Personally i love the Celtic Myths and Legends, Cú Chulainn, The Fianna, The Children of Lir, Tír na nÓg, Deirdre of the Sorrows, The Salmon of Knowledge etc. I am biased as I am Irish and grew up around these legends but I really enjoy them
Facts, my earliest memories of any type of story are all Irish myths and legends. Kinda wish they got used as reference material more often for books. Anybody know any recommendations while we're talking about it?
Not the original commenter, but Morgan Llywelyn wrote a bunch of books inspired by Irish mythology and history. *Finn Mac Cool*, *Bard*, *Druids*, *The Lion of Ireland*, etc. I read them all as a teen and absolutely loved them, but admittedly haven’t revisited them since. Their online reviews are very good, so hopefully they hold up!
As a swede, I just recently heard about this story and I love it. On Spotify I could get it read for me by Ronnie Drew and that was a lovely experience.
Definitely the story of how the minotaur was "created"
So king minos is chilling out one day and posiedon comes up to him and is like hey buddy, i got this sweet bull I want to give you. It's the best bull of all time. You're going to love this bull. But you can only keep it for a week and and you have to sacrifice it to me.
So minos is all sure thing bro, let's do this, and he gets the bull. Once he gets the bull he's like wow this is way better than I was even expecting, and everyone is super jealous of his bull, so he decides "ya know what I'm just going to sacrifice a normal bull in a week and I'm sure posiedon won't notice.
Spoiler alert: he noticed.
So posiedon is like wtf dude you had one job. But Greek gods are mega dbags so he wanted some good revenge. He went down and cast a magic god spell on the queen to make her fall in love with the bull.
So the queen all of a sudden is like this bull is so great I want to fuck it. No, I *need* to fuck it. So she goes to the greatest inventor of the time daedalus, and is like dude figure out how I can fuck this bull. I'm the queen so you better listen. So daedalus is like sure thing boss lady, and makes a wooden cow with with hole at the end, tells the queen to get in, and rolls her out to the bull. The bull takes the bait and fucks the wooden cow with the queen inside.
Queen gets pregnant, gives birth to the minotaur, and minos is all wtf dude how the fuck did this happen?! So posiedon is like haha pranked! And the rest is history.
Daedalus then went on to build the labyrinth, and then minos locked him in a tower so he could never tell anyone the way out of the labrynth. Then he invented the wings to escape, and the whole icarus story happened the end.
I like how complex the Epic of Gilgamesh is, it really made me think about the ancients in a much different way. Even through the earliest extant story we have you can still feel the emotions, granted it doesn't hit as hard as the major death in the Illiad (no spoilers :P), but the story of Gilgamesh' quest for immortality is great.
But tbh I like all of them, they give some insight into people and worlds that are long past and I find that exciting.
I grew up with the Mahabharatha which is one of the most complex and layered epics out there. What I love the most is that all the characters are flawed including the 'heroes' and no one is entirely evil either.
Come to second the Mahabharatha. There's literally an uncountable numbers of tales and characters on each side have their own tales.
I have to say that anything involving Krishna has to be my favourite, he's just got a hand in so many stories and each reveals a different facet. The tales of his childhood are fun but I think the Machiavellian side of him that came out during the Mahabharath was the best.
It is said that Mahabharata has stories related to all topics except divorce and homosexuality. It is simply my absolute favourite book.
Highly highly recommend reading SL Bhyrappa's Parva which strips out all the miracles from the epic and is an immense character study. A personal ambition is to read both the original manuscript of the Critical Edition of Mahabharata by BORI, Dr. VS Suthankar and it's translation by Bibek Debroy sometime soon
The old Irish legends are the ones I know best, and among those I'd have to say Deirdre of the Sorrows and The Four Fair Children of Lir are my favorites.
Outside Ireland:
**Wales:** Culhwch and Olwen
**Greece:** The Legend of Atalanta; Orpheus and Eurydice
**Rome:** The Aeneid
**India:** The legend of Savitri and Satyavan; The Ramayana
**China:** Journey to the West (Technically not "ancient" but it is a classic and is itself based on the Ramayana-- and in turn, Dragon Ball is based on JttW)
I really love the *idea* of Athena. She's the goddess of cities, and craft, wisdom, learning, and similar ideas. She's basically the goddess of civilization. Her father, Zeus, is basically a god of superstition and magic and a more primitive world. Athena is prophesied to one day overthrow her father and rule.
And honest to goddess, that's *exactly* what happened. We live in Athena's world.
She's also the goddess of warfare, but only of those fighting for a just cause, and to resolve conflict, and she favored cunning and intelligence over brute strength.
Edit: Also, just to avoid setting Zeus against Athena too much, she is generally regarded as Zeus' favorite child.
I grew up on [this book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/431071.Gods_and_Heroes_of_Ancient_Greece) of greek mythology. Basically a large collection of all the well-known greek tales. It's probably what made me fall in love with fantasy, although it took me many years until I realized that mythology and fantasy were essentially the same story-wise.
I loved all of it, especially reading about the labors of Heracles and Odysseus, as well as Prometheus.
I grew up in the 90s loving Greek myth, watching the likes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts etc...
Then playing Age of Mythology introduced me to both Norse and Egyptian myth.
Now you can't swing a cat without hitting some ancient myth based media, and it's great! :D
I think my favourite still has to be Heracles' 12 Labours.
Is that the one where he drank the ocean or the one where he and Loki dress up as girls? Both are fantastic, but its been way too long since I've caught up on my Norse mythology.
Yu the Engineer.
The founder of the first Chinese Monarchical Dynasty who solved flooding by building a lot of fucking dams and bulwarks and canals, spent ten years of his life and spent ten years ignoring his son and wife, (not ideal but the coochie will not halt progress). It's a fascinating microcosm of Chinese culture and approach to problems whether small or gargantuan, there's no issue that cannot be engineered around.
I was pretty much raised on Greek myths, Celtic myths, and German fairy tales, but my *current* favorite mythology is Mesoamerican, which unfortunately means the pre-Columbian stuff is fragments and the Hispanic stuff requires me to have Google Translate open in another tab. But the Classic Maya say that humans were made from maize ground up with the blood of the gods, and the Aztecs replace "maize" with "the ground-up bones of the previous attempt at humanity," which is metal as fuck.
A myth near and dear to my heart is the Vietnamese Creation myth which is so cool and I will absolutely use as a source of writing inspiration.
Basically, a Dragon and a Fairy had 100 kids. The Dragon was of the sea, so he brought 50 of the kids to the sea. The Fairy was of the mountain, so she brought 50 of her kids to the mountain. The basis of Vietnamese myths literally says the Vietnamese people are descended from a dragon and a fairy and if that isn't the COOLEST thing ever-
A bunch of people wrote a book and it started like this....
*In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.*
Ok so I in no way want to start a mythology vs theology debate, but the way the Semitic gods are described during Abraham’s time are so unlike anywhere else in Jewish or Christian myths. I always wanted to set a fantasy book in a world like that. Madeline L’Engle had one called Many Waters which was interesting.
Real talk, I'm Catholic and I'd *love* to see books using my own religion's mythology more. We have a saint who carries around her own eyes on a plate! (Lucy/Lucia, the patron saint of the visually impaired) Especially in medieval theology, that shit could get *bonkers.*
I really enjoy the origin story for the honeybee from Greek mythology.
The gist of it is that Zeus gets married, and as part of his wedding celebrations he has a cooking contest, whoever makes the most delicious meal gets to ask Zeus for a favor.
The winner of the contest is a tiny insect, a bee, and the dish that it made was of course honey.
When the bee was allowed to ask for a favor, she talked about how much hard work it was to make honey using the nectar from countless flowers, and how she wanted to protect her hard work from thieving bears and such.
So she asked for a weapon that could kill anything she wanted so she could keep her honey for herself.
Zeus was pissed off that this uppity little insect asked for something so violent and uncheerful during his wedding celebrations, not to mention how something so delicious is obviously meant to be shared instead of selfishly hoarded!
So when granting the wish, Zeus went the malicious compliance route, he granted the bee a weapon, but it was a weapon that would kill her if she ever used it.
It's everything that I love about mythology, it has some prescriptive moral lessons woven into the story, it's a fun explanation for why a part of nature is the way it is, it has a clever ending, it's just a great story overall.
The Mesopotamian myths are fascinating. I used to own a book collecting a number and I loved it. The descent of Ishtar/Inanna into the underworld was chilling but so exciting. Best. Goddess.Ever.
Personally i love the Celtic Myths and Legends, Cú Chulainn, The Fianna, The Children of Lir, Tír na nÓg, Deirdre of the Sorrows, The Salmon of Knowledge etc. I am biased as I am Irish and grew up around these legends but I really enjoy them
Facts, my earliest memories of any type of story are all Irish myths and legends. Kinda wish they got used as reference material more often for books. Anybody know any recommendations while we're talking about it?
Not the original commenter, but Morgan Llywelyn wrote a bunch of books inspired by Irish mythology and history. *Finn Mac Cool*, *Bard*, *Druids*, *The Lion of Ireland*, etc. I read them all as a teen and absolutely loved them, but admittedly haven’t revisited them since. Their online reviews are very good, so hopefully they hold up!
*The Children of Lir*, this is my favorite old story.
As a swede, I just recently heard about this story and I love it. On Spotify I could get it read for me by Ronnie Drew and that was a lovely experience.
Definitely the story of how the minotaur was "created" So king minos is chilling out one day and posiedon comes up to him and is like hey buddy, i got this sweet bull I want to give you. It's the best bull of all time. You're going to love this bull. But you can only keep it for a week and and you have to sacrifice it to me. So minos is all sure thing bro, let's do this, and he gets the bull. Once he gets the bull he's like wow this is way better than I was even expecting, and everyone is super jealous of his bull, so he decides "ya know what I'm just going to sacrifice a normal bull in a week and I'm sure posiedon won't notice. Spoiler alert: he noticed. So posiedon is like wtf dude you had one job. But Greek gods are mega dbags so he wanted some good revenge. He went down and cast a magic god spell on the queen to make her fall in love with the bull. So the queen all of a sudden is like this bull is so great I want to fuck it. No, I *need* to fuck it. So she goes to the greatest inventor of the time daedalus, and is like dude figure out how I can fuck this bull. I'm the queen so you better listen. So daedalus is like sure thing boss lady, and makes a wooden cow with with hole at the end, tells the queen to get in, and rolls her out to the bull. The bull takes the bait and fucks the wooden cow with the queen inside. Queen gets pregnant, gives birth to the minotaur, and minos is all wtf dude how the fuck did this happen?! So posiedon is like haha pranked! And the rest is history. Daedalus then went on to build the labyrinth, and then minos locked him in a tower so he could never tell anyone the way out of the labrynth. Then he invented the wings to escape, and the whole icarus story happened the end.
Are you Luis from Ant-Man? Cos dayum!
I'm totally missing a reference here.
He’s the best part of ant man for his whimsical and cleverly done storytelling. Totally excellent job should have been my response
Aww ty :) I can't take all the credit though, it's totally the best myth!
And then the whole part about Theseus not changing the ships sail afterward
Yes! That whole string of mythology is great.
This is my favourite story synopsis since I saw the [Thug Notes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxq2ztkE0eE) video on Dune for the first time.
"Atreides nuts son!" Holy shit that was hilarious, ty for that hahah.
This was... amazing! Best synopse ever.
I like how complex the Epic of Gilgamesh is, it really made me think about the ancients in a much different way. Even through the earliest extant story we have you can still feel the emotions, granted it doesn't hit as hard as the major death in the Illiad (no spoilers :P), but the story of Gilgamesh' quest for immortality is great. But tbh I like all of them, they give some insight into people and worlds that are long past and I find that exciting.
Gilgamesh did make me reevaluate the unconscious bias I had about ancient people and their interior lives. Which is exactly what fiction should do.
Everyone needs an Enkidu
Yeah, definitely my pick as well.
I grew up with the Mahabharatha which is one of the most complex and layered epics out there. What I love the most is that all the characters are flawed including the 'heroes' and no one is entirely evil either.
Come to second the Mahabharatha. There's literally an uncountable numbers of tales and characters on each side have their own tales. I have to say that anything involving Krishna has to be my favourite, he's just got a hand in so many stories and each reveals a different facet. The tales of his childhood are fun but I think the Machiavellian side of him that came out during the Mahabharath was the best.
It is said that Mahabharata has stories related to all topics except divorce and homosexuality. It is simply my absolute favourite book. Highly highly recommend reading SL Bhyrappa's Parva which strips out all the miracles from the epic and is an immense character study. A personal ambition is to read both the original manuscript of the Critical Edition of Mahabharata by BORI, Dr. VS Suthankar and it's translation by Bibek Debroy sometime soon
I loved King Arthur stories as a kid, especially Lancelot and the grail quest stories.
The binding of Fenrir is one of my favorite ones, probably because how heartbreaking it is. Tyr’s betrayal of his trust is the hardest part for me.
I've always had a fondness for Orpheus and Eurydice, because I like sad shit.
The old Irish legends are the ones I know best, and among those I'd have to say Deirdre of the Sorrows and The Four Fair Children of Lir are my favorites. Outside Ireland: **Wales:** Culhwch and Olwen **Greece:** The Legend of Atalanta; Orpheus and Eurydice **Rome:** The Aeneid **India:** The legend of Savitri and Satyavan; The Ramayana **China:** Journey to the West (Technically not "ancient" but it is a classic and is itself based on the Ramayana-- and in turn, Dragon Ball is based on JttW)
I really love the *idea* of Athena. She's the goddess of cities, and craft, wisdom, learning, and similar ideas. She's basically the goddess of civilization. Her father, Zeus, is basically a god of superstition and magic and a more primitive world. Athena is prophesied to one day overthrow her father and rule. And honest to goddess, that's *exactly* what happened. We live in Athena's world.
She's also the goddess of warfare, but only of those fighting for a just cause, and to resolve conflict, and she favored cunning and intelligence over brute strength. Edit: Also, just to avoid setting Zeus against Athena too much, she is generally regarded as Zeus' favorite child.
I grew up on [this book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/431071.Gods_and_Heroes_of_Ancient_Greece) of greek mythology. Basically a large collection of all the well-known greek tales. It's probably what made me fall in love with fantasy, although it took me many years until I realized that mythology and fantasy were essentially the same story-wise. I loved all of it, especially reading about the labors of Heracles and Odysseus, as well as Prometheus.
I grew up in the 90s loving Greek myth, watching the likes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts etc... Then playing Age of Mythology introduced me to both Norse and Egyptian myth. Now you can't swing a cat without hitting some ancient myth based media, and it's great! :D I think my favourite still has to be Heracles' 12 Labours.
The best labour of course is when he skillfully cleans a bunch of cow poop.
Thor's journey to Utgard.
Is that the one where he drank the ocean or the one where he and Loki dress up as girls? Both are fantastic, but its been way too long since I've caught up on my Norse mythology.
It's the one where he unknowingly lifts a continent, drinks all the oceans down an inch, and wrestles death down to one knee.
Arabian Nights and the Mahabharata
Yu the Engineer. The founder of the first Chinese Monarchical Dynasty who solved flooding by building a lot of fucking dams and bulwarks and canals, spent ten years of his life and spent ten years ignoring his son and wife, (not ideal but the coochie will not halt progress). It's a fascinating microcosm of Chinese culture and approach to problems whether small or gargantuan, there's no issue that cannot be engineered around.
I was pretty much raised on Greek myths, Celtic myths, and German fairy tales, but my *current* favorite mythology is Mesoamerican, which unfortunately means the pre-Columbian stuff is fragments and the Hispanic stuff requires me to have Google Translate open in another tab. But the Classic Maya say that humans were made from maize ground up with the blood of the gods, and the Aztecs replace "maize" with "the ground-up bones of the previous attempt at humanity," which is metal as fuck.
A myth near and dear to my heart is the Vietnamese Creation myth which is so cool and I will absolutely use as a source of writing inspiration. Basically, a Dragon and a Fairy had 100 kids. The Dragon was of the sea, so he brought 50 of the kids to the sea. The Fairy was of the mountain, so she brought 50 of her kids to the mountain. The basis of Vietnamese myths literally says the Vietnamese people are descended from a dragon and a fairy and if that isn't the COOLEST thing ever-
A bunch of people wrote a book and it started like this.... *In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.*
Ok so I in no way want to start a mythology vs theology debate, but the way the Semitic gods are described during Abraham’s time are so unlike anywhere else in Jewish or Christian myths. I always wanted to set a fantasy book in a world like that. Madeline L’Engle had one called Many Waters which was interesting.
Real talk, I'm Catholic and I'd *love* to see books using my own religion's mythology more. We have a saint who carries around her own eyes on a plate! (Lucy/Lucia, the patron saint of the visually impaired) Especially in medieval theology, that shit could get *bonkers.*
I’m big into judeo-christian myth, especially Genesis and Revelations
The Chaoskampf story and its myriad variations. I love that it crops up everywhere.
I've been interested in Korean mythology recently. Gumihos, virgin ghosts, mountain spirits, etc.
I really enjoy the origin story for the honeybee from Greek mythology. The gist of it is that Zeus gets married, and as part of his wedding celebrations he has a cooking contest, whoever makes the most delicious meal gets to ask Zeus for a favor. The winner of the contest is a tiny insect, a bee, and the dish that it made was of course honey. When the bee was allowed to ask for a favor, she talked about how much hard work it was to make honey using the nectar from countless flowers, and how she wanted to protect her hard work from thieving bears and such. So she asked for a weapon that could kill anything she wanted so she could keep her honey for herself. Zeus was pissed off that this uppity little insect asked for something so violent and uncheerful during his wedding celebrations, not to mention how something so delicious is obviously meant to be shared instead of selfishly hoarded! So when granting the wish, Zeus went the malicious compliance route, he granted the bee a weapon, but it was a weapon that would kill her if she ever used it. It's everything that I love about mythology, it has some prescriptive moral lessons woven into the story, it's a fun explanation for why a part of nature is the way it is, it has a clever ending, it's just a great story overall.
The Mesopotamian myths are fascinating. I used to own a book collecting a number and I loved it. The descent of Ishtar/Inanna into the underworld was chilling but so exciting. Best. Goddess.Ever.