http://www.luxor.com/

Okay - plus one more link to the casino because the old link is down and the virtual tour streaming video is awesome - I mean the book dwells a lot on America's kitschy monuments - a God with his own Vegas temple is too good to miss - after all, what are they going to move into?

Great question! I don't think it was an historical god that Mr. Gaiman portrayed. It was a new god, like the tech geek. I think it was either Luck personified or Elvis. More specifically, the character is probably an amalgamation of all the associations America has with Las Vegas. The god is a representation of that city, all of its hopes and dreams. Put into one package it is impossible to pin down one face on Vegas, and as anyone knows, after you leave Vegas, remembering is hard to do.

*points up*

This one...the one about the god of forgotten hopes and dreams. I like that a lot. It's a personification of the forgotten gods and to some degree the book itself, in a nutshell. Good call.

There are a lot of good ideas about who he is. My money is on Math, Welsh god of increasing fortune. Asside from the Vegas connotation, it was said that he couldn't "stay in the human world" without resting his feet on a virgin. That could be why no one remembers him. Also, he was strong in war, and that fits with the later description, I think.

Hi, first post and all that


...Could the being be an 'intangible' of belief?

In Vegas everyone believes they will win...
The God's remember him because they know they need him...

but humans don't realise how much they need belief and go right ahead to thinking about what they are believing in?

and that's why nobody can quite remember him...?

Dressed in black and all that, well, he'd hide behind the scenes well like that wouldn't he...



edit: I've just noticed I've committed major thread necromancy...sorry all - I'm not deleting the post though because I want my idea heard :-$

its an interesting thought but I stand by my current thought that people are thinking about this wrong.

It isn't that people didn't notice him, it isn't that people don't know his name. Its that he is FORGOTTEN. I think that is the key.

Hmmm...Good ole Niel and his crypticality (is that a word?)

There is no way Hades is the unnamed God. During the period that he is in Las Vegas he is looking for his female half. In the case of Hades it is Persephone. But in the myth of Hades Persephone is with him during Autumn and Winter. Since it is Autumn/Winter when Shadow sees him in Vegas it means that he can not be looking for Persephone since she is with him at that time. Therefore Shadow is talking to a different god than Hades.

Persephone wouldn't be with Hades if she had died or "taken herself out of the picture" because she had been forgotten. If all was well with Persephone, Hades would have no need to look for her in the summer, either. She would be with her mother and and he would know she would be returning to him come winter.

Do we know that this "forgettable god" was indeed searching for his lost consort? The book actually gives no indication as to the nature his relationship with this woman who hasn't been seen for 200 years. She could be his enemy. We don't know what he said about her, only Wednesday's response.

Oh WOW
Is this question still open?
It must have been answered so many times by now!

Read the Mike Carey Lucifer series - you will see who the money loving desert loving unknown god is near the end ( in the Jill Presto arc)

The answer is already on this forum btw

Ta ta all

i thought the god was the god of greed+gambling and that everyone forgot b/c of the phrase " what happens in vegas stays in vegas" and that people didn't want to remember the lust and greed thay had felt so thay didn't remember him.