Favourite ancient myth?

[Virote_Considon]

The whole Epic Cycle (obviously including the Iliad and the Odyssey) is pretty much, well, epic.

Hindu mythology is awesome. They have flying monkeys, and huuuge epic fights.

 

[Oishi]

lol i agree

My Most Favorite ancient Myth is Atlantis

Me too.

A sunken city, that's gotta worth something to treasure hunters.

 

[Kyriakos]

No one likes Hercules Herakles?
He is said to be the greatest hero of them all. I think that no other hero became a god in the end of his quest.
Also he had a very tragic fate, that no human could bare.

 

[really]

The origin of the Isle of Man, Rockall and Lough Neagh:

Fionn mac Cumhaill once scooped up part of Ireland to fling it at a rival, but it missed and landed in the Irish Sea — the clump became the Isle of Man and the pebble became Rockall, the void became Lough Neagh.

 

[Lillefix]

I see we have Irish people here. I have a question. There's a local band who a few years ago put a melody to a poem by a local poet. It's about a sailor who's dying and looks forward to it, because then he can finally meet his wife again in a place called Tir'Na Noir.

Someone told me once, it had something to do with Celtic mythology. I wondered if you Celts were familiar with this place.

I found an English translation on a lyrics page btw(saves me from translating the poem from my own dialect to proper Norwegian and then to English via google):

IT IS BLACK NOVEMBER OCEAN BATTLES THE BEACH
IN A BROKEN DREAM THAT A SUMMER CAN'T REACH
BUT I STILL REMEMBER PRETTY MARY MCKEAR
FAR AWAY IN TIR N'A NOIR
WERE YOU DREAM - WERE YOU REAL - WERE YOU SKIN WERE YOU BLOOD
I CAN SEE YOUR SMILE FOR A MILLION A MILE
BEHIND ALL HORIZONS
I AM SHEDDING A TEAR
YOU ARE MINE
MY MARY MCKEAR

WHILE MY RUSTY BODY IS WALKING THIS HILL
I HEAR SOMEONE WHISPER IN WINTERCOLD CHILL
COME ALONG MY FRIEND
LEAVE THAT BOTTLE OF TEAR
COME ALONG TO TIR N'A NOIR

COME TO SHINE - COME TO MIND - COME FROM ALL THAT IS GREY
I WILL COMFORT YOUR SOUL, TAKE YOUR WORRIES AWAY
BEHIND ALL HORIZONS
I AM SHEDDING A TEAR
YOU ARE MINE
MY MARY MCKEAR

WHEN THE EVENING FALLS AND I ENTER MY SHIP
AND MY LIFEBOAT IS LOWERED TO MAKE MY LAST TRIP
I WILL SAIL THE OCEAN TO MY MARY MCKEAR
TO THE GREENS OF TIR N'A NOIR

TO A DREAM - TO A CHIN - TO A HEAVEN OF CHOICE
TO A REST FOR MY SOUL TO DISCOVER YOUR VOICE
THERE'S NO BORDERS AROUND US
WHAT WE TOUCH WILL REMAIN
I AM YOURS
YOUR MARY MCKEAR

 

[really]

I've never heard of the song but Tir na Noir sounds like Tír na nÓg - the land of youth - a mythical place overseas (in the west) where you never grow old and all is good.

 

[azzaman333]

Jesus is a pretty good myth. I like him.

 

[astrognash]

I like Poland. I think it's even more ingenious a myth than Belgium.

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[scherbchen]

I always liked Ragnarök. Jormungand is also a nice one and Loki is probably my favourite deity.

 

[Berzerker]

whats the saying from Norse myth about the warriors leaving Valhalla for battle? The numbers appear to be precessional, thru 540 doors will come 800 warriors? Joseph Campbell noted the numerology along with a similar feature in the architecture of Angkor Wat. The Great Year takes ~25,960 years for one complete trip around the constellations of the Zodiac.

Hamlet's Mill is a nice introduction to celestial mythology, and Anthony Aveni's "Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico" has a little known depiction of the Incan "Genesis" showing a solar system of 12 bodies and the creator as an ellipse.

The creator is an ellipse? An ellipse joining 9 celestial objects in 2 groups of 4 and 5 with the Sun and Moon on either side... Check out the monkey's front paws at Nazca. The Toltec believed Heaven was layered - 13 levels with the creator occupying 2 levels. Thats the Incan ellipse...

Shall we go on to Dante and his inferno?

 

[mangxema]

More directly on topic, probably the Greek gods as portrayed in the Odyssey.

Agreed.

Also, I think this is an interesting story:

According to the popular story,[14][15] Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Only one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism.[16] In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind.[17] In the end, Godiva's husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.

 

[Japanrocks12]

I like the story of Cadmus's founding of Thebes, the rebellion of the 400 siblings of Coyolxauhqui against Coatlicue, and the full Izanami-Izanagi story in Japanese myth

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

To quote LOTR.

Irony!

 

[SchoolzSoKewl]

The romance between Queen Dido and Aneas. Foreshadowing <3

 

[astrognash]

Agreed.

Also, I think this is an interesting story:

To quote Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of World History, by Richard Shenkman:

Lady Godiva, if the story told about her is true, was a disturbed young woman in need of serious psychiatric care. .... I would also guess that her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, had a loose screw or two as well.

 

[mangxema]

All the better! Crazy makes interesting stories.

 

[civ_king]

That was hardly expected. But the early Christians were those who were willing to suffer for what they believed. Death and isolation were common amongst the early Christian and yet none of them would have had it any other way.
To quote LOTR. "History became legend and legend became myth." That is how most myths started out as and they are distortions of what happened.

LOTR is so... Catholic, it is extremely ironic for someone with a signature such as yours to quote a Catholic book

 

[ColdClimate]

I picked up a copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh when I was 14 and all I can remember is a lot of vivid imagery of people walking about. So not that.

I had another one of Native American myths that I still love to read from time to time, but I couldn't repeat most of the stories here, because they might be considered obscene...

...but my ultimate favourite was one I read in 9th grade when we were doing a unit on 'creation stories'. I can't remember for the life of me who's myth it was, but in short it was this:

Before the world was created, there was nothing, except a woman carrying all the ingredients of earth in a bowl, walking over the great emptiness. One day, she tripped over a duck, spilled its contents, and the world was created.

Best. Story. Ever.

 

[Lillefix]

LOTR is so... Catholic, it is extremely ironic for someone with a signature such as yours to quote a Catholic book

My reaction:

*ironic signature? I must check it out*
*Sola fide?*
*wikipedia: Faith alone*

Looks at http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=9283284&postcount=25

You hypocrite!!!! You can't quote something you don't believe in!!!!

No, I'm joking, Classical Hero. You're great

 

[Mansa Musa]

Jason and the Golden Fleece