Question: I know there was a question about nudity, but what do the gods wear (when they wear clothing)? I know the Norse almost always wear leather, fur and armor due to being warriors of the frozen north, but the Japanese wear regal garb, but do the greeks wear skimpy togas? and the atzalanti nothing but loincloths? and do they look like there real world historical counterparts, or the idealized versions seen in art and fantasy?
Whatever they want, pretty much.
Gods, like people, change their clothes depending on what they're doing and where they are. They're not chained to a particular form of garb or aesthetic any more than you are; you'd dress pretty differently for a formal dinner party than you would for a Super Bowl party, so magnify that by a bunch. The Norse don't always wear armor - I mean, why would you wear it to dinner, or when you're hanging out with your wife, or when you're sleeping? You wouldn't wear armor to a diplomatic summit with other gods, nor would you wear it for family hangout time in your comfortable hall. They do probably wear traditionally Norse-style clothing, but that doesn't always mean fur and chainmail. Similarly, the Aztecs aren't all wearing maxtlatls all the time, nor are the Japanese constantly in full formal kimono kit.
It's fun that you added that question about fantasy impressions of what ancient people wore, because your question suggests that you've got quite a few of those ideas in your baseline. We tend to have an image of ancient cultures' clothing shaped by popular culture that we've seen or read - the Chinese are all in martial arts wrappings, right, and the Celts obviously covered in woad? - but they're not necessarily accurate to what ancient people actually wore, because Hollywood has jazzed them up or taken artistic liberties in pursuit of a particular idea or look. Furthermore, the gods of Scion have been gods of their cultures for a long, long time, which means that they've lived through more changes in fashion and style than we can easily conceive of. Think of how quickly our fashions and fads change from decade to decade, and then remember that these gods have been in a culture doing that for literally thousands of years in some cases.
Which just brings me back to my glib initial answer: whatever they want. A god is going to look like whatever suits him and wear whatever he thinks is appropriate to a situation. Hachiman might show up in hakama, swords blazing and face painted for war, but then again he might just wear jeans and a T-shirt if he's coming to talk to you in your suburban house. Some gods may always cling to the traditional dress of the period in which they were most popular, while others might delight in experimenting with foreign or modern styles. It all depends on the personality of the god and what they're doing at the time, not to mention who's watching. We do tend to assume that gods who are in the Overworld with the rest of the pantheon usually dress in the style of their culture at its religious peak (so yes, the Greeks usually wear brightly-colored togas), but there are plenty of possibilities out there.
So, yeah: they wear whatever they want. You'll probably encounter gods in full traditional dress much more often in "official" situations, like pantheon summits or conclaves or wars or negotiations with other pantheons, but the rest of the time, it depends entirely on what a particular god feels like. Traditionalists will be traditional, visionaries will mess around with the modern or the uninvented, and either is entirely likely. Lots of gods are traditionalists, but that doesn't mean you might not occasionally see Aphrodite hanging out in sweats. Sweats are comfy, and she's totally rocking them anyway.
Epic Appearance doesn't need a knack to look damn good in sweatpants.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Those sweatpants are rocking everyone's world.
DeleteSo to expand the question on togas, historically are they like what was seen in the pantheon picture in the core book with styles varying to from the full covering of Hera and Athena and Zeus, to the loin cloths of Apollo and Artemis. I assume in ancient garb they would sometimes wear cloths representing there personality, with Hera having the modest matronly yet regal garb while Artemis wears as little as possible or goes naked to show her wildness, and freedom as a hunter. I realize now the gods wear whatever they want depending on the situation but default garb they've worn for thousands of years would probably be the representation of who and what they are, like Ares and Athena probably always wear armor, just like Aphrodite wears the most erotic toga she can conjure up. I'm not looking for an absolute, just trying to nail down there most common default dress, everyone has one as part of their personality. The same with other cultures. Amaterasu probably always looks like something straight out of ancient Japan when she can get away with it (which is probably 99%) of the time, while I agree that Hachiman wouldn't look out of place in jeans and T-shirts even in his own home. I personally think that at home in the overworld the gods do wear any combination of cloths, but I think they mostly keep to archaic forms of dress.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually scholars who specifically study what the Dodekatheon wear in ancient art, that's how specific they tend to be. :) I'll do a simplified version.
DeleteHera, Demeter and Hestia are almost always shown wearing a peplos, which is basically the normal dress that most ancient Greeks of both sexes wore, and a himation or over-cloak; it reflects their status as matrons and dignified age as adult women. Athena is usually in a peplos, too, but also usually with her helmet and the Aegis, and often a breastplate as well. Aphrodite, on the other hand, is usually only wearing half her clothing, or sometimes completely nude, which represents her status as a goddess of sexuality. Artemis sometimes wears the peplos (or more often the chiton, a different kind of Greek dress), but more often appears in a short skirt and tunic, both because she's a huntress and thus wearing normal hunting garb and because she was widely regarded as a teenager rather than a true adult. She doesn't spend much time naked.
As for the dudes, Zeus and Dionysus are almost always wearing a peplos, often open to the waist. Ares is usually shown in armor, reflecting that he's a war-god, and Apollo is generally totally naked, representing his spendiferous sexy sunness (I suspect the Scion authors gave him a loincloth to avoid embarrassment. They can put boobs everywhere, but show a scrotum and suddenly the art department's all running for their pencils). Hephaestus is often naked, too, both representing his status as a god of forge and heat and illustrating that he really isn't quite right for polite company. Poseidon tends to either wear the peplos open to the waist, similar to Zeus, or occasionally to go naked, probably because it was associated with swimming.
If you're ever curious about the Dodekatheon, they have so much ancient art still floating around that they're actually pretty easy to get a visual fix on. Just use Google Images and put in the name of the god and the word "statue" or "ancient statue"; you'll get plenty of images that give you a good feel for what the ancient Greeks and Romans thought they looked like.
(Incidentally, some Roman statues of the Greek gods, as expected, put them in Roman dress instead of Greek, usually the toga. But it's your call how Roman-ified a given deity might be.)
I don't disagree, by the way - we usually represent the gods, at least on their home turf or in situations meeting other gods, as wearing their archaic dress. But they have plenty of flexibility, so nobody should feel tied to that aesthetic if it makes more sense to try something different.
The idea of NAKEDNESS being appropriate for a FORGE is mind-blowing. Then again, the Sculpture Guild at my university did have the motto "Stoke Naked"... so, ?
DeleteIt's not about appropriateness, it's about beastly ugliness! :) And probably heat.
Delete(Because yes, do not try this at home, kids, unless you want an exciting array of injuries and burn scars.)