Urriak Uruk
Gaming is fun, and fun is for everyone
I haven't finished reading all of this yet, but I do appreciate you collecting all this material.
D&D 5E Planeswalker's Guide to Theros
- Thread starter gyor
- Start date
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Enjoying this material, but am I the only one who finds Heliod and the Bident utterly hysterical. They scream "This can be trademarked, THIS CAN BE TRADEMAAAAAAAAAARKED!!!" in the same ludicrous way as Age of Sigmar's "Aelves". Plus Heliod sounds like Helios has a cold, and the Bident just wow, it's practically Rick and Morty-level.
Neither can be trade marked, Bidents already exist as a type of fishing spear, WotC did not invent them, are Heliod is really Helios Zeus, the combined form of those two Gods which was a fairly common form of worshipping those Gods in ancient times, so if someone want to use Heliod, just change it back to Helios.
Bident - Wikipedia
The Bident is actually the traditional classical weapon of Hades/Pluto.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Bident - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
The Bident is actually the traditional classical weapon of Hades/Pluto.
I mean, not quite re: Hades/Bident.
If you actually look at classical depictions of Hades/Haides/Pluto, he almost always has a staff of authority. Various decorations can be at the top of that staff. But I can't think of any actual classical imagery (i.e. 400 AD or earlier) which shows Hades with a "bident". When I did classics stuff, I remember references to a "horned staff", but not a "bident". Hades is also typically depicted in repose - sitting back in a chair or the like, just hanging out. I can't think of any "action scenes" of him, unlike Poseidon who is always showing off and there have been spectacular action statues of (and other art), and is waving his giant trident around.
If you look at renaissance or later imagery, though, this changes. Suddenly Hades/Pluto frequently does have a "bident" (rather than a staff or two-horned staff), which actually looks like a fishing spear, and not only that, he's using it in a very aggressive way and is in a lot of action poses the Greeks/Romans would not, I think, have thought made sense. He's basically just a Poseidon knock-off in some of these pieces.
So I wouldn't say "traditional classical". It may well be mentioned somewhere in Greek myth (I don't think so - earliest record I can find of it is Seneca), but it's not a major feature, and just a general staff of office is as associated with him.
There's a reason it's not even mentioned in his wikipedia article: Hades - Wikipedia
Pluto, specifically (not Hades) is associated with the bident, albeit weakly, because again he usually has a staff of office if anything at all. He's actually described as having a trident at times, and indeed this seems to be where the bident thing comes from, because these were not two totally distinct tools to the Romans at least.
Sorry, I just found the topic interesting!
dave2008
Legend
The only images I could find of Hades with a bident were much later than classical, such as the one below. Though all the images I found of him with a bident he was seated or reposed. not aggressive or in action.
and,,,
Also, this classical statue appears to have the head of the staff missing, it could have been a bident
like this more modern rendition suggests:
