Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michel on April 9, 2012 at 10:28am

I'm partial to the tale of the disappearance of Atlantis.

Permalink Reply by Marianne on April 9, 2012 at 6:16pm

The story of Helen of Troy has always fascinated me; well anyway the mythological story I was told !(probably had some true facts behind...)

This is only one depiction of the Trojan horse....  Now his name holds many many meanings.... but originally he was instrumental in the Trojan War.

Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 10, 2012 at 11:41am

I have always loved all stories associated with Zeus, especially how he gave birth to Athena, and that she was born from his headache, and was born ready to fight! The ancient Greeks had fun mythology!

Permalink Reply by Marianne on April 10, 2012 at 9:55pm

I've always preferred greek mythology to roman mythology, don't really know why? maybe it's more circomvoluted ?

Permalink Reply by Jaume on April 11, 2012 at 8:41pm

Same here. I found the Romans too stern and serious.

Permalink Reply by Davy on April 12, 2012 at 9:07am

Roman mythology in some case were reincarnations of Greek Mythology. Names and stories  were changed to suit Roman tastes. 

Permalink Reply by Jaume on April 12, 2012 at 11:44am

Indeed, Rome used to make the deities of conquered places its own, and these often acquired the traits of former similar Roman deities in the process. But more often than not the new 'Romanized Greek' gods weren't even direct Greek imports (e.g., the most obvious case, Hercules/Herakles was borrowed from the Etruscans who themselves borrowed him from Greece, or who maybe shared it with Greece thru a proto-Herakles), so I'd probably use 'common inheritance' and 'syncretism' rather than 'reincarnation' here. Only the fact that when Rome started to expand, Greek cities had colonies and settlements all over the place, made the identification of Roman gods with Greek ones easier.

But this had happened for centuries before the Roman intellectual elite got enamoured with the Greek epic narrative and adopted it almost verbatim: these Greek-looking gods had already been an integral part of the pantheon for just as long, and at this point it was too late for them to be 'reincarnated' to suit to taste (assuming you mean something like a cut/paste operation here.)

Permalink Reply by Jaume on April 11, 2012 at 8:37pm

As soon as I could read and until my late teens, I used to devour everything I could lay my hands that was about ancient myths from every corner of the planet. With a focus on Egypt, Greece, the Celts, and a few others, mainly because the literature was more abundant. I always had a soft spot for Prometheus, and the Celt gods and heroes (there's something weird and uncanny about them I like, sometimes it's the whole narrative that's weird.)

Regarding the Epic Cycle: Hector was my hero while Achilles was my brother's. Yep, there was quite a bit of rivalry between us when we were kids.

Permalink Reply by Marianne on April 11, 2012 at 10:21pm

Did you get into the Norse mythology;  I'm afraid my knowledge about celts or norses gods and epic stories is somewhat scant !

Permalink Reply by Jaume on April 12, 2012 at 6:37am

Sure I did, and they're sometimes weird in their own way: e.g., who'd know that Thor was a transvestite, or Loki an animal rape victim? These Norse legends usually aren't as 'epic' (dignified) as people think.

Permalink Reply by Marianne on April 12, 2012 at 10:53pm

I read some about the norse gods and their stories. I must admit I was fascinated ! Very very different from the southern Europe and asian or north african ones.

I was surprised about the analogy between the story of  "The lord of the rings" and "The silmarillion" from Tolkien and this mythology.

I have much to research on the Norse mythology (pretty heavy duty mythology) and also the Celt one which I think are kind of close to each other...

Permalink Reply by Jaume on April 13, 2012 at 6:35am

The analogy is not so clear to me. Yes, Tolkien borrowed elements and plots from Northern European myths here and there (not only Norse, by the way: for instance, Tolkien's Turin owes as much to the Finnish Kullervo as he owes to Sigurd), yet the tone is very different: Tolkien is always solemn, pompous, dignified, there's not a bit of the fancifulness you see in the older myths here. And the pervasive manichaeism is also uncharacteristic of these myths: Sauron or Melkor are nothing else than reinterpretations of the contemporary Christian view of Satan. Tolkien was a devout Catholic and it shows. I find his mythology rather unidimensional and disappointing.

I have much to research on the Norse mythology (pretty heavy duty mythology) and also the Celt one which I think are kind of close to each other...

In my opinion, they're about as close to each other as the Greek and Egyptian ones are.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page