- Jun Kurosu -

Hermes//
who - Hooboy. It's hard to think where to start with Hermes, really. There's a whole lotta legendary ground to cover.

To make a long-ish story short, Hermes was the son of Zeus (king of gods, but you probably already know that) and (drumroll) the one and only Maia. Yeah, you heard me. That Maia. And a feisty kiddie he was. On the first day after his birth he decided to up and steal Apollo's cattle because they were all tasty and whatnot - damned precocious, those gods. And so he devised a Clever Plan to use these things called "sandals" to disguise his footprints and lead ol' Apollo in the wrong direction. Of course, he was eventually caught, as Apollo is pretty much the Greek god equivalent of Superman. A lengths custody battle ensued and Hermes proved himself to be a cunning little bastard indeed. So cunning that he and Apollo decided to be bestest pals forever and ever and ever in spite of the whole cow incident, which culminated in a fun-filled trip to go look after the cows together (awwwwww) and exchange friendship bracelets... *cough* er, I mean, Hermes gave Apollo his lyre and Apollo gave Hermes his nifty golden whip. Huzzah!

Hermes is the trickster god. Patron saint of thieves and shifty ne're do wells, as well as travelers and roads. He's not the greatest combat god out there, but he's a wily son of a bitch who can charm the pants off of anyone. Hence him also being the messenger of the will of the gods.

In spite of being a criminal he's not that bad of a guy. Hermes is great for the telling of stories and all sorts of artsy things that amuse others. Physically he's a great deal like Apollo - indeed, they both come from the same sorts of pastoral mythological origins - although Hermes is generally considered to be younger-looking and more girly.

Hermes also has a second role. That of Hermes Psychopompous. And no, that doesn't mean he's pompously psychotic. It means that he guides the souls of the dead to Hades. Overachiever much?

why - Well, the connections to Apollo/Tatsuya and Maia/Maya are of the two-by-four variety so I suppose I'll go into those first. Maya is the obvious mother figure for Tatsuya and Jun (and yeah, I know there are those who think that Tatsuya Maya had a love connection going on, but that's insanely Freudian and in any case does not belong in this topic). Hell, the fact that she "died" in that fire pretty much shaped Jun's whole life - breaking him apart from Tatsuya and causing him to go all wacky when his neglectful biological diva-mom was all ignoring him trophy kid and such. And Hermes seems to be a fairly devoted kidlet, so that makes sense.

Apollo... well now. I'll just get it out in the open up front that even though the Jun/Tatsuya romantic relationship is optional in IS, I pretty much take it as cannon. Why? Because it's the only cannon relationship that makes sense in terms of the actual characters involved. Maya? Freudian. Ew. And he consciously chooses to leave her. Lisa? Obvious teeny-bopper crush. Jun? Whoooooooole lotta unresolved issues there, plus Tatsuya always fondling that lighter, and the fact that Jun's the only one Tatsuya can't leave behind at the end of EP (his memory can't be restored - he's condemned to the Other Side for good).

But I digress. Friendship or nookie, the myth makes sense. Close relationship? Check. Close relationship occuring/restored after Hermes/Jun does meanful nasty things to Apollo/Tatsuya (granted, he formed an evil occult gang instead of cattle rustling... just work with me here people)? Check. Nifty gift exchange? Check. Nature of the gifts? Ooooh - now that's interesting. Apollo gives Hermes the whip, and Hermes gives Apollo the lyre. As Jun it the obvious femme in this relationship what with his artsy drag queen steak, we can see that Jun brings our butch young Mr. Suou to the more right-brained side of life. Tatsuya is, on the other hand, all dispensing with the whips and the testosterone for Kurosu. Kinky. They compliment each other.

However, just to make this summary really long and annoying to write, Hermes also exists as a personality on his own. Damn. Being the early-game persona for Jun, Hermes as thief god is pretty damn appropriate given that Jun runs and evil gang and is in reform school and all. The trickster also manages to cunningly disguise his identity. That he can create the myth that the Joker is actually a force for good luck is a testament to his lying and storytelling skills.

It's also notable that Hermes Psychopompous is in regular contact with the Underworld. Jun draws the IS gang down in to the fun little realm of parapsychological warfare that Nyarly and Philemon are always mucking about him. He's not the end villain but the Masquerade really starts things off. In other words, he takes them down into the underworld. Jun also acts, in a way, as a herald for Nyarlathotep since all his evil doin's and a-fixin's are, well, evil and all.

Messenger of the Gods role? Guess there's covered there too. Eeexcellent.

Cronus//
who -  Cronus is not the god of time.

This is important. As a pun, it appears that Atlus have given Cronus-the-stand a clock for a head. And so I repeat - Cronus is NOT the God of Time. If he were related to time it would be "os" at the end, which it is not. Hurrah!

What Cronus is is the father of the gods - himself a Titan, and one of twelve children of Gaia (the Earth) and Uranus (the Sky). Uranus was fairly sex-crazed and forced to Gaia to, er, "keep 'em down" so as he could not be put off from the sweet sweet lovin' by a birth. Gaia probably wouldn't have had too much trouble with this except, to be frank, Uranus was really bad in bed. All "wham, bam, thankyouma'am". This did not please the mother of all things earthly. She had created him (by herself, apparently) in order to get laid, not to be sexually frustrated. So she told her kiddies underground that something had to be done and Cronus - the youngest - volunteered to do the deed. The next day he castrated daddy dearest and set himself up as Supernatural Head Deity. He and his sister/wife Rhea ruled for a good many years before their own son Zeus decided that Cronus never let him play with all the cool toys (also, Cronus has a paranoid habit of swallowing the Gods - his children) and decided to overthrow him in the battle known as the Titanomachy.

Gods - 1, Titans - 0. Sucks for the Titans. Most of them - except for figures like Atlus, Hecate, and Prometheus who were necessary, really freaking scary, or traitors to the Titan cause - were cast down into Tartarus (hell) to languish for all time. Some legends say that Cronus was eventually pulled out of the Erebus (darkness) and allowed to rule over Elysium (the section of Tartarus cordoned off to be sorta like heaven). Some say he wasn't.

why- Cronus is the father of the Gods, right? That includes the God Personas - those belonging to Tatsuya, Lisa, and Eikichi and Maya who fought him. His initial actions are what drove them to emerge as active users in the first place, as has been mentioned up above for Hermes Psychopompous.

Yet Cronus is about more than that. Cronus is about having been defeated. The Wheel of Fortune. And I do mean that quite literally - of all of the Personas, Cronus is the most connected to it's summoner's tarot affiliation. Wheel of Fortune operates on the principle that all things come in time - "I rule, I have ruled, I do not rule, I will rule". We cover all the bases as the wheel spins. And Jun's spins quite a bit.

"I do not rule" - As a kid he was weak. Too weak to save Maya. Weak because he was a girly little boy. So weak he got the shit beat out of him alot and basically had no friends except for Butch Tatsuya, who is also antisocial but for different reasons.

"I will rule" - After losing Tatsuya in that unfortunate horrible fiery death incident, Jun no longer has his Knight in Shining Angst to protect him. And so he turns to beating the crap out of people himself. Yet with that sort of empowerment comes punishment - a theme that will be repeated later. Jun is sent off to reform school.

"I rule" - Jun is the Joker. Jun leads the Masquerade. Jun is the Big Bad. You will FEAR Jun. And then he gets taken down by the only one who ever could. Lil' Tatsuya's back and look - he brought a katana!

"I have ruled" - Jun is no longer Joker, but he still has the occult skills and... okay, I'm not sure how he's able to attack things by throwing random metal stuff, but that'll have to be relegated to the "how on earth does Baofu kill shit with coins, and who died and left him a Swiss bank account for those anyway?" pile o' Game Mechanic Mysteries. Point is, he's not exactly neutered yet. So he goes off with his childhood boyfriend and the two musician wannabies to kick some manifestation-of-the-dark-side-of-the-unconciousness ass (As well as the Nazis. Everyone likes beating up Nazis!). This is where Cronus comes into play... and why too. Jun has completed the circle.

Needless to say, nothing stays static. And that can be related to Cronus too. Jun, of all of the IS characters, is the only one who necessarily remains consigned to the Other Side (Tatsuya had a choice - he counts not). Lisa and Eikichi can be restored. Jun, however, has been consigned to the Tartarus-style dystopia that is the Other Side. Will it end up Erebus or Tartarus? Tatsuya goes back to help rebuild the Sumaru city floating on the ashes of a dead humanity that is Other Side but that doesn't mean anything. You can choose your own legend concerning Cronus. Fortune could turn again and find him ruling paradise or stay static and consign him to suffering for his crimes. It's really up to whatever the player or reader wants. Which is where ambiguity is really our friend, I suppose - this way everyone's happy.