Greek Mythology & Stranger Things (Part 1): The Underworld and The Upsidedown, + More
In this post I will refer to the Upsidedown as UD and the Underworld as UW!
Introduction
This year, I have being reading a lot of Greek mythology for school, and have been consuming a lot of Percy Jackson content. It made me notice a few similarities between ST and Greek myths, digging deeper I found more connections.
The Underworld and the Upsidedown
The Upsidedown and the Underworld have more in common than just both their names starting with The U...
The Upsidedown description:
"The Upside Down" was the main name used to describe a mysterious extra-dimensional realm that connected two dimensions: the human world and "the Abyss", the home dimension of the Mind Flayer.
The Underworld description:
In Greek mythology, the underworld or Hades is a distinct realm (one of the three realms that make up the cosmos) where an individual goes after death.
The UD and UW are both realms. Hell-like, a faded, more tragic copy/version of the world filled with monsters and misery. A bad place.
Something that really shocked me is that the UD and UW are both frozen in time! In ST4 we find the UD is stuck on November 6th 1983, and time in the UW has been described as "stagnant".
Hades fought against the titans alongside his brothers. Once they won, the brothers drew lots, and Hades became ruler of the UW. Which reminds me of Henry/001 who was sent to the UD by El and he sort of became the ruler of it.
The name Henry even means “ruler of the home” or “lord of the household”.
Hades has a three headed dog named Cerberus, who guards the gates (yes, you heard me, gates), to the UW. Which reminded me of something we were expecting to see in ST5...
Rivers, Lakes, Eddie and Charon
There is a river called the Styx that separates the land of the living from the UW. You have to cross it to get to the gate of the UW. In Hawkins there is Lover's Lake which you have to swim through to get to the one UD gate. With all the theories around the lake it grabbed my attention.
Eddie Munson -> Charon
Please go read @junos-orbit’s wonderful analysis/theory (link)! It’s really good!
Conclusion
Stranger Things and Greek mythology have so much in common, I keep finding more connections. Part two will come soon, it talks about the parallels between Will and Persephone’s abductions + whatever else I find!
