I blog here every couple of weeks and, as is typical, I leave it to the absolute last second. I don't know if I feel better or worse for admitting that I've been thinking about this post for several days and my subject only came to me this morning.
Nothing like a deadline to focus the mind, I always say.
But I did find a topic and it's probably something I'll expand on in the weeks to come. The pantheon of the gods.
Every culture creates its own gods. The Greeks, the Romans, the Norse, the ancient Mesopotamians, Native Americans, as well as various Eastern cultures. We might even say that modern Western civilazation is not immune from creating deities of its own.
But the myths of theism provide a fertile ground for paranormal writers.
Some of the first stories we learned came from Greek and Roman traditions. Zeus or Jupiter and his squabbling family: Hera/Juno, Apollo/Helios, Aphrodite/Venus, Ares/Mars, Artemis/Diana, Athena/Minerva. They provide stories of love, jealousy, infidelity, and life everlasting. The Elysian Fields for the good, the embrace of Hades for the evil.
The legends of them and their interference in human lives (how many bastards did Zeus spawn, anyway? Surely Hera didn't focus all her spite on poor Hercules) give us not only inspiration for plots, but also for emotional themes.
Bulfinch's Mythology is an invaluable resource for researching Greek and Roman myths. The Theoi Project provides information about Greek stories, while the Encyclopedia Mythica gives insight into several different pantheons.
Next time, we head north to Valhalla.
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6 comments:
Sela, myths/gods etc are my passion. In fact I use a patchwork of myths from several different cultures-Celtic, Norse, Tibetan, Sumerian etc in the series I've been writing. Its such a rich resource for stories.
I have a wall chart [too big to hang and really tiny print so I lay it out on the dining room table] showing the family tree and Zeus' offspring are everywhere! The man was busy!
Don't forget Edith Hamilton's Mythology, HJ Rose A Handbook to Greek Mythology and Robert Graves The Greek Myths.
Looking forward to Valhalla :-)
I did a college English paper in 2005 using goddess psychology, psychoanalytical criticism, and the cast of "Sex and the City". Goddess archetypes are a rich resource for fiction.
I mean who wouldn't want to be a god. You could do anything and no one could stop you.
Yeah.
Now, where did I put that bauble they call Earth...?
My high school english teacher beat this subject into my head and it just stuck. It was only in later years that I found the others: the Celts, Africans, and of course, Native American's gods that were just as, if not more interesting.
The draw for me is the fact that people who lived oceans apart somehow, some way, came up with the pantheons that are strikingly similar. Even though migration can explain a lot, it can't all of it, and a part of me that wants to believe in the great unknown smiles to think that maybe there's more to gods and goddesses than myth and legend.
RG, when I first learned about the Epic of Gilgamesh, I did some preliminary research into Sumerian mythology -- it's so complex!
Tilly, thanks for the tips on other resources!
Wow, Gwen. That sounds like quite a paper! Makes good sense, though. I use character archetypes to help me over a hump, but I hadn't considered goddess archetypes.
SJ, didn't your mama ever tell you not to play with things you find in the dirt? Now quit messing around with the planetary order and go in to supper!
Jenna, I've wondered about the very same thing. I've done some work with Norse mythology, but as I write further in this series of posts, I'm looking forward to learning more about other culture's myths.
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