Don't vikings worship spam? hmmm.....

Yeah I actually enjoy mythology a lot ....pretty much any of it is good in my book....I'm not much of a student of it though ......

Norse mythology is probably my favorite. I like Viking Ideology. Gigantic warriors with magic weapons for Gods? how can you go wrong?

Good?....Bad?......I'm the guy with the gun.

When I was a kid I was fascinated by Greek Mythology...probably fuelled by all of the old Argonauts movies etc....but I haven't read much on it in least a decade. Fascinating though.

I'm not too fussed about roman mythology, but I am very interested in roman history....I was lucky enough to visit pompei and vesuvius a few years ago and its an experience I will never forget.

Greek mythology! WOW! I was Zeus in a play once!

I've always held a passing interest in mythology, norse, roman and greek have always been my favourites, but I tend to muddle them up a lot. I should really pick up a book on the topic, but Im still halfway through a book on Stalingrad and one on the Knights Templar, so I don't think I want to jam another on the list just yet.

i tried reading homers illiad once, got halfway through it

Mustang - Knights Templar? I remember them from the good old days at Uni. Which book are you referring to? Mixing up Roman and Greek is understandable, as the Romans stole the gods from the Greeks and game them different names. Those Romans, didn't have one original thought of their own...

DL - Spam? I've got my eye on you...

Edit: The Illiad is quite difficult to wade through, but the Odyssey is much better. It is nowhere near as abstruse as the Illiad.

Esquilax

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And now for something completely different...

Edited by - esquilax on 1/7/2004 2:18:29 AM

I must admit i do find mythology quite interesting, I like Greek and Roman
Mythology. But I amd most fond of Maori Mythology, its also the one
I know the most about. (gotta thank my grandfather.)

Edit: The Maori poeple are the native people of New Zealand.

Edited by - dark_reaper on 1/7/2004 2:30:41 AM

The Iliad is diffcult because there's no provenance of authorship, for all we know it's a collection of oral tales which it probably is. Compare it with the Aeneid which we know who wrote it, when it was written, and what it was written for (Roman propaganda) but I agree with you that the Odyssey is a better read than the Iliad.

I first got into mythology when I was 5, my mum got me this Tales of the Greeks and Romans clouring book. After soaking up Greeks and Romans, and it was the heroes of the Roman Republic that appealed to me more than Greek demi-gods, i moved onto Norse and Germanic myth. Then I read the Silmarillion )at 12 so i understood s*d all of it) then for a period got into all that dragon and fantasy cr*p in me teens. Years later when I was at uni I studied Neo-Platonism amongst other things so came back to mythology that way.

Then I got interested in Kabbalism and Jewish myth, and from there the traditions of the Middle-East, the legends of Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia and Persia, and this when I started to go whoa! i recognise this stuff! for I had seen the common origins of our modern religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. From then on I became more interested in the cross-fertilisation of myth and the transmission of ideas through symbols, and in recent years I've worked Celtic myth into this framework.

I;ve tried Indian and Chinese legends but find them grossly complex and tbh they don't float my boat even though they're often very beautiful and exciting. I'll sit and read/watch Japanese myth and legend though, that's usually got a bit of grit in it.

btw I love Westerns, some modern myth for you!

dark_reaper - Dang! That's one mythology I can't comment on. Not that many books about it. Could you provide some basic information? Eg. Gods, beliefs, etc?

What about Aztec Mythology? If you are into human sacrifice, it's just your thing!

Egyptian is good too. Though when you think about it, they worshipped the sun (Ra), imaginative people, eh?

Edit: You've been all over the place, Taw! Japanese is quite interesting, but it doesn't feel as "classical" as Greek or Roman.

Esquilax

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And now for something completely different...

Edited by - esquilax on 1/7/2004 2:44:37 AM

Y'know I never really considered Egyptian religion as mythology but I guess it is. Well I'm more knowlegable about ancient egyptian gods and customs than I am anything else, I've had a phasing interest in Egypt for as long as I can remember.

@Esquilax: The book is "The Templars" by Piers Paul Ried, it's actually pretty interesting read for a history book. Most history authors go out of their way to make it as uninteresting as possible, but this Paul Ried fellow isn't a half bad writer.

actually i find Solar worship quite appealling. You don't worship the Sun because its a big glowy ball in the sky, it's a symbol of the Unity of the Divine, the One. popular misconception - ancient pantheons may have had distinct worship for individual gods for the masses, but the elite were well aware of monotheism - the plytheism essentially provided different "aspects" of the One. in some cases the One, the single all-encompassing God of creation was directly worshipped, but usually through an Avatar such as Mithra/Helios/Phoebus/Sol Invictus. if you know something about Celtic religion esp as regards the mysteries of the Bards then you should know this, that above the Favourite is Skyfather and above Skyfather is the One. there's also the female Trinity, the Maid, the Bride, and the Mother also known as the Virgin, the Mistress of Beasts, and the Hag. but enough of that.

Myself I'm incredibly drawn to Mithra. Do you know this has survived? Zoroastrianism is still a living religion in Iran despite the proselytising of Islam over the last 1500yrs, there are still "fire-worshippers" in Media and Azerbaijan and amongst the Parsees of India (from Persian) and Zoroastrian temples around the world, i know there's one on London and one in NYC. of course they don't worship fire itself, it's a symbol of the light of Mithra. Do Christians worship the cross? of course not, they worship what it symbolises. Mithraism is all about light conquering darkness, truth conquering lies, through the agency of Mithra who conquered the ultimate darkness, death. Sound familiar? it should do, where do you think the Christians ripped most of their ideas from? Oh yeah the Trinity's Mithraic too; Mithra, Ahura-Mazda, Ormuzd.

my other favourite is Ishtar/Astarte

ever come across any islamic legend? that's fearsome stuff, all the stories of the Djinni and the desert winds that scour flesh and soul, and the fall of Iblis.

I think watching too much Stargate has warped my knowledge of Egyptian mythology!

interesting.. i know a girl in my ex school who's got a strong background knowledge in these mythology things......

we did leda and the swan in english classs for poem analysis... seriously twisted mind .. that zeus guy.. then again.. if you're the god of gods... you really can't go too far wrong

as for me... all i know about mythology are the following:
the guy who flew across the ocean with his son.. but his son was too dumb and that dude died..i think that guy built the huge maze forgot the name.. but it was on crete right..off egypt? italy ? forgot.. .. with the minotour in it (half cow half man ?)

then, i know the horse thing.. um... trojan horse... i think it was a fight over some babe... they hid in the horse's guts and then got brought into the city and at night they broke hell loose..

hm.. then what else is there... oh.. hercules? was he the guy who killed the snake head woman ? who turns anyone who looks at her into stone ? he killed her by using a mirrored shield and a long sword? chopped her head off, got the babe.. got out, got outnumbered by some politician's men that wanted him dead.. killed them all by bringing out the snake head, but told the babe to close her eyes, but she opened them.. and she got turned into stone..

what else was hercules good with ? cept an overload of muscle fibres?

anyways.. going to asia, ther's the too-well known myth about the weird monkey that got born out of an egg that dropped from the moon i think.. his 'kung - fu' was exceptional, didn't ever loose.. and he could do tricks with his hair. i'm suprised he didn't go bald. and he had this rod thing that could shrink to fit in various parts of his body, or enlarge so much that it reached the heavens..

in korea, ther's a myth about a bear and a tiger.(moral = patience ) the tiger and bear wanna become humans.. this diety thing tells them they have to live in a cave for a long time (forgot exact period), living only on garlic and something else. eventually, tiger gave up...( i think it was the bear's breath that did it ) but bear was patient and turned into a babe and married some guy and lived happily ever after. (i think bear maried the diety)

i know j****sh** about vikings, cept their loong boats lined with circulr shields, and a huge rectangular sail on top. ?flying dutchman? a cheat in AoE1... i know that has something to do with a myth.. just dono what.. someone tell me what that was.

i was, when i was at school interested in ancient greece and its mythology, but that is something i havent continued over the years
no doubt ill go back to it someday though