this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
74 points (97.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26875 readers
2204 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Why Greek, Roman and Norse mythologies are overused, where others rarely get used?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Once upon a time, there was torrential rain. Such heavy downpour that the animals saw their homes flooding. They run to the hills, the flooding got worse; they run to higher hills, the flooding was still getting worse; eventually they couldn't help but gather together onto the largest hill of the region.

Such a ruckus wouldn't go unnoticed by the Mboi Guazú, the giant serpent; she woke up from her deep slumber, feeling a bit peckish. Unlike most animals she could see in the dark, and what she saw was a feast. Such abundance of prey! She could even ignore their meat, and go straight for the tastiest bits: the eyes.

So she ate the other animals' eyes. One by one. She ate so many eyes that they wouldn't fit the serpent's belly, but she kept eating them. So the eyes started appearing over her body, in-between her scales, creepily emitting light. The more eyes she ate, the more eyes she would have over her body, to the point that she was bright, she was light, she was fire.

She has become the Mboi-Tatá, or the "fire serpent". And she still roams those lands, looking for prey, burning the path as she goes through. If you ever find her while roaming, don't ever forget to close your eyes - and hope for the best.


Okay, that doesn't answer your question but I was in the mood of sharing a bit of the Guarani mythology, the fire serpent. This version of the myth is the one from the Mbyá.

If anyone wants I don't mind sharing other Guaraní myths. I also remember a few Kaingang ones.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

It's interesting that so many religions from all around the world has a 'big flooding' story in it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Pretty much every place where humans lived on for any period of time has had a devastating flood event, so it's a "no brainer" when you think about it, much like how most (every?) ancient religions saw Sol and Luna as some sort of god/dess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I also think that it's interesting. And I wonder if it's something shared by the "collective memory" of humankind, or if it's just that flooding events are so common and impactful that any culture is almost certain to develop that myth, given enough time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

We keep living next to rivers because reliable water is the single most important consideration. Flooding happens. Most parts of the world independently developed sun and moon worship as well, and name colors in roughly the same order.

load more comments (7 replies)