I'm working on a story in which needs an origin story for a monster hunter. In this backstory, the catalyst is a ~something~ that ate exactly half the bodies of his family, split down the middle. It's a long story that sounds a lot less edgy and dumb in context, promise, but to the point: I put the cart before the horse here. So my question is- is there a mythological beastie that fits the bill? It doesn't need to be a perfect match, but more something that kills people with a clear sense of methodology and alien rules to it. My thought is some sort of Yokai, but I'm hesitant to use one since this would be occurring in the middle east, just about.

Not expecting much, but if you know something good for the role I'd be grateful.

Dudes learn the lesson, or don't. Its for dudes. Why is it expected of women to appreciate pure male mythology? Patriarchy and all that. Sure, we could argue all day about a gender war perspectives, but it seems like the absence of this tale in feminine lore is only beneficial to predators. At this point in the culture, why would any women trust patriarchy stamped propohanda? Honestly, it seems intentional.

Im willing to ne redirected to an appropriate sub if it doesn't fit here.

The Five Color Emperors (Five Directional Heavenly Emperors) were five celestial deities worshipped in China during the pre-Qin period. They originally existed as five independent mythological figures, but over time they were systematized into a group of major deities. Each presided over one of the five directions and was associated with a season and one of the Five Elements of Chinese cosmology.

Worship of the Five Color Emperors flourished during the pre-Qin and Qin–Han periods. However, with the rise of Daoism in the later Han dynasty, and the subsequent growth of the Jade Emperor faith, their importance gradually declined as worship and sacrificial rites dedicated to Jade emperor increasingly took their place. The Five Color Emperors still exist in Daoist and folk religious traditions, but their status has diminished considerably.

The Five Color Emperors are:

The Azure Emperor, Taihao (also called Fuxi): Presides over the East and symbolizes spring and the Wood element.

The Fire Emperor Shennong: Presides over the South and symbolizes summer and the Fire element.

The Yellow Emperor, Xuanyuan: Presides over the Center and symbolizes midsummer (depending on the version) and the Earth element. He is also sometimes portrayed as the ancestral progenitor of the Chinese people.

The White Emperor, Shaohao: Presides over the West and symbolizes autumn and the Metal element.

The Black Emperor, Zhuanxu: Presides over the North and symbolizes winter and the Water element.

The Four Sacred Beasts and the Yellow Dragon are also frequently described as attendants of the Five Emperors: the Azure Dragon serves the Azure Emperor, the Vermilion Bird serves the Red Emperor, the White Tiger serves the White Emperor, the Black Tortoise serves the Black Emperor, and the Yellow Dragon serves the Yellow Emperor. In some modern stories, the Yellow Dragon is also used as a symbol of the Yellow Emperor himself.

The relationship between the Black Tortoise and the Black Emperor is particularly interesting. In Daoism, the Black Tortoise gradually became deified as an important northern celestial deity, eventually overshadowing the Black Emperor in both status and popularity.

The Five Immortals of Northeast Chinese shamanism are sometimes thought to have been influenced by the Five Emperors, or to represent a variation of the same concept, although this interpretation requires further evidence. For context, the Five Immortals are five important animals in the animal-worship traditions of Northeast Chinese shamanism: the fox (red fox), weasel (Siberian weasel), rat, snake, and hedgehog.

Finally, because the Five Emperors belong to a very ancient mythological tradition, numerous versions and variations exist. This introduction covers only the best-known version.

So I'm looking for any deties or entities that represent sinning or wrongdoings, specifically ones that aren't involved in stuff like redemption or anything like that, just set up this individual represents the side of chains

Recently I've been doing hobbyist research into Native American folklore and how different myths link together across cultures.

I don't remember how, but I came across this book called "The Blessing Way" by Tony Hillerman. The book itself is irrelevant (plus it's fiction) but I did read the short excerpt of text under it, which sent me down the rabbit hole I'm in now. The passage referred to the navajo shapeshifters (skinwalkers) as "Mai-Cohs" and claimed they transformed into wolves. This got my gears turning, because up until this point with the articles I've read so far the navajo witches were only referred to as "yee naaldlooshii", and of course skinwalkers, and were noted for primarily transforming into coyotes, not wolves. I searched up the word and saw other articles also referring to the the skinwalkers as mai-cohs and claiming that they transform into wolves. Just about all of them (the ones I read at least) were accurate to other accounts of skinwalkers, except for their name. This, plus the meaning of this term translating to both "wolf" and "witch" seeming intentional, made me think that this must be a legitimate distinction in the skinwalker mythos rather than a translation error.

I know that the Native Americans tend to be more secretive with certain aspects of their culture so you're bound to run into unanswered questions, but I'm a bit confused now. Are the navajo witches naaldlooshii or mai-cohs? Are they both? Is there two separate class of navajo witch that function the same yet are called different things? Was this just a piece of fiction Tony Hillerman conjured up that the rest of the internet spread like wildfire?

We all know the famous trope from Harry Potter and other modern fantasy books: if you give a house elf or a helpful spirit a piece of clothing, you break their bond of servitude and set them free.

But I was reading up on original Celtic and Germanic folklore, and doing this actually caused a total disaster. If a family left out a tiny suit of clothes for a helpful Brownie, Pixie, or Kobold who had been secretly doing their chores, the spirit didn’t celebrate, instead they took it as a deep insult.

Because they operated on very strict, ancient rules of hospitality, giving them clothes meant you were either implying they were dirty/naked, or you were trying to transactionally "pay off" a sacred bond of mutual friendship. They would usually burst into tears, curse the household with terrible luck, and vanish forever.

Does anyone know exactly when or why Western pop culture completely flipped this trope from a tragic insult into a rewarding act of liberation?

So... Movies often have undead beings do things, and they often (but not always) stem from some form of folklore. Zombies originated from Haitian folklore and are often depicted turning others into zombies from a mere bite. Vampires originated from centuries of folklore starting with the Greeks. But what about mummies?

Mummies are common Halloween monsters, yet real mummies (second picture provided) look like they're in absolutely no position to do anything. The Mummy's Curse isn't even an Egyptian thing; it stemmed from one of the archaeologists who uncovered King Tut's tomb dying from pre-existing conditions and pneumonia. The Mummy 1999 featured a guy who beefed with archaeologists over the fact that the Egyptians wrapped him up and covered him in bugs.

As far as I am aware in regards to Egyptian mythology, the only prominent mummy myth I can think of is the famous Myth of Osiris, which had Isis mummify Osiris along with a few other gods to try and resurrect Osiris, which... Well, he only managed to live as long as Isis was able to have snu-snu with him.

So uhh... Pardon my Redditor stupidity, but were mummies actually supposed to do anything, mythology or otherwise?

Looking for inspiration to write a short story about a mermaid and a dragon and wanted to use some mythological tales and folklore.

It is known that Zoroastrianism had a huge influence over the development of 2nd Temple Judaism.

However, could we even affirm 2nd Temple Yahweh to be an adaption of Ahura Mazda itself, rather than an evolution of the previous Yahweh ?

Original Yahweh was one of many gods, and he was the national god of Israel and reckoned to be the highest. But in no way anyone believed the concept of divinity to be shared by one entity only. The basic structure of 1st Temple Judaism was not so different from the rest of contemporary religions. They never saw the divine as absolute, but rather recognized multiple gods each with limited power.

By 2nd Temple Judaism, when the O.T. started to be redacted, there was a shift toward seeing Yahweh as an absolute, eternal, omnipotent being that was necessarily one and to whom all divine attributes belonged.

Such developments already happened before in Zoroastrianism, and, indeed, by the time 2nd Temple Judaism arose the Persian empire was influencing Israelites.

But can we go as far as affirming 2nd Temple Yahweh to be derived from Ahura Mazda, rather than original Yahweh ? Could the name Yahweh have shifted its meaning toward being the Israelite word for the same entity known by Persians as Ahura Mazda ?

Ahura Mazda itself was too, originally, one of many gods of the Sintashta religion, the ancestor of both Mazdeism and Vedic religion. In early Vedic religion this same god was known as Varuna and was the highest one of many gods. While between Iranic speakers it became an only god and overtime basically an impersonal cosmic force, in Vedic religion it was demoted to water god, and while Indra became the new chief deity, no monotheistic development took place.

At very least, the history of Iranic branch Varuna turning into Ahura Mazda and of Yahweh turning into 2nd Temple Yahweh is very similiar.

Shoutout to @jens-holland on Tumblr for sharing their ideas for this discussion!

So many on the internet love demonizing the Greek hero Perseus, mostly because of his killing of Medusa, which I'm sure you know all about and I should tell you her tragic backstory doesn't happen in the original Greek myths. But anyways, because of this, Perseus is often painted in a bad light for everything he does despite being probably one of the most noble Greek heroes, one being his rescue and marriage to Princess Andromeda. See, there are some who find the fact he asked Andromeda's father for her hand in marriage before rescuing her as proof of him being a jerk and treating Andromeda as his prize. And not gonna lie, at first, this did rub me the wrong way too.

But here's the thing we need to remember: this is ancient times, their norms and standards are very different from us now. So things that may seem weird and problematic to us might not have been for those in that time, in fact it might have been seen in a positive or progressive light.

It could be said that Perseus was actually being very respectful of Andromeda's virtue and her status as a dependent of her parents. He's following all of the cultural rules at that time. My friend had this idea if her chained to the rock is a metaphor for her unmarried status/being bound to her father's house, so Perseus freeing her is in a way symbolic of him taking her under his protection. And considering that, I started to wonder if maybe her being sacrificed to the sea monster Cetus could possibly be interpreted as her being married off to her uncle, Phineus.

Because keep in mind, while uncle-niece marriages were pretty common occurances, many Greeks didn't like the fact this was a norm.
I have seen it said that he Hades and Persephone myth was probably meant as a commentary of this uncle-niece marriage situation that often happened in Ancient Greece. So considering Perseus is meant to be a very noble and ideal Greek hero, why not add to that by having him rescue a young woman from a terrible marriage and make her end up with a good caring husband and loving relationship instead?

I am curious if there's any mythology that has a god of war or any other aggressive sphere of influence that fights against death, the reason could be to create a mortal world of constant war or whatever the area of influence is. I just found it interesting that to my limited knowledge there isn't one and just wanted to see if anyone has any knowledge.

In Japanese mythology there are two kinds of otherworldly dimensions. First is the realm of the dead, ruled by Enma Daio, where the dead go to be reincarnated on Earth or the Heavenly realms, or punished in the Naraka, the temporary Buddhist Hell. This concept comes straight from Buddhism.

Then there is the Makai, the realm of the "demons", which are obviously not the same as the Judeo Christian fallen Angels. The "demons" are Yokai/Yaoguai, but the minor Yokai live on Earth, in the physical layer of the Universe, even if many of them are disembodied.

The Makai is where the foremost of the dangerous, chaotic Yokai live, and is a dimension/frequency/plane of existence of its own.

Is the Makai the same as the Asuraloka, the realm of the Asuras ? The Asuras in Buddhist mythology are of the same kind of the Devas, the inhabitants of higher, heavenly dimensions where sentient beings with high amounts of positive Karma energy are reborn after death, but they are enclosed by a lower, gloomy dimension and are dominated by envy and wrath.

They are distinct from more round of the mill supernatural beings, such as Yakshas, Rakshasas, Gandharva and Apsharas, who live just under the Devas and can even be equated with specific kinds of Yokai from Japanese mythology. And they are orders of magnitude more powerful, to the point they are directly faced by the Devas, specifically by the 4 Directional Kings, headed by Vaisravana, king of the Yakshas and of the North direction.

I was trying to find names for my characters in a game for 3 characters, so I was thinking of using mythological goddesses.. but as much as I can find, (I have forgotten all high school knowledge of mythology), it’s not three sisters but three faces. Which is.. confusing to me. This also only has to do with Hecate, as it’s the only one I’ve been able to find. I am curious to know if there are goddesses in triples, or if it at all, its just Hecate?

what is your favorite painting/depiction/sketch/etc of Achilles?
Simple or not, symbolic or not, post your favorite

By "old times", I mean "old enough to make the creature public domain and therefore applicable to put in a modern fantasy".