Why does mythology fascinate you?

indianaj

New Member
The fact that it does, is pretty much a given seeing the kind of site you are on, but I'm curios what is it for you personally.
For me I'd have to say it's that even tho the human population was so dispersed with limited contact, they all seemed to rationalize the unexplainable in the same way, not to mention the reoccurring themes that appear in many ancient mythologies.
 

DLegend

Member
What I love with mythology is the things that humans can't do are being done by the mythological characters. In a way, it is an expression of how humans wanted to become more than what they are.

Another thing that I like with mythology is that simple things can become part of great stories. Like for example the story of Icarus. He used bird's feathers and wax for him to fly away from Crete.
 

Chintai

Member
In my mind mythology is akin to the superheroes of this century. As DLegend says, they are powerful and able to do things beyond a human's ability. I also think the stories can be rather entertaining - better than modern soap operas a lot of the time!
 

Travis

Member
I agree with DLegend and Chintai. The heroes in mythologies normally have super power and abilities ordinary people don't have. They can fly, communicate through telepathy and do magical things, they possess various occult powers, etc.
 

Eulalie

New Member
I always liked mythology because it was like a fairy tale but only with more meaning. I like the way it ties into our world today, yet still remains magical.
 

Goldie

New Member
That's a good question, and I'm not sure I have a logical answer for the query. I love the mystery and the history involved in mythology. I like the way it explains things, too. There's just something magical with it.
 

Isis

Member
The stories are entertaining and it's fascinating to see how people of various cultures, in the absence of scientific inquiry, made up these stories to explain the world around them.
 

RLynn

Active Member
Something deep inside my psyche resonates with most myths. There is a strangeness about them, almost a suggestion of familiarity as if I had dreamt them. I believe that there is more to them than unscientific attempts to explain natural phenomena. Myths are largely metaphorical and may have subjective significance.

Here's an example.

It's going to be rather chilly in Bethlehem tomorrow night, 5°C (41°F), not a good time to conduct a census or tend flocks of sheep at night. If there was a historical Christmas event, it probably did not occur near midwinter. Yet Yuletide is an appropriate season to think about hope and renewal, just as we look forward to the end of winter and the regeneration of life. Winter is certainly a suitable time for Christmas as myth, but not Christmas as history. I love Christmas, even though it might be said that I don't 'believe' in it. It is very meaningful for me.
 

indianaj

New Member
Well if we are on the subject Christmas is actually the celebration of the pagan ritual of winter solstice, it was incorporated in Christianity to better help the newly converted pagans with accepting the new religion and according to the Jewish calendar Jesus was born in spring not in the winter.
 

RLynn

Active Member
Yes, indeed. The Church was very clever, if a bit dishonest. Grafting Christian events onto pagan observances made the new religion seem less abrasive, and it apparently worked. Some Christian apologists would say that in this case the end justifies the means, but today it just further harms the Church's credibility, which is already at an all time low.

Interesting bit of trivia. Pope Leo X is reported to have said, "It has served us well, this myth of Christ". This is probably just Protestant propaganda.
 

Rhonda Tharp

Active Member
Most of the world's dying gods/savior gods were born on December 25th - Celtic Lugh, Egyptian Osiris, Greek Attis, Nordic Balder...

Equidistant from the vernal equinox and the winter solstice is Oct 31st/Nov 1st. Pagans believed there was a gateway or portal that opened for ancestors/spirits to visit. Then, Christianity made it "evil."
 

Bona Dea

New Member
I think mythology fascinates because it's something we've been brought up with since birth - from Santa and the tooth fairy to all the other Fairy Tales we are told.

In later life we still see some of the basic ideas in these stories around us - in the films we see to the life we're living.
 
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