What legends are made of....
 

gethnede (forgive the bad spelling) have you heard of it? he was a boy so beautiful the god zeus stole him into olimpus to be the bearer of the cup and his lover, in older versions he was either given to posiden or was posiden's lover, the story actually a way to chart consolations in the summer sky but the story is lovely enough all the same in most versions though when the age is between puberty and 20 or so it really depends on the version hahaha

it's a very well documented one with oodles of books and shrines for it, though zeus liked to snatch up pretty young things all the time so i cannot say for sure it's the same story

then that may be it

i'm more into greek myths though they dreive from the same sourse hahaha

never had the head for that hahaha~ read some breakdowns but that was mostly geography and culture references

it didn't affect my appriciation for anything hahaha, it just made the greek stuff more understandble

Ganemede is an alternate name for the cupbearer of the gods, the boy whom Zeus ran off with.

I like myths but I really don't know a whole lot about them in terms of their cultural surroundings. I know the basics of a few, popular stories etc. from Greek or Norse myth and legend, but there are probably many versions and details vary depending on the age range of the target audience. I've read two different versions of The Iliad and heard of varying details from The Oddessey and they change a lot.

I've read texts on Religion but not specifically myth. Depending on which culture one is talking about though, it gets hard to separate the two.

I tend to like Celtic myths myself, probably because my roots are there as well as Northern Europe so Norse is interesting too. I tend to like individual stories though. There isn't any one culture of myths that like to the exclusion of all others.

It's not so much different authors but different versions of the same myth. I didn't know there were any other versions of the story of Oddyseus' return to Ithaca after the Trojan war, but I've seen several of Homer's Oddyssey, and each have been editted and tweaked to match different audiences I'm sure, whether it's age range or whether something is intended to be meant for entertainment or academic discourse.

I've always had great affection for Celtic mythology. When I was about fifteen I started writing a story based entirely around the faeries of Celtic mythology - the kind that don't look like Tinkerbell, and probably killed some people - and from there, I just started reading whatever I got my hands on. It really sparked my interest in mythology in general.

Recently, though, I've been trying to find stuff on folk tales more than grand, epic mythological legends.

I might start the story back up again, if I can think of a place to take the plot. I had a tendency to just write meandering things when I was younger, and was horrible at tying stuff together. It'd take some revamping, but I do love stuff about faeries. I really don't think there's enough fiction out there that revolves around the faeries of mythology, not the "wish-granting, tiny fluttering" faeries people think about. They're a versatile bunch, so much so that they were adapted and warped to suit the beliefs of people who arrived in the area. Seriously, depending on the time period you're looking at, faeries are either entities of their own, or grounded gods, or demoted angels, or elementals, or dead humans/spirits. You can do pretty much anything with them. They're a writer's dream. Or nightmare, depending on how you look at it.

That's the way with a lot of myth and custom surrounding various figures. They become so intrenched in an area that new comers may take them on themselves out of interest or as a method of warming up to the locals. Some of the old Nordic sagas come from a mingling of Nordic tradition and new Christian influence, and Christmas as we know it now has a lot of roots in pagan belief because the original pagan celebrations could never be fully eradicated.

I have a number of books on folk and fairy tales from Scotland and Ireland. Selkies feature in a number of the ones I've read. The story of a man stealing a selkie pelt to take a wife who then later returns to the sea seems a common theme, as do people who have good fortune after helping a selkie mother.

One of my favourites I remember is the story of a Prince with golden hair who made a friend of a talking horse that helped him achieve various tasks set before him. I'd have to go look it up, not sure which book it's in. I still haven't read many of the stories in the books I have.


Oh, and Saiyouri? If you don't mind, that yellow text is really hard on the eyes. Might just be me but I find it really hard to read.

My mom got me several from used book stores. I have two books on Scottish myth and two more on Celtic myth.

I found my copy of Oxford Myths and Legends: Scottish Folk Tales. It dosen't have the story with the prince and the talking horse but it has one of the selkie stories in it, "MacCodrum of the Seals" and one that I liked called "The Faery Flag of Dunvagen."

It has Thomas the Rhymer as well, and you're interesting in novels, Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner is a good book.

I haven't looked much as Asian myth besides what little pieces are in my Illustrated Myth book like Amaterasu and her cave and the story of Isanagi and Isanami (I think I have the names right but I'm not sure.) I picked up a book on African folk tales by Alexander McCall Smith that I've been poking through. Haven't read the whole thing yet. Lots of stories that feature animals acting like humans, ih the sense of wearing clothes or preparing meals and such. I liked one story about a woman who had a jar for a son.

Just different really. Not too much different from a woman having eggs (minus the living part)or a smith forging a mill out of a feather. It's a cute story. I should read it again. I don't think it's the only story of it's kind. I think Joseph Cambell refers to a similar one in his book, Hero With a Thousand Faces.