the route of Odysseus to Hades, most localizations focus on suggestive details in his account, as contextualized by early Greek cosmography. These theories are not invulnerable to criticism, as Greek cosmography defies normal measures of space and time. For example, most localizations place the entrance to Hades in the West, as the setting sun would seem to suggest. However, this is problematic because the Sun rises in the East.

In addition, the Homeric Underworld is not defined as a specific geographical location, but rather as a state of being. The abduction of Persephone by Zeus takes place in the fields outside of Enna, but this does not mark the Underworld’s entrance. The only way into the Underworld is by ship (kat Okeanon potamon), and Odysseus must moor his boat at Himera, a considerable distance away from Enna.

This is why the earliest localizations of the Underworld are not defensible. The best of them, the late Medievalist Armin Wolf, locates Odysseus’ journey to Hades near the city of Himera ( ). This theory is not only implausible in astronomical terms, but it also fails to explain the presence of the goddess Amphitrite and the river Hercules at Himera.

More recent localizations have placed Odysseus’ journey to the Underworld near Hesiodaea ( ). This is more plausible, but it still does not account for the abduction of Persephone and the entry into the Underworld by ship. It is not until Odysseus arrives in the realm of the dead that Hesiodaea is explicitly identified as a region of Hades, and only then when Hermes leads him to a flow of Oceanus, a white rock, and the gates of Helios.