Our Mythical Childhood...

Mythological Game 

Once upon a time, in the mythical era, at nearly 3,000 m above the sea level, there lived Twelve Supreme Gods at the heart of Greece. The place was Mount Olympus, and the gods who lived there were called Olympian Gods. Zeus, who had once established his kingdom there, was their king, and Hera ruled at his side as queen. 

News spread easily. The world was quite gossipy when it came to what the Olympians were up to. A few at a time, more divine beings began to populate Mount Olympus. They ranged from gods to heroes, who once lived on Earth and then ascended to Mount Olympus to be among the other gods (just like the hero Heracles did).

Like any kingdom, Mount Olympus had its own customs and traditions. More interestingly, the gods had their own fashion and clothing… The best-looking and most worthy-of-worship creatures of Greece, the gods themselves, could not afford to be out-of-fashion. At the same time, they preferred classic, ageless styles, to be easily recognizable by the people on Earth. 

Check out the profiles of some of the truly unique divine creatures of Greek Mythology – the Olympian Gods, their relatives, and companions. Each of them featured in many myths, that is – famous legendary stories; furthermore, they all had their own symbols (called attributes), features, and pets. Together they maintained the cosmic balance and ruled over the elements of nature and human life. 

For a PDF file of the intro see here.

OLYMPUS READY-TO-PLAY 

With great power comes great responsibility: each god had a great deal of work to do, both on Mount Olympus and Earth. We displayed the Identity Cards of some of the busiest mythical characters of Greek Mythology. Through these modern-like IDs, the ancient gods will look more familiar to us. 

Of course, most of the characters’ attributes originated in the myths that the ancient Greeks used to tell about their deities. Therefore, a short biography (bio) was needed to account for the most newsworthy and meaningful stories. Be aware: some of them are highly solemn; others are beautifully sad; others yet are funny and relatable…

HOW TO PLAY?

Cut-out, colour, and compose divine accessories and clothing, and help the gods find their special animals. Discover the fashion described in Classical mythology tales: you can either take inspiration from the Identity Cards or look up further myths involving the gods. You will discover new objects and animals and combine entirely new outfits. And who’s to say: you may make up your very own myths.

1. Choose a mythical character and read his/her ID;
2. Print out the female or male figure; the clothing; the attributes relevant to the character;
3. Cut them out;
4. Apply the accessories on the figure (stick them directly or apply glue on the little square attachments provided with some attributes);
5. Colour the figures;
6. Collect them all.

For a PDF file of the instructions see here.

The game was created by Alessia Borriello and Ludovica Lusvardi. 

Alessia – as a student from the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna – in Winter 2019 accomplished her Erasmus Plus stay at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” at the University of Warsaw and participated in the Our Mythical Childhood project. The game was supported by the “Artes Liberales Institute” Foundation. We wish to thank Anna Olechowski for English linguistic revision. 

Materials for download: 

Olympic Identity Cards 

Zeus-Jupiter

Athena-Minerva

Hecate

Hades-Pluto

Apollo

Ares-Mars

Artemisn-Diana

Aphrodite-Venus

Demeter-Ceres

Hestia-Vesta

Hera-Juno

Hephaestus-Vulcan

Eros-Amor

Dionysus-Bacchus

Hermes-Mercurius

Poseidon-Neptunus

Persephone-Proserpina

Circe

Heracles-Hercules

Orpheus

Groups of the characters – for example, you may look at their clothes and attributes in your play or you may print them out and colour the images 

And here you can create your own Olympian Team! 

Goddesses’ figure

Gods’ figure

Goddesses’ clothing

Gods’ clothing

Pets 

Attributes 

Have a look once again at the tutorial: 

Have a look at the clip with the presentation of the game during the Our Mythical Nature conference:

PLAY WITH THE MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS! 

DRESS UP YOUR OWN OLYMPUS! 

We are looking forward to seeing your creations! If you wish, you may send them to us via: strycharczyk@al.uw.edu.pl. We will publish the most inspiring ones on the website of the project.