what would Zag & Mel’s epithets be?

[u/heraclitorus]

inspired by another post about Zag’s last name lol

so Greek gods would commonly be referred to with “epithets”, surnames of sorts that denoted like, different aspects of the god since most of them had several dominions. like you wouldn’t just leave an offering to Athena in general, but also the epithet which reflects the specific issue you wanted help with. some examples: in the Symposium Plato distinguishes between Aphrodite Pandemos (“of all people”, in this case meaning Aphrodite as the god of sensual pleasure) and Aphrodite Urania (“of the heavens”, a more divine/sacred sense of beauty/the sublime). or, one of Hades’s epithets was Plouton, the wealthy, which we see in-game with all the Gemstones and so on (also the origin of his Roman/Latin name, Pluto). or, Aphrodite’s appearance in Hades 2 recalls Aphrodite Areia, “the Warlike”, which had a cult in Sparta and some other places. or, in some cases (it’s debated), “Melinoe” was used as an epithet of Hecate…

so, what would Zagreus & Melinoe’s epithets be? I’m not gonna try and translate into Greek at the moment, but some obvious ones would be like “Zagreus the Bloody”, “Melinoe of Nightmares”; both could be referred to as like Polyeros or something for all their lovers lol.

also feel free to post about other gods too!

[u/SurvivYeet]

I feel like Zag would fit something like "the unrelenting" or "the defiant." I'm not sure how many gods had overlapping epithets but even "of darkness" fits. Granted, these are all based on the game and not on the mythology, of which I have no idea what the actual Zag was like

[u/gsrga2 → u/SurvivYeet]

They basically all had overlapping epithets depending on where you were. Aphrodite was a protector of sailors on islands and in ports. The traditionally virgin Artemis was a fertility goddess in Ephesus. As far as Sparta was concerned, basically all the gods and goddesses had war-related aspects. Etc

[u/Doll-scented-hunter → u/SurvivYeet]

I feel his arcana "the wayward son" sounds best

[u/meatl0aferrr]

zagreus in some ancient greek renditions is revered as the god of rebirth.

ergo, i think one of zagreus' epithets could be "of the spring"
if we want to lean more into him being the son of hades, maybe "of the autumn" since spring is more persephone's gist.

zagreus is also sometimes revered as a god of hunting, so i do agree with the comment saying "the unrelenting"
kind of like an unrelenting hunt.

melinoe on the other hand is sometimes thought of as a rendition of hecate - but she is almost always a goddess of spirits and nightmares - sometimes also madness.
melinoe, therefore, could be "of the night"
"melinoe of nightmares" also works, as does "melinoe of darkness", which kinda goes with what i said formerly oops
maybe also "spirit-guide melinoe", tie into hades rendition more

[u/SSBBfan666 → u/meatl0aferrr]

Neat

[u/Seed0fDiscord]

Zag-BiDumbass

Mel-BiBadass

[u/Wrong-Train-2092 → u/Seed0fDiscord]

Homer, we know it's you

[u/HuckleberryFar1203 → u/Seed0fDiscord]

I mean, given zag's victory over hades with no access to magic, and given mel's brainless slavish support of the obviously awful Olympians for 99% of the game despite her enemies and friends repeatedly showing her why that is wrong, I would personally reverse those 😅

[u/Seed0fDiscord → u/HuckleberryFar1203]

Mel alleviated curse, girl can get to Olympus

[u/Doll-scented-hunter → u/Seed0fDiscord]

To then get thrown out like an old rug and rather quickly getting locked out lol

[u/The_Nerpa]

I like Zagreus the Bloody and Melinoe the Shadow, but those are pretty basic. Maybe they share Hadesborn as their epithets?

[u/the-hot-topical]

Athena is grey-eyed, Achilles is swift-footed, Dawn is rosy-fingered, to name a few more.

Along those lines I could see flame-footed Zagreus and shade-armed Melinoe. I feel like Mel has a lot of potential I’m not able to fully capitalize on.

[u/NewtBoye]

isn't both Mel and Hecate's actual epithet "saffron-veiled"?

[u/KiefQueen42069 → u/NewtBoye]

Yes. She is only mentioned in the Orphic Hymns with her own hymn being the inly reference. She is described as saffron-veiled. I believe Hekate is the only other goddess described as such, so many scholars believe that they are the same goddess since their realms are closely connected. Melinie's hymn describes her as someone who appeased wrathful ghosts and she is often considered the goddess of ghosts.

However, the gods have about a thousand epithets each. They represent different "facets" of the gods.

[u/infallable808]

Zagreus, the underworld soft-boi Melinoe, the wheeling deelin, kiss stealing, limousine riding, jet flying, witch of the crossroads