ok thanks!Oh by the way guys, I changed the subject of this thread!

[Edited by - smelliott1992 on February 20, 2006 8:12:31 PM]

I've always been a huge fan of Greek and Roman mythology, and have consumed countless hours of input via books, movies, games, and educational literature. I'd like to recommend a few key things:

Favor with the Gods
Each person in the cultures you mentioned above followed a certain God, whether it was one or many. They offered sacrifices, prayed in temples, and slew enemies in battle in the name of their deity. As a result, the Gods played a major role in the amount of fortune that a person saw in his lifetime. Examples: Odysseus was cursed for 10 years by Poseidon (resulting in The Odyssey); Farmers prayed to Demeter for bountiful crops at harvest-time; Achilles was blessed by Aries and excelled in battle due to this blessing (and because of his supernatural powers gained from being immersed in the Styx as a baby). Conversely, 'fortune' (e.g. luck) should be a major factor in any mythological hero's life, that is directly related to his favor with the Gods.

Since you're pulling off a multi-pantheonic game, you might consider what the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys t.v. series did toward the end of its tenure (when Herc travelled to the Norselands). The writers treated the Gods as supernatural beings who only bore influence over a certain part of the world; once Herc travelled far enough north, the Greek deities held no influence, and the Norse gods took over. Consider territorial pantheons.

Books
Edith Hamilton is one of the more prominent sources for mythological literature (predominantly Greek). I'd recommend any of her books on the subject as reference material.

Movies, Television, and Internet
Jason and the Argonauts (1963 version), Clash of the Titans, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (tv series), some of the more recent movies like Gladiator or Troy, and http://www.pantheon.org/ are all good references. And don't forget Wikipedia!

(Note that the Hercules tv series cuts a lot of corners, making it quasi-historically inaccurate. It's still a pretty good source of entertainment on the subject though!)

If you have any questions, feel free to fire them off my way. Good luck!

Ah, thank you for all this advice!I love your selection of books, but I have already read the Odyssey and am currently reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology.I am also reading a book I bought at Barnes and Noble two days ago, it is titled, The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness Ancient Rome!It is the biggest find ever containing information that will be used in a video game!It contains ancient roman excerpts from books,including topics such as Buying and raising a farm(used for farming abilities in the game), keeping a slave(used for ownig a slave in the game), how much food and wine to give a slave per season(also used for owning and keeping a slave in the game),raising children(used for family an marriage capabilities in the game),and many.many more topics!I will post all my ideas soon!

If you're going MMO, I think the Odyssey would be less useful than the Iliad. The Iliad is basically an account of a huge PvP event, complete with levelling, character classes, buffs and ganking. Parties are formed with diverse groups (The two Ajaxes kick some serious butt together, using their complementary strengths to rock faces), phat lewt is taken and redistributed, and legendary armor is collected and traded between characters.

Seriously, the Trojan War begs to be made into an MMO. Or at least a Guild Wars mod.

I also agree with the divine favor thing, though. It's a huge component of Greek myth, and can be a real money and time sink, burning all the best pieces of meat and dedicating your victories to gods (maybe dedicating a fight to a god, and tehn giving all that loot, however spectacular, to the god's temple would get you a boost, but welching on the deal and keeping the loot would cost you favor points). The endless political song and dance between the gods themselves could lead to faction conflicts and shifting lines of contention.

Lets not forget Brad Pitt!

Seriously, most of people's perception of Ancien Greece comes from Homerians stories. The central theme of all these stories is the involvement of Gods in mortal affairs. Their gods are not just some choice that change your spell list or give you some bonuses. They walk the land and gets involved a LOT, manipulating the mortals to to their biding.