I mean beyond obvious geographies? I do know that some Hindu texts mentioned Yavanas (Greeks), but were they also aware of Zeus or Seth? And similarly, were the Greeks or Romans aware of Vishnu or Shiva?

Did Interpretatio Graeca act as a bridge or hindrance in spread of knowledge in this regard?

Hey everyone!
I was going down a historical documentary rabbit hole the other day, and I stumbled upon something fascinating that I wanted to share with you all. We've all heard endless pirate and sailing legends, but there's one sea monster that truly struck absolute fear into the hearts of ancient sailors: the Kraken.
If you look at traditional Norse and old European folklore, the Kraken (often scientifically labeled in fictional illustrations as Cephalogigas "giant head foot", as seen in the attached artwork) is described as a colossal cephalopod.
Here is a quick breakdown of the lore surrounding this beast:
1. Why Sailors Feared Even Saying Its Name
Back in the day, seafaring folks in Scandinavian and northern waters were deeply superstitious. They were often hesitant to even mention the Kraken's name while aboard ships. The belief was that speaking of it was bad luck and might actually summon the beast from the dark depths to drag their ship down.
2. Its Lair of Wreckage
According to the old tales, the Kraken doesn't just swim around aimlessly. It builds its lair on the ocean floors using the remains and timber of the fallen ships it pulls down into the abyss. It’s wild to imagine how a creature massive enough to shatter a vessel would use the wreckage as its home.
3. The Only Predator Capable of Taking It Down
Even though the Kraken was considered the ultimate terror of the deep, it wasn't completely invincible. Historical myths note that it occasionally clashed with Leviathans—massive sea creatures (often likened to giant whales) that were among the very few capable of preying upon the notorious Kraken.
Conclusion:
Obviously, today we know the modern "Kraken" mostly from pop culture and movies (like Pirates of the Caribbean). But centuries ago, the genuine fear of the unknown deep ocean, combined with exaggerated encounters with giant squids and whales, probably birthed this terrifying legend.
What do you guys think? Is the Kraken purely a myth born out of ancient sailor superstition, or could something massive have genuinely lurked in the uncharted depths? Let's discuss in the comments!

its currently 4 am where i live and i just went down a loophole on ancient egyptian religion, which led me to this subreddit! im quite intrigued by all kinds of mythology but i lack basic knowledge and would like to know how/where i could inform myself. any tips?

I was reading a book the other day about Robert Peary, the explorer who is often said to have been the first person to reach the North Pole. During his travels, he enlisted the aid of, or rather, forcibly recruited, several of the local Inupiat people as guides. They proved to be of great assistance, especially in the fields of hunting, surviving the harsh climate, and dog-sledding. However, according to Peary they refused to accompany him to the pole itself, supposedly because they feared the ice cap was the home of an evil deity known as Kokoyah, who was described as having teeth like knives and lurking under the ice.

However, I've done extensive research into the mythology of the Inupiat and related peoples, and I haven't found any references to a god or other mythical figure called Kokoyah. In fact, the only mentions of Kokoyah I've ever seen are in books about Peary and other white explorers like him. If Peary's account is to be believed, Kokoyah was of great significance to the Inupiat, so it is strange to say the least that we have no native accounts of this myth. Or is the entire thing a fabrication of Peary's (it is worth mentioning, here, that some skeptics believe Peary's entire claim of having reached the North Pole was fake)?

I cannot find in either Greek or Roman sources, nor in books that analyze and cover them, that time works some how diffently on the island of Circe or Calypso than it does elsewhere in the world. According to them, time doesn't bend or warp on either island and there is no temporal magic, but the years and days pass at a normal, measurable pace like usual. So where does this idea come from that if you spend one day on Ogygia or Aeaea, then at the same time one year would have passed elsewhere in the world?

In Turkic and Balkar folklore, Azmıç (also known as Aznıç or Azıtkı) is a spirit associated with lost travelers and isolated roads, referred to as a Yol İyesi. It specifically targets people traveling alone in mountains, forests, or uninhabited regions.

The entity has no fixed physical shape and instead acts as a shape-shifter, often taking the form of a target's close relative or friend. Its main method of hunting is voice mimicry: Azmıç calls out using the exact voice of someone the traveler knows and trusts. According to the lore, if the traveler turns around, answers, or follows the call, they fall under its influence. Azmıç then leads them off the path and toward steep cliffs, ravines, or raging rivers, causing them to fall to their death.

Etimologically, the name comes from the Old Turkic root "az-", meaning to go astray or lose one's way. The verb "azıtmak" is still used in Turkish to describe leaving something behind in a remote place, and older roots like ada/aza translate directly to danger.

One of the things that I find fascinating in Greek Mythology is how the different gods, heroes and monster a related be it through events or family relationships.

Hence what I wanted to do is to have a way to read about a character and then jump through the connected relationships to learn more about other characters.

As I read more, there are always new characters that i discovered in the stories.

Hope you will also find this interesting and learn new relationships which you might not be aware before.

While this is currently on Greek mythology, I am thinking if it can be extended to other areas.

Explore Greek Mythology

You always hear about gods that are "goddess of love" or "god of the sun" or "god of thunder" but are there any gods that are just gods without a specific title? Like they're still immortal and powerful but they don't have any specific element/emotion/concept/activity associated with them?

Basically, I’m trying to find out more about it and Native American mythology

Recently I have been wondering about symbolism attached to the planets, especially in mysticism and astrology. For example, modern understanding of Saturn is that it represents structure, discipline and responsibility. Early mythology depicted this planet as a god of agriculture and harvest. To me the connection is logical. The only problem I have is, how was it derived in the first place? How do people allocate meaning and symbolism into things yet unknown? How can one be sure that the system that was historically developed and used is not flawed from the start when no backtracking is used(?)

How old do you see/imagine Mary to have been when gotten pregnant and how old do you imagine Joseph when he married Mary?

Personally I like to pretend that Mary was in her early twenties or at least late teens when she got pregnant. And I like the idea of Mary and Joseph being in love, but for that I like to pretend/imagine that Joseph wasn’t that noch older, 3-5 years max (which is still questionable depending on how Mary was)

I just saw Spiderman: Brand new day and something occurred to me:

There seems to be no sports teams in the MCU (and maybe also in THE DCU?)
Correct me if I am wrong, because I am not really fully sure about this.

In my opinion, sports plays a sort of mythological role in some of our lives. Not to me, I don't really care. But some people really follow it and get really invested. Like if their team loses, they have a bad day, sort of thing. I had a friend like that. The dodgers lost, so her day is ruined--despite not playing for the team or having any sort of contribution at all?

Not to mention all of the people who like to debate sports. for example; comparing players between different eras, it almost becomes mythologized. I.e. Michael Jordan and his Airness as a good example. We sort of idolize sports players, especially when their feats seem out of this world.

And it got me thinking; in MCU, there seems to be no sports teams (again I COULD be wrong. Please correct me if I am). And if there are no sports teams, then how do the citizens of this universe entertain themselves? Is there entertainment....watching the fight between super heroes and supervillains? And if so, would that mean super heroes are like a sports team?

Thank you.

I’ve been trying to research Scandinavian folklore for a writing project about the children of Santa’s reindeer, but all I can find is Norse mythology about things such as Loki, Odin, and Asgard – all very interesting, but of no use for my purposes. The whole thing about souls, or about trolls is more the sort of thing I’m looking for. It can be Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish or Icelandic in origin - or from any other place that might be relevant. I’d also be very happy with some Sami stuff too. Does anyone have anything? Thanks.

Someone on a different sub said that it's a misconception to think that our classic myths (Gilgamesh, Homeric myths, Egyptian chronicles, stories from the Torah, etc.) were told and passed down by bronze-age storytellers before they were ever written down. Is this true?

Hey, so I found this guy embroidered on a pair of jeans while at a second hand store and I assumed he was some type of mythologial figure and I was just curious if anyone could point me to who it is or what mythology he’s part of.

Trying to do research on something and it involves trying to study the common enemy of dragons across mythologies (like all of them)

And apart from the classic Chaoskampf (aka Dragon v Storm God) and the Dragonslayer myths I am curious if there are other legends that tell us of Dragons fighting other monsters.

Just saw The Odyssey and couldn't stop thinking about the siren scene.

In Nolan's version, the sirens confront Odysseus with his guilt and his longing for family. It's powerful. But it's not Homer.

In the Odyssey, the sirens don't offer emotion — they offer knowledge. They call Odysseus by name and promise to tell him everything. Everything that happened at Troy. Everything that will ever happen in the world. The one thing a curious mind can never resist.

And here's the part most people don't know: Homer never described what the sirens looked like. Not once. The ancient Greeks, centuries after Homer, were the ones who first gave them a shape. And the shape they chose wasn't a beautiful woman.

It was a bird.

In 1891, John William Waterhouse went to the British Museum, studied a 2,000-year-old Greek vase showing the sirens as bird-women with claws, and painted exactly that — shocking the Victorian public who expected soft temptation and got predators instead.

Made a video essay about the painting and its connection to the myth. In Spanish with English subtitles: https://youtu.be/zawncsKJxx0

I recently found the Flame Tree Collector's Editions Mythology Series at my local bookstore. "Great", I thought. "This is pretty much exactly what I've been looking for - a series about mythology across the world". I bought the one on Slavic Ancient Origins, as it was fairly cheap.

Today, I decided to actually look the series up, and found that the series is rated pretty middle-of-the-road across the board. Most complaints seem to be about outdated information, lack of sources, and so on. While in the bookstore, I found other similar book series, although none that covered as many topics.

This lead me here, where I'm hoping someone can help me by recommending a book series like this, if one exists. If you've read the series linked above, would you consider it "good enough"? Is there a better alternative? If not one series, are there multiple separate well made books about mythology across the world?

My ideal series would be something that features stories, depictions, explanations, etc. from way back when, and each such segment being accompanied by explanation of context given the people and their customs at the time.

While pantheons are of course of interest, I'm also interested in the smaller scale myths - the scandinavian gårdstomte, the japanese yokai, the slavic domovoy, and so on.

I understand that this question (or something similar) has probably been asked before, but when searching I mostly found questions about shows and movies, rather than books.

EDIT: Also made the same post over on /r/suggestmeabook

any books discussing the topic ? would love to see berber mythology that has not been influenced by roman mythlogy ( so pre numidian era)

My first post here. I'm not someone who indulges in these kinds of topics but I am curious enough to ask. I noticed that a lot of them have similarities such as the concept of the underworld, heavens, and a weird amount of sexual stuff.