In today’s piece of evidence I was planning on discussing Madelline Miller’s Circe, however, due to constraints such as school — work and relatives coming over I was unable to complete the remaining 100 pages of the book. So I’ve decided to save that for next weekend by which time it’ll be completed and I’ll be ready to share my thoughts in a proper way. In the meantime, however, I’ve elected to talk about what is perhaps a somewhat unorthodox, topic — how are classical civilisations depicted in games — something I’ve found myself to be an expert in after so much time “studying” it. I’ll also be linking this to my thoughts on reinventing classics to make it somewhat more appealing to today’s youth and the much broader question of whether classics is still relevant.
I think assassin’s creed odyssey is perhaps the most obvious game to talk about. I saw you had posted the discovery tour in “ac odyssey” onto google classroom looking specifically at the metopes on the Parthenon in order to help us imagine the depictions of the centauromachy in a more “realistic” manner. And so I thought that this would be great to talk about. Within the game, you play as a mercenary, a “misthios” and you complete quests, travel throughout the Greek world and from time to time fight with a cyclops or two. There are several aspects of the game that I love. The first is the reconstructing of the ancient world. Ubisoft, the creators of the game, actually teamed up with the classics faculty at Oxford in creating a “realistic” enough game, and so one can do nothing but appreciate the minds behind making it. I think not only do the landscapes, temples and statues look incredible, but they also inspire an appreciation within you for what is still here in the real world and makes you want to visit the remains, taking in its historic meaning and significance.
Another great aspect of the game is its introduction of both real and mythological characters. Whilst it is true that perhaps the story and their personalities are a bit take a few somewhat fantastic turns such as when I have to fight my dad, Pythagoras as he refuses to give me Hermes’ caduceus staff so I can unlock Atlantis and fight Cerberus, Hades and befriend Poseidon — all included in a DLC pack I’m eager to persuade my parents into getting for me. And of course, at the end of the day, this is a game for people to kill monsters and befriend deities, however, it still introduces characters that are true to their historic accomplishments and attainments. A few of my favourites are Socrates, because of his thought-provoking philosophical questions, Herodotus — because of his everlasting scepticism of me having killed the minotaur and how it contrasts to my ship’s captain Barnabas who is always eager to rush into such stories, Pericles as the game shows his dedication, love and wanting to improve his city Athen and Leonidas showing him off as a courageous soldier and leader, almost mythologising his deeds at Thermopylae.
For me, I think that the game shares the same pros and cons with books retelling ancient Greek myths. They do misrepresent certain stories adapting them to the characters within the game, however, they still introduce kids to the classical world through a platform they can understand and interact with. For me, I didn’t know what the classics were until year 8 when we chose our GCSE’s, and even then I only chose it because my dad and I thought that it would complement my other subjects adding more breadth, rather than have it be completely focused on the sciences but more importantly, to catch the eye of both Oxford and Cambridge and help me secure a place. An idea that, when I look back on, realise makes very little sense. However, in year 9 I saw that I had a knack for it, this is probably because I enjoy the humanities and I always saw Classics as “the” humanities subject. But then I thought why not look into it a bit more, and then I started reading and within me developed a real passion for it. What I’m trying to say is, these games and books are great for introducing today’s youth to the fantastical world of ancient Greece and preserving its memory but is it enough to create a new generation of Classicists, to actually stimulate kids into saying “I want to read and learn more about this”. But it raises the question, what does it take to not only introduce people to classics but the actually get them interested in the subject. As I have mentioned before, it took the subject being enforced into the curriculum for me to get into it. But you could also argue that it takes different things to get different people to consider the subject. Maybe the reason it took so much for me to get into it is that coming from a Pakistani background the idea of studying humanities such as classics, philosophy or English is just so foreign-sounding. You have no idea how maddening it is when one of my uncle’s or aunties (Pakistanis have very large families) asks me what I have chosen for my GCSE’s and I spent a good 5 minutes trying to explain what exactly ancient Greece is. I still see confusion in my mum’s face when she asks me what homework I’m doing and I say classics.
Perhaps it would take playing a game or reading a book to get today’s youth to take an interest in classics, but I definitely think that when it comes to kids of different ethnicities and cultures, there is not much real outreach from the classics community. Simple things like visiting schools perhaps incorporating it into English GCSE, studying ancient texts. I was fortunate enough to have come across it in school but for a lot of people, they don’t have the luxury, and so people should find ways to spread the subject and make it well known. (I’m sorry for trailing off however I thought it was good to talk about as it linked to the original discussion about the game). I for one would enjoy researching about how to spread classics within smaller minorities and dedicate a piece of evidence to discussing how classics and other humanities are perceived within said minorities and also how to make the subject more accessible to today’s youth, through ways other than playing games and reading.
Comments