Favorite mythology

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Voidwalkin

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Post any mythological and/or fantasy creature/figure/concept you like, find compelling, or somehow summons an emotional resonation.

My favorites
Bigfoot. Popular but compelling. In an atomized world, there's an urge to return to the green, where mystery can still be found. Little danger to it, too.

Orcs. Tolkien style. Fantastic monsters. Soulless brutes who cannot be reasoned with, to whom cruelty is a matter of course. Which is inviting a reasonable person to release their inner savagery without moral conflict.

Best ancient god is Odin. Much better than Zeus or Jupiter. Lone wanderer, aggressive, holder of secrets ancient and arcane and thrower of spears. God of warchiefs, and angry, violent intellectuals alike.
 
Scylla is an immortal evil that not even the gods can bare to see.

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On the other hand, Xena Warrior Princess has taught me that Ares is cooler.
 
Kyriakos said:
Wasn't Ares losing all the time? (at least in that "Hercules" show).
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Sure, but he was cool doing so. I mean, it takes some balls to have a crush on Xena.
Kyriakos said:
In actual Greek mythology, it's also no contest, with Athena being a far more significant deity than Ares.
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Yes, there is a reason why there was an Athenian empire but no Aresopolis. I was just generally jesting because this thread reminded me nostalgically of my youth watching TV.
 
PPQ_Purple said:
Kyriakos said:
Wasn't Ares losing all the time? (at least in that "Hercules" show).
In actual Greek mythology, it's also no contest, with Athena being a far more significant deity than Ares.
Click to expand...
Sure, but he was cool doing so. I mean, it takes some balls to have a crush on Xena.

Yes, there is a reason why there was an Athenian empire but no Aresopolis. I was just generally jesting because this thread reminded me nostalgically of my youth watching TV.
Click to expand...
Kevin Smith was wonderful as Ares. Yes, he was a villain, but not a black-and-white villain. There were times when he was shades of grey, and I think he honestly did love Xena. He was just clueless as to how to properly express it, and also frustrated that she never reciprocated it. And as a god, he didn't understand how humans can change so much in personality and what they want out of life. Xena went from wanting war and revenge to wanting redemption, justice, and love. And he didn't know what to make of that, but he did save both Xena and Gabrielle by preserving them in the ice cave.

Whereupon the show went to hell due to the thinly-disguised Christianity storyline and the butchering of the Roman/Caesar storyline. I'm aware that the show was fantasy, not a historical documentary. But zipping through the entire line of Caesars in the 25 years plus the 10-12 years from Julius through Octavian was just ridiculous. The worst part of that was the utter male bovine organic waste that Livia could possibly have been a warrior who fought in the arena. While there were women gladiators, they weren't aristocrats. It was actually illegal for high-ranking Romans to fight in the arena.

Crap like this took me right out of the story.

It was a weird kind of love triangle among Ares, Xena, and Gabrielle. Ares and Gabrielle couldn't stand each other, but they did become allies a time or two, for Xena's sake.

It's such a shame that Kevin Smith died so young. :(
 
Thinking a lot just now about Bacchus. Abandonment of the individual self to a larger communal but to even larger powers, beyond social control.
 
It's done a lot of damage to many societies, but Christian mythology is pretty rich and evocative when used in the creative arts. Sufjan Stevens and Hold Steady songs. Goya paintings, some really spectacular cathedrals. Some of the scenes from the Christian mythos like the Garden of Gethsamene are timeless and powerful.
 
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I just got through Genesis and most of Exodus and it’s hitting harder than they have you believe.
 
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