CHAPTER 6

Argonautic Women? Gender and Heroic Status in Rise of the Argonauts

Sophie Ngan

Introduction

In this chapter, I discuss how women are presented in the video game Rise of the Argonauts (RotA), in order to illustrate the gendered ideologies produced and reproduced in this game. Released in the United States in late 2008 and in the UK in early 2009, RotA is an action role-playing game set in a Greek mythological past. The game takes its setting and characters from the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, and from Greek mythology more broadly. However, as McMenomy notes, when it comes to game designers’ reception of mythology, gameplay is not sacrificed for the sake of accuracy to the source material;¹ this is epitomized in RotA’s creators’ comments on their approach to adapting mythology.

The developers are explicit about their simultaneous engagement with and innovation on Greek mythology, as neatly summed up by producer Ed del Castillo in a 2008 interview: ‘we read all the myths, but the story came from us’.² RotA’s creators take inspiration from Greek mythology, but have not constrained themselves to remaining faithful to antiquity. Moreover, the developers are explicit about how they diverge from ancient material, replacing parts they consider antiquated with ideas of greater contemporary relevance: ‘We’ve kind of abandoned some of the stodgy oldness of the myth and really juiced it up with some more relevant themes.’³ Reviewers (both professional and amateur) have used the liberties the designers have taken with Greek mythology as a point of criticism;⁴ however, the designers are explicit about their active innovation on ancient material. Designer Vernon Andrew Dunmore states: ‘I invite our players to refresh themselves on the famed sagas, and also see for themselves how we reflect them in our game.’⁵ In this chapter, I take up this invitation, focusing on how the designers’ alterations and innovations play out.

From a brief summary of the plot of the game, it is clear that some large changes have been made to the Argonautic myth from antiquity. In the ancient version, Jason is challenged by his uncle, Pelias, to retrieve the Golden Fleece on Colchis in order to gain his rightful rulership over Thessaly; during this quest, Jason faces hindrances, such as the Clashing Rocks and the Sirens, and is romantically involved with two women, Hypsipyle and Medea, neither of whom he remains married to.⁶ Where the Jason of antiquity pursues the Golden Fleece in order to regain his royal lineage, the developers of RotA have their Jason motivated by the murder of his wife, Alceme, as the Golden Fleece uniquely possesses powers of revival.⁷ The developers perceive Pelias’ order as an external stimulus for Jason’s quest, making his motivations less relevant to a contemporary audience; instead, they give Jason a more personal motive for his quest, a change which will be discussed in more detail below.

On his quest, Jason is impeded by the game’s antagonists, the Blacktongues. This group, who killed Alceme, are followers of Hecate and have powers of sorcery. Beginning with a group of companions on Iolcus, Jason sails to Delphi, where he learns that the Golden Fleece is in Tartarus, which can only be reached by gathering a descendant of each of his patron gods – Ares, Athena, Hermes. These descendants are located at Kythra, Mycenae and Saria, islands which the player can visit in any order they choose. On his journey, Jason also picks up other non-playable characters (NPCs) who join him on his ship. The locations of the characters are listed in Table 6.1, with women indicated in italics. The NPCs have different functions in the game; some are used in combat as part of Jason’s party, some are the divine descendants needed to reach Tartarus, others perform miscellaneous functions. These functions are detailed in Table 6.2, with women indicated by italics.

Some of the Argonauts in RotA are those familiar from antiquity, such as Argos, Atalanta and Hercules, but others are imported from the wider canon of Graeco-Roman myth, such as Achilles, Daedalus and Medusa. A notable inclusion amongst Jason’s crew is Medea, similar to her ancient counterpart in providing aid to Jason, but no longer a romantic interest. Indeed, Jason’s complex marital record is erased, replaced with a single wife, Alceme – a name which seems to be a variation on Alcmene, mother of Hercules. I go into Jason’s romantic interests more below. For now, what becomes clear from looking at this cast of characters is that RotA’s Argonauts, whom the developers describe as ‘the X-Men of mythology’,⁸ consist of some of Graeco-Roman mythology’s biggest hitters. The developers have clearly made carefully considered decisions about which figures to include in their game.

Table 6.1    Table of NPCs by location found

Original Group (Iolcus)	Delphi	Kythra	Mycenae	Saria
Argos	Pan	Medusa (or Perseus)	Achilles	Atalanta
Hercules			Daedalus	Lykas
Medea			Lycomedes

Table 6.2    Table of NPCs by function

Combat	Descendants	Other
Achilles	Lycomedes (from Ares)	Argos (ship captain)
Atalanta	Lykas (from Hermes)	Daedalus (ship captain)
Hercules	Medusa (or Perseus) (from Athena)	Medea (guide and sorcerer)
Pan

Thus, the main body of my chapter discusses the inclusion of these particular women (Atalanta, Medea, Medusa) amongst Jason’s Argonauts. I analyse and interrogate both the innovations made to female characters from antiquity and the roles women play in the game. My approach considers both the mechanical and narrative function of female NPCs; as McMenomy notes, ‘a game’s use of received fiction cannot be understood separately from that game’s rules and mechanics’.⁹ I argue that there are tensions between representation and ideology in RotA. Although the game diverges from the Argonautic tradition of antiquity and beyond by including women amongst the Argonauts without questioning their Argonautic status, it also, nevertheless, reproduces misogynist and patriarchal ideologies in its presentation of women and their roles.¹⁰ The women in this game are not narratively or procedurally monolithic. They function within the story as romantic interests, as combat NPCs, as assistants necessary for completing the game; these roles are (understandably) subordinate to Jason’s goals, but they also reproduce notions of women as objects of desire or as assistive to a male protagonist. Moreover, the way in which power is conferred on these women is somewhat paradoxical: on the one hand, their physical and magical powers justify their heroic, Argonautic status; but, on the other hand, the dangerous potential of their powers is regulated only through service to Jason’s quest. The non-depiction of the full extent of these women’s powers, although dissatisfying for the feminist-minded player, both illustrates the difficulties of producing mechanics which are not conventional combat and reproduces an ideology of gender in which says powerful women are dangerous – so dangerous that their powers cannot be presented, conceived, imagined.¹¹

However, before getting to the main quest, this chapter has a tutorial ‘level’ in order to illustrate my approach to interpreting RotA’s gender ideologies. Through centring the maleness of the intended player-base, discussing the goals of the player and interrogating the gendering of female characters through appearance, I illuminate the masculine and heteronormative ideals of the game.

It’s a man’s world

RotA is aimed at a ‘mainstream’ gaming audience – young, white men.¹² Within the genre of action role-playing, RotA is frequently described by critics as a combination of God of War and Mass Effect.¹³ Like these games, RotA contains violent gameplay and, for this reason, is rated by Pan European Game Information (PEGI) at ‘18’ and by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) as ‘Mature’. It is clear that this game, like its forerunners, is pitched at the stereotypical ‘gamer’ demographic: young, male adults. A mechanic fundamental to the game is combat, likewise contributing to its masculinization.¹⁴

The protagonist and player avatar is Jason, the hero of the story. He is the only playable character, through whom the player experiences the game. In the spirit of the role-playing genre, the player is encouraged to identify with Jason through dialogue choices which reveal his ‘internal life’;¹⁵ indeed, the ability to create a personalized Jason has appealed to players.¹⁶ In appearance, he embodies stereotypically masculine characteristics: square jawline and highly defined muscular build. This muscular, masculine Jason stands in stark contrast to his ancient counterpart, who is often considered a less heroic epic protagonist than, for example, Achilles and Odysseus.¹⁷ The Jason of RotA is, therefore, physically representative of heroic masculinity. This is not, however, a masculinity designed to be sexually desirable (i.e. in which the male form is the object of a desiring gaze), but a masculinity which encourages subjective identification by the player.

The heterosexual assumptions about the intended player are clear from this subjective identification with the masculine hero protagonist combined with the objectification of the female form. At a glance, the four main female NPCs (Alceme, Atalanta, Medea, Medusa) are visually similar. As shown in Figure 6.1, they have the same hour-glass body shape, which is especially emphasized by their tight-fitting clothing. It is particularly noticeable how similar their clothing is, with cut-outs at the midriff, skirts split down the side to reveal their legs and tops which emphasize their cleavage. In short, all these female characters fit a particular template for normatively attractive women. The visual similarity of the female Argonauts is even more striking against the visual diversity of the male Argonauts, shown in Figure 6.2. In appearance, Jason fits the mould of masculine superhero. The most visually similar character to Jason is Achilles, who is likewise muscular, but of slightly slimmer build. The rest of the male Argonauts, however, differ greatly from this mould. Where Jason is masculine, Hercules is undoubtedly hypermasculine; Jason embodies the idealized Dorito form (epitomized most prominently by Captain America), whereas Hercules has the distorted physical attributes of the Hulk.¹⁸ Turning to Pan, the centuries-old satyr, and Argos, the wizened helmsman of the Argo, it becomes even clearer that male Argonauts do not fit a homogeneous mould, but are visually diverse, unlike female Argonauts. There is no doubt that the women in RotA function, on some level, as eye candy for the intended player-base.¹⁹ As one reviewer comments: ‘The female character models (yow!).’²⁰

Figure 6.1    Female characters from RotA (l.–r.: Alceme, Atalanta, Medea, Medusa). © Liquid Entertainment. © Codemasters.

Figure 6.2    Male characters from RotA (l.–r.: Jason, Hercules, Argos, Pan, Achilles). © Liquid Entertainment. © Codemasters.

The player’s main goal in the game, saving Alceme, reproduces the traditional ‘save the princess’ plot of many games.²¹ Moreover, despite the sexualized desirability of the female NPCs who get the most screen time – Atalanta, Medea and Medusa – Jason is resolute on his goal and only has eyes for Alceme.²² Jason’s fidelity to Alceme, despite the potential of alternative romantic interests in his other female companions, is suggestive of her embodiment of idealized femininity. Alceme has both royal and divine lineage, as daughter of King Lycomedes who is descended from Ares. She is presented, in flashbacks, as beautiful, intelligent and physically capable. Her virtues are extolled on a statue as follows: ‘Courage eternal, devotion steadfast, grace forever, beauty undying.’ The spectre of the ideal woman, represented by Alceme, provides a consistent point of comparison for the other female figures in the game – a fact I return to in this chapter. The storyline of the game is directed towards a ‘happily ever after’ ending, a reunion with Alceme. The values with which the player is presented are, therefore, not only heterosexual, but also heteronormative.²³

The role these female Argonauts play, within the rhetoric of RotA, is one of ideology-building; these characters function as part of the system, defining ideals and norms of gender. These figures operated in similar ways in antiquity. Through Atalanta’s simultaneous feminine power and desirability, she disrupted and defined masculinity: ‘Atalanta challenges men in a man’s world and therefore presents a threat to the male order, but she is also the object of male desire and subject to male influence and dominance.’²⁴ Medea’s liminal status was used as a vehicle for defining group identity:

Not only does her checkered career allow authors and artists to explore the opposing concepts of self and other, as she veers between desirable and undesirable behavior, between Greek and foreigner; it also allows them to raise the disturbing possibility of otherness lurking within self—the possibility that the ‘normal’ carry within themselves the potential for abnormal behavior, that the boundaries expected to keep our world safe are not impermeable.²⁵

Finally, Medusa functioned as a monstrous mirror, in which the other in the self is viewed: ‘The face of the Gorgo is the Other, your double. It is the Strange, responding to your face like an image in the mirror … but at the same time, it is an image that is both less and more than yourself.’²⁶ In short, unusual women, in both antiquity and in RotA, play a role in forming ideologies of gender, in delineating the transgressive from the normative.

The assumed masculinity in the values RotA advances manifests in many, mutually reinforcing forms. The implied audience of the game is young and male, reflecting the demographic of the design team. The protagonist embodies an ideal masculinity which is heroic and normative. The main aim of the game is heteronormative, directed towards the ideal woman, Alceme. The male, heterosexual gaze also reveals itself in the sexualized appearances of the female characters. However, within the game, Jason remains undistracted from his task of saving Alceme, despite being surrounded by three women who are very similar to her visually.

The following sections focus in on the female Argonauts: Atalanta, Medea and Medusa. For each, I explain their canonical mythological background from antiquity, from which it becomes clear that these female figures carry cultural significance because of their deviation from gendered norms. I then consider the innovations made to adapt each woman to RotA, and the narrative and mechanical function of each. By doing so, I illustrate that the gendered ideology at play in this game reproduces age-old, patriarchal power dynamics which simultaneously hint at the dangers of female power and regulate their use.

Atalanta

Since antiquity, Atalanta has been a figure associated with the Argonautic myth. Atalanta is listed as an Argonaut by both Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca Historica 4.41.2) and Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 1.112). However, in the Argonautica, Apollonius notes her absence from the Argonauts: ‘for [Atalanta] eagerly desired to follow on that quest; but [Jason] himself of his own accord prevented the maid, for he feared bitter strife on account of her love’.²⁷ The passage explicitly explains that Atalanta is excluded from the Argonauts because of her dangerous potential, as a woman scorned, of distracting Jason from his quest. This explanation is particularly ironic, given that later in the Argonautica Jason delays with Hypsipyle, and beyond the scope of the Argonautica his abandonment of Medea causes her to murder their children.²⁸ Notably, however, in RotA Jason shows no signs of straying from Alceme, a fact which reinforces the romantic heteronormative ideals presented in this game.

Atalanta’s Argonautic involvement is not the only story associated with her in antiquity, and not the only aspect of her mythical background in which gender plays a significant role. In one tradition, as a baby Atalanta is exposed by her father, since he does not want to raise a girl; she is then suckled by a bear, before being found and raised by a group of hunters.²⁹ A different tradition has her so unwilling to marry that potential suitors must beat her in a footrace.³⁰ These two traditions were not always kept separate in antiquity, but sometimes elided into a single version.³¹ Through all the different traditions associated with the name Atalanta, the flouting of gender norms runs as a continual thread. Her unconventional upbringing, her physical prowess, and her eschewing of traditional marriage are all indicative of how she goes beyond normative expectations of femininity in antiquity.³² Indeed, in Aelian’s description of her, he notes that ‘she looked in a masculine and fierce way’.³³ In addition, the ancient controversy surrounding her involvement in the Argonautic quest as a woman heightens her exceptionalism.

Many modern retellings of the Argonautic journey do include Atalanta, on which Lovatt writes: ‘Atalanta becomes a canonical Argonaut in the twentieth century, but her inclusion is not always straightforwardly a feminist gesture.’³⁴ Along similar lines to Lovatt’s observation, the presence of Atalanta amongst RotA’s Argonauts is not sufficient for ensuring any kind of feminist, anti-patriarchal ideology of gender within the game.

RotA follows in the footsteps of receptions of the Argonautic myth in the inclusion of Atalanta amongst the Argonauts.³⁵ Moreover, RotA’s Atalanta retains some of the characteristics of her counterpart(s) from antiquity. She is orphaned as a child and has an unconventional upbringing (with centaurs, rather than hunters). She is physically and martially capable, described by her adoptive father as the ‘best’ of their tribe. Her martial characteristics are also clear as she is the only female character who can be used in combat in-game. As in antiquity, her exceptionalism as a woman amongst men is key to her characterization. Of the four combat NPCs, she is the only woman, suggesting that there is some tokenism behind her inclusion in this group. Indeed, Atalanta is seldom mentioned by the developers in interviews.³⁶ This need to explain Atalanta’s inclusion is further pointed at by the fact that her backstory is fleshed out significantly more than that of Hercules, Achilles and Pan; while the player is told little biographical information about these male characters, Atalanta’s unusual childhood serves the purpose of justifying her Argonautic status.

Atalanta’s inclusion in RotA’s Argonautic crew follows in a tradition of Atalanta as an Argonaut. In making Atalanta exceptional in this regard, as the only female combat NPC, the game reproduces a gender ideology which assumes the inferiority of women. Representation of women within a game does not necessarily preclude patriarchal gender ideologies. Moreover, even though Atalanta is not deprecated or questioned in her Argonautic role, her exceptionalism, nevertheless, causes her to partake in non-feminist, patriarchal gender ideology.

Medea

Like Atalanta, Medea also plays a part in the Argonautic tradition, though a part much more significant.³⁷ She is most well known for her interactions with Jason, which begin when Jason reaches Colchis, where Medea’s father is king. After falling in love with Jason, she uses her powers of witchcraft to help him complete the necessary tasks to attain the Golden Fleece. Having gone against her father’s wishes, she escapes Colchis with Jason by murdering her own brother, scattering his body parts in the sea to distract her father.³⁸ Eventually, Medea and Jason make their way to Corinth, where Jason marries the daughter of the king, leaving Medea powerless. In an act of vengeance, Medea murders their children.³⁹ Medea is, therefore, a figure characterized by her complexities and transgressions.⁴⁰ She is a witch descended from the god Helios, who uses her powers of sorcery to deceive and murder; and as a mother who kills her own children, Medea transgresses normative femininity in her power and agency, and also in her capacity for contravening maternal instincts.⁴¹ Like Atalanta, then, Medea is an unconventional woman, whose unconventionality has perpetuated her cultural survival.⁴² However, unlike Atalanta, Medea’s character from antiquity needs significant rehabilitation to ensure her Argonautic status in RotA.

The player first meets Medea on Iolcus, where she reveals herself to be an ex-Blacktongue and offers her help to Jason. We learn that she joined the Blacktongues when she was twelve years old and arranged to be married to a sixty-year-old suitor. On her marriage night, she murdered her suitor and fled her family, vowing never to be powerless again. Her reason for joining the Blacktongues was the power they promised her. During her time as a Blacktongue, she learned sorcery and spellcasting, but also realized that her powers were not her own, but employed in service of the Blacktongues’ crimes. For this reason, she left the Blacktongues and turned against them. She offers to help Jason with her knowledge of the Blacktongues and her spellcasting abilities, which are needed to reach the Underworld. As she is confined to the Argo for most of the game, she is described by Clare as ‘static and essentially characterless’.⁴³ Whilst she is limited in her mechanical function and spatial location within the game, her character is essential to the game’s world-building and narrative arc.

In rehabilitating Medea to Argonautic status, the developers do not entirely erase wrongdoing from her biography and RotA’s Medea is, in many ways, thematically similar to the Medea of antiquity. Both Medeas commit acts of murder, forcing them to leave their families; independence, then, is an important motivation for Medea in both her mythological and game stories. RotA’s Medea, like her ancient counterpart, is proficient in magic, and uses this skill to assist Jason. For RotA’s Medea, aiding Jason is doubly rehabilitative: in-game, helping Jason against the Blacktongues is an act of redemption, by which she atones for her association with them; within the traditions of Medeas, supporting Jason rehabilitates her character to heroic status, thereby justifying her place amongst RotA’s Argonauts.

Medea’s sorcery is not tacitly absent from the game, but controlled and moderated. Medea is clear about how powerful she is, stating: ‘There was a time no follower of Hecate could hope to match me.’ However, she expresses concern about unintentionally harming others: ‘I am not … safe to be around. I sometimes lose myself, as you have seen.’ To keep others on the ship safe, she limits her powers to a single room by setting up wards, which only Jason can deactivate. Like the Medea of antiquity, the powers which have the potential to harm Jason are the same powers she uses to help him. Since this potential for harm goes unrealized in the game, Medea’s power is controlled. As she only uses her powers to help Jason reach the Underworld, they are limited to service to Jason’s goal. In addition, Medea’s physical appearance, with the tattoos of the Blacktongues, serves as a reminder of her past, of her potential to be dangerous to Jason’s purpose.

In RotA, then, Medea’s ambiguous morality has consequences which pull in different directions. The pointed circumscription of Medea’s power draws attention to how dangerous she could be. Yet, the lack of fulfilment of this power is somewhat dissatisfying for the feminist-minded player. This particular adaptation seeks to redeem her character and, in so doing, demonstrates the extent of her power precisely by not depicting it. In short, this tension illustrates the complexities of any Medea: Medea encapsulates a power so transgressive that it must be curbed in order to be presentable.

Medusa

RotA’s final female Argonaut, Medusa, is not canonically involved in any Argonautic myth. Like Medea, Medusa is a complex figure. The most commonly known narrative of Medusa follows the version in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (4.777–803): Medusa, a beautiful woman, is raped by Poseidon and consequently turned into a monster with snakes for hair whose sight turns living creatures into stone; her head is cut off by the hero Perseus, who avoids looking directly at her through using his shield to view her reflection. This head becomes the Gorgoneion of Athena and Zeus, an apotropaic symbol emblematic of feminine power, making Medusa representative of feminine power in its most monstrous forms.⁴⁴ It is her feminine power in the face of patriarchy which has caused her to persist in cultural consciousness.⁴⁵ Although not part of the Argonautic myth, Medusa is one of the most recognizable female figures from mythology, thus accounting for her inclusion in RotA.⁴⁶

The dynamics operating in the adaption of Medusa have parallels with the case of Medea. Medusa also requires rehabilitation, whilst retaining an element of continuity between antiquity and RotA. In RotA, Jason first encounters Medusa as a boss, in the form of a monster with snakes as hair, whose vanity, symbolically represented in a golden statue, has caused her to lose her past beauty.⁴⁷ Medusa can be defeated in two ways. If attacked directly, she is killed and Jason recruits her twin brother, Perseus. Alternatively, Jason can defeat Medusa through destroying the statue and using his shield as a mirror. Upon seeing her own reflection in the shield-mirror, Medusa realizes her vanity has caused her to become monstrous and reverts to her human form, allowing Jason to recruit her.

Although many liberties have been taken with the narrative – not least that Medusa and Perseus are twins – parts of Medusa’s canonical character remain: her monstrous form is caused by vanity; in her monstrous form, she has snakes for hair; she has a connection to Athena, not as Gorgoneion but as descendant. The player can choose to win the boss-battle by killing Medusa, as happens in the myth; in this version, dangerous feminine power is destroyed. But if the player saves Medusa, she is recruited specifically for the purpose of atoning for her wrongdoing, ordered: ‘Medusa, as Jason has decreed, your penance will be to serve the people of Kythra in all that you do. Your first task will be to journey with Jason. Help him find the Fleece and prove your new resolve.’ Like Medea, Medusa both redeems herself in-game and is rehabilitated from her mythology by serving Jason’s quest.

Conclusions

I now tie together the preceding analyses of individual characters to make some conclusions about the ideology of gender RotA presents. First, the three women featured amongst the Argonauts are transgressive, in the game as in antiquity. Atalanta, like her ancient counterpart, is exceptional in equalling the status of men; as the implied standard of comparison is male, a gender ideology promoting the inferiority of women is reproduced. The game, in its own way, emulates the dangerous potential of both Medea and Medusa from antiquity: Medea is a powerful sorceress who was once an associate of the game’s antagonists, the Blacktongues; the player first interacts with Medusa in the form of a boss to be defeated. The mythological women who make their way into RotA, then, are all well known for their gendered transgression, as their femininity is representative of a challenge to masculinity and to the norm. Although two of these three ancient figures are antagonistic to heroes, it is their symbolization of femininities beyond the norm, femininities of power and agency, which lend them to their newfound roles amongst the ‘X-Men of mythology’.

Second, women’s dangerous potentials are rehabilitated and controlled by service to the male protagonist, Jason. The descriptions of the backgrounds of Medea and Medusa in RotA highlight that both characters experience a fall from ‘goodness’, which is reversed in order for them to join Jason’s band of Argonauts. In both cases, their moral wrongdoing is presented as no fault of their own, but due to the involvement of a third party. And in both cases, by joining Jason on his mission, they redeem themselves for their wrongdoing. The Medea and Medusa of antiquity require rehabilitation in order to become Argonauts. This rehabilitation of ancient figures is reproduced within the in-game narratives. Rather than erasing wholesale any transgressive aspects of Medea and Medusa, the game’s developers have them commit wrongdoing then redeem themselves by participating in Jason’s mission. These women do not join Jason on his quest as potential romantic partners, but as necessary components for him to complete his quest, which is presented as a noble mission, through the fact these women can redeem themselves by helping him.

Third, RotA ultimately presents an ideology which is heteronormative. None of the women Jason recruits on his quest are of romantic interest to him, and he remains faithful to Alceme. It seems a little strange, at first glance, that Jason’s wife is given a name which, to a non-expert, could be from Greek mythology but is not. Although the Jason of antiquity is not a figure lacking in relationships with women, these relationships do not end well. By making Jason’s wife a tabula rasa, the game’s writers preserve Jason’s heroism and Alceme’s moral goodness. Neither Atalanta nor Medea nor Medusa can compare with Alceme. In this way, the marital relationship is put on a pedestal, as the telos of the game around which everything else revolves.

For the developers of RotA, the world of Greek mythology provides ready-made story elements, which they shape and fashion to their own tastes and preferences. Although many changes have been made to canonical versions of the myths and characters which have been cherry-picked, these retain something of the ‘essence’ of their ancient counterparts. The same can be said for how the game represents female characters and engages with femininity. By contextualizing my discussion of individual characters within the broader culture of this game, it becomes clear that the gender ideology of RotA is both misogynist and heteronormative. The three Argonautic women are notable for their transgressive femininity, evident in both mythology from antiquity and in the game’s adaptation of that mythology. These powerful women carry with them, in their mythological pasts and in-game backgrounds, a dangerous potential, which is curbed through service to the male protagonist. Yet, none of these women plays the role of a romantic interest to Jason, and instead it is his wife who is, in her illusoriness, the perfect woman. This valorization of the marital relationship both reiterates the well-known ‘save the princess’ trope and constitutes the heteronormative values which drive the game. RotA, therefore, shapes and is shaped by its source material: the inclusion of women does not entail feminist values; and ultimately, this game reproduces many patriarchal and misogynist ideologies.

Notes

1.McMenomy (2015: 121). See Orellana Figueroa, in this volume (pp. 29–33), whose discussion of historical (in)accuracy in video games highlights the unequal standards to which representations of women are held (in comparison to other aspects of the ancient world).

2.Robinson (2008). Likewise, they describe their game as ‘a creative retelling’ (GameSpot 2019).

3.GameSpot (2019). Designer Vernon Andrew Dunmore makes a similar statement: ‘Rise of the Argonauts takes its inspiration from classic Greek myth, but re-imagines those themes to make the stories more relatable to modern day audiences’ (IGN Staff 2008).

4.To take a couple of examples. Walker: ‘The story of Jason’s attempts to rise to power as King of Iolcus through forming the Argonauts and searching for the Golden Fleece has been put through a shredder. Some poor soul took the resulting strips and attempted to stick them back together, creating the utterly non-canon story on offer here. … It’s nothing to do with Jason and the Argonauts’ (2009). Capra: ‘First off, if you’re a student of Greek myth (Or just a geek of the same) you may want to stop now. This is not the classic story of Jason and the Argonauts’ (2009).

5.GameSpot (2019).

6.Many ancient works of literature explore and engage with different parts of Jason’s story. Those focused on the Argonautic content include: Apollonius’ Argonautica, Pindar’s 4th Pythian and Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica.

7.The Golden Fleece does not have healing properties in antiquity (to the best of my knowledge), but it does in later receptions, e.g. the Percy Jackson universe. For symbolism of the Fleece in receptions, see Lovatt (2021).

8.Sassoon Coby (2008).

9.McMenomy (2015: 107).

10.That women’s representations in video games can be diverse and nuanced, yet still patriarchal, is also discussed by Norgard in this volume (esp. pp. 82–6).

11.The way in which the system engines and producible mechanics cannot (in some cases) do justice to the narrative ambitions of games is observed in the BioShock franchise by Malazita (2008).

12.The assumption that ‘gamers’ are male is not actually borne out in the statistics, on which see the Introduction to this volume (pp. 1–2).

13.Deam describe RotA as ‘an ambitious fusion of God of War-style combat and Mass Effect-like roleplaying’ (2008). Likewise, Moore writes: ‘You have your Mass Effect and God of War floating around. To most, they are herald as masterpieces of their genres. It seems the people at Liquid Entertainment decided to take the good aspects of these games and create their own. What we got was Rise of the Argonauts’ (2009).

14.On the masculine appeal of combat mechanics, see Ray (2004: 38–49).

15.Del Castillo states: ‘Also the way that we’re doing the dialogue, depending on how decide [sic] to progress through the dialogue and how you evolve your character, there’s going to be unique experiences’ (Robinson 2008).

16.E.g. from Metacritic user SoullessPotato: ‘But they do make you feel as though you are creating your version of Jason. If you choose all Aries [sic] options as Jason then you feel like you have an aggressive war driven Jason, Athena you feel like your Jason is wise etc.’ (2016).

17.Debate summarized by Hunter (1988).

18.‘Dorito’ is a descriptor which has been applied to Captain America actor, Chris Evans, due to his shoulder–waist ratio (Fanlore n.d.).

19.On the sexualization of women in video games, see, e.g.: Ray (2004: 18–36) and Mejia and LeSavoy (2018). For discussion of women’s hypersexualized appearances in Classical video games, see Orellana Figueroa and Persyn in this volume (pp. 38–40; 54–5).

20.Alan_Kim (2009).

21.On which, see Gray (2018: 1–2), Ray (2004) and Lowe’s discussion in this volume (p.16).

22.Robinson: ‘When you read the story of the Golden Fleece, the reason Jason is going to get the Golden Fleece is just because someone told him to. So, we thought, let’s walk this through logically. What does the Golden Fleece do? It brings people back to life. If we want to create a good story that people understand, we must need the Golden Fleece – so somebody must have died’ (2008).

23.‘Heteronormativity’ is a term first coined by Warner (1991), and developed by Berlant and Warner, who explain the term as follows:

By heteronormativity we mean the institutions, structures of understanding, and practical orientations that make heterosexuality seem not only coherent – that is, organized as a sexuality – but also privileged … Heteronormativity is thus a concept distinct from heterosexuality. One of the most conspicuous differences is that it has no parallel, unlike heterosexuality, which organizes homosexuality as its opposite. Because homosexuality can never have the invisible, tacit, society-founding rightness that heterosexuality has, it would not be possible to speak of ‘homonormativity’ in the same sense.

1998

24.Barringer (1996: 50).

25.Johnston (1997: 8).

26.Vernant (1991: 138).

27.‘πέρι γὰρ μενέαινεν ἕπεσθαι / τὴν ὁδόν· ἀλλ’, ὅσον αὐτὸς ἑκών, ἀπερήτυε κούρην, / δεῖσε γὰρ ἀργαλέας ἔριδας φιλότητος ἕκητι’ 1.771–3.

28.As noted by Fränkel (1968: 104).

29.Aelian, Varia Historia 13.1, where she is daughter of Iasios.

30.Hyginus 185 refers to Atalanta as daughter of Schoenus.

31.Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.105–9: here, Atalanta is daughter of Iasos, but with disputed parentage.

32.On which, see Barringer (1996).

33.Aelian, Varia Historia 13.1.67: ‘ἀρρενωπὸν δὲ καὶ γοργὸν ἔβλεπε.’

34.Lovatt (2021).

35.Ibid.

36.In a video interview for GameSpot from July 2007, Del Castillo mentions ‘Hercules, Achilles, Perseus: some really great mythological heroes,’ omitting any mention of Atalanta.

37.Our main ancient sources for Medea’s story are Apollonius’ Argonautica and Euripides’ Medea.

38.This is detailed particularly in Apollonius’ Argonautica, Pindar’s 4th Pythian, and Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica.

39.This Corinthian episode is the focus of Euripides’ Medea, the 12th poem of Ovid’s Heroides, Seneca’s Medea.

40.As summarized by Johnston: ‘Medea was represented by the Greeks as a complex figure, fraught with conflicting desires and exhibiting an extraordinary range of behavior’ (1997: 6).

41.On which, see e.g. Bongie (1977) and Foley (2001: 243–71).

42.Johnston: ‘In seeking to understand the powerful hold that Medea has had upon our imaginations for almost three millennia, therefore, we must embrace her complexity and look within it for the secret of her longevity’ (1997: 6–7).

43.Clare (2021: 52).

44.On which, see Vernant (1991) and Keith (2018b).

45.Gloyn (2019: 143).

46.Before RotA, Medusa featured commonly as an enemy in video games, such as the Castlevania series, the Final Fantasy series, God of War, Kid Icarus.

47.More detailed discussion of Medusa as monstrous in video games can be found in Goad’s chapter in this volume (pp. 67–9).