9

What gods were there in ancient religions related to games? I know there were gods related to chance, but even in the ancient world, not all games relied on luck (Olympic games, other sports competitions, Go, Chaturanga).

I'm searching for gods, but will welcome other mythical creatures as well, for the sake of this question most prominent immortals/wise kings/saints etc. can be swapped for gods. The relation between them and games has to be direct, no "well they were about strategy, so they are also gods of strategy games" etc.

Unfortunately, when searching for gods related to games on google, your results are flooded with modern game titles with "god" in the title, and I can't seem to find a related page on Wikipedia.

yannis
  • 16,990
  • 7
  • 69
  • 203
Xyzk
  • 245
  • 1
  • 3
  • 2
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%C3%AFssa TIL India has a god for everything – bleh Jan 28 '18 at 03:55
  • Not a god and maybe not a hero, but I feel the need to mention Palamedes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palamedes_(mythology)), who took part in the Trojan war and invented the dice - a very useful thing if you're stuck in a 10 years long siege with a lot of other soldiers. – Rodia Apr 07 '18 at 13:45

1 Answers1

3

Hermes - was the emissary and messenger of the gods. Wikipedia don't says that, but he was also a god of games and luck.

  • 2
    This is correct. In the 27th Orphic Hymn, he is called "studious of contests" (still trying to track down the Greek so I can see the actual word, but it is though to be a reference to the athletic games.) Encyclopedia Mythica also talks about Hermes presiding over the game of dice, and has references. – DukeZhou Jan 31 '18 at 21:15