There are books on my shelf that are untouched. Deciding to change that I opened up the book “The Illustrated A-Z of Classic Mythology” by Arthur Cotterell. As I sit here looking at the title I wonder what exactly is ‘classic mythology’. In a sense I would think they’re the myths that everyone knows but then what myths does everyone know?
According to the introduction, Greeks were the ‘myth makers’ of their time. Then, the Romans decided to join in making their own which later combined. In this book it tells where each mythology is located. However, it is limited.
The books is based around Western Mythology. Truthfully, if you go into a stream of anime and manga you’ll find at least one reference to their ‘mythology’. I’ll write about the whole book eventually but this is what the table of contents states.
Classic Mythology
Lovers of Zeus
Heroes
Oracles and Prophecies
Voyagers
Monsters and Fabulous Beasts
Forces of Nature
Giants
Founders
Celtic Mythology
Celtic Otherworlds
Sages and Seers
Magic and Enchantment
Wondrous Cauldrons
Celtic Romance
Single Combat
Heroic Quest
Fabulous Voyages
Norse Mythology
Nature Spirits
Treasures and Talismans
Nose Heroes
The Valkyries
Sorcery and Spells
Tragic Lovers
Rings of Power
Ragnarok
Honestly, I wish that I had a specific direction but as a blog that’s based on all mythics and my adventure there isn’t a specific path I can take other than not taking the chance to open up what I have in my own hands already.
What I can say based off of this book is that it mainly focuses on the Gods of each myth. Though I am interested in all the beast what is the point if one doesn’t know the Gods? As much as I love dragons I have to admit, dragons aren’t the biggest enemies or accomplices in Greek or Roman mythology. Even after all that I’ve looked through the only story that I found about dragons, or had a dragon involved really, was in Heracles’ twelve labors.
Heracles’ twelve labors throws me into a bit of confusion. On some websites I find Hercules and others I find heracles so is the story Greek or is it Roman? Turning to the Heroes page of this book I find both names appear. Heracles being Greek and Hercules being Roman from what I see. Funny how translations get lost over the years.
When I hear Heracles I still see Hercules but as a child I would have never thought that to be a heroic name. Then again, it is in a different language. One of these days I’ll figure it all out. For now, I’m stuck listing all my thoughts until something sticks.
From what I’ve run into I have to say that I believe the origin of dragons has to be eastern. They’re more of a definition there from the beginning than dragons are in the western mythology. Though there are many stories in Western mythology. However, western also means all of europe.
Luckily, I have Google and my disposal and so the question can be answered. Are the mythologies Western and Eastern based on location? I’ll be looking up the definition here in a minute but here are a few pictures to entertain the mind.
Getting the definition of Western mythology and Eastern mythology is going to take more than a question on Google I suppose. Rather, I guess I’m not asking the right question. However, I did find something interesting. When I searched for all the questions I could think of to find the definition of western dragon I got ‘Atlantis’, ‘heros’, ‘about greek mythology’. When I searched for an answer based on eastern mythology I got ‘dragons’ ,‘china’, ‘chinese dragons’, and to laugh because it was a result ‘satan’.
Going off track for a paragraph. When I was a child I thought Satan meant someone evil, someone possessive, and even a traitor. Google is also messing with my head again. I have friends of all different religions and being Satanist(?) is one of them. I was about to tell you what he told me but I’m starting to second guess that I’m attempting to say. Maybe I saw it on tumblr but I was told by someone or something that it wasn’t only about worshiping the devil but here’s something else that might entertain you. When I googled ‘definition of devil’ I got these results.
There wasn’t exactly an expectation when I typed that in but I did find the results more than what I thought they were. Now before I return to the previous subject I have to say, I wish I could avoid religion in this whole mythology trip but alas, that will never happen because if I do then I’ll be limiting myself. And also, since I think this is funny. In the book it has ‘Math’ who was the brother of Welsh mother goddess Don and a great magician. Math is related to a magician. That’s awesome.
Returning! The word mythology comes the greek world mythologia. Making me once again wish that I knew who to read greek. I might as well major in this but it would suck out the fun and give me less frustration. However, then I might lose interest if it was easy for me to find all the answers.
Based on the hemispheres there is no western hemisphere mythology of the greeks. Then again, maybe during their time there was once. I’d have to look up another map of then but are there even stories of Pangaea? Well, literature didn’t exist then but I’m sure stories did. it’d be nice to look back that far which is possible but I’m not planning on digging through that at the moment.
So many question, too much confusion. No set answers. That’s what makes research projects fun doesn’t it? Especially when you don’t have to write an essay over it. Although, I would want to look into the system to see what I can find. I guess being a college student might pay off my free time.
-Thanks for reading, Dj
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