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Mythology/Scripture

akautonomics

akautonomics

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This is sort of a tangent from the Alchemy thread.

We were discussing Norse mythology in the Alchemy thread, and though I haven't read any of the Eddas, I know a few of the concepts.

I am familiar with a fair bit of Greek and Roman mythology, and know some stories from the Hindu scriptures.

I know a bit about one little thing of the Indigenous American's spirituality, who tell their stories through oratory instead of scripture. A wolf guy in the mental hospital told it to me. (I also had a wolf hat.): A young man left his family to contemplate his dreams for the future in the woods. He was looking up at the moon. And she appeared as a luminescent woman. He talked to her then she ran away. He tried to chase her because he wanted to ask for her wisdom. He finally caught her and she told him some of the secrets of the night sky.

This is a thread for mythology, and also scripture (which is basically mythology).
And which mythology/scriptures aesthetic do you prefer?

I think I like Norse the best. It's bad ass. A close second would be Hindu (Kali and Shiva are dope.)
 
Mythology isn't 'nonsense' anymore than fiction is. What an odd statement.

I'm kind of getting into the subject so I don't really know enough to have any opinions on the matter, other than I like them.
 
Never Knows Best said:
^Fairy tales are a specific literary form, both fairy tales and myths would fit under the broader category of folklore.

(Will answer OP later)
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{folklore}⊆{patent nonsense}

Better? :P

Mythology isn't 'nonsense' anymore than fiction is. What an odd statement
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It can't be verified, it can't be falsified, and it's not an analytic truth, therefore it's reduced to nonsense, or at least it can be argued to be such.

Ok, but maybe I'm taking too hard a line, and maybe I was a bit too harsh on Akautonomics. I think some of the myths can be fun to read, and that they perhaps can shed some light on the history of human culture and it's development, but beyond that I don't know what they have to offer.
 
Better? :P
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm happy now.

I think some of the myths can be fun to read, and that they perhaps can shed some light on the history of human culture and it's development, but beyond that I don't know what they have to offer
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That's plenty to offer! One man's trash, I suppose...

Anyway, Jewish folktales have been entertaining me lately. Example:

A marriage matchmaker was trying to fix a young man up with a local woman. When the young man heard who she was, he exclaimed, “What! You cannot expect me to want to marry her!”
“Well why not?” asked the matchmaker.
“For one thing,” the man replied, “she is deaf.”
“What is so bad about that?” the matchmaker said. “As a matter of fact, that can actually be a good thing. After all, it is unlikely that you two will get into any arguments.”
“But,” the man continued, “she is also blind!”
“Well,” replied the matchmaker, “is that really a bad thing? I mean, after all, that will let you do whatever you want without having to deal with her objections.”
“She also limps badly,” the man said.
“That can be a great thing,” the matchmaker replied. “You can chase after all the women you want, and she can’t stop you!”
“And she also has a hunchback,” the man said.
Oh come on now,” replied the matchmaker, “don’t be so picky. Every girl is bound to have one fault.”
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rangrz said:
This is a thread for patent nonsense, and also fairy-tales(which is basically patent nonsense)
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Eh, I don't think so. When viewed from a suitable epistemological distance as culturally significant, typically ancient works of fiction, most myths are no less sensible than their modern counterparts. Claiming that the Myth of Sisyphus is an example of 'patent nonsense' is barely different from leveling the same charge against Sherlock Holmes, Infinite Jest, or Madame Bovary. It seems excessive.
 
Mythology actually does something that philosophy also does. It probe the depths of the human experience by presenting unfamiliar scenarios and the experiences of others, and asking the listeners to put themselves in such positions and hopefully pull out some valuable lessons for their own lives. It's really a collaboration between art and philosophy.
 
@PA: Fair enough, and I did in my second post say I was taking too harsh a stance and that they had value as both entertainment and as cultural artifacts. To be perfectly fucking honest, my initial post was essentially intended to troll OP (and not maliciously, OP is my fav person in the world IRL)

I've found comparing the different mythos, abstracting away the different names/places/etc used by different cultures and noting the similarities and differences in the stories, ethics, morals, and subjects visited to be interesting. I'm by no means qualified to do so, but I find that doing it can give some insight into what aspects are intrinsic to the human brain/mind and thus common among all/most of them of and which are artefacts of location or of stochastic events local to different cultures.
 
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