21 replies to this topic

[Megumi Hayashibara]

Whether its Percy Jackson updating timeless tales, essays, translations of ancient texts, gods, monsters, lets discuss the "old-school" ways of thinking. (I think the old ways have their own good points and draw backs)

To start, I always liked Hel (Norse) since I heard of her since, she was a female Death, a dual body (referring to how she's half lively-half rotting corpse) and the reason we have the word Hell.

I have a translation of the Norse tale where Sigfried (Sigmund?) killed Fafnir from JRR Tolkein, love it!

Many of my friends like Perseus in Greek tales.

The Egyptian idea of there once being only 360 days in a year due to 360 degrees in a circle was mind-blowing to learn to say the least.

[Wolfy]

I never really got into it much, but when I was at the peak of my crazy wolf obsession, I read stories about Fenrir/Fenris. Even made a whole metal song around it! I thought it was pretty intense through and through, but that aside, I guess I learned a few of the other characters of the mythology along the way. Hel, Skoll, Hati, for example, as well as key objects and places.

Other than that, I guess I just know what I consider normal anyways. Odin, Anubis, Zeus, etc. This, or anything God of War has taught me *shot*

[Megumi Hayashibara]

I never really got into it much, but when I was at the peak of my crazy wolf obsession, I read stories about Fenrir/Fenris. Even made a whole metal song around it! I thought it was pretty intense through and through, but that aside, I guess I learned a few of the other characters of the mythology along the way. Hel, Skoll, Hati, for example, as well as key objects and places.

Other than that, I guess I just know what I consider normal anyways. Odin, Anubis, Zeus, etc. This, or anything God of War has taught me *shot*

GoW is pretty close in many regards.

[Cola]

I love Mythology.

I haven't read into it much though, most 'cause I'm lazy. Hopefully the mythology unit later this year will kickstart my interest again

[Crow the BOOLET]

Someone made a mythology topic without calling me!?

I love mythology especially Greek and Norse mythology. I could ramble on about it but I'll talk more when I'm not busy or when I figure what to talk about.

Ps. The Sandman has mythology from all over in it and its pretty accurate. And it even brings fictional set of personifications to the table.

[VEDJ-F]

Mythology...meh. Not my cup of tea to be honest. It's basically ye olde religious stories (because it WAS a religion once upon a time), and I don't really care for which God controls what or how their judgement system works or stuff.

[Lemanic]

Tell me about it. I'm surrounded by it 24/7. The Norse mythology is what makes Scandinavia so special. We still got our pagan traditions, but with a thin crust of christianity on top of it. Just to make sure we're accepted around the world.

Edited by Lemanic the Teufhog, 26 April 2012 - 07:16 AM.

[Wolfy]

The hell was I on when I posted before hand, I didn't even mention werewolves!

I guess I was thinking so much on specific beliefs for a culture like "Norse" and "Greek" that I over looked the littler stuff, like werewolves, <3. If I'm into anything mythological, it's probably this the most. The crazy folk tales of werewolves, the insane ways of disposing of them, stupid ways that people believed to become one, the list goes on really. Just a fact that comes to mind that always interested me was that the "silver kills werewolves" idea actually didn't even come into play until the Wolfman movie in 1942, which is pretty late considering how far this myth goes back.

Werewolves just kinda stick as the front man, but just wereanimals in general has always been an interesting concept to me. The idea that humans have always wanted to become much more than themselves and use the life around them to feed these ideas just blows my mind.

[Patticus]

I love ancient cultures, but not so much their mythologies. I prefer actual events, societies, technologies and such to fairy-tales, myself, but mythologies can be quite fascinating. I watched a BBC documentary about the real-world origins of Greek mythology last year sometime and that was really interesting. I really enjoyed finding out about the way, as the Greeks traveled and colonized distant shores of the Mediterranean Sea, they incorporated elements of the local myths, legends and religions they came across into their own religious world. They weren't fixed or rigid in their beliefs, they were open to incorporating all manner of new and distinctly foreign beliefs, myths and deities into their spiritual world.

I love stuff like that.

[BW199148]

I would actually believe in Mythology more than current Religions they seem more exciting!

[American Ristar]

As an atheist I take issue with the term mythology. I wonder if anyone else does too. It says that just because a religion is dead, it is completely myth and not fact, while other surviving religions are still viable, and so never called myth.

So I'll gladly say I'm a fan of biblical mythology.

Particularly Jewish, early Christian, and Samaritan mythology. Maybe because it's closer to home for me.

Did you know in Jewish mythology, that Adam had a first wife named Lilit (Lilith)? Instead of coming from a rib, she was created from dust like him to be equal, but she was perfect and arrogant, and her desire to dominate Adam was considered wicked? She was exiled from the Garden of Eden and her children became the demons of the world.

Adam was also considered to be more of a demi-god than a mere man. He was intended to live forever, he was a towering giant, and was covered in a skin like fingernails. The anime Evangelion pulls on this kind of stuff.

Adam is said to have mourned for the end of the world, when the days became shorter in winter time.

Kaballah also believes there are angels attached to both natural and man-made things in the world, like the wind, or even wine, holding things up like the gears of the world. Refuuel (Raphael) was the angel of healing for example. I believe this kind of belief in spirits is central to Voodoo as well, and centers mainly on how to gain favor with them. Satan in this mythology is considered the angel of temptation and is just as natural as any other worldly process, and he works for god according to this belief, because evil is a product of the world.

I enjoy the study of angels and creation mythology I guess. It's so freakin' strange you could write anime plots on it or design video game characters with (Megami Tensei games). Maybe these things come from Japan because the West is too tired of struggling with them as fact to realize there are damn good stories in our own mythology. What is it anthropologists try to do, like step outside the culture to try and witness it as an outsider? Apocrypha is awesome.

Can I get a witness.

(Can I say I think I also have a hard on for Babylonian mythology, but I haven't read much yet.)

Edited by Badnikz, 28 April 2012 - 01:40 AM.

[Phos]

As an atheist I take issue with the term mythology. I wonder if anyone else does too. It says that just because a religion is dead, it is completely myth and not fact, while other surviving religions are still viable, and so never called myth.

This has to do with why I have a Thrones angle as an avatar.

[Metal Gear (sting)RAY]

I'm particularly interested in polytheistic religions, because its interesting to see how cultural values are represented as gods. Egypt, for instance, has gods for concepts like flooding and moisture. To the world at large, these are odd concepts to have deities dedicated to, but Egyptians, who live in a desert and can only see the Nile as the crux of life, its annual flooding plays an important role in their faith.

Some of the myths themselves are pretty interesting, especially in archaic religions like that. I especially like really weird ones like, again from Egyptian mythology, when Horus and Set were fighting for control of Egypt and Horus won by tricking Set into eating his semen by spreading it on his lettuce. Not the craziest story out of any single religion, to be sure, but seriously.

[Sega DogTagz]

Mythology is a pretty important part of the Social Sciences, so I’ve done more than my fair share of digging into Greek and Roman lure as part of my schooling. Myths are always interesting, because more often than not, they represent the origin stories of a cultures belief system and represent the creation of morals and values that guide civilization even up to today. Fascinating stuff.

Taking a look back, I did learn quite a bit. If I were to tab a personal favorite, then I guess the stories of the Argonaughts and the various Demi-Gods that roamed the planet are all interesting in their own way.


GoW certainly jacked up quite a bit of what I remember though. I swear, I was sitting down to take a test on Greek myth one semester and I swear the first thing that popped up in my head for every question was “Kratos killed that guy”.


did you guys know there actually is a Kratos in Greek Mythology?

Edited by Sega DogTagz, 30 April 2012 - 11:24 AM.

[Megumi Hayashibara]

I'm particularly interested in polytheistic religions, because its interesting to see how cultural values are represented as gods. Egypt, for instance, has gods for concepts like flooding and moisture. To the world at large, these are odd concepts to have deities dedicated to, but Egyptians, who live in a desert and can only see the Nile as the crux of life, its annual flooding plays an important role in their faith.

Some of the myths themselves are pretty interesting, especially in archaic religions like that. I especially like really weird ones like, again from Egyptian mythology, when Horus and Set were fighting for control of Egypt and Horus won by tricking Set into eating his semen by spreading it on his lettuce. Not the craziest story out of any single religion, to be sure, but seriously.

Set? Ironically, while reading Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid, I felt a little creeped from how it was worded, then later I researched for a while and found that indeed, I share a birthday with him. So in a way, I feel very mixed about my link to Set. I mean in a way, Set IS Claudius from Shakespeare's Hamlet and Scar from The Lion King, though I know he wasn't all bad. Even more ironically, my favorite color used to be red and I once despised my older brother.

As an atheist I take issue with the term mythology. I wonder if anyone else does too. It says that just because a religion is dead, it is completely myth and not fact, while other surviving religions are still viable, and so never called myth.

So I'll gladly say I'm a fan of biblical mythology.

Particularly Jewish, early Christian, and Samaritan mythology. Maybe because it's closer to home for me.

Did you know in Jewish mythology, that Adam had a first wife named Lilit (Lilith)? Instead of coming from a rib, she was created from dust like him to be equal, but she was perfect and arrogant, and her desire to dominate Adam was considered wicked? She was exiled from the Garden of Eden and her children became the demons of the world.

Adam was also considered to be more of a demi-god than a mere man. He was intended to live forever, he was a towering giant, and was covered in a skin like fingernails. The anime Evangelion pulls on this kind of stuff.

Adam is said to have mourned for the end of the world, when the days became shorter in winter time.

Kaballah also believes there are angels attached to both natural and man-made things in the world, like the wind, or even wine, holding things up like the gears of the world. Refuuel (Raphael) was the angel of healing for example. I believe this kind of belief in spirits is central to Voodoo as well, and centers mainly on how to gain favor with them. Satan in this mythology is considered the angel of temptation and is just as natural as any other worldly process, and he works for god according to this belief, because evil is a product of the world.

I enjoy the study of angels and creation mythology I guess. It's so freakin' strange you could write anime plots on it or design video game characters with (Megami Tensei games). Maybe these things come from Japan because the West is too tired of struggling with them as fact to realize there are damn good stories in our own mythology. What is it anthropologists try to do, like step outside the culture to try and witness it as an outsider? Apocrypha is awesome.

Can I get a witness.

(Can I say I think I also have a hard on for Babylonian mythology, but I haven't read much yet.)

I see your point, the way I see it Atheism, Monotheism and Polytheism all have their ups and downs. I never saw Evangelion, as my research tells me that there's A LOT of killing of innocents, if its post-apocolyptic, I may not be able to watch it for the sake of my emotional stability, but if you can explain the main points of the story, I can at least give it some respect.

[Metal Gear (sting)RAY]

I see your point, the way I see it Atheism, Monotheism and Polytheism all have their ups and downs. I never saw Evangelion, as my research tells me that there's A LOT of killing of innocents, if its post-apocolyptic, I may not be able to watch it for the sake of my emotional stability, but if you can explain the main points of the story, I can at least give it some respect.

To my memory, innocents aren't really seen being killed, it's more like they're... assimilated. It's difficult to explain, but either way, the Christian symbolism doesn't really mean anything intentionally- the creators didn't know it would be released in America and Christianity isn't big in Japan so they chose a mythology that no one really knows about to make it seem cryptic and mysterious.

[Megumi Hayashibara]

To my memory, innocents aren't really seen being killed, it's more like they're... assimilated. It's difficult to explain, but either way, the Christian symbolism doesn't really mean anything intentionally- the creators didn't know it would be released in America and Christianity isn't big in Japan so they chose a mythology that no one really knows about to make it seem cryptic and mysterious.

My biggest concern is the murder or physical abuse of children up 12 (some exceptions if they look older), that sets me off in a nasty, internal manner, thus from what I read, Black Butler would likely leave me in "bad memories" land for a few days straight.

Back on topic, I really was amazed by the manga of the series Matantei (Demon Detective)/Mythical Detective Loki series, Sakura Kinoshita's work got me into Norse legends.
Loki is given some positive attention as the main character while still referencing his adventures from the Germanic tales. The three monster children, Fenrir, Jormungandr and Hel all appear, as does their mother Angrboda. Fafnir, the dragon of greed killed by Sigurd made a guest appearance in the manga and the sword used to kill him originally AKA Gram was mentioned. There's so many clever updates to the gods, goddesses and some monsters it would take to long to explain them all. I think of Matantei Loki as a comic/manga predecessor of Rick Riordan's books since they are mostly accurate.

[Tailikku]

I've pretty much been into mythology ever since I took a look at my dad's old Advanced D&D Monster Manual. And then Hercules came out and then I really loved the classical myths. That only got better when I checked a book out at my elementary school library containing exactly what was said on the cover "Gods, Goddesses, and Monsters." This was also where I learned about the nine worlds of Norse Mythology, the many dieties protecting Polynesia, and of the Taoist creation myth of Pan-Ku and yin-yang. And then of course, I played Final Fantasy which is loaded with mythological references (Odin(Norse)/Raiden(Japanese), Sephiroth (Hebrew), Shiva (Indian), the Eidolons (Greek), and GILGAMESH (Mesopotamian)) and took a course in Japanese during High School, where the Shinto myths were also part of the curriculum (namely Izanagi and Izanami creating the world, Nami burning her anus and dying, Nagi going to bring her out of the netherworld, and the birth of Susano (who later killed Yamata-no-Orochi), Tsukiyomi, and Amaterasu-ōmikami-san (who we all know and love even if she is a wolf).)

[Megumi Hayashibara]

I've pretty much been into mythology ever since I took a look at my dad's old Advanced D&D Monster Manual. And then Hercules came out and then I really loved the classical myths. That only got better when I checked a book out at my elementary school library containing exactly what was said on the cover "Gods, Goddesses, and Monsters." This was also where I learned about the nine worlds of Norse Mythology, the many dieties protecting Polynesia, and of the Taoist creation myth of Pan-Ku and yin-yang. And then of course, I played Final Fantasy which is loaded with mythological references (Odin(Norse)/Raiden(Japanese), Sephiroth (Hebrew), Shiva (Indian), the Eidolons (Greek), and GILGAMESH (Mesopotamian)) and took a course in Japanese during High School, where the Shinto myths were also part of the curriculum (namely Izanagi and Izanami creating the world, Nami burning her anus and dying, Nagi going to bring her out of the netherworld, and the birth of Susano (who later killed Yamata-no-Orochi), Tsukiyomi, and Amaterasu-ōmikami-san (who we all know and love even if she is a wolf).)

Sephiroth was a mythology reference? Hot dang, that's a new one to me, where can I find info his mythical counterpart? (I tend to be very busy)

[Metal Gear (sting)RAY]

Sephiroth was a mythology reference? Hot dang, that's a new one to me, where can I find info his mythical counterpart? (I tend to be very busy)

It's not a person; it's an aspect of the Jewish faith- the sephirot are characteristics of God- virtues, often mapped to a heirarchy of relative divinity. It actually appears at the very beginning of Evangelion's theme song.

Really, the old testament is tapped alot in gaming. El Shaddai and Shadow of the Colossus are the first to come to mind, though.

Edited by SuperStingray, 30 April 2012 - 01:20 PM.