Your favorite myth

For me, it's not popular mythology so much as stories from the Bible. The Bible has a lot of good, timeless tales to pull from.

I've studied classical mythology seriously since high school. I have to go with my beloved Greeks and Romans. Because I fell in love with them first, it's taken me to Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, Nordic, Celtic, Native American, and Indian mythologies--along with Summerian and Mesopotamian. Every piece of speculative fiction I've ever written has some inspiration from mythology- from Asphodel, which is unabashedly based on the Breco-Roman pantheon and the Trojan War to Terella, which takes an ancient Summerian creation myth into a wholly new direction.

As for my favorite myth boy that's tough. Keeping with the Greeks, I'm going to have to say ...

*grin*

The myth of Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Ares from The Odyssey. Her husband Hephaestus catches her in bed with Ares and devises a trap for them. So he fashions a golden net that no one can escape from and hangs it over the bed. Then he waits. When Aphrodite and Ares are in flagrante delicto, he drops the net one them.

Then he invites all of Olympus in to watch.

*sigh* something about that myth just sings to me...I worked it up in a novella I wrote some years ago. What fun!

Just so you don't have to look in my profile for the confirmation, I am indeed a big video game player. Hence, where I heard of the myth in the first place.

While I like a ton of them, my favorite legend is the Japanese myth of (Yamata no) Orochi. As a myth alone it has my favorite characteristics: Mythical creature, good vs. evil, and room for interpretation. In addition though, I played a game where creative people took the concept of the short legend and turned it into a long and extremely fun (not to mention popular) game.

Things like that, where you take a idea and make it seem real again, are what inspire me.

Beauty and the Beast is probably what inspired me as a child to start writing, although there are many others I also love: trickster tales about coyote, brer rabbit, fox (Aesop's and the French ones), or anansi the spider; the story of the goblin king and his labyrinth; several different creation myths; I read a children's book version of the Phantom of the Opera once that really grabbed my attention; and the modern myth-like storytype about a society of children after all the adults have vanished.

The Silmarillion by Tolkien.

Firstly it was Egyptian mythology, but more recently, and frequently, it's been Ojibwa mythology. There are so many ideas, and the belief system is very individualistic, which means one can have many interpretations of the same idea. Plus much of the mythology is set in the area I know best (Great Lakes). I've built up a library of about 60 books or more on the subject, I adore it so much.

Oh, my favorite myth is the one about Paris & the golden apple. You know, where he's got to judge the beauty contest between Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena? And they all cheat shamelessly, and he picks Aphrodite's bribe, even though the bribe is already married and getting her starts a huge war that kills tons of people? Yes, that one.

One of my WIPs shamelessly pirates from early British mythology (Irish, Welsh, a bit of Norse in there for seasoning). The other, which is still in planning stages, is a retelling of the Paris/Golden Apple myth, set in modern day.

One of my in-progress short stories riffs on Arthurian legends, and the other one is a retelling of 12 dancing princesses (or maybe Kate Crackernuts, haven't really decided yet).

I don't have any original ideas, not really.

I've always been fond of the Odyssee.

I've once seen a TV-series of the Mahabharata, filmed as a theatre play with international actors. This quite impressed me.

But, really, I tend to keep my eyes open and look to what I consider "modern myths". The narrative patterns that underlie news stories, especially yellow press, or celebrity news. Or perhaps sites such as the Darwinawards. If you're wondering why and how they tell these things, I think, you get down to the stuff that myths are made off. We may not realise these are myths, because we're still using these stories in everyday life, to define our positions or to make decisions. But, then, that's what makes a myth, isn't it?

Prometheus. I have a story that is a spin-off it (which reminds me I need to rewrite it ). Also, Loki's punishment (first read about it in The Mask of Loki -- can't remember by whom. Maybe Zelazny?)

I can't remember what it was exactly that got me into fantasy, but it was some modern brother's grimm that was illustrated. A helper at my elementary school would have story time with my class, 4th grade, and read out loud to us. It's one of my strongest early memories and I recall how happy I was during those times. I think I became enchanted by them because of their fantastic nature

mscelina said:

The myth of Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Ares from The Odyssey. Her husband Hephaestus catches her in bed with Ares and devises a trap for them. So he fashions a golden net that no one can escape from and hangs it over the bed. Then he waits. When Aphrodite and Ares are in flagrante delicto, he drops the net one them.

Then he invites all of Olympus in to watch.

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Like the old-school version of youtubing video of a cheating spouse, right? ;-)

I agree with "modern myths." I would say that my WIP was inspired in part by brain science. I'm fascinated by experiments where scientists take brain scans of people while they are shown pictures or words to see what parts of the brain are activated - logic centers vs. emotional centers. "Higher" level brain activity vs. the "primitive" brain. I'm also fascinated by people who've suffered brain damage and, thus, experience the world differently. People with no long term or short term memory, etc.

But probably my WIP was inspired by psychological pseudo-science more than hard science, by dream analysis and the theories of Freud and Jung, which have become "common knowledge" in popular culture.

I'm fascinated by the natural human tendency to try to assign meaning to random events, from which superstition and myths themselves spring. The personification of nature, etc.

I was also inspired by the "myth" of the Winchester mansion. Of course, this is more of a ghost story than a myth. I think the idea of a house built for ghosts is creepy. But I like to view the mansion more as a physical manifestation of guilt.

My favorite fairy story from my childhood was East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

On top of that, I had this book of Slavic folk tales that I loved to read as a kid. I remember loving Baba Jaga, as well as the story of the Firebird.

My sixth-grade teacher gave me a book of classical myths. It was my favorite re-reading for years, all of it. I hunt down and read myths on the Internet now. My favorite? Too many to mention.

Norse mythology is a passion of mine. Loki is my all time fave god. He's awesome. The most useful myths for my writing has been the Bible and Greek mythology b/c my second book's religion is based (loosely) on Greek Mythology, another WIP is about the Greek gods being reborn in an AU after WWI (the MC is Dionysos), and my lastest WIP is about the Knights Templar in space (lots of Biblical stuff involved, mostly Revelations). It's just as awesome as it sounds ^_^

And someday I'll get around to writing that idea about Ragnarök.

Traditional Grimm's Fairy Tales, especially those along the lines of Beauty and the Beast (the subject of the first crappy novel I ever finished), and Greek mythology are my greatest loves. Many of my stories are combinations of a Classical myth or characters and a Grimm tale or characters.

My favorite myth, since I was probably eight, is the Argonautica. Predictably, the journey was my favorite part when I was a kid, but the relationship between Jason and Medea is my favorite now. She is definitely my favorite character in all of mythology.

I had a comic-book format bible as a kid that was an inspiration in a mythological sense. Also as a kid my father ordered a series of books from Time-Life or some such and each one was about some fantastic thing or other. There was Faeries, Gnomes, Dragons...etc and sundry. He would read these books and I would sit with him and look at the pictures. I think that was the seed of my interest in fantasy.

My favorite specific myth...hmmm...

Don't make me choose!

Perhaps the Mahabharata (and don't make me choose which part!)
Perhaps the Iliad.
Perhaps the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Perhaps the Succession Dispute of Horus vs Set (highlights; Postmortem conception with use of artificial penis, Threats of world destruction, toes getting cut off)

Smiling Ted said:

The "How Well Read Should I Be" thread started to discuss myth and folklore, which leads to this question:

What mythology (or specific folktale) has inspired you most as a writer of fantasy, and why?

(By "inspire," I don't mean in a feel-good, self-help way. I mean what has provided you with the most material or ideas.)

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I seem to think more in images than in Myths...still...I've always found something strangely touching and vaguely comic about the 11th labor of
Hercules...For valor, is not Love a Hercules, still climbing trees in the Hesperides? As Shakespeare doth say.

And there's this strange "Severe Style" relief...notice how Hercules needs a pillow to cushion holding up the whole planet and that Athena helps out with just one hand.

The myth that got me into reading in such a big way -- The White Dragon and the Red. I love that tale.


Other than that, any of the ones concerning Thor.

I love the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales, particularly the Little Mermaid. I also love Mary Renault's first Theseus book (The King Must Die, I think). Morgan Llellyen's books got me into Irish legends.

Since a child, my favorite has always been Norse and I was always so upset when school seemed to focus only on Greek and Roman mythology. "What about Thor!?"

I've always have some inspiration from the different creations stories. Especially the native American stories.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Since a child, my favorite has always been Norse and I was always so upset when school seemed to focus only on Greek and Roman mythology. "What about Thor!?"

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I thought he did all right for himself