Olympus: Correcting the power dynamic of code (2024)

Olympus is an esoteric programming language that reverses the usual power relationship between programmer and machine by forcing code to read as ritualized pleas to capricious gods. Inspired by INTERCAL’s humanized interpreter, it requires elaborate epithets and supplication to invoke language constructs: calling on Zeus to declare functions, Ariadne for branching, Mnemosyne to create variables, Artemis to set up loops, Hermes for calls, and Hades for garbage collection. The syntax is formalized in a PEG (Peggy.JS) grammar that scores praise and enforces limits - too little flattery or repeated botherings can cause a god to ignore requests - so programs are written as natural-language prayers whose wording and order matter. The runtime accepts out-of-order descriptions (declare now, fill in later) and treats the textual pleas as the executable program rather than mere comments or prompts.

A complete example implements “99 bottles of beer” entirely through divine invocations, demonstrating how functions, conditions, loops, and cleanup map to mythic actors. Olympus predates widespread LLM use but anticipates a world where natural-language program descriptions are primary; unlike disposable prompt text for AI, the prayers are the preserved, executable artifact. Introduced at !!Con 2024 and hosted on GitHub, Olympus is both a playful critique of command-centric code and a concrete language design that foregrounds social dynamics between human intent and interpreter behavior.