Favourite Mythologies?

Curious to know what people's favourite traditional mythologies are. It's always good to know of any good books or sources people recommend. Even better if you know of a game that captures it just right.

My first love will always be Celtic mythology, but I've been reading The Siva Purana Retold, and it's absolutely fucking deadly. The symbolism is explained through the narrative, which makes it pretty easy to read. Has me hooked on Hindu mythology. To be fair, I think being a living tradition obviously gives it a huge advantage over other mythologies, though.

So what's everyone else been reading, watching, playing, studying, consuming?

Love me some Norse and Greek Mythology, basic easy answers but I really do find them fascinating. Usually my yearly playthrough of Persona 4 kicks in my desire to read/learn more about the various mythologies covered in the game.

Mortal Komb-

Umm... Japanese myths are super cool. Playing through Muramasa got me interested in learning more. My encounters with Chinese stuff are always intriguing, too.

And whatever Asura's Wrath is supposed to be. Hindu is the basis, right? Never explored anything besides Asura but that was something entirely unique and awesome.

I've always been interested in Egyptian mythology.

One can only hope you are referring to the masterpiece that is Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero.

I took a mythology courselves last semester and really loved the cyclical nature of Hinduism. The Mahabharata was really something, although confusing, and genuinely made me think about what was important in life. The Ramayana is an epic about fulfilling ones duty and is, in a way, an intriguing look at predestination.

@csl316 @president_barackbar: I hope that's not sarcasm. To be sure, 'MKM is a pretty amazing meld of fighting and platform jumping and is sure to please fans of MK and platform games alike.' - Jeff Gerstmann

@nightriff: Ah, but they're easy answers for a reason. I'm always reminded by my yearly playthrough of Final Fantasy games.

@azulot: Ahh, that's something I wish I had the time and money to do. Is there a version of the Mahabharata or Ramayana you'd recommend or any companion texts?

Indian and Egyptian mythologies are super neat and have always held my interest.

While I would say Greek and Norse, I think it's not only because of their colorful and varied characters or their epic sagas but also largely because of their prominence in modern fiction and culture compared to the others.

I love the aesthetic of Ancient Egypt, but know very little of its gods and myths outside of popular names like Osiris, Ra or Anubis, Native American myths are very fascinating, again in both visual representation and folklore, and perhaps appropriate for someone living in North America, but it is hard to distinguish the stereotypes vs the actual mythology. It gets even more complicated when you factor in the numerous tribes and their specific tales.

Same goes for Indian/Hindu, Japanese, Aztec and more. I find it all incredibly interesting, but I owe it to myself to educate myself more about them.

Genuine question: difference between mythology and religion? Cause I do remember reading about any indie dev saying their game was based on Native American mythology and got told that it wasn't a mythology but part of the modern relevant belief system.

Also: Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell is my favorite mythology. I know George Lucas made it popular and ruined it for everyone but what mythology hasn't that happened to?

Edit: Ooh and wherever you'd wanna put the Aeneid mythology-wise. Love that story.

There really is no practical difference. However, when a large group of people actually believe a specific mythology, that term is usually avoided in favor of religion because mythology is generally understood to be fiction whereas followers of a religion believe it is meant to be taken as true. People resist calling something mythology that they actually believe to true.

The only difference between the thousands of year old stories that make up Greek mythology and the thousands of year old stories that make up Judeo-Christian religions is that billions of people today still believe the latter. A completely unbiased individual with no prior knowledge or beliefs would classify them both as mythology.

In a few hundred when we've (hopefully) advanced to a religion-free Star Trek future, all that stuff will be rightly seen as mythology.

I really like traditional Japanese mythologies: they still hold on their sleeve how focuses they are on describing morals to children (rather than trying to be epic tales of feuding nations - though that's probably more a modern-day interpretation since Japan has taken a very anti-war approach to narrative since World War II).

A game that successfully captured this interpretation of Japanese mythology was Okami.

I probably know more about greek mythology than any of the others. There's just kind of a lot of it, and most of it is interesting. So that might just be my favorite by default. I do however also love norse mythology since it's much more native to Scandinavia, and conceptually it's just a bit more fun than the other ones. Trickery and feasting is all we need! Then I also have apprectiation for the japanese madness, mostly from being exposed to cool games that play into it to some extent like Okami or SMT games. But I'll admit to being largely ignorant about it.

@ll_exile_ll: If that's the common definition then as a theist I feel kind of bad. Excuse me while I go pour one out for the faiths that get relegated to mythologies.

@dudeglove: Norse religions are still practiced. I got chewed out by a guy who apparently worshipped the relevant pantheon after I talked trash about vikings. This was on Kotaku so definitely take it with a grain of salt but I definitely know there are still legitimate practitioners of the Norse faith.

Greek is probably my favorite since we have sources on its involvement in pretty much every aspect of society and life. If we count all the badass moments and one-liners from the Icelandic Sagas as Norse Mythology though, that ranks up there as well.

Mythology is one aspect that makes a religion. To give an awkward comparison: graphics are one aspect that make up the visuals of a game. There is also frame rate, resolution and so on. Every religion has a mythology which are, and I have to be honest I'm not 100% certain about this: usually concepts of higher beings, places or other sacred things. On top of that religion also has a certain culture, values, rituals and more.

To give an example, the Paradise that Catholics and muslims believe in (the hereafter) is mythology and part of their religion. The concept that one must live their life a certain way to reach that place is also part of their religion but not mythology.

I can't say that I really have a favourite mythology, but I'd like to give a shout-out to the Finnish folktale mythology of Kalevala. A collection of stories and poems, much like the Bible, Kalevala has roots reaching back some 3000 years and still had quite a stern following in the wilds of Finland about 200 years ago. It's a bit of a mix of Norse, Baltic and Saami beliefs.

There's a supreme thunder god, followed by a whole cast of lesser gods and characters. Much like Norse mythology, Kalevala is pretty dark and bloody and filled with sex. The mythology has influenced pretty much every part of Finnish art and society, from music to architecture and city planning. It was also a major influence for the works of Tolkien.

I've always thought that someone could make a kickass videogame interpretation of Kalevala, but such a thing hasn't quite materialised yet.

@blackout62: As a Norwegian, I'd be really surprised to see someone seriously believing in Norse mythology. Or maybe offended? The most recent practictioners of that "religion" I can think of is all racist stuff. Like Vigrid, which was some Neo-Nazi political party from the nineties that got like a hundred votes. Or Soldiers of Odin. I don't think you need to be wary of offending practictioners of a religion nobody believes in anymore.

My favorite mythology is Greek, mostly for the monsters that are in tons of videogames. There are so many of them that I wouldn't want to be without. Norse mythology actually have really few, even though the world serpent is cool.

I only have the dumb-ed down version offered by Penn State - though I will say the footnotes and introduction definitely lead to better understanding, alongside the lecture slides offered. It's a book containing a number of myths from various mythologies (Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, West African, Native American) with reading objectives and what not. If you were interested, I'd be happy to send it along as I'm a (boring) business major and won't be needing it again.

I'm all about norse mythology, in part because I always found it super fascinating on it's own, but probably a large part is the linked interest in the viking era of Swedish/Nordic history.

@redhotchilimist:There's plenty of non-racist norse followers. Though for the most part, the biggest and most serious groups are pretty mild as far as believing in Odin as an actual entity and more about honoring norse traditions and a focus on a spiritual connection with nature and history rather than an actual belief in gods. In Sweden you have "Samfundet för Forn Sed" (Society for the old way) which might be the biggest one, they sort of lean away from the romanticized "norse mythology" and prefers to call it "the old ways/customs/practices" etc.. And as far as I know there are similar movements in Norway, Denmark and Iceland, but all very far from having a racist agenda.

It's another religion among many. Racists around these parts do love to use viking/norse stuff to build up their own self-image, but let's not just give them monopoly on a big part of our collective history, that would be downright stupid. I wear mjölnir on a daily basis and I'm as far away from those neo-nazis you can find. But I love norse mythology and I have plenty of books on the viking-era and norse mythology.

Ancient semitic mythology like the people of Babylon and Sumeria as well as Persian mythology.

I'm also Scottish so of course I love Celtic and Norse mythology.

@blackout62: The Hero With a Thousand Faces is so much more than its applications in storytelling. It's a shame that's all its known for, and that his other works get a total pass-up.

@isomeri: I've reluctantly agreed to let my Finnish girlfriend someday get a cat on the condition that we call it Väinämöinen. Maybe it's good that it's not in the mainstream. When a game finally does come along, it'll be because someone cares about it rather than it being the in-thing to do.

@azulot: I've long since conceded that it's better to understand things than to get the unfiltered experience. Footnotes and long introductions are very welcome. I certainly would be interested, but I can imagine it being impractical sending such across the Atlantic.

@blackout62: ii_exile_ii's explamation of Religion and Mythology was their personal interpretation, not an actual definition. Zevvion had a more objective analysis.

Also, I'll happily point out that Star Trek NEVER eliminated religion. Cf. Dr. McCoy's strong faith throughout the entirity of the series, and of course the famous "What Does God Need with a Starship?!" line. ;)

On-topic, I'm partial to Indigenous American myths - those which speak of animals as people like you and I (and I also like various African mythology and folklore for the same reason.) I suppose you could say I'm partial to shamanistic mythology in general, and I'm looking forward to the video game/pop culture media that depicts it WITHOUT sounding like a veggie-hippie moonchild. ;b

I've always really liked Gods and Heroes by Gustav Schwab as an intro to Greek mythology. There's at least one good translation of it, although I forget the translators at the moment!

There are plenty of non-racist norse worshipers. That's a pretty big "tar everybody with the same brush" comment.

@pezen: @jonny_anonymous: Yeah, I'm sorry. Having googled it, there are several societies in Scandinavia(I haven't checked America) with that faith. They aren't necessarily big, Bifrost counted something like 350 members four years ago. But they are there, and they appear to struggle a little with the image I had of them considering half the sites I checked had a "We're not racists, go somewhere else" disclaimer.

Yeah there are a few groups over hear in Scotland as well. I think that the norse religion has plenty of relevant philosophical, poetic and moral commentary that people can use to shape their world view and I don't see how it should be dismissed as "just" myths beacuse it's minor compared to world religions.

I was a latin nerd in high school so Edith Hamilton's Mythology was always a favorite, as well as Virgil's Aeneid which we actually got to read in Latin.

One thing I always loved about D&D was how it mashed so many different sources together including many world mythologies. The original Deities and Demigods (renamed Legends and Lore during the 80's) is a pretty cool read even if you don't play the game.

Navajo and Mayan Mythologies are pretty interesting and they aren't that wide spread.

The Dine Bahane is a good intro to Navajo myth. It is also my top pick for something begging to be made into an incredible game.

The Popol Vuh is a good place to start on the Mayan tradition.

It is also interesting to compare the two. You can tell which one is a culture that lives in an area where everything wants you dead.

Back in school I took R.E before bailing out of education so I dabbled in quite a lot of mythology.

The three big ones (Islam, Judaism and Christianity) are all pretty interesting but because they''re all Abrahamic, they're all essentially bastardisations of each other to a point,

Hinduism and Buddhism are both considerably more specific and their stories get fucking acid-trip weird in spots. I mean, look at Ganesh and then consider that's like the least interesting tthing about Hinduism.

For me, though, really it's always gonna be ancient Greek mythology. Specifically I quite like all the stuff with the Titans, leading up to Zeus' reign. That shit is bizarre at the best of times.

EDIT: Although, if I can posit an entire fictional mythology, the presentation of Heaven and Hell in the Divine Comedy is a favourite. Dante really tapped into the horrors of irony and the demoralisation of minor injustice that the best parts of Greek allegory like Atlas and Sisyphus tapped into but he did it with such stark and unsettling visualisation and imagery.
Fucking love the Divine Comedy.

@nightriff: I adore Greek and Roman mythology. It is so exciting and at the same time very usual. The Gods are more like humans in their behaviour, so we can analyze and take a look aside.

Even though I'm an Ancient Roman history buff I have to go with Greek mythology. The tales of Odysseus, Jason and the Argonauts, Hercules' Labours and many of the other tales had me so intrigued as a kid. Read Bulffinch's Mythology cover to cover many times.

@blackout62 said:

Fast answer: Mythology is religion you are not into. In other words, judeo-christians beliefs are mythology unless you are Christian or Jewish; hindu beliefs are mythology unless you practice Hinduism; shinto beliefs are mythology unless you happen to be Shintoist and yes; scientologist beliefs are mythology unless you are a Scientologist...

There is a lot more about the definition, but it always rubbed me the wrong way. Like the argument about "comics vs graphic novels", most of it is written in a search for validation and differentiation: "we are not like those savages; we are a real religion. We have temples, rituals and moral codes". Well, so did the ancient Egyptians, Greek, Romans, etc.

At the end of the day, mythologies are belief systems studied by sociologists, so they are always studied from outside and it makes no difference whether there are people alive that practice it currently. Ask an Hindu sociologist what he thinks about the story of the christian great flood and he will call it mythology, same with the adventures of Coyote. It is the same answer you would get from a western sociologist and the Bhagavad Gita or the birth of Amaterasu.

OT: Greek mythology. I know it is the most mainstream answer I could give, but I still think it is one of the richest and most detailed ones there is, even if many of the details are relatively modern. It helps that it behaves like a unified universe... when you check the Argonauts, you realice it is pretty much like the Avengers of Greek mythology.

And a game that captures a lot of elements from Greek mythology pretty well is God of War 1, before the flanderization; which is no surprise since it pretty much a retelling of the Heracles story.