Arcadia in the arts and popular culture

Arcadia is used to refer to imaginary places and utopias in the arts and popular culture, because of its mythological association with unspoiled, harmonious wilderness, Arcadia was an ancient Greek province, which still exists as a regional district in modern Greece.

In music
  • In the 1744 opera Semele (Handel), Jupiter sends winged Zephyrs to fetch Semele's sister, Ino, and he sings "Now shall all this scene unto Arcadia turn, the seat of happy nymphs and swains."
  • In the 1882 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Iolanthe, the male romantic lead, Strephon, is described as "an Arcadian Shepherd".
  • Demis Roussos has a 1973 song titled "Lovely Lady of Arcadia". ("Schönes Mädchen aus Arcadia" in German)
  • An early incarnation of Sonic Youth was known as the Arcadians.[1]
  • Al Stewart, a Scottish folksinger, includes a song on his 1978 album Time Passages called "Timeless Skies", in which he sings of "timeless Arcadian Skies".
  • Arcadia was a band created as a project by the 1980s English iconic pop band, Duran Duran, in 1985. It included Duran Duran members, Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, and Roger Taylor. The name of this band was chosen for the mystique surrounding Arcadia as a place of mystery and symbolic secrecy.
  • The mythic world that adorns the album covers of the rock band Asia, specifically the albums Alpha (1983) and Astra (1985). The album Astra was tentatively titled Arcadia.
  • The English experimental rock group Psychic TV included a song called "Just Like Arcadia" on their 1988 LP, Allegory and Self.
  • The American electronic music duo Gabriel & Dresden have a song called Arcadia first released as an EP in 2004.
  • The Japanese musical group Sound Horizon's 2008 story album Moira is set in the country of Arcadia, one of the main characters being the "First Prince of Arcadia", Leontius.
  • Marianas Trench refers to Arcadia, in their 2009 song Acadia. They are referring to it as a "unspoiled, harmonious wilderness."[2]
  • The Libertines and Pete Doherty, whose first solo album Grace/Wastelands (2009) features an opening track titled "Arcady".
  • The 2010 Avantasia album Angel of Babylon features a song titled "Journey to Arcadia" which portrays the region as a mythical destination full of wonder and mystery.
  • The 2014 EP Vessel by The Kite String Tangle features a song titled "Arcadia" which describes "an unobtainable ideal that we all create in certain situations."[3]
  • The 2019 Babymetal album Metal Galaxy features a song titled "Arcadia", which describes the place as a promised land.

In literature
  • "Et in Arcadia Ego" is the title of Book One of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1945) in which a skull bearing the phrase acts as a metaphor for death and for a yearning for a lost paradise resulting from the transformation of war.
  • One of the main characters in Isaac Asimov's 1953 novel Second Foundation is named Arcadia Darell, but prefers to be called Arkady.
  • In the 1977–1979 manga series Space Pirate Captain Harlock by Leiji Matsumoto, the main ship is called Arcadia, perhaps hinting that the ship itself is a sort of refuge to pirates.
  • In the 20th Latin American literary classic, Empire of Dreams by Giannina Braschi, the inhabitants of Arcadia invade New York City in a pastoral revolution (1988).[4]
  • In the 1998 Stardust Classics children's fantasy novel, Arcadia is the name of the kingdom ruled by the young Princess Alissa.[5]
  • In the manga series Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01, the antagonist Neo Saiba attempts to create a Utopian world using his Digimon, which he names Arkadimon.
  • A 2004 book titled A Modern Arcadia: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. & The Plan For Forest Hills Gardens written by Susan L. Klaus about a utopian community in Queens, NY, and an example of the early 20th century garden city movement in America.[6]
  • Strika Entertainment, a South African comic publisher best known for their global Supa Strikas title, also produces a comic called Arcadia. The story follows three friends and their dog who are sucked into an arcade machine on a weekly basis, and are taken on adventures in the computer game world of Arcadia.[7]
  • In the French novel L'Autre (trilogy) by Pierre Bottero, little Arcadia is the name given to a parallel universe.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, there is an organisation called the Arcadia movement.
  • In the Iron Fey novels by Julie Kagawa, Arcadia is the home of the Summer fey, ruled by King Oberon and Queen Titania. It is described as a beautiful land with many flowers, trees, springs and fountains. The Winter fey, ruled by Queen Mab, live in Tir Na Nog, a land covered in snow.
  • Gods of Arcadia is a sci-fi mythology series by Andrea Stehle. Arcadia is a planet in mankind's future controlled by the gods of ancient Greece.

Plays

In film
  • Mathayus in the 2002 film The Scorpion King is from Arcadia.
  • In the film 300 Leonidas is joined by a group of Arcadians to help him fight against the Persians.
  • In the 2010 film Resident Evil: Afterlife, Arcadia is a safe haven free from viral infection. However, it is revealed to be a freight ship and a trap set up by Umbrella Corporation.
  • In the 2018 film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the ship that brought the dinosaurs off the island is called Arcadia.

On television
  • The area of the prefecture was featured in several ERT programs including documentaries about the Megalopoli Mine and Ladon Lake.
  • In the TV series Space: 1999, Arkadia is a planet from where the life came to Earth.[8]
  • In episode three of the 1989 animated series The Legend of Zelda, Prince Facade mentions that he comes from a kingdom called Arcadia when he introduces himself to Princess Zelda.
  • The fourteenth episode of the Japanese anime Trigun is called "Little Arcadia", referring to the small forest that an old couple managed to nurture in the desert.[9]
  • "Arcadia" is the thirteenth episode of the sixth season of the TV series The X-Files.
  • In the 2003–2005 TV series Joan of Arcadia, the story of a teenage girl who communicates with God and performs tasks she is given, took place in the fictional Arcadia, Maryland.
  • In the 2006 Doctor Who episode "Doomsday", the Doctor mentions being "there at the fall of Arcadia", where Arcadia is insinuated to be an unspecified area of possible strategic importance in the Time War. Later, in the 50th Anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", Arcadia is revealed to be a city on the planet Gallifrey, home of the Doctor's own race, the Time Lords.
  • In the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, there is a season-long arc that concerns whether the Arcadian Hotel will be preserved as a landmark or torn down to build a new skyscraper. The Arcadian is said to once have been a grand hotel that has fallen on hard times and is in the process of decay.
  • In the anime series The Idolmaster, Chihaya Kisaragi has an image song called "Arcadia" that has the lyrics, "I will aim for Arcadia". It is sung by voice actress Asami Imai.
  • Netflix TV Series Trollhunters is set in Arcadia.
  • Arkadia, formerly Camp Jaha is the name of the settlement/base of the Sky People in the TV show The 100.

In games
  • The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia, Arcadia for short is a lawful neutral/lawful good-aligned plane of existence in Dungeons & Dragons.
  • In the 1988 video game The Battle of Olympus, Arcadia is the initial starting point of the game.[10]
  • The tactical RPG franchise Fire Emblem features a hidden Utopian city where man and dragon lives in harmony. This city is called Arcadia, and is founded by the legendary Archsage Athos.
  • In the 1997 text MUD Achaea, Arcadia is the home of a race of winged humans (Atavians).[11]
  • Arcadia is one of twin worlds in the popular 1999 computer game The Longest Journey and its 2006 sequel, Dreamfall.
  • The name of the planet in the 2000 game Skies of Arcadia is Arcadia. It is a planet with a completely barren wasteland ground level, but is mainly populated in its sky, which has a large system of floating islands, each flourishing under six different-colored moons that orbit the planet.
  • In the series of games Mega Man Zero, (Neo) Arcadia is the utopian city where humans live in apparent peace with reploids.
  • In Armored Core 3, Arcadia is the name of the No. 1 ranked AC.
  • PlayStation Vita game (Fate/stay night [Realta Nua]) has a theme song titled Arcadia performed by the japanese band Earthmind. The song is used as the opening theme for Saber's Route, Fate.
  • In Dragon Quest VIII for PlayStation 2 there is a town called Arcadia.[12]
  • In the PlayStation 2 video game Final Fantasy XII, there is a militaristic empire known as Archadia.
  • In the 2007 video game BioShock, Arcadia is the area of the underwater city of Rapture where all of the trees and crops grow, being run by biologist Julie Langford. It is the vital area where the precious oxygen is created for the whole city and touted as a vacation paradise.[13]
  • In Metal Gear Online, Arcadia is the name of a glitcher.
  • In the video game Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, the areas of the game are all said to be within the city of New Arcadia.
  • In the 2008 video game Rise of the Argonauts, Arcadia was the original home of all centaurs and sacred to Hermes, the father of their race.
  • In the 2009 game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Arcadia is a suburb located in North Eastern Virginia, U.S. in which the player has to evacuate civilians and key personnel in the level Exodus.
  • In the RTS game Halo Wars, Arcadia is a civilian world under attack by an alien race called The Covenant.
  • An American-like continent in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is called Arcadia.
  • In the 2015 video game Life Is Strange, Arcadia Bay is the town in which the story takes place.
  • In the 1995 tabletop roleplaying game Changeling: The Dreaming Arcadia is the homeland of the fae, deep in the Dreaming.
  • In the 2018 video game Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Arkadia is one of the regions of Greece the player character can conquer/defend for either Athens or Sparta during the Peloponnesian War.

In anthroponimy

Places

References
  1. Gordon, Kim (6 February 2015). "Kim Gordon: 'Women aren't allowed to be kick-ass. I refused to play the game'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  2. "Marianas Trench – Acadia". Genius. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  3. "The Kite String Tangle Shares New Single, Announces Tour". Music Feeds. 2014-06-24. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  4. Marting, Diane. "New/Nueva York in Giannina Braschi's Poetic Egg: fragile identity, postmodernism, and globalization". Global South. Vol 4 Latin America in a Global Age: 167–183 – via JSTOR.
  5. "Alissa, Princess of Arcadia". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  6. "A Modern Arcadia | University of Massachusetts Press". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  7. "STRIKA Entertainment". www.strika.com. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  8. ""The Testament of Arkadia"". Space: 1999. February 1976.
  9. "Little Arcadia". IMDB. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  10. Dalez (6 January 2000). "Battle of Olympus – Walkthrough/FAQ". IGN. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  11. "Arcadia – AchaeaWiki". wiki.achaea.com. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  12. "Arcadia – Dragon Quest Wiki". dragon-quest.org. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  13. "Director%27s Commentary Collectibles – BioShock: The Collection Wiki Guide – IGN". IGN. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
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