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Author Topic: Favorite Stories From Mythology  (Read 2835 times)

Fier

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Favorite Stories From Mythology
« on: October 31, 2011, 11:07:07 pm »
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?

Fier

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2011, 11:19:18 pm »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459

What are your favorite stories from myth?


I love the one where Anna Perenna plays a joke on Mars.

Anna is deified and given a festival in March. Mars says to her, "because your festival is in my month, you owe me. I am in love with Minerva. Make her marry me."
 
Anna says that she'll see to it but continually puts it off. Finally she tells Mars that Minerva has agreed, and will meet him in his bedroom. Mars goes to meet Minerva and sees her standing there, head covered in a veil. He goes to kiss her and realizes that it is in fact Anna in disguise! Anna mocks Mars generously. Ovid says that this is why "girls chant obscenities...gather and sing improper verses....they rejoice that Anna tricked the great god".

Finn

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2011, 01:45:36 am »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
What are your favorite stories from myth?

 
Oooh. I think my favorite from the Roman stories has to be the myth of Eros and Psyche. I'm a sucker for Beauty and the Beast stories. ;)

From the Norse, my favorite has to be from Thrymskviða, where Thor and Loki look for Thor's hammer and end up cross-dressing and playing jokes on the giants. :D:

From The Mabinogion, I really like The Children of Llyr, Math Son of Mathonwy (where we hear several stories of Arianrhod, Gwydion and Lleu Llaw Gyffes), and Culhwch and Olwen (where Culhwch has to round up nearly everyone in Arthur's court to find some magical objects for a giant in order to marry the giant's daughter.) Also in the Welsh, I really like some of the stories associated with Taliesin and the Voyage to Annwn.

From the Irish, I like The Dream of Aengus and The Wooing of Etain, but he very early stuff like The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh is pretty classic.
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Waterfall

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2011, 04:32:20 am »
Quote from: Finn;28478

From the Norse, my favorite has to be from Thrymskviða, where Thor and Loki look for Thor's hammer and end up cross-dressing and playing jokes on the giants. :D:

 
That's my favorite! I like it so much I don't care that my friend is always requesting that I tell that one.

Juniperberry

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2011, 12:53:47 pm »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?


I have two that are tied. First, the Lays of Helgi and Sigrun, a warrior and a valkyrie, that have a sort of star-crossed love and who are reincarnated and meet again at least twice. There's a section in the poem where Helgi has died but one of Sigrun's maids sees him riding out of the grave mound. Sigrun runs to him and they spend the night in each other's arm. After the night he leaves and never returns from the mound and she dies of a broken heart.  

One of the lines:

Sigrun of Sefafioll! that Helgi is with sorrow's dew suffused. Thou weepest, gold-adorned! cruel tears, sun-bright daughter of the south! ere to sleep thou goest; each one falls bloody on the prince's breast, wet, cold, and piercing with sorrow big.

Relates back to a Germanic superstition:

When thou, my dear, art cheerful,
And easy in thy mind,
The coffin where I slumber
Is all with roses lined.

But oft as thou'rt in sorrow,
and bow'd with grief so sore,
Is all the while my coffin
Brim full of blood and gore.


The second is the Volsungsaga and Brynhild and Sigurd, another Valkyrie and warrior, who also have a  star-crossed love. Brynhild was punished to eternal sleep by Odin and Sigurd woke her. The promised love and marriage to one another and then a witch put a spell on Sigfried and he marries Gudrun. Brynhild winds up having Sigurd murdered (he has to die to restore his honor), throws herself on his pyre and then totally bitches out Hela as she goes after him in the after-life. Gudrun remarries some guy she hates, has two sons with him, her brothers come to fight him and she feeds the hearts of her sons to her husband. And there's more.


Anyway, there's so much in them- from the influence of the Norns, the dedication to honor and family even when it sucks, being at the mercy of the god's whims, witches... They're def my favorites. Plus, I like when women are bad-asses. :D


(Syfy did a movie on Brynhild and Sigurd but they changed some things. It's still really good, though.  )
« Last Edit: November 01, 2011, 12:54:11 pm by Juniperberry »
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Celtag

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2011, 09:02:28 pm »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?

Probably anything from The Mabinogion.
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KittyVel

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2011, 09:57:19 pm »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?

My favorite has always been the story of Thesius (sp?) when he went into the labyrinth to kill the Minotaur.  I've liked that story since I was very young, and it's my favorite myth from any category (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, etc) to this day.
« Last Edit: November 01, 2011, 09:58:22 pm by KittyVel »
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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2011, 11:49:43 am »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459

What are your favorite stories from myth?

 
The Greek myth of handsome Ganymede abducted by an amorous Zeus in the form of an eagle. There's not much to it plotwise--grab, fly, and ravish--but it brings together so much that is emblematic for me that it feels like it was written just for me.
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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2011, 09:01:27 pm »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?

 
My favorite Irish stories are the ones in the Fenian cycle, especially Oisin's mother. The story and imagery in it are just so lovely.

Other than that, I've always been fond of Psyche and Cupid, as well as Persephone. (I dressed as her for Greek Mythology day in sixth grade. :) )

stephyjh

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2011, 12:23:37 am »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?


My favorite, the one that drew me to get to know Aengus, is the myth of how he came to live at Bru na Boyne (which, by the way, I can't spell.) His father the Dagda had never really acknowledged him as a son like he had with his other children, and when the time came for the Dagda to divide his possessions among his children, Aengus wasn't invited. So when Aengus arrived, everything was gone. So Aengus asked to occupy the Dagda's home for a day and a night. But there's no indefinite article in Old Irish, so what he actually asked for was "day and night," i.e., indefinitely. Having a father who's kind of a douchebag who's always favored my sister over me, I've always identified with that story and with the idea of having the kind of father one has to play to get one's fair share.
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Celtag

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #10 on: November 04, 2011, 01:25:16 am »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?

I really like the story of Manawydon Son of Llyr. It is one of my favorite of all the Welsh stories.
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Lokabrenna

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2011, 10:19:57 am »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?


I also like the one where Loki and Thor cross-dress to get Thor's hammer back. The story of how Freyja acquired Brisingamen and the one about Skadi and Njord's divorce/separation are also favourites.

I also like Inanna's Descent, there's a Wiccan version called "The Descent of the Goddess" which is like the Sumerian version...only scourging is involved...and it's awesome. Here's a link to one version of it: http://sacredwicca.jigsy.com/legend-of-the-decent-of-the-goddess

Returning to Sumer for a moment, there's also a story about Enlil and Ninlil which is very interesting. Basically, Enlil ends up raping Ninlil, she takes him to court and wins (how often are rapists actually punished in myths?) and Enlil is sent to the Netherworld as punishment.

Anyways, eventually Ninlil decides to descend into the Netherworld to rescue Enlil, and Enlil ends up begging her for her love (on three separate occasions) and they have sex after every encounter. Ninlil then becomes Enlil's wife.

It's better than it sounds, really! There's an analysis and a retelling of the story at Gateways to Babylon: http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/
It's one of those stories that I find both intriguing and problematic, on the one hand, there's the whole "marrying your rapist" thing. Let's face it, Sumerian civilization wasn't that big on gender equality. On the other hand, how many other goddesses actually take action against their rapists?

MarieBay

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Re: Favorite Stories From Mythology
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2011, 09:56:39 pm »
Quote from: FierFlye;28459
This was a thread on the old board and I thought it'd be fun to continue it. Maybe we'll hear some new stories.

What are your favorite stories from myth?

 
One of my favourites is the story of Sedna, the seal-woman. I love stories where it's difficult to tell who's bad and who's good, and where dead things have new life and the living must engage with this limbo-walker in order to survive.

It also resonates with me because I have a weird fear of having my fingers severed...

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