Final Project description

Cloe Lobdell

Portal one and two are very creative puzzle games with a very deep and interesting plot
line. Mainly in portal two, there is a ridiculous amount of greek mythology woven into the plot
line. why is this, no one knows. In the game you play as chell in first person, and use the
aperture laboratories portal gun to help complete test chambers and escape the evil Glados.
The portal gun creates two portal, blue and orange, and your character as well as many other
objects can travel through these to maintain a visual and physical connection to two different
locations. The game takes place in the aperture laboratories facility, a fictional research
corporation that created the portal gun as well as many other strange inventions. The myth of
prometheus is found many times throughout portal 2. At one point you pick up a defective turret,
a little robot of pure evil that is basically a motion detecting machine gun. as you carry it, it say
to you, "Prometheus: The titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man. By his
cunning and foresight, he was picked apart by birds." Later on in the game, you come
across glados, as potato being pecked at by a raven. (1) GlaDOS being a robot, was stripped of
her power, and using the idea of a potato battery, is still functioning but is a potato with wires
sticking out. you find glados in the depths of the facility being pecked at by birds, this is exactly
what happened to prometheus. In many cultures the raven is considered a messenger and a
symbol of communication. You find glados in a nest made from wires and other scraps of
technology, reinforcing the idea of a raven being a symbol of communication and a messengers.
When you are traveling through the depths of the facility, there is a name and number on the
wall indicating a section of the laboratory. (2) Its called tartaros, which in greek mythology, is a
deep abyss that served as a dungeon for titans, and is also where Zeus threw prometheus to be
pecked away at by birds. In the game, you find glados as a potato not far from here, and it is
near the very bottom of the facility, and feels just like a dungeon. At one point in the game, you
come across a portrait of the founder of aperture laboratories, and his assistant. In the
background of this portrait, there is a figure lurking in the background. (3) This figure matches
exactly to a greek painting, and the figure just so happens to be aeschylus, who wrote the story
about prometheus. There are many other hidden references to greek mythology through the
games, but the one that I find the most intriguing, is the ending of portal 2. When you beat the
game, you go up this elevator really slowly and there is an opera of turrets, and they sing a song
for you. When that is over, you end up above the facility in what appears to be a wheat field. a
few seconds later out pops the companion cube, and although it doesn't take, its your only real

friend throughout the second game. In greek mythology, there is no heaven, just different parts
of the underworld for different people. elysium is a level that was originally only for mortal
related to the gods, but later became for those chosen by gods, the righteous, and heroic. This
part of the afterlife, was described as a field, sometimes referenced as wheat, sometimes not.
You would end up in this field with your best friend after hearing calming music, and live eternity
here. In the game, you hear the turret opera, and end up in the field with your friend, and the
game ends. There are many other references to greek and even norse mythology through the
games, but these are the strongest and most interesting. Its as if the game is just a modern
version of greek myths.

(1)

(2)

(3)