• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

The Mythology Thread

I have no idea if anyone will want to post here. More likely it'll just fade into oblivion, but I thought I might as well.

As the title implies, here is the place to discuss mythology, favourite myths, favourite characters, inspirations for stories, and all of that good stuff.

I'll start this off by giving a little list of my favourite myths, in no particular order: the tale of Izanami and Izanagi, Amaterasu in the Cave, Icarus' Flight, the tale of Orpheus, the tale of Narcissus, anything involving the primordial Greek gods and the Titans, anything involving Shiva, anything to do with underworlds and afterlives, the Swan Children, the Dream of Aengus, anything involving Loki, and pretty much any Japanese tale about youkai and kami.
 
well it depends the way i see it you go write or rewrite mytholgy in any way look at the film o brother where out thou? which is modern interpretation the odyssey
 

DFWriterX

Dreamer
I really like reading books about fictional Greek mythology and half of the deities in it star in my stories but with my own spin. I also like to mix and match Greek mythology with Norse Mythologies for example I'm Currently writing a series based on Hecate - Goddess of Witchcraft but in my story she has a dark twin sister who created vampires and werewolves from a race of humanoids called the Tuatha De Danann AKA the Sidhe or Fae from the Norse myths and legends . *nervous laughter*
 

Chessie2

Staff
Article Team
I've really been into werewolf mythos lately and came across a Roman story where a man went to see his mistress at night and brought along his soldier. The soldier disappeared on the walk (it was a full moon)and when the man arrived at his girlfriend's house, he discovered that the woman's father had been attacked and killed by a werewolf. The man saw the beast and stabbed him in the neck with his sword. The next day, the man went to the barracks and saw his soldier bleeding to death from a sword wound to his neck. Pretty awesome if you ask me, lol.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Just sayin...If I am going to go see my mistress, I am not bringing along my soldier.

Always interesting to me how these things, in this case werewolves, have an evolutionary history that just seems to keep going back further and further into ancient cultures. I saw a documentary once that suggested Griffons (I think it was griffons) were possibly conceptualized by travelers on the silk road, as dinosaur bones (not understood to be dinosaurs), were out in plain sight, and the bones had slid over time that some of them appeared to be wings on a lion like creature. Pretty cool. I can see how by the time that became a greek myth, other culture would have imagined their own creatures from them.
 

DFWriterX

Dreamer
The Tuatha Dé Danann are from Irish or Celtic myths, not the Norse.

Awww, I was thinking that the Irish/Celtics were part of Norse mythology. If you had asked me yesterday where I thought Norse myths came from, I'd have said Ireland lol
 

Insolent Lad

Maester
I've been going back lately and looking into the Proto-Indo-European pantheon (as best it can be reconstructed) from which much of our Norse/Germanic, Celtic, Greek, Roman, Hindu, etc. etc. ultimately derives. The archetypes of the various gods we know and how they have changed over the millennia is fascinating—and a source of all sorts of ideas.
 
Top