Entre a História e o Jogo: imaginários da Grécia Antiga e cultura histórica em Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Abstract

The present study analyzes the videogame Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft, 2018) as part of historical culture and as a device for updating the imaginary surrounding Ancient Greece. It investigates what image of Antiquity the game constructs and how this image is articulated with market expectations. The study draws on the concept of the imaginary of Hilário Franco Jr. and the semiotics of games, with particular attention to the intersemiotic translation of myths and classical references. I develop an analysis of the base game, the mode Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece, the expansion The Fate of Atlantis, and marketing paratexts (trailers, synopses, developer diaries), in dialogue with ancient sources such as Homer, Hesiod, and Plato. Three levels of analysis are proposed: documentary (the Discovery Tour as a “game-museum” that organizes paths, objects, and textual references), fictional-historical (the narrative of the Peloponnesian War and the construction of a recognizable regime of verisimilitude), and mythopoetic (re-enactments of myths and characters across Elysium, Hades, and Atlantis).