Mythodea — Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey is a choral symphony[1] by Greek electronic composer and artist Vangelis.

It was first recorded and then played live on-stage by: Vangelis on synthesizers and keyboards, the London Metropolitan Orchestra augmented by two harpists, sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman, the chorus of the Greek National Opera, and, for the concert only, the Seistron and Typana percussion ensembles.

[4] The world premiere of Mythodia (original spelling) took place on July 13, 1993 as a public performance at the Herodes Atticus Theater, in Athens, Greece, for charity purposes.

On stage were: Vangelis, who provided the full musical score accompanied by two harpists; mezzo-soprano Markella Hatziano, soprano Lucienne Deval, and the chorus and percussion of the Greek National Opera, conducted by Yvan Cassar.

[6] In a 2001 interview with KLEMblad magazine, Vangelis stated, For the encore, Vangelis played a selection of his repertoire, including "La Petite Fille de la Mer" (from the album L'Apocalypse des Animaux), "Chariots of Fire", "Pulstar" (from the album Albedo 0.39), three tracks from the soundtrack of the film Conquest of Paradise ("Hispañola", "City of Isabel" and "Conquest of Paradise"), and finished with a performance of the Greek national anthem.

"[3] With the approval of Vangelis to record Mythodea with a full orchestra as Gelb had suggested,[3] Sony Classical developed a marketing plan of Mythodea that with the help of Vangelis' friend and colleague, Dr. Scott Bolton, grew to include a promotional tie-in with NASA, a dedicated website, an audio CD and a live concert that involved the Greek Government and was broadcast on TV and published on video.

Vangelis described the connection he felt between the music and the mission on the 2001 Mars Odyssey official website: I made up the name Mythodea from the words myth and ode.

Whatever we use as a key — music, mythology, science, mathematics, astronomy — we are all working to decode the mystery of creation, searching for our deepest roots.

The setting was the ancient (6th century BC) Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece, featured on the album and video covers.

[15] The number of attending spectators to the ticket-paid event was between 2,000,[11] 2,500,[13] and 3,000[8] with another 30,000 people watching for free on a giant screen at the nearby Panathinaiko Stadium.

[16] Mars itself made a special appearance at the concert as an announcer told the spectators to look for an orange spot shining in the clear sky above the orchestra.

Instead, Vangelis was accompanied by the London Metropolitan Orchestra augmented with two harpists, sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman (both Sony Classical artists as well), and the Greek National Opera Choir and percussion ensemble.

The audio CD is CD-Text-enhanced, with the following header appearing on compatible players: Mythodea - Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey - Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Vangelis.

A one-hour condensed edit of the concert was made available for broadcast by TV stations and later released on video, cutting the intervals and leaving just the first encore, for a total running time of 76 minutes.

[25] The DVD featured PCM stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital sound, 16:9 non-anamorphic image, and had as extras: artist biographies, "Making of Mythodea", music video, an introduction by NASA, and written notes by Vangelis.