The lotus flower, yin and yang, Greek mythological figures and Norse runes once belonged to particular religious and philosophical traditions. Today the same images appear on streetwear, album covers, game interfaces and social media profiles. The online communities that share them keep attaching new meanings, some close to the original and some a long way from it.
Mythology in video games and online casinos#
In games and films, ancient symbols drive game mechanics and plots, and they give players characters they recognize on sight. Greek, Egyptian and Norse myths hand creators a ready cast of gods and stories to rework for a new audience. Most of these myths and symbols are in the public domain, so studios can adapt them without licensing the original material.
The influence reaches beyond console and PC games into online casinos. Gates of Olympus by Pragmatic Play builds its game around Zeus and Greek mythology, and Book of Dead by Play'n GO draws on ancient Egyptian symbols and temple architecture.
These themes have also spread into more social formats, including sweepstakes casinos. These social gaming platforms sit outside the strict definition of an online casino. They offer casino-style games played with virtual currencies, and some formats let players redeem prizes.
The lotus and yin and yang in wellness culture#
The lotus flower and yin and yang turn up again and again in online posts about personal growth. In Buddhist and Hindu traditions the lotus is linked to purity and spiritual awakening. Its roots sit in mud and its flower opens clean above the water, so it also became an image of rising above hard circumstances. Hindu tradition draws each of the seven chakras as a lotus with its own number of petals. Yin and yang comes from Chinese philosophy and describes two complementary forces, such as dark and light, that depend on each other and together make balance.
Online communities have carried these meanings into conversations about emotional well-being and identity. Wellness creators use the lotus as a picture of resilience and healing after a hard stretch. Productivity and lifestyle accounts reach for yin and yang when they talk about work-life balance or juggling priorities that pull in opposite directions.
Both symbols are popular as minimalist tattoos and digital illustrations. A simple outline lets someone say something complicated with one small mark, even when the philosophy behind it gets less attention than the shape.
Greek and Roman statues in vaporwave art#
Greek and Roman mythology still has a strong hold on visual culture, especially in internet-born art movements such as vaporwave. The genre emerged in the early 2010s and mixed electronic music with retro computer graphics and old advertising imagery.
Classical sculpture became one of its signature images. Marble busts and Roman columns sit next to neon colors and outdated computer graphics. The cover of Floral Shoppe, a 2011 album by Macintosh Plus, is a typical example: a bust of the Greek sun god Helios set against a glossy digital backdrop.
Vaporwave artists picked that contrast on purpose. An ancient sculpture suggests permanence and prestige, while the computer graphics around it went out of date within a few years of release. Putting the two together lets artists play with nostalgia and with how quickly consumer technology ages.
It also shows how an online community can build a new meaning around an old image. A classical statue can now stand for ancient art and, at the same time, for an internet aesthetic invented many centuries later.
Medusa, runes and Greek statues in streetwear#
Fashion gives ancient symbols another set of meanings. Streetwear designers borrow from classical mythology and old writing systems and print them on clothing and accessories. Most of these designs care more about the look and the reference than about what the symbol meant spiritually.
- Versace has used Medusa as its emblem since its early years. In Greek mythology her gaze turned people to stone, while in Versace's identity she stands for fascination and the pull of beauty.
- Letters from historical runic alphabets appear on some streetwear and metal-inspired clothing. Their angular shapes suit bold graphics, but each rune still carries its own meaning, which you can look up in our list of Elder Futhark runes and their meanings.
- Greek statues and Roman columns turn up on graphic T-shirts, often next to modern typography.
Social platforms spread these designs further. Outfit posts and mood boards show ancient imagery to people who meet it through clothing first, often before they read anything about where it came from.
The phoenix and the caduceus in tech and crypto#
Technology communities borrow ancient imagery too, mostly to talk about transformation and connected systems. The phoenix is a mythical bird that burns and is reborn from its own ashes, and it is the first entry in our guide to mythical creatures and their meanings. Business writers use it for companies that recover from a crisis, and crypto communities sometimes use it for a project that comes back after a market downturn.
The caduceus is the winged staff with two intertwined snakes carried by Hermes, the messenger god of Greek mythology. It now appears in imagery about communication and networks, and sometimes about human enhancement. People often confuse it with the Rod of Asclepius, a staff with a single snake that is the traditional symbol of medicine.
In both cases the connection is a metaphor. Tech communities borrow these figures to describe things, such as computer networks and digital currencies, that nobody could have pictured when the symbols first appeared.
Social media moves symbols between communities#
Social media has changed how cultural symbols circulate, letting images jump between communities that once had little contact. On Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok, one ancient symbol can show up in a history explainer and a tattoo design in the same scroll.
A yin and yang symbol is simple enough to stay recognizable at the size of a profile picture or in the corner of a short video. Each community also reads the same image its own way, so astrology fans and digital artists can attach different meanings to one symbol. Online publishing puts symbols from different traditions side by side too, in combinations that say nothing about how those cultures related to each other.
That mixing can cause misunderstandings. Religious and philosophical symbols have histories much longer than their decorative uses, and what a community reads into a symbol online does not always match the tradition it came from.
If you're choosing a symbol for a tattoo or a pendant, read about where it comes from first. Most of the symbols in this piece carry older and more specific meanings than the ones they pick up online.
Frequently asked questions
Why do so many games use Greek and Egyptian mythology?
Most of these myths are in the public domain, and players already know the characters. A studio can build a game around Zeus or an Egyptian tomb without licensing anything, and the familiar story does much of the work of setting the scene.
What does the lotus flower symbolize?
In Buddhist and Hindu traditions the lotus stands for purity and spiritual awakening. It is also read as rising above hard times, because the flower opens clean above muddy water.
What does yin and yang mean?
Yin and yang is an idea from Chinese philosophy about two complementary forces, such as dark and light or rest and activity, that depend on each other. The symbol puts a dot of each color inside the other, which is why it is read as balance.
What is the difference between the caduceus and the Rod of Asclepius?
The caduceus has two snakes and a pair of wings, and it belongs to Hermes, the Greek messenger god. The Rod of Asclepius has one snake and no wings, and it is the traditional symbol of medicine.
