It's been a while, huh? Not that I haven't been playing Persona, but mostly because real life got in the way, and the days between the end of the Kaneshiro arc and the start of the Futaba arc is pretty filled with relatively long cutscenes, even by this game's standards. I'm not complaining at all, the mystery about Sakura Futaba was done relatively well, combining the long-running mysteries behind recurring characters Sojiro and Sae. There are some... questions about the situation that is presented to us, but I'm not entirely sure if it's typical anime handwave or if it'll be explained to us later.
Also, brief apologies for taking so long to get through this game. Again, I'm in no rush to do Persona 5 monsters because I'm taking my time enjoying the story and the exploration, which is why it's taken almost half a year and I think I've barely reached the halfway point of this game?
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Lamia
- Monster Name: Slithering Snakewoman
- Arcana: Empress
We talked about the Naga monster in one of our previous monster reviews, and now we have the Lamia. Very simple design, she's got the lower body of a nicely-rendered red-and-black snake, and the upper body of a naked woman with hair covering those all-important nipples. They look basically identical other than their gender and their weaponry when you put them side-by-side, but the Naga and Lamia are from completely different mythologies altogether!
The Lamia is a Greek figure, a Libyan queen who had a child with Zeus, just like many other women in Greek myths. But Zeus's wife Hera got enraged and murdered all of Lamia's children, with some versions of this legend going even further and having Hera force Lamia to kill and eat her own children. Whatever the case, Lamia got insane, and began to kidnap and kill other children and eventually her beauty gave way to ugliness. Hera also cursed Lamia with sleeplessness, forcing her to obsess over her dead children. To give her some relief, Zeus granted the ability for the Lamia to detach her eyes at will. Lamia was initially used as a boogeyman to warn children, but over time the legend of the Lamia got turned into a seductress not too dissimilar with succubi and empusae. Classical artwork also began associating Lamia with snakes, despite there not really being any proper description of her physical monstrosity in the original myths.
Anyway, she sure is a snake-woman!
Garuda
- Monster Name: Raging Bird God
- Arcana: Star
I thought this guy was supposed to be some sort of a Egyptian god, perhaps this game's version of Horus or Khonsu or many other less-known Egyptian gods... but it's actually the Garuda from Hindu and Buddhist mythology! We've mentioned Garuda a lot of times while going through Persona 5. Garuda is a great bird that is the mount of the deity Vishnu, often described as being either a gigantic kingly eagle, or a half-eagle, half-man being. In Hinduism, Garuda is noted to be the personification of courage, was large enough to blot out the sun, and the flapping of the mighty bird can stop the spinning of heaven, earth and hell. Garuda is portrayed as a protector, with the ability to travel anywhere and an enemy of every serpent, thanks to a feud between Garuda's mother Vinata had with Kadru, mother of a thousand Naga. Both Vinata and Kadru were married to the sage Kashyapa.
In Buddhism, the Garuda (or Garula) are golden-winged, intelligent giant birds that are one of the Eight Legions, a group of deities who protect the Dharma (alongside the Deva, Naga, Yaksa, Gandharva, Asura, Kimnara and Mahoraga). They are able to shapeshift, and also still have intense enmity against the Naga.
In Persona, I do like that they went for the less boring 'half-man, half-eagle' depiction instead of just making Garuda a giant eagle (and we've already seen a couple of giant birds already) or a generic Hawkman-looking guy. This more monstrous look with a man's body, but the wings and head of an eagle, and unspecified claws for lower feet and a very non-bird-like tail makes the Garuda look a bit less boring, and the golden regalia he has does make him look fairly imposing. Not my favourite design, but I respect him.
In this leg of the game, the Garuda acts as a miniboss, the transformed version of a cognitive 'thief' that acts as a bit of a sub-boss in the pyramid-themed area.
Thoth
- Monster Name: Chanting Baboon
- Arcana: Emperor
Ah, finally, an Egyptian god! Isis also shows up here, but we covered her earlier. It is rather interesting and I'm not sure how I feel about them not just being fixed on Egyptian mythology and drawing from a bunch of others. We've got Naga and Lamia who are there because snakes live in the desert, Sandman because the desert is sandy, and Anzu because... eh?
Anyway, Thoth! He's a very important god in Egyptian mythology, being a god of the moon. The presence of the moon at night, as well as significance with its phases, was extremely important to much of Egyptian society's rituals, events and general culture. Thoth would be associated with wisdom, science, magic, measurement and was credited to be the inventor of writing. Legends would attribute Thoth as being the secretary and counselor of the sun god Ra, or as the scribe of the underworld. Scribes venerate Thoth and will always have a picture of Thoth in their offices. Basically, be it magic or science, measuring time or organizing rituals, Thoth is involved in some way.
I like Egyptian mythology, but for the longest time I've only been aware of Thoth being portrayed as a man with the head of an ibis... but the baboon is also an animal associated with Thoth. I love that the Persona version of Thoth is just a white baboon with some regalia, sitting cross-legged and reading a book. It's just such a hilariously creative way to depict this Egyptian god, and I love that it's still rooted in the original source myths.
Anubis
- Monster Name: Bearer of the Scales
- Arcana: Judgment
The jackal-headed Anubis is the god of the dead, but specifically funerary rites, graves and mummification, often depicted as overseeing the burial rituals of pharaohs and other royals. Priests would wear the mask of Anubis to oversee this ritual. As prominently displayed in his Persona design, Anubis would judge the spirits that are about to pass into the afterlife with his scales, a ritual before you are allowed to enter the underworld. Anubis used a feather on one end of the scale, and placed the deceased's heart on the other. If the person was sinful, Anubis would summon the crocodile/lion/hippo beast Ammit to devour the person, preventing them from continuing their voyage towards Osiris and the underworld.
In addition to his role as a guide to the dead and overseer of funerary rites, Anubis also protected graves. When Osiris was killed, his evil rival Set attempted to destroy Osiris' body by transforming into a leopard. However, Anubis defended Osiris's body, flaying Set's leopard form and branding his skin with an iron rod -- this act is the origin of how leopards have their spots.
Stone of Scone
- Monster Name: N/A
- Arcana: Wheel of Fortune
We've got this dungeon's treasure demon, and this one is called the Stone of Scone. Also known as the Stone of Destiny, this stone comes from Scottish culture, a block of red sandstone, used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs. Since all of the treasure demons are based on some kind of artifact that was significantly stolen in history, I guess they were referring to how when the English invaded Scotland in the 1200's, they took the stone with them, and used them to crown the monarchs of England. In 1950, a small group of Scottish students stole the stone from Westminster Abbey, intending to return it to Scotland, but broke the stone in the process... and I assume this is the big 'thievery' incident that the designers of this game was referring to. Ultimately, in 1996, the stone was returned formally to Scotland.
Mot
- Monster Name: Coffin-Borne God
- Arcana: Death
And we close off this segment with another miniboss, this one appearing twice in the dungeon. Mot is shown as this big, stone-like coffin with carvings of wings and eyes on it, and... it really does look somewhat Egyptian, huh? With the name 'Coffin-Borne God', I was a bit curious to see which Egyptian god this thing is based on, but turns out it's Mot, the Canaanite personification of death. More on the myths on Mot later, because I do want to talk about the design!
I do think that these sort of enemies where the main body is hidden within a 'shell' is always interesting. Pokemon and Digimon both do a fair amount of these, but I do feel there's an additional layer of creepiness since Mot here is a sealed god of sorts. We do get to see bits of what the sealed being inside is in mot's attack animations, some kind of horned, black-skinned-with-red-veins humanoid figure that peeks out of the coffin to cast spells on you.
(I don't talk a lot about the mechanics of these enemies, but Mot is my first encounter with the 'rattled' effect, which... turns one of my party members into a rat! Adorably, the rat still has their Phantom Thief mask!)
(RATtled, I get it. I just got it just now.)
Anyway, Mot (or Mavet) is a personification or god of death, also associated with infertility, drought and the underworld. Many of the stories of these Canaanite religions and myths have been destroyed, but Mot is noted to live in a throne-city of Hmry (or 'Mirey'), sitting on a pit as his throne, and 'filth is the land of his heritage'. Mot faces off against the weather god Ba'al-Hadad, who represents fertility and life. After Ba'al defeated Mot's brother, the sea god Yamm, he sent out messengers to announce the news to Mot. Mot instead announced his hunger for flesh and challenged Ba'al. The myths relating to the middle portion of the story is lost, but Ba'al died in the process of the conflict, while Mot was dismembered by Ba'al's ally, the goddess Anat.
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