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Original poster

What's your favourite myth?

28 replies

evtheria · 29/03/2023 22:32

What the title says: myths you are fascinated by - ancient or even urban, tell me about it!

Just finished Stone Blind (Medusa, Perseus) and have gone down a rabbit hole looking up other myths I remember being entranced by as a child.

OP posts:
Tryphenia · 29/03/2023 22:48

Ceres and Proserpina, also Irish myths, especially the most Méabh-focused parts from the Táin, and the shape-shifting warrior goddesses of the Tuatha Dé Danann material.

Taytocrisps · 29/03/2023 22:51

The Children of Lir - I love the story, even though it's very sad.

SirTarquin · 29/03/2023 22:56

I always enjoyed telling this urban myth at school if it was late and people were sort of camp-fire telling stories as it freaked out everyone out.

https://urbanlegendsonline.com/dont-look-back/

The version I knew ended slightly differently.

... spoiler...

if you don't know it read the link first....

the noise was the escapee crouching on the roof banging the boyfriend's severed head on a stick. The stick somehow was an important feature at the time. No idea why.

Don't Look Back - UrbanLegendsOnline.com

On the foggy night of their senior costume party Nicole and her date Mark were driving to their school in Mark’s old 1987 Toyota. They…

https://urbanlegendsonline.com/dont-look-back

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Spooky & paranormal
Ripleysgameface · 29/03/2023 22:58

I used to work with a lot of Trinidadian people. I learnt a lot about the culture and also the folklore.
I was fascinated by it but also found it quite scary!

SingingWaffleDoggy · 29/03/2023 23:11

I was fascinated by the Minotaur story as a child. So much so, I stole the book from school 😳it’s the only thing I’ve ever stolen!

MissingMoominMamma · 29/03/2023 23:14

Daedalus and Icarus.

WantToBeHappyAndHealthy · 29/03/2023 23:16

That £9.50 an hour is enough to live on while working 40 hours a week. Love that one.

IggySlave · 29/03/2023 23:23

SingingWaffleDoggy · 29/03/2023 23:11

I was fascinated by the Minotaur story as a child. So much so, I stole the book from school 😳it’s the only thing I’ve ever stolen!

Oh my god, SAME! Genuinely laughed at you steeling the book!

IggySlave · 29/03/2023 23:24

Steeling the book - should have been in the end there.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 29/03/2023 23:47

Trickle-down economics

Beeswood · 29/03/2023 23:53

Baucis and Philemon

carriedout · 29/03/2023 23:55

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 29/03/2023 23:47

Trickle-down economics

This is mine too!

I also like the myth that kids at private school are cleverer rather than just better coached.

Tarkan · 30/03/2023 00:36

Baba Yaga and the house on chicken legs.

My parents had a CD of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition when I was a child and my brother and I were fascinated with the tale after learning about it from the music. I'm in my 40s now and still love it.

EmmaEmerald · 30/03/2023 00:56

bookmarked the Don't Look Back to read later.

What are we counting as myth? Would Spring Heeled Jack count? The sewer pigs of Hampstead Heath? I could go into loads of London stuff but I'll go to sleep and someone else will add it by morning! 😂

GerronBuzanDoThaWomwok · 30/03/2023 01:10

Trans men and transwomen

Makingamess4212 · 30/03/2023 01:32

The infamous "eat your crusts, they'll put hairs on your chest" myth. Love that one.

ApolloandDaphne · 30/03/2023 01:44

I wonder what mine is? I just can't think.

<looks at user name>

Nope no idea! 😀

MarshaMelrose · 30/03/2023 01:47

The 5 second rule. How much I believe it is in direct proportion to how much I want the food. 😉

CalistoNoSolo · 30/03/2023 07:03

Anything from Norse mythology. I love how snow, ice, mountains and sea are woven through the stories and how the gods are very human and relatable. Just beautiful.

CalistoNoSolo · 30/03/2023 07:05

SingingWaffleDoggy · 29/03/2023 23:11

I was fascinated by the Minotaur story as a child. So much so, I stole the book from school 😳it’s the only thing I’ve ever stolen!

The Ashmolean in Oxford currently has an exhibition called Labyrinth which you may be interested in.

CalistoNoSolo · 30/03/2023 07:07

Also, if you like Stephen King, you should read Rose Madder which features the Minotaur.

Zuffe · 30/03/2023 07:13

Avalon and also Atlantis.

Given that so much more land was once accessible, the North Sea could be crossed from what is now Norfolk to Holland sone 7,000 years ago, there will be settlements now swallowed up by seas and marshes. The same too over in Somerset, which was largely marshes and estuaries once upon a time.

Lizzy1980 · 30/03/2023 07:16

I absolutely loved Greek Mythology when I was little. I found it fascinating and a bit scary. I recently watched Clash of the Titans (the original) and was cringing at the special effects. I found it genuinely frightening when I was a kid.

SingingWaffleDoggy · 30/03/2023 11:31

Thank you @CalistoNoSolo that looks great!

Nimbostratus100 · 30/03/2023 11:34

I have two favourites from my childhood

  1. every unborn baby is visited by an angel and told their entire life storey and hearing this, they get to choose to be born or not. If they dont want to be born, they are taken away by the angel. If they want to be born, they are tapped on the head by a silver hammer, and forget what they have been told
  2. In the next life, you will be expected to live for 100 years, on what you have given away altruistically in this life