Random Research: Gods of COD Zombies

Often when I see that there is a reference being made in fiction that I don’t understand, it bugs me until I look it up. This is especially true when they are obviously in reference to mythology, because those tend to be the ones I feel like I’m going to enjoy learning about the most.

When Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 came out a couple weeks ago, I rushed to buy it. I love the Black Ops series, mainly because of Zombies Mode. This time around, rather then vending machines that the player can purchase perks from (which still exist in the Aether story levels), the Chaos story levels have players get their perks from gods.

The four gods chosen to for the game were Zeus, Odin, Ra, and Danu. I had varying familiarity with each and them, and so found myself wanting to learn more. I knew there was more than a decent chance that the knowledge would not help in solving the new levels’ Easter eggs (a hunt I am always on with these games), but it was still something I knew I would find rewarding.

On the chance that anyone else has the same desire that I did, I decided to actually write out what I learned. Here is what I thought to be the most interesting facts about the four gods of the Zombies Chaos Story.

The Greek God – Zeus

Zeus is the God of the Sky, and the king of the gods, ruling over their home of Mount Olympus.

He is the youngest child of his family, with five other siblings (Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon). His father, Cronus, heard tell that he would be slain by one of his children, and so took it upon himself to eat each of them after they were born. Thanks to Rhea, Zeus’s mother, Cronus didn’t get to him. When Zeus was able he came back to his father and cut him open, freeing his siblings. This began a war with the titans, ending with the gods overthrowing them and taking over. It is because he saved his siblings and led them in the war that he was granted the title of their king.

Zeus has control over thunder and lightning and uses this power to wield a thunderbolt as his primary weapon. The symbols most connected to him are his thunderbolt, the Aegis (a shield that is usually depicted with Medusa’s head). And the animals associated with him are the eagle, the wolf, and, weirdly enough, the woodpecker.

The thing about Zeus is that most of his myths seem to come down to him sleeping with most of the women he sees, both goddesses and mortal alike. He is married to Hera (his sister) but doesn’t let that stop his many exploits. He has gone so far as to use his shapeshifting ability both to seduce the women who catch his interest, as well as a means of hiding his actions from his wife. Some such transformations include another man (to sleep with the man’s wife), a swan, and “a golden shower”. I can’t even begin to picture what that last one could have looked like, and it’s not a phrase that is remotely safe to google.

With all his trysts, Zeus has fathered far too many children with too many women to try to name them all here. But I do want to bring up a couple. At one point, Zeus had an affair with Mnemosyne that lasted for nine nights, after which she birthed nine daughters who would go on to be the muses. The ideas of sex and inspiration are linked in this myth in such a literal way.

Zeus’s favourite child is said to be Athena. She was birthed not by a woman, but from his own forehead (after he ate a woman, Metis, who was pregnant at the time). To Athena he gifted his thunderbolt as well as Aegis. She is the Goddess of Wisdom and War and worshiped so much that the city of Athens was named for her.

The Norse God – Odin

Odin is the ruler of the Aesir tribe of gods and is known as the Allfather. He is a God of War and a God Poetry, which makes for an interesting contrast.

He has many names, in part, it seems, because of translations. Wednesday is named after him, which makes more sense when looking at one of his other names, Woden, (as in, Woden’s Day). I also found at least one source that said his Proto-Germanic name was Wođanaz, which fits the day even more.

Together with his two brothers, Vili and Ve, Odin created much of the world. He is married to the Goddess Frigg but has children with giantesses as well. Thor is the son of one such giantess, Jörđ (also called Fjörgyn).

Odin has put himself through harsh trials and sacrifice in order to become the wisest of the gods. He gave up one of his eyes to be able to drink from Mimir’s well, which granted him all Mimir’s wisdom. Another time, Odin hung himself from Yggdrasil (“the tree of life”), and after nine days and nine nights fell to the ground having learned all its secrets. Because of all of this, Odin has advance knowledge of Ragnarök, which is essentially the apocalypse of the Norse Gods, from which their whole cycle of life is reborn.

Upon Odin’s shoulders sit two ravens, Huginn (“thought”) and Muninn (“memory”). They make a daily flight around the world, returning to him to whisper everything they have learned. He also has two wolves, Geri and Freki. Both names can be translated to mean something like “greedy one” or “the ravenous”. The latter of which seems especially fitting given Odin’s other companions. The wolves are always by Odin’s side when he travels. He doesn’t eat, only drinks, and so he feeds his wolves all the food from his table.

Odin’s final animal is a horse, Sleipnir. Sleipnir’s name translates to “the sliding one”, or, my personal favourite, “Slippy”. Sleipnir has eight legs and runes on its teeth and can gallop through the air or on top of water. Its mother is actually Loki, who shapeshifted into a mare to distract a giant’s stallion. Loki gifted the fowl to Odin soon after its birth.

The Egyptian God – Ra

Ra is the Sun God, creator of everything, and king of the gods.

He is usually depicted as a human with the head of a falcon, crowned with a sun disc which is encircled by a sacred cobra named Uraeus. Like many gods, Ra can shapeshift. What makes Ra’s shapeshifting more interesting is that it sometimes corresponds to the time of day. When it is evening, he has the head of a ram and is known as Khnum. In the morning, when he is reborn each day, he comes back as a scarab and is known as Khepri.

Ra’s life is on a constant cycle. He crosses through the sky each day on his Sun Boat. Apep, the evil serpent that is the Lord of Chaos, follows Ra’s Sun Boat through the day, doing battle with him. When the evening comes, he and his boat are swallowed by Nut, the Goddess of the Sky. Ra spends the night moving through the underworld, Duat. Each morning he is reborn from Nut and starts his journey once more. Nut is Ra’s granddaughter, but because of this cycle is also sometimes thought of as his mother due to giving birth to him each day.

Even Ra’s boat is named on by such a cycle. In the morning the boat is called Medjet, which means “becoming strong”, and then in the evening the boat is instead called Semeket, which means “becoming weak”.

Many gods who are believed to be Ra’s children were actually worshiped earlier than Ra. This has led some to believe that Ra became conflated with another god, Atum. Atum was the original creator god, but Ra took prevalence over him. Because of this association, he is sometimes referred to as Atum-Ra.

Unlike most gods, Ra’s temples do not usually feature statues of him. Instead solar temples were built, open to the sunlight. It was believed that the light itself represented him. These temples often have an obelisk to replace the usual statue.  The most significant temple is thought to be in Heliopolis. This one is supposed to be the place where Ra first emerged at the beginning of creation. It is also believed that the pyramids might represent rays of sunlight, and if this is the case then they would also be connected to the idea of Ra.

Beginning the fifth dynasty, many pharaohs began adding “-Ra” to the end of their names, to have themselves by associated with the god.

The Celtic God – Danu

Danu is the Earth-Mother Goddess. She is by far the one I personally know the least about when I started this research. I quickly discovered why that is.

From the searching I did, I kept finding the same small amount of basic facts, written in about the same way. It looked as though everywhere I looked was probably basing their own information all on the same source. And further muddling the issue, the phrase “contradictory and confused” kept coming up. It seems a lot of must have been lost to time and now what we know of her may be conflated with other goddesses.

She is sometimes known as Anu or Dana. She is considered a triple goddess, which is a phrase that can mean either three goddesses worshiped as a single group, or a goddess that seems to have three unique aspects. She was the Goddess of Fertility, Wisdom, and Wind, so the latter could be true. Though I did also find sources adding water and inspiration into the list of her domains.  Either way, she is thought to have the dual characteristic of the nurturing mother, and the strong warrior. In this way she seems very much like a female counterpart to Odin.

Danu is the primary creator, having birthed all thing all into being. She is also the namesake of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, which literally means the people of the Goddess Danu. They were a people of legend who took back Ireland from the Formorians, after their ancestors, the Nemedians, were slain. The Tuatha Dé Danaan were faery people, described as a tall, beautiful, fair people. They sound very much like the Tolkien version of elves. They are associated with craftmanship, music, poetry, and magic, and because of this so is Danu herself. Depending on the myth she was either the mother, daughter, or lover of Dagba, the chief of Tuatha Dé Danaan.

Unfortunately, that was about all I was able to find on her.