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Favourite Mythology?

kbm99 said:
Norse, absolutely. The gods/heroes of the Edda know they are going to fail - Ragnarok is going to happen, the giants are more or less going to win, and they are all going to die. But they strive against fate anyway, because the very act of fighting is considered heroic, and heroism is a virtue worth expressing even in vain.
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Yeah I like that too. I bring up Norse mythology any time anyone says its pointless to fight a battle you can't win.
 
I like the various stories around Maui and his exploits. In some, he is a trickster comparable to Loki/Raven/Coyote. When comparing the stories from various Polynesian cultures, the biggest discrepencies surround the tales of his death. The ones I enjoy the most are the ones that describe how he died trying to end death.
 
Norse. And in particular - when Baldur had died, just before he was cremated, Odin bent down and whispered a secret into Baldur's ear.

The idea that the highest of the gods had some secret so profound that he couldn't tell any living creature, but he (Odin) was human enough that he had to tell someone, so he told his dead son . . . there's just something about that story that really works for me.

I mean - a secret more profound than the coming of Ragnarok?
 
Do comic books qualify? Batman has numerous origin stories, and his adventures are perpetually retold. Spider-Man's motto, "With great power comes great responsability" is an adage that most people know, even if they've never read a Spider-Man comic. Many comic book heroes are as much a part of our culture as many other more traditional culture heroes.
 
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Gumboot-right,because sometimes you have to fight a hopeless battle just for the sake of the fighting. Not necessarily because it's right, or the cause is just or any high-minde reason like that,but just for the fight itself. There might be something deep rooted and genetic here,related to Irish tendancies towards long odds,lost causes and just plain madness!
 
ImaginalDisc said:
Do comic books qualify? Batman has numerous origin stories, and his adventures are perpetually retold. Spider-Man's motto, "With great power come great responsability" is an adage that most people know, even if they've never read a Spider-Man comic. Many comic book heroes are as much a part of our culture as many other more traditional culture heroes.
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I do have to agree. Non-comic book fans such as myself often don't realise what a wealth of story there is in comics, and they can be just as meaningful and insightful as traditional mythology.
 
Hokulele said:
I like the various stories around Maui and his exploits. In some, he is a trickster comparable to Loki/Raven/Coyote. When comparing the stories from various Polynesian cultures, the biggest discrepencies surround the tales of his death. The ones I enjoy the most are the ones that describe how he died trying to end death.
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It's also an example (sorta) of Vagina Dentata!

I love Maori mythology. It saddens me that, as a while man, I would never get funding to make films about it. I would love to make a feature film set in pre-European New Zealand. Their entire culture has some awesome aspects.

This is kind of a derail, but meh, it's my thread...:p

Mana was very important in Maori society. As winter approached, the old warriors knew they might die during the cold when food was scarce. So during the last battles before winter, the very old warriors would challenge the enemy to a one-on-one duel.

Because the old man had such prowess and mana, it was considered a great honour to be the one to dispatch him, and whoever did so would themselves earn great mana. The old man, meanwhile, would secure his own legacy by dying in battle, with his wiri or patu in his hand.

The enemy warriors would compete ferociously for the right to kill the old man. The intensity of their conflict, in turn, reinforced the mana of the old man and gave great mana to his people.

So it was this perfect win-win scenario.
 
Heh, the people of ancient Hawai'i would strip the flesh from the corpses of important ali'i (chiefs) and hide their bones in caves and lava tubes, as they were believed to hold great mana. Whoever owned the bones, controlled the mana. The Europeans were appalled when Captain Cook was killed, de-fleshed, and his bones distributed amongst the ali'i.

But hey, they were bundled up and given back. Eventually.
 
gumboot said:
It's also an example (sorta) of Vagina Dentata!

I love Maori mythology. It saddens me that, as a while man, I would never get funding to make films about it. I would love to make a feature film set in pre-European New Zealand. Their entire culture has some awesome aspects.

This is kind of a derail, but meh, it's my thread...:p

Mana was very important in Maori society. As winter approached, the old warriors knew they might die during the cold when food was scarce. So during the last battles before winter, the very old warriors would challenge the enemy to a one-on-one duel.

Because the old man had such prowess and mana, it was considered a great honour to be the one to dispatch him, and whoever did so would themselves earn great mana. The old man, meanwhile, would secure his own legacy by dying in battle, with his wiri or patu in his hand.

The enemy warriors would compete ferociously for the right to kill the old man. The intensity of their conflict, in turn, reinforced the mana of the old man and gave great mana to his people.

So it was this perfect win-win scenario.
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. . .provided the underlying assumption is true.
 
Hokulele said:
I like the various stories around Maui and his exploits. In some, he is a trickster comparable to Loki/Raven/Coyote. When comparing the stories from various Polynesian cultures, the biggest discrepencies surround the tales of his death. The ones I enjoy the most are the ones that describe how he died trying to end death.
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Any links, or book recommendations?
 
Beckwith is probably the Hawai'i Mythology bible, but it is scholarly, rather than entertainment.

http://www.amazon.com/Hawaiian-Myth...r_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229036870&sr=1-12

I also have this book on my shelf.

http://www.amazon.com/Maui-Demigod-Novel-Mythical-Hawaii/dp/0824812743

It blends the line between fiction and mythology, but generally holds true to the various versions of the Maui story from various Polynesian islands. It is a much more entertaining read. :)


ETA: You need to PM me your address. I have a tiki for you.
 
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ImaginalDisc said:
I thought mana was implicetely mystical, or am I suffering under a misapprehension?
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Well, generally in Polynesian culture it is - mana is the energy or force that exists in all things (living and static) and when you have mana, what it really means is you have power or authority over mana. Kinda like being a Jedi.

However in Maori culture is has evolved somewhat, and the two key principles of mana are more earthly:

mana tangata - this is authority derived from whakapapa (geneology). A person who has whakapapa that includes a great deal of mana, will themselves have a great deal of mana.

mana huaanga - this is authority derived from the ownership of possessions that can be used to bind people into agreements - basically it means having resources to trade. (This is why governance over "treasures" (natural resources) was such an issue with the Treaty of Waitangi)

The other way is through prowess in battle.

One of the key distinctions of Maori mana is that it is grounded in more practical application of power, rather than any sort of appeal to spirits. For example there is mana whenua which is recognition of power or authority over land, that a tribe (iwi) may have. However this mana is not a result of some sort of mystical appeal, but rather the result of the tribe actually demonstrating they have authority over the land.

Now, obviously in these early cultures the spiritual pervaded culture, and wasn't really seen as anything distinct from the physical world, so mana, like everything else, had a spiritual component. But given that it was a measure of how much authority could be demonstratively exercised and how much respect was given, mana was still very much a real thing. Still is very much a real thing - mana is still very important in Maori culture, and I have experienced it first hand - my Uncle (Te Pakaka Tawhai - Professor of Maori Studies at Massey University) had a great deal of mana in life, and now that he is dead my cousins carry that mana. It's undeniably there.

ETA.

It should be pointed out, in explanation of this, that the Maori relationship to the spiritual world, and deities, was not one of worship, so appealing to a deity or spiritual concept for power was never going to be very effective if you couldn't demonstrate your ability to actually impose that authority. My Uncle explained the nature of Maori religion quite succinctly in one of his works:

The purpose of religious activity here is to seek to enter the domain of the superbeing and do violence with impunity: to enter the forest and do some milling for building purposes, to husband the plant and then to dig up the tubers to feed one's guests. Thus that activity neither reaches for redemption and salvation, nor conveys messages of praise and thanksgiving, but seeks permission and offers placation.

Tawhai, P. 1988
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So while mana (and the accompanying tapu) had a mythological and religious status, it was grounded in social practicality.
 
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ImaginalDisc said:
I thought mana was implicetely mystical, or am I suffering under a misapprehension?
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Yes and no. Mana is generally translated as "spiritual power", and as such, is a completely mystical force. In practice, it was often treated more like "respect". It could be earned, transferred, stolen (!), or lost. So if you are looking at mana from a behavioral standpoint (as gumboot seemed to be), then it is nothing more than a social construct with a purpose. If you asked a Polynesian how it worked, then you would get all the mumbo-jumbo.
 
I can't decide between egyptian mythology and celtic.

I like the Celtic Gods and Goddesses a lot!

But it's a tie between two egyptian stories.

When Ra rides on his giant boat thingy across the sky to slay a giant snake and it's blood spray across the night sky. And thats why the sky goes red when the sun sets. E:

OR

When the Pharoah Osiris'
brother Set(h) becomes jealous of him and kills(?) him and scatters the 16 peices of his body across the desert. And the Pharoah's loyal wife (and her sister) travel across the desert to find his peices, bring Osiris back to life, and finally restore him to his throne and to her side! :D

Yeah... stuck between those two.

But according to an Egyptian black magic book I flipped the pages through, the Egyptian Goddess that protects me is Ma'at. :D Pretty sweet, huh? She is also the weigher of hearts in the underworld. If your sins(?) weigh more than a feather on her scales of justice(made up the justice part, I think XD), and if the feather is heavier than your sins(?), you passed the final test and may enter a pleasant afterlife. :D
 
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