FFF Mythology Manual: Ultros

pT2iYrL.png


FFF Mythology Manual - Ultros: An unorthodox adaptation!
Anyone who has played Final Fantasy VI will be aware of a certain talkative, loveable, and yet terribly perverted purple octopus. The creature’s goofy teeth and mischievously sinister eyes make him one of the funniest, most iconic and expressive monster designs in the series. Although the party fights Ultros four times in the game, his role serves more as light comic-relief than as true sub-villain material for plotline importance. Whilst there will surely be some fans who are frustrated by the goofy character, Ultros has been so warmly received by other fans that he has since made several cameo appearances (and has even been retroactively inserted into remakes and re-releases of earlier FF titles). Ultros is something of an oddity within the FF franchise, and it isn’t always obvious where he hails from. Ultros has his namesake origins in Greek mythology, but other than a handful of nods, the character bears only a small resemblance to his source material. Some of the similarities and ideas expressed in this article admittedly require imagination, but it is nonetheless interesting how faint associations with the original Greek mythological creature have been implicitly worked into the game, even if some might be present only accidentally.

rha5B7H.gif

In FFVI Ultros is first encountered by the party towards the beginning of the game as the heroes attempt to reach Narshe using a raft on the Lethe River. Ultros’ debut isn’t his most memorable appearance, but where his origins are concerned it is the most important. In this context the character is more correctly in his element, and the octopus attacks from the water. His subsequent appearances serve mainly to draw out the comic relief as his cartoonishly creative attempts (and resultant failures) to get revenge on the party reach Wile E. Coyote levels of ridiculous ingenuity.

qzyEy78.png

By the end of the game Ultros has effectively retired as a villain (or is too busy to be villainous), and becomes a receptionist at the Dragon Neck Colosseum to pay off an enormous debt and make amends for his previous mischief.

It is mostly this association with the colosseum which has been drawn from for Ultros’ later cameo appearances in other Final Fantasy games (namely FFXIII-2 and FFXIV). Ultros’ role here is likely symptomatic of the familiar popular culture trope of hurling anything vaguely ancient (irrespective of particular historical era) into gladiatorial games in an amphitheatre setting, removing this practice from its Roman context. Likewise, Final Fantasy fans might be familiar with Disney’s Hercules in the Kingdom Hearts series being placed in a certain ‘Olympus Coliseum’, featuring a handful of Disney’s interpretation of Greek ‘Titans’ as super-bosses. While some people interested in ancient culture might be tired of the coliseum trope in popular culture’s representations of the ancient world, when considering video games it is understandable that the coliseum setting is popular from a gameplay perspective, as it usually provides the players with an extra challenge for some reward in a more structured way. This remains the case for Ultros at the Dragon Neck Colosseum in FFVI.

Having briefly examined Ultros’ role in Final Fantasy, it is worth considering the origins of the character and his name.

Although most English fans refer to the character as Ultros, the Japanese name is Orutorosu (a Japanese transliteration of Orthros, a character from Greek mythology). The true name for the character would therefore be Orthros, and so our name Ultros results from an error by the infamous Ted Woolsey (English translator of Final Fantasy VI) who mistranslated the Japanese characters. Unlike some ‘Woolseyisms’ the name Ultros has generally remained with the character in English versions of the FF games. Perhaps Uncle Orthy fails to pack the same alliterative punch as Uncle Ulty.


The myth of Orthros: The Daybreak Hound.

So who is this Orthros character from Greek mythology, and does he have anything at all to do with FFVI and its themes? In the image below (a red-figure kylix cup signed by Euphronios, late 6th Century BC) Orthros is the dead two-headed dog shot through by Heracles’ arrows.

kNAuklY.png

Note: The octopus tentacles on one of the shields are entirely coincidental!
The original Greek Orthros was a two-headed guard dog whose particular role was to guard the red sunset-kissed cattle of Geryon on the island of Erytheia (‘The Red Island’) in the far West. Heracles was tasked with capturing these special cattle as one of his twelve labours, the unfortunate Orthros being the first of many obstacles to this objective, and consequently the dog was suitably slain.

Etymologically speaking, the Greek word Orthros means ‘early day-break / morning-twilight’. This might relate to the celestial nature of the elements concerning his myth. The creature’s canine features might have astronomical roots; perhaps the two heads represented the Canis Major and Canis Minor constellations (the ‘big dog’ and ‘little dog’). Although this constellation association cannot be gleaned from surviving ancient sources, the ‘dog-star’ (Sirius) is contained in Canis Major, and this star was important for being observed to rise with the sun at dawn to mark the beginning of summer. Other elements in Orthros’ myth also hint at a celestial interpretation (Heracles travelling westwards to get there in a sun-cup, and Geryon’s cattle being envisioned as soaked in the light of sunset). In some Greek texts Orthros was alternatively spelled as Orthos, which in Greek can mean ‘erect in height’, ‘straight’, or ‘right’ (from this stem we get the word orthodoxy, orthodontist, orthopaedic, and so on). The former spelling and interpretation, Orthros, is perhaps preferred for our dog-creature on the island of Erytheia.

When compared with other Greek mythical monsters Orthros is quite obscure, but our double-headed hound belongs to a family of famous mythical beasts. In some traditions his mother was listed as Echidna and his father as Typhon (more about him later). Orthros’ siblings were Cerberus and the Chimera, and depending on the preferences of individual poets or compilers of traditions, the Nemean Lion and the Sphynx were sometimes attributed as Orthros’ own children, or sometimes they were regarded as other siblings.


Name-dropping: Square’s references to the ancient world.

Although at a first glance there may appear to be no common ground between the Greek myth and FF’s cheeky aquatic sea monster, on closer inspection there are Greek mythological references at the first meeting of Ultros in FFVI in that the party faces him in the Lethe (a river taken from Greek mythology). Lethe literally means ‘forgetfulness’ (hence lethargy, a ‘forgetful idleness’). The Lethe was one of the infernal rivers of the Underworld, and it was responsible for washing away people’s memories, or sometimes for actually purging the soul of all earthly memories so that it could start again in a new life (see, for example, Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica: 1.642).

That the development team of FFVI used a Greek mythological stream here is encouraging a deeper analysis. Furthermore the Lethe of FFVI’s world flows to a fishing port called Nikeah. Nikeah might be drawing on Nikaea (more often Latinised as Nicaea). Nikaea (from Greek nike, ‘victory’) was a town name applied to several Greek settlements in antiquity, and so yet another Greek name has been added to FF’s amalgamation of references. The most famous Nicaea is perhaps the one in north-western Anatolia (now Iznik in Turkey) where the Nicene Creed was formed and established the grounding principles of Christian theology. There was also a Greek colony called Nikaea in the west (now the name has developed into Nice in the land we call France today). Like the FF counterpart, this town was a sea-port of sorts, and geographically speaking would align (albeit roughly) with Heracles’ route on his return journey after fetching Geryon’s cattle. That this Nikaea was not founded until approximately 350 BC (and Heracles likely never existed in historical terms) is irrelevant when considering the flexible and timeless nature of myth! Maybe Square did the research, or maybe they didn’t. To the creators of FFVI looking for a name for a port, it seems that they stumbled on this one for one loose reason or another.

While the FFVI planet uses the concept of the River Lethe, and sticks Ultros in it, in the Greek mythic tradition Orthros himself was located at the banks of another important river: the River Ocean. In ancient Greek conceptions of geography, Ocean (or Okeanos) was the river which encircled the known world (which in a loose way the ocean sort of does, after all). In some ancient traditions the island of Erytheia was perceived as the same as, or near to, ancient Gadeira / Gades (modern Cadiz in Spain), originally a Phoenician colony. Being on the west coast of southern Spain, this exotic place was located beyond the Pillars of Heracles (hence west of the Strait of Gibraltar, therefore on the River Ocean and beyond the Mediterranean world which the Greeks were comfortable with). Heracles’ presence at Gades is interesting in itself as an important Phoenician Melqart temple was located there (Melqart being interpreted by Greeks and Romans as a Phoenician counterpart to Heracles), and this may have contributed to or reinforced the myth of Heracles travelling there.

The ancient Greek connection of the mythical Erytheia with historical Gades is important for our purposes. A river in Gades’ proximity, now named the Guadalete, was once named by Greeks as the Lethe. This Lethe is not necessarily the Lethe of the Underworld, but one of a handful of terrestrial rivers which acquired the name. The modern name Guadalete actually derives from the words for River Lethe from old Spanish-Arabic, and so the name remains. The Orthros hound is not so far from a Lethe River after all, and so Ultros’ placement is perhaps more than just idle attachment to another random Greek name.


Muscle-heads: Sabin as Heracles.

Before returning directly to Ultros, let us investigate the role of Heracles in the myth of Orthros and the implications this has for FFVI. Some mythic traditions attest that Heracles travelled west by sea to gather Geryon’s cattle within a large golden cup or jar belonging to Helios (the Sun).

raB4cOz.png

Attic red-figure cup, approximately 350 BC. Imagine the barrel riding scene from The Hobbit
and that’s more or less how Heracles must have managed this.

So were the gamers, on the raft as Terra, Edgar, Banon and Sabin, equivalent to Heracles in the golden cup? The comparison is unlikely to fit so neatly, and hardly deliberately. Still, it is quite appropriate that in the party facing Ultros is Sabin (who represents the brawny strongman character trope drawing from the same archetypal pool as Heracles).

jdagp0e.jpg

Sabin is arguably the most Herculean character in the Final Fantasy universe (most seriously, who else could suplex a moving train?!). The similarities between Sabin and Heracles need not be limited to super-strength. Both Sabin and Heracles visit the afterlife in some form: Sabin rides the Phantom Train a short while after falling into the Lethe, and Heracles famously visits the Underworld to fetch Cerberus. Both characters also have a physically weaker twin-brother: Sabin has the tech-smart Edgar, and Heracles has a mortal twin-brother named Iphicles (whom Alcmene carried at the same time as Heracles, but was conceived from Amphitryon instead of from Zeus). Other similarities exist, but it is perhaps excessive to dive for more than necessary.

Ultimately the explicit trait shared by the two characters is that both Sabin and Heracles specialise in leaping headlong at monsters, relying on brute strength rather than wit and guile. In addition to Heracles’ more famous terrestrial foes, he also tackled multiple monsters of the deep. In this Caeretan black-figure hydria vase (approx. 530-520 BC) Heracles is apparently gutting his way through the sea!

bsQRhCP.png

Sabin’s leap into the Lethe to get at Ultros fits with this tradition. Sabin is the only party member who jumps into the Lethe to attempt to finish off Ultros, and is lost there. There is special attention given to Sabin in this scene, and Ultros shows a particular aversion to Sabin in proclaiming a severe dislike towards ‘muscle-heads’. Is this a possible homage to the original Greek Orthros’ death by Heracles, or is the emphasis purely coincidental? Regardless Sabin and Ultros appear to be natural enemies.

It is implied through dialogue with Ultros in FFVI that the octopus’ other main rival is a character named Siegfried. Siegfried (or most commonly known as Sigurd) is the name of a Nordic hero. Whilst this might initially seem like some odd mythic mash-up, this hero has himself been compared with Heracles at times in his exploits (killing dragons, etc). The Siegfried spelling for the hero was particularly popularised by Wagnerian opera, and the FF Siegfried may equally have more to do with representing the operatic themes in FFVI, and indirectly perhaps justifying Ultros’ reasoning for disrupting an opera. Regardless, there is more sense than nonsense to these associations which might not be immediately noticeable at a glance.


Octopus royalty.

Ultros essentially acting as a substitute for the Phantom of the Opera is not the character’s only taste of the finer things in life. One of Ultros’ phrases in FFVI that is most loved is that he self-styles himself as ‘octopus royalty’. Despite having the appearance of an ugly octopus Ultros considers himself a part of high society, and in the game his criminal behaviour befits his class. Not only does Ultros attempt to disrupt an operatic performance, but later on in the game he also turns his hands to antiquity theft when he attempts to steal gold statues of the Warring Triad from the Esper Caves. Additionally, paintings appear to exist of this aristocratic octopus as one can be seen in Owzer’s House (supposedly different to the one that Relm can draw of him during his third encounter).

In an ancient and aquatic context Ultros’ proclamation of royal importance is very appropriate too, due to his purple colouration. The industry of extracting purple dye from murex sea snails was so expensive in antiquity that wearing purple clothing was long associated with nobility. In one myth Heracles discovered this extraction process when his dog ran off on the beach, mauled a murex sea snail, and stained its mouth purple (Julius Pollux, Onomasticum: 1.45-49). Square’s choice of colour for our fiend was most probably a coincidence, but it makes a lot of sense and fits the character’s class and themes.

sWVbVi5.png

'Heracles and the Discovery of the Secret of Purple' by Rubens, 1636

Ultros’ metamorphosis from hound to octopus.

So why did the Image Designer (Yoshitaka Amano) decide on an octopus for Ultros’ visual appearance rather than the two-headed dog from myth? Some people may find it irresistible to yell out something resembling ‘Because it’s Japan! Ho ho ho!’ Japanese interest in horrors from the deep, and tentacled creatures in particular (a natural interest given that Japan is a series of islands), might inevitably play a role in this. Ultros acts perversely towards women (and, at least in FFXIII-2, towards some effeminate men too), and so it takes only a slightly-twisted mind exposed to the internet to see that Ultros’ tentacled aspect also fits his personality, disgusting some players but inducing chuckles in others. However, the simplest reason for our octopus foe in FFVI is his creation for a river setting (if his placement preceded his design).

There is also a fascinating story circulating on the internet (although it is, tantalisingly, usually copy-pasted and cited word for word by various sites, and its origin is poorly sourced). The story, if there is any truth to it, states that when Amano and Hironobu Sakaguchi (Producer) were designing the octopus character, one of the programmers saw the designs and mentioned that it reminded him of a purple octopus toy that he owned as a child. This toy happened to be called Orthros.

61Sfz9d.jpg

A curious thing with this story is considering that a child (or child’s father, mother, or somebody with authority over the child’s toys) had decided to name a purple octopus toy after an obscure, mythic Greek hound in the first place. We ultimately find ourselves no closer to finding a reasoned explanation for the attachment of the name of a Greek mythic beast to a purple octopus. Our loveable Uncle Ulty’s appearance might have been created purely as a regular aquatic villain, but his name appears to have been attached to him because someone happened to own a cuddly toy like this called Orthros. The mythic associations seem therefore to have been added after the creature was designed.

Perhaps if the FF creators had instead built this character from the ground up (by taking inspiration from bestiaries of mythical creatures, or adapting the creature directly from the ancient sources), then Ultros would more closely resemble the dog, as he does tend to be depicted in canine form in other popular media.

One recent interpretation of Orthros in popular culture might make many people groan, for he appears in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and, yes, Hasbro produce a closer portrayal of the Greek character than Square did. One might wonder if Ultros would find himself quirkily attracted to the ‘brony’ phenomenon…

ABDwPO5.png

As far as Square-Enix is concerned, in Bravely Default they too created another Orthros which much more closely resembles his mythic counterpart. Bravely Default is spiritually speaking almost a Final Fantasy game, and so this representation of Orthros is interesting as it shows how he might have appeared in Final Fantasy games if Square hadn’t already popularised and established the character as a goofy-toothed, talking, purple octopus.

TD96q6z.png

There is a lot that has already been said here about the mythic source material surrounding Ultros. Even if the original designer, Amano, wasn’t initially adapting Greek mythology for his concepts for the character, someone down the line when putting together these scenes seems to have drawn from some of the Greek themes. Some may be inadvertent, but the sheer mass of references suggest that some at least may have been conscious choices.


Typhon: A stormy relationship.

In the FF franchise Ultros does not always act alone. Let us now briefly examine Ultros’ companion, introduced in some versions of FFVI as ‘Mr. Chupon’ but (once de-Woolseyed) more properly known as Typhon.

541yLRK.png

In FFVI Mr. Typhon is summoned by Ultros to aid him when he is having difficulty beating the player’s party (who at the time are desperately attempting to reach the Floating Continent and stop the destruction of the world). As mentioned above, the Greek Typhon is the father of the Greek Orthros and so it is interesting that the staff at Square went for this pairing, even if they didn’t really expand on the relationship beyond a loose sense of companionship.

Typhon is perhaps the most Lovecraftian of Greek monsters, and he is probably the closest that Greek mythology gets to Cthulhu. The Greek Typhon was an indescribable horror, and poets took liberties in their descriptions of him which can fail to be comprehended by the brain and translated into a coherent image of the creature’s anatomy. Typhon was sometimes described as a hundred-headed serpent, or sometimes imagined as having a hundred heads growing from his fingers. The image below is from a black-figure hydria (approximately 540-530 BC) taking up the challenge of representing Typhon.

r8RGEeG.jpg

Typhon is more than just a regular monster in Greek myth, and in some perceptions he was very possibly the greatest threat which the Olympian gods (and the world) faced. Typhon (sometimes called Typhoeus, though it is important to consider that some writers considered them to be two distinct characters, and others considered them one and the same) was a threat to the sovereignty of Zeus himself. As a genuine threat to world order, Typhon was battled as he attempted to overthrow the Olympians. Stories vary on how much Typhon achieved before Zeus defeated him, but one tradition (reported, or repeated, by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library: 1.6.3, and later re-imagined by Nonnus, Dionysiaca: Books 1-2) is that Typhon managed temporary success, taking and hiding Zeus’ sinews (or, alternatively, thunderbolts), therefore immobilising him. If Zeus had not regained his strength and struck Typhon down then a new afflicted world of disorder could have emerged. Incidentally, had Typhon succeeded and ruled Olympus (or another mountain abode of his choosing), then in this dark world Orthros technically could have been classified as a prince and possible heir. Perhaps Ultros really was royalty outside of his own deluded mind!

Whilst the Greek Typhon represented the most extreme, chaotic and uncontrollable forces of nature (at different times including volcanic eruptions, devastatingly destructive gales, and so on), in FFVI although his Snort attack can be a pain for completely blowing the party away from the battle, he is hardly a global threat. On the contrary, Typhon’s hideous form (resembling either the tumorous mass excised from Beelzebub himself, or a squashed pink marshmallow-man with a grotesque face for buttocks) and also his sneezing behaviour have become running jokes. Typhon is, however, one of the last bosses which the party face in the World of Balance. Whilst Mr. Typhon is not responsible for the World of Ruin, the dreams of the Greek Typhon’s reign of destruction are partly (if not entirely) fulfilled by Kefka and his nihilistic insanity.


Conclusions.

Ultimately our cute cephalopod, Ultros, is not the same character as the Greek dual-headed hound, Orthros. This much is obvious, but there are still Greek themes about the original location of his character, and there are even (probably coincidental) comparisons to be drawn between original myths regarding Orthros and Final Fantasy’s Ultros. Orthros has been adapted, but he is not stripped entirely from his original context. If anything the intended references to Greek mythology and the ancient world have been partially obscured by Woolseyisms, and by Square turning Ultros and Typhon into recurring jokes. In taking a relatively obscure creature, and making something entirely different from it, they have created one of the series’ most cherished sub-villains.

What are your thoughts on Ultros? Do you like his representation in FF? Do you like the mythic themes? Want to discuss any of the themes and questions raised in this article? Please comment!
Earn Mako Points for your comments!


*
For other current articles in the FFFMM series see the Mythology Manual Hub (including bibliography) or the Mythology Manual article category.
 
Dionysos

Dionysos

Very interesting read, Dan. How you manage to form and tie in other elements of Final Fantasy to Ultros is beyond me. I've never actually finished FFVI (don't think I was even halfway through the game) but I do remember facing Ultros. I think the raft scene is where I left off, and I remember facing that purple Octopus.

I don't quite understand where 'Uncle Ulty' came from though, now that you mentioned it. I thought maybe you were referring to our moderator @C i d when he changed his username to Uncle Ulty (how I remember this, no idea...) and at the time I figured maybe that was his own little humor. So...Uncle Ulty wasn't made up by Cid (the moderator, not the recurring FF character). Lol.

The bigger question is, where and how does Uncle fit in?
 
Oh yeah, Cid didn't make it up. :D

It's from later on in the game.

Ultros calls himself Uncle Ulty when he thinks that he has upset Relm by refusing her offer of painting his portrait. He tries to calm her down by saying 'Uncle Ulty would really like you to draw his portrait', or words to that effect.

He was just trying to make himself sound friendlier and familiar to a child, I guess.
 
Back
Top