Mythology, Folk Tales And Ancient Religions From Around The World

[KRYPTON INC.]

Origin stories... Powerful heroes... Merciless villains... Grand battles... Heartbreaking torment... Uplifting triumph... Tales of morality...


Am I talking about super heroes? Nope. I'm talking about the ancient gods, heroes, monsters, saints and various other personages found in the mythology, folk tales and ancient religions of the world. Today the world is pretty much dominated by the three Abrahamic religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, but over the course of human history we have, all cultures and peoples, indulged in other beliefs and stories, so many of which still echo in some form or another today. Went to see a Marvel film featuring a character named after a Norse deity? Ever used the word "Herculean"? Usher in the atomic age with a reference to the god of destruction? (Looking at you Oppenheimer!) Well... Your'e keeping these ancient narratives alive when you do.


These stories have had enormous influence on the real world but also have been tapped by the modern world for the purpose of entertainment directly or been the inspiration for many well known characters from super hero comics. Look at this sketch by Superman co-creator Joe Schuster:

"A GENIUS IN INTELLECT! A HERCULES IN STRENGTH! A NEMESIS TO WRONGDOERS!"


Quite clearly the modern super hero stands on the shoulders of the titans of man's imagination from the distant past. So seeing how important these cultural heirlooms have been and continue to be and their continued importance in inspiring so many characters and stories that appeal to the genre fan set here is a thread to have discussions on the various myths, folk tales and ancient religions from all over the globe.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Always thought Odin was better than to have an affair with his daughter in law.

Nothing is more screwed up than Greek mythology; Zeus is the biggest serial rapist, and the grandson and great grandson at once of the mother who had sex with her son.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Always thought Odin was better than to have an affair with his daughter in law.

Nothing is more screwed up than Greek mythology; Zeus is the biggest serial rapist, and the grandson and great grandson at once of the mother who had sex with her son.

Eh... Odin was cool beans with Loki (Not an adopted son in the original myths if I remember right) making himself into a female horse and then birthing out a multi legged horse later that he ended up keeping. I mean... compared to that how bad is an affair between in-laws?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Eh... Odin was cool beans with Loki (Not an adopted son in the original myths if I remember right) making himself into a female horse and then birthing out a multi legged horse later that he ended up keeping. I mean... compared to that how bad is an affair between in-laws?

How can a frost giant do all that? :

Whoa, Laufy is the mother. I shouldn't have trusted Marvel on this one small bit of giving that name to Loki's dad.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

One of my favorite books of the last twenty years is CRYPTONOMINCON by the author Neal Stephenson. I won't spoil the book too much, it's a good read with twists and turns and a world traveling story that includes the code breakers of the second world war, Libertarian politics, conspiracies and lost gold.

As part of the story eventually our nominal protagonist ends up locked in a cell next to another, a "priest" named Enoch Root. Root explains his world view during this section and essentially divides the world between worshippers of Ares and worshippers of Athena, and does a damn good job explaining the fact that Ares was the god of war and yet... Athena was also a war goddess as well? Why the overlap? What distinctions are there between the two? Root lays it out and it's always really made me think. Root's big point was that these myths are of course, not real or based really on actual events as they describe them anyway. But... They are a mirror into the human mind. The "gods" of the old myths are representations of real human experience but not actual events, so as such they are less about explaining the physical world and more about the inner process of human thinking and dreaming. I share it with you all now and hope some go out and read the book.

Spoiler

Instead of calling Athena the goddess of war, wisdom, and macrame, then, we should say war and technology. And here again we have the problem of an overlap with the jurisdiction of Ares, who's supposed to be the god of war. And let's just say that Ares is a complete *******. His personal aides are Fear and Terror and sometimes Strife. He is constantly at odds with Athena even though--maybe because--they are nominally the god and goddess of the same thing--war. Heracles, who is one of Athena's human proteges, physically wounds Ares on two occasions, and even strips him of his weapons at one point! You see the fascinating thing about Ares is that he's completely incompetent. He's chained up by a couple of giants and imprisoned in a bronze vessel for thirteen months. He's wounded by one of Odysseus's drinking buddies during the Iliad. Athena knocks him out with a rock at one point. When he's not making a complete idiot of himself in battle, he's screwing every human female he can get his hands on, and--get this--his sons are all what we would today call serial killers. And so it seems very clear to me that Ares really was a god of war as such an entity would be recognized by people who were involved in wars all the time, and had a really clear idea of just how stupid and ugly wars are.

Whereas Athena is famous for being the backer of Odysseus, who, let's not forget, is the guy who comes up with the idea for the Trojan Horse. Athena guides both Odysseus and Heracles through their struggles, and although both of these guys are excellent fighters, they win most of their battles through cunning or (less pejoratively) metis. And although both of them engage in violence pretty freely (Odysseus likes to call himself 'sacker of cities') it's clear that they are being held up in opposition to the kind of mindless, raging violence associated with Ares and his offspring--Heracles even personally rids the world of a few of Ares's psychopathic sons. I mean, the records aren't totally clear--it's not like you can go to the Thebes County Courthouse and look up the death certificates on these guys--but it appears that Heracles, backed up by Athena all the way, personally murders at least half of the Hannibal Lecterish offspring of Ares.

So insofar as Athena is a goddess of war, what really do we mean by that? Note that her most famous weapon is not her sword but her shield Aegis, and Aegis has a gorgon's head on it, so that anyone who attacks her is in serious danger of being turned to stone. She's always described as being calm and majestic, neither of which adjectives anyone ever applied to Ares....

Let's face it, Randy, we've all known guys like Ares. The pattern of human behavior that caused the internal mental representation known as Ares to appear in the minds of the ancient Greeks is very much with us today, in the form of terrorists, serial killers, riots, pogroms, and agressive tinhorn dictators who turn out to be military incompetents. And yet for all their stupidity and incompetence, people like that can conquer and control large chunks of the world if they are not resisted....

Who is going to fight them off, Randy?

Sometimes it might be other Ares-worshippers, as when Iran and Iraq went to war and no one cared who won. But if Ares-worshippers aren't going to end up running the whole world, someone needs to do violence to them. This isn't very nice, but it's a fact: civilization requires an Aegis. And the only way to fight the bastards off in the end is through intelligence. Cunning. Metis.

Athena of course famously springs forth from the brow of Zeus after Zeus eats the Titaness Metis which was also another way of saying "cunning/craftiness". So Zeus eats this Titaness and later on feels sick. He gets Hephaestus to perform some early surgery and out, fully formed, springs Athena. Athena is thus... Divine wisdom. Wisdom which can be applied to all sorts of endeavors but in the ancient world of the classic Greeks would mean not just searching for knowledge or the sciences, but also battle, diplomacy and war. But it's a war that is ruled by the head, not the passions of emotion. Ares represents the low, animal like nature of violence and war. If we follow the myths the way to stop the march of violence isn't to simply match strength for strength, fire with fire so to speak. No... those things are important when confronting or containing the "Ares" faction of humanity, but ultimately the only way to deal with, and defeat Ares and his ilk is... Divine Metis. Cunning. Knowledge. Or in other words, that thing which is above our swirling internal emotions, but is also beyond dry and contextless facts or evidence.


Wisdom.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

How can a frost giant do all that? :

Whoa, Laufy is the mother. I shouldn't have trusted Marvel on this one small bit of giving that name to Loki's dad.

I'm trying to remember if Loki in some of the old myths had inborn shape changing ability, or if he used magical items? I know he sometimes used a "falcon's skin" to turn into a bird, but then there are other stories of him turning into a fish and other animals while trying to escape the wrath of other gods.

Then there's the strange case of when Loki, Thor and two mortals end up meeting a much more sinister character named Utgarda-Loki, which means the "Loki of the giants" I think. Essentially it's like Thor and Loki meet an alternate version of Loki and yet... There's something about the story and the way Loki eventually turns more sinister and "satanic" as the stories go on that always makes me think there's something to Utgarda-Loki possibly in that story being Loki himself somehow.

 

[Greens]

Always thought Odin was better than to have an affair with his daughter in law.

Nothing is more screwed up than Greek mythology; Zeus is the biggest serial rapist, and the grandson and great grandson at once of the mother who had sex with her son.

There has to be some sexual depravity in there. The Abrahamic religions don't shy away from that either.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

There has to be some sexual depravity in there. The Abrahamic religions don't shy away from that either.

True enough but c'mon... The pagans just do that so much better.

Sure... Lots of explicit or implied incest and rape in the Old Testament but is there anything to match all the shape changing, animal bonking and transcendental humping that goes on in all the other myths and religions? Compare Lot getting drunk with Zeus transforming to an explosion of golden light to make love to a mortal.


Then there's just the real world facts of "temple prostitutes" and priestesses that would copulate in front of worshippers... Yeah, the pagans are just kinkier when it's all said and done. t:

 

[Spider-Aziz]

......

I'm sticking to discussing those beings in the opening post before I turn this to another general religion discussion thread.


'Impregnated via Tainted Lettuce' is a special kind of head spinner.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

The ancient Egyptian mythology is wild. Isis searching for Osiris' body, the transformation to Horus etc.


Interestingly the idea of one all powerful god may have started with the Egyptians but was over turned culturally after a ruler tried to impose it on the country.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Crash Course has a very thorough series on ancient myths on YouTube.

Netflix has a series called Myths and Monsters. It's very dry but also really good.

The former talks about ancient myths from everywhere. The latter has been mainly European stuff but I'm only on season one.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Crash Course has a very thorough series on ancient myths on YouTube.

Netflix has a series called Myths and Monsters. It's very dry but also really good.

The former talks about ancient myths from everywhere. The latter has been mainly European stuff but I'm only on season one.

History channel had some good stuff on the pantheons of Greece, Rome and the Norse about ten years back.

There's not enough docs on the gods of the Subsaharan Africa, Asian or the Native American spiritual beliefs.

Some of Asia's folk tales though have made their way to Western culture and most people wouldn't even realize it. Cinderella is actually from the Asian continent and might have it's origins in ancient China.

 

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[chaseter]

Only Japan thinks up a monster with an eyeball in his butthole.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Spoiler

And now I remembered The Rock summing this up in a song.

 

[Silvermoth]

Yaaaaas shout out to anasi!

 

[KRYPTON INC.]