A Familiar Kind of Power: An Ode to Toula and the Feminine Divine in Hades II
- 12 hours ago
- 6 min read
By: Lauryl Fischer, Guest Contributor
She fishes. She naps. She attacks!
She is Toula, feline familiar to Melinoë, Princess of the Underworld—and I’d argue one of the best additions to Hades II. While the player can choose from six different familiars, I almost always invite Toula to join me on my runs, and not just because I am a cat person.
Toula improves my experience of the gameplay and also contributes to Hades II’s embrace of witchcraft and feminine power, the core elements that distinguish the game from its predecessor. Hades II wouldn’t be the same without her.
THE FAMILIAR BOND: MELINOË AND TOULA’S CONNECTION
What sets Toula apart from many cat companions in video games is that she is no mere pet or support player. As a familiar, she bonds spiritually to Melinoë and becomes an equal partner in her quest.
For those unfamiliar with familiars (pun unintended), references to magical companions go way back to the early modern period. According to historian Emma Wilby in her book Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, traditional folk tales, such as “Rumpelstiltskin” and “The Frog Prince,” feature the earliest depictions. In these tales, a supernatural being (not always an animal) appears when the protagonist is in trouble and offers to make a deal. Some of these deals work out… and some infamously do not, which reflects the morally ambiguous role that familiars played in these stories.
Hades II honors this idea of equal exchange in the gameplay. Each familiar must be courted—encountered several times before you feed each one a Witch’s Delight, a special biscuit that earns their loyalty. From there, the more affection and biscuits you give, the stronger the bond becomes, and the more each familiar can contribute to each run.
In Toula’s case, she contributes in three distinct ways: her heart bond, sense bond, and claw bond.
Toula’s different bonds – taken from the Hades Wiki
Her heart bond gives players one additional Death Defiance. Her sense bond increases the probability of finding Fishing Points throughout your run (and she catches fish for you!) And her claw bond increases the number of times Toula will strike during battle, inflicting attack damage on your enemies. The latter bond becomes an essential part of many offensive builds, especially those focused on stacking damage output.
"The cat couldn’t be controlled, and so it was dangerous."
But how did the cat emerge as one of the most popular familiars, often depicted as a sleek black shadow riding on the witch’s broom?
That specific trope emerged primarily out of the Middle Ages’ religious anxieties. According to feminist scholar Katherine M. Rogers in her book Cat, society grew to believe the cat was connected to Satan because they were everything a loyal dog was not: independent, aloof, and capable of slipping in and out of domestic spaces without invitation or detection. While a dog was eager to please, a cat’s loyalty was hard-earned and fickle, its nocturnal nature leading many people to believe it was drawn to darkness.
In other words, the cat couldn’t be controlled, and so it was dangerous.
Likewise, as Rogers outlines, people also suspected women of witchcraft if they lived alternative lives outside the patriarchal systems, such as remaining unmarried, pursuing sex work, or disobeying their husbands. Some even believed that these women could turn into cats. Connecting the idea of women’s power to the cat, therefore, reveals how anxieties about women’s autonomy recast both independent women and cats as creatures to be feared.
Hades II, of course, reclaims this history by casting the witchy Melinoë as the heroine. Melinoë’s relationship with Toula transforms her feline familiar into a symbol of shared autonomy and feminine power. But it never forgets this history either — even when players maximize their bond with Toula, she remains an independent spirit. Just like a real cat, she takes frequent naps while Melinoë battles her way through each realm. She’ll assist only when you ask her politely—sprinting past her to stir her from sleep.
Personally, I love this detail. It reminds you that while Toula is your loyal friend and familiar, she is still a cat, and she’ll do things on her own time– the end of the world be damned!
Toula taking a nap. Sleep tight!
DIVINE AND DEADLY: TOULA’S CONNECTION TO THE UNDERWORLD
While each familiar has its own connection to mythology, Toula is uniquely suited to Hades II because of the cat’s historical association with the underworld. Naturally, the Princess of the Underworld requires such a divine counterpart.
This association predates even the medieval period. Ancient Egyptians worshipped the cat alongside Bastet, the feline-headed goddess of women, children, fertility, the home, and love. Some historians even believe that Bastet began the enduring notion of “cats as being female (dogs as male)”, as noted in the first chapter of The Mythology of Cats: Feline Legend and Lore Through the Ages by folklorists Gerald and Loretta Hausman.
Bastet’s depiction reveals how central the cat played in the lives of everyday Egyptians. Many Egyptians had cats to protect their homes because they killed vermin like rats and scorpions, thus purifying the home of disease. Because the cat could resist and protect against such dangers— to conquer death itself— many believed the cat to be a guardian against death.
Toula is a worthy heir of this noble legacy. Players encounter her in two locations: she appears first in the fountain room in Erebus, and again on the docks before the Rift of Thessaly. Both of these locations represent transitions between life and death—Erebus is the first region of the Underworld and acts similarly to Limbo; spirits linger here until they are ready to journey into the afterlife. In Greek mythology, Thessaly is considered the land of magic and witchcraft, while also being the dwelling place of the Gods. To me, it’s also significant that Toula resides on the docks, which act as the transitional point between the City of Ephyra and the Rift.
No other familiar is found in both the Underworld and Surface paths; only Toula can prowl both worlds unharmed. Her presence across both routes mirrors Melinoë’s own movement between worlds and recalls the Egyptian tradition that casts cats as guides to the afterlife.
ENCOUNTERING TOULA AT THE DOCKS BEFORE THE RIFT OF THESSALY
Toula’s role as a guide also extends beyond the courting process. As I mentioned before, she gifts Melinoë with an extra Death Defiance, an ability that echoes the belief that cats have nine lives and also recalls the Egyptian practice of mummifying cats to accompany and protect their owners in the afterlife. Just like her Egyptian ancestors, she does not fear death; if Melinoë falls, Toula will resurrect her.
I believe even Toula’s design is a nod to the ancient Egyptians. Rather than depicting Toula as the black cat of European myth who symbolizes bad luck and malevolence, Hades II honors Toula as royalty. Her tall, slender, sand-colored body and her crown of elegant, tufted ears resemble the serval, an African cat often beautifully depicted in Egyptian art.
Toula’s connection to this long legacy, one that moves from Ancient Egypt to medieval Europe and the witch trials of colonial America, elevates her in my eyes as the familiar best suited for Melinoë’s journey. She transforms that history into an intimate bond that honors and embraces feminine power in all its divinity, creativity, and liminality — a power capable of crossing between worlds, defeating Chronos, and thus rewriting time itself.
Long live Toula!
Works Cited
Katherine M. Rogers. Cat. 2006. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/612ee136efc1241e1fcc567e/t/632d13c78b88781dcb20aabf/1663898580494/Cat%2B-%2BRogers.pdf
Emma Wilby. Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits. 2010. https://www.cunningfolkherbs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Emma-Wilby-Cunning-Folk-and-Familiar-Spirits-ShamanisticEarly-Modern-British-Witchcraft-and-Magic-2005-Unknown.pdf
Gerald and Loretta Hausman. The Mythology of Cats: Feline Legend and Lore Through the Ages. 1998. https://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Cats-Feline-Legend-Through/dp/0312186339
Lauryl Fischer is a freelance writer and editor with an MFA in creative writing who has been published in Polygon, Business Insider, and the Punished Backlog. She loves analyzing media (from books to movies to video games) using a queer and disability studies lens. She is a proud cat person and aunt to Reid, a talkative Maine Coon who provides important feedback on her work by frequently lying on her laptop.
˖ ꗃ ﾍ(^･･^=)~
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