Ubisoft Explains How Greek Mythology Impacts Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Since its official E3 2018 reveal, there has been some confusion surrounding Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, especially with regards to the setting. With this entry taking place 400 years before the events of Origins, fans are pondering how Odyssey’s narrative will fit into Assassin’s Creed lore. The introduction of Greek mythology further perplexes those keeping an eye on the franchise’s inner-workings. Thankfully, Game Director Scott Phillips has explained just how Greek factors into the series’ lore. Of course, the First Civilization sits at the center of it all.

During IGN’s gamecom 2018 live show, Phillips provided commentary over the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey demo showing Kassandra fighting Medusa.

When asked how Medusa fits into the series around seven minutes and thirty-five seconds into the demo, Phillips offered the following explanation:

In our world, there are these ancient artifacts… First Civilization artifacts. They are guardian devices, they protect First Civilization sites such as this. They can corrupt human beings, regular human beings… into this defense mechanism, which is Medusa in this case. You’re sort of a special character. You have this close First Civilization DNA. You have the Spear of Leonidas, which is an artifact, so you’re able to fight against them. Whereas a normal just gets turned to stone, you are slowed down and damaged by it, but you’re not necessarily killed by it.

Later in the walkthrough, Kassandra finds the artifact—the Apple of Eden—that helps destroy Medusa. According to Phillips, the First Civilization device “turned that person into Medusa. So Medusa was a perpetual myth. It was always coming back and even if it was defeated in the past by a hero, it came back to life.”

No doubt this is an interesting way to incorporate Greek mythology into Assassin’s Creed lore. Furthermore, it’ll be interesting to see how Greeks in the game react to the device. Historically, the apple is the forbidden fruit. Will this be explored in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? For now, we can only hope.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey arrives on the PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One on October 5, 2018.