odiko-ptino:

#mythstruck4

Yooooooo so I saw a cool thing that I wanted share! Tom Swiss the Zen Pagan on Patheos had an idea: a revised version of #filmstruck4, where it’s #mythstruck4 instead. You share the four myths that ‘define’ you, or had the most significance to your life. I hope you guys see this and reblog with your myths; I’d love to read them! 😀

Here’s mine… all Greek except one, no particular order of significance:

1. The Egyptian story of the Shipwrecked Sailor – this is less a myth and more of a fairy tale, I think, but I’m not really clear on what the semantic difference is 😛 I had a picture book as a kid of this story… a sailor was the only survivor of a shipwreck and he washed up on an apparently deserted island. On this island was a huge snake, 30 cubits long and calling himself the Lord of Punt, who carried the sailor back to his (the snake’s) home, and told him he was a welcome guest on the island and could help himself to anything the island had to offer until he was rescued. The moral of the story was supposed to be along the lines of ‘sometimes misfortune leads to adventure’ and it’s the one single story that got me interested in ancient cultures and their myths in the first place 🙂 I’d like to write this out someday too

2. The myth of Ares and the Aloadai: I assume most of you know my feelings about this story.. two apparently undefeatable giants are assaulting Olympus, with the intent of stealing away Hera and Artemis, and no one can figure out how to defeat them. Ares charges in anyway, without a good plan (his m.o.), and gets captured and imprisoned – in a jar. He’s held there for over a year, and the myth clearly states that he was weakened to where he was almost dying by the time Hermes and Artemis tricked the giants into killing each other and broke him out. This story was what made me want to read more about Ares, and the more I read, the more I realized that I absolutely love this misunderstood god ❤

3. Hermes teases the baby nymphs: It was a tough call between this one and the story where Hermes farted on Apollo when they first met. But I’ve been absolutely enchanted with the domesticity of this – just the fact that no matter how many thousands of years ago, gods or mortals alike, tiny naughty children exasperate their mothers, and the cool dorky uncle figures pretend to be scary monsters to playfully tease the kids. This might be the moment I saw how *relatable* these figures are.

4. Icarus falls: obviously 🙂 this isn’t even particularly my favorite myth, believe it or not! But it’s the one that Started It All. That one day last winter when I was scrolling through Tumblr, looking at posts about Supernatural and the Avengers, and somehow saw Erinye’s famous post and was so captivated that I *had* to write about it, and I’m so glad it happened 😀

Please reblog and add your own!!