What is your favorite mythological figure (of ancient religions only)?
inb4: the God of the Abrahamic religions hurr durr
Ah now that’s a trick question, because the Abrahamic god is in fact an amalgam of both, which is why he’s so derangedly bipolar in the Old Testament!
Yeah. I think historically it is interesting, because the Hebrew Elohim of Genesis is in the plural, and there is evidence that followers of El believed him to be one deity in a pantheon. In that sense, Elohim and the associated creation myths have their roots in a polytheistic religion.
Yhwh was more likely a figure from a belief system of a different region which ended up co-opting the earlier stories. I know your comment was tongue-in-cheek, but I think it is actually plausible that things like the Catholic Holy Trinity have roots in El and Yhwh technically being different figures.
There are numerous names and in fact, there are sources which I cannot recall, that said his full name was like 24 letters long or something like that. Not surprising since he’s a hodgepodge of lots of prior mythos and was probably written of and modified over hundreds of years.
Prometheus
It might seem like a subjective question, but the answer is objectively Prometheus and his replacements in other cultures.
Someone that went against God(s) to give humans knowledge that at the time was considered magical
Like, we talk about how much tech changes stuff today, but fucking fire?
Imagine being alive when your group of humans mastered fire. That shit would have been fucking mind breaking.
He is the one that have humans fire and was chained to the rock for all time while having his guts eaten by a bird each day which healed each night?
Yep.
The OG Light Bringer sentenced to eternal damnation for providing knowledge to humans.
And yes, I’m still salty Christians made him the bad guy.
Being alive in the time fire was invented - well it’s hard to say since it was Homo Erectus who did so, some millions of years ago. Modern humans are very different from good ole’ Erectus, and we think differently, so… the tale of Prometheus is a good one for sure, but it’s also much younger than the actual history of human control over fire.
Source: https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-did-stone-age-man-make-fire-discovery-importance-facts.html
I like the various mythologies for psychopomps; Anubis, Charon, grim reapers, Azrael, Vanth, valkyries, etc.
psychopomps?
“Psychopomps (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός, psychopompós, literally meaning the ‘guide of souls’)[1] are creatures, spirits, angels, demons, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife.[2]”
cool, thanks.
If you like psychopomps, you should play Spiritfarer, you get to be a psychopomp. and it’s comforting.
Odin is cool af.
Ninshubur. Dude is badass.
