What are your favorite gods in mythology?

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What are your favorite gods in mythology?

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1iaia852
Abr 17, 2010, 7:28 am

Este mensaje fue borrado por su autor.

2PeaceLoveAndKoalas
Abr 17, 2010, 2:20 pm

Hi there, I'm Tony. (:
My favourite mythological gods would have to be Hekate, Pandora, Poseidon, and Selene.

3Aurora56
Abr 17, 2010, 9:38 pm

Hey Tony, looks like your into the darker gods and goddess. Any particular reason why? I like Hecate and Selene too, since Hecate is the Goddess of magic and Selene of the moon, though Artemis gets more credit, I also like Eos, the Goddess of the dawn, Her Roman counter part Aurora, is actually my middle name. Another of my favorites is Nyx, she is the personification of night and the mother of many gods and goddesses herself.

Though was Pandora really a goddesses? I don't think so but I may be wrong

4MerryMary
Abr 17, 2010, 11:33 pm

Nope.

5PhaedraB
Abr 18, 2010, 8:03 am

Perhaps it would be easier to ask who are your favorite mythological characters or stories.

(Some of us do take the Gods seriously, BTW.)

6PeaceLoveAndKoalas
Abr 18, 2010, 2:12 pm

Aurora56, I don't know if I would consider Pandora a goddess, I just threw that out there. No, I don't think I have a particular reason, but the books I'm reading really express the dark gods more, and it's quite interesting, their stories. I've never heard of Nyx, but from your description, I think I would like to learn more. Oops, I always get Hekate's name spelled wrong.

7Aurora56
Abr 21, 2010, 10:19 pm

What are the stories that you are reading? Yes Nyx is a very interesting goddess. Shes the daughter of chaos, Her children are for the most part dark sorts and include the Moerae (the three Fates), Nemesis (justice and divine retribution),Hypnos (Sleep) and His brother Thanatos (Death), Moros (Doom), the Keres, goddesses of violent death, Oizys (Misery), the Hesperides who guarded the golden apples, and Eris (Strife, sometimes said to be a daughter of Hera. She was said to be older and more powerful than Zues.

To PhaedraB Im sorry if I insulted you in some way. I wasn't trying to or in anyway trying to show disrespect to anyones beliefs. I do take the Gods and Goddesses quiet seriously

8PhaedraB
Abr 22, 2010, 12:23 pm

7>

Aurora (love the name :-), I hope I didn't come off as sounding snippy. I am very interested in mythology, but somewhat less as entertainment than as insights into human consciousness (which sounds very pretentious, but I don't know how else to express it.)

It is interesting to me that exposure to Greek myths through sources such as Edith Hamilton has made the average person expect that deities have stories about them that have some consistency and structure; that they have, for example, beginnings, middles and ends. However, many of the stories about the Gods have little internal consistency, one story to another. Many Deities have no "stories" about them at all, not in an Edith Hamilton sense. Her mythological retellings are based on literary sources, plays and poetry about the Gods, not religious literature. It's kind of like learning about Christianity by reading Ben Hur.

I don't mean to hijack the thread. Just for the record, I still have my original copy of Edith Hamilton, from my high school English class in 1964 :-)

9vpfluke
Abr 23, 2010, 12:11 am

I wasn't particularly into Edith Hamilton in my high school years, but I really liked Charles Mills Gayley. But Hamilton's "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" has 5,469 books in LT vs 92 for Mills' "Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art": so I'm in the minority position. Gayley is more of a reference book.

10PhaedraB
Abr 23, 2010, 8:33 am

In my school, Edith Hamilton was an assigned text, so I'm not surprised a whole lot of people have it.

11bakabaka84
Abr 23, 2010, 6:08 pm

some of my favorites would be Janus, Athena, Hephaestus, Loki, The Valkyrie, Fortuna

12PeaceLoveAndKoalas
Abr 23, 2010, 9:07 pm

Aurora56;
I am on the tenth book in the "Daughters of the Moon" series by Lynne Ewing, where four (+1 in the middle) teenage girls found out they were the last things to come out of Pandora's Box, hope. They have to fight the anchient Evil, the Atrox, and it's band of Followers, strong not human (can't think of the word at the moment-lol) Atrox assistants. I reccomend it 100%!
Also, I recently finished the second Percy Jackson and the Olympians book.

13Payten
Abr 23, 2010, 9:11 pm

My favorite goddess is Artemis. I'm studying this in my gifted class.

14iaia852
Abr 23, 2010, 9:32 pm

mine are athena, artemis, apollo, fortuna, Persephone (semi-god) and Moloch

15DaynaRT
Abr 23, 2010, 9:50 pm

Dionysus has always been my favorite. Give me drunken debauchery every time.

16PhaedraB
Abr 23, 2010, 10:12 pm

>15 DaynaRT:, I'll drink to that! (Or, to Him!)

17bakabaka84
Abr 23, 2010, 10:46 pm

>16 PhaedraB: I'll secend that tost

18PeaceLoveAndKoalas
Abr 24, 2010, 10:55 am

Este mensaje fue borrado por su autor.

19Aurora56
Abr 26, 2010, 3:34 pm

PeaceLoveAndKoalas,

Yea I started to read the Daughter of the Moon series, though I haven't gotten far, and Ive read the Percy Jackson books which I really enjoyed. Another good series is the House of Night books. This is one series that has Nyx as a strong character. Its actually about vampires, buts its pretty good. Not your typical retelling of the same vampire lore

20PeaceLoveAndKoalas
Abr 26, 2010, 5:27 pm

>19 Aurora56:: That series sounds good! I was around Librarything, browsing around some similar libraries and found the book, Oh. My. Gods by Tera Lynn Childs. Has anyone read it- it hasn't gotten the best reviews.
How has eveyone's Monday been? I am doing an article for a project on Greek gods, and I've learned quite a lot since I started this afternoon. I found a particular book I liked, seeing as it has some of the gods that aren't mentioned quite as much, and I have listed them on my profile.
Have a nice evening!

21foggidawn
Abr 26, 2010, 11:23 pm

#20 -- I read it. I wouldn't recommend it. It seemed to me like the author was just jumping on the Percy Jackson idea and not doing it nearly as well as Riordan did.

22hollyness
Editado: Abr 27, 2010, 11:57 am

Agreed on Dionysus.
The Valkyrie are awesome. I liked Loki mostly in the tale of Thor's Missing Hammer.
Top favorites though are Athena, Danu (Celtic (aka Dannan)), Anu (Celtic), Eros (Hilarious in Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark-Hunter novels), and also Hades (poor guy has bad reputation when it comes to Persephone).
Still... definitely will drink to Dionysus!

23MerryMary
Abr 27, 2010, 4:39 pm

Between the Percy Jackson series and Mary Renault's The King Must Die, I find myself partial to Poseidon.

24nigelmcbain
mayo 3, 2010, 4:01 am

I think the great thing about the gods is that they reflect the diversity of our experience and the fact that there are so many of them allows for a plurality of human opinion, occupation and desire.

My favourite gods are the Deiconsentes, and the Aesir and Vanir. Specifically I admire Apollo, Hermes, Njord, Tyr, Odin, Thor, Bragi, Janus Quirinus, Frigga, Freyr and Freyja, Aphrodite, Eros, Athena, Demeter, Juno.

"Latro in the Mist" by Gene Wolfe is a great book for reading about the Greek Gods and Goddesses.

25devious_dantes
mayo 6, 2010, 2:01 pm

Athena is probably my favorite. I love the combination of wisdom and warrior-ness. It's also cool that she was so dedicated and disciplined that she was a virgin.
I also like Hercules because of all the stuff he had to put up with. Lus, he joined the Avengers!

26FFortuna
mayo 6, 2010, 8:32 pm

Hermes, Athena, Artemis, and Loki are my favorites. Hermes and Loki because they're just so much fun, and Athena and Artemis because they were female goddesses who weren't all about sex, or defined by their husbands. (That's how I put it now. I did most of my plain myth-reading when I was younger, and I liked them because their stories were the most interesting because they did things on their own.)

27Thespian
mayo 8, 2010, 7:45 pm

Hi, my name is Joe. And my favorite mythology Gods would have to be, Athena, Hermes, Poseidon, and Artemis. So far, I could only find a book of Greek Mythology. I want to read books on Norse, and Egyptian mythology. Does anyone here have any good recommendations?

28Poptropica
mayo 8, 2010, 7:52 pm

My favorites are Athena, Artemis, Selene, and Nyx. I hate it that in most of the stories Selene the goddess of the moon is taken over by Artemis the goddess of the hunt.
#12and 19- I also have read the Daughters of the Moon and House of Night and Percy Jackson. I recommend all of them.
In the Daughters of the Moon i wonder why the Ewing put Tianna in there just to take her right back out again.

29rolandperkins
mayo 8, 2010, 8:24 pm

Goddesses: Aphrodite, Artemis, Eirene (Lat. Pax)

Gods: Hermes, Hephaistos, Aeolus

30FFortuna
mayo 9, 2010, 12:09 am

27, I recommend going to the library and getting as much as possible. From my experience, you'll find that each rendition of Egyptian mythology is a little different, and that each book of Norse mythology will have information not even alluded to in the others, so if you're really interested read as many books as you can. Alternatively, just pick the fattest.

31stdragon
mayo 23, 2010, 1:28 pm

I used to favor Apollo, and any gods I considered good and powerful and having cool abilities. Over time I started being interested in the more minor gods, like Dionysus. If you like Greek gods because of their humanism and imperfections, the minor gods are even more like that I think.

It's also kind of cool that Dionysus has "wimpy" powers compared to some other gods, but they're still godly. The way he can control humans is interesting.

I'm also interested in the impact of gods like Dionysus on Christianity. I used to think Jesus was similar to Apollo but, again, over time I see more stuff about Dionysus than Apollo.

I'm very interested in Egyptian gods. That was one of my favorite parts of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Other than that I haven't read much about them though. They seem really awesome.

32abbiedoo101
Jul 5, 2010, 11:37 pm

my favorites are aphrodite, hermes, athena, hera and poseidon

33MarkHornNYC
Jul 14, 2010, 11:06 pm

In Buddhist myth, Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion is male in the Theravada tradition — but as Buddhism moved East from India thru China and Japan, the Bodhisattva morphed into Kuan Yin, a female deity. And in Journey To The West, the great Chinese mythic epic, Kuan Yin has a bit of the Trickster in her (as most certainly does Sun Wukong, the Monkey King himself). Right now, these are among my faves.

In Jewish mythology, Shemhazai and Azazel, the angels who had human wives and gave birth to giants, heroes and monsters are divine beings I am interested in. And semi-divine as Hercules was, Samson is a great mythic character.

The question of course was about gods. But I take that to include divine beings (after all, Thetis was not a goddess, but a nymph who was divine if not a member of the top pantheon). And for that matter mythological heroes: Odysseus tops among them.

Those are my picks today.

34Poptropica
Jul 23, 2010, 11:44 am

I am studying Egyptian mythology ths month since i am finished with greek mythology.

35Saieeda
Jul 29, 2010, 12:00 am

Isis, Nut and Geb from ancient Egyptian mythology are my favorite mythological gods. I love the power of thier love.

36Saieeda
Editado: Jul 29, 2010, 12:02 am

@ 3&4 Pandora's human; she's not a god. :P

37Poptropica
Jul 29, 2010, 10:23 am

35- Yes their love is really powerful.

36- I thought Pandora was a maiden made by Hephaestus to teach mankind a lesson on curiousty. Correct me if I am wrong though. I could be.

38Saieeda
Editado: Ago 4, 2010, 5:13 pm

@37 You are right although perhaps a little too specific. Pandora, the first woman, was made to punish man. She was made with insatiable curiosity because the gods knew it would lead to man's demise.
Pandora is simply a human woman though, regardless of why she was created.
The general message of the myth: woman is curious as a bane on men. It is her fault there is evil in the world. (Although if you look at the myth more closely, it is the fault of man since it is becuase of them that she was made.)

39Poptropica
Ago 1, 2010, 7:38 pm

Oh. Thanks for clearing that up.

40melpet
Sep 23, 2010, 8:51 pm

I love the Greek pantheon and spend alot of time studying it... I am always eager for more information and insites to the Gods. I'm not sure I could say I truly have a favorite though. I'm kind of fond of Hades (I know it's a little odd, lol), and Ares. I do like Nyx, as well as Athena. I also like reading about the Demi-gods such as Herakles and Achilleus quite a bit.

One of my favorite books to read through at the momen isWilliam Hansen's Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans

41MerryMary
Sep 23, 2010, 9:10 pm

I keep returning, time and again, to Edith Hamilton's Mythology. She is the gold standard for me.

42Poptropica
Oct 4, 2010, 2:06 pm

I have read that book and i think is a great collection of myths and stories about greek gods and goddesses.

43Cynara
Oct 5, 2010, 1:38 pm

I like Thoth, aka Djehuty. There's something about the medical-scholar deities that's very civilised.

44Poptropica
Oct 15, 2010, 8:42 pm

Thoth is Egyptian, yes? An egptian deity, correct?

45Cynara
Oct 16, 2010, 10:26 am

Yep, as Egyptian as they come, though the Greeks later syncretised him with Hermes.

46Poptropica
Oct 17, 2010, 12:07 pm

Yes! I am now studying Egyptian mythology since i finished grekk mythology.

47VivalaErin
Oct 17, 2010, 10:48 pm

I really have a thing for mythology, tons of books about most of them.

Favorite(s)? Hmm...

Orpheus, though not a god, is by far my favorite hero!
Apollo definitely - I like that he is the only one who keeps in name in Greek and Roman (he's also the mentor of Orpheus so that's part of it too).

Isis and Osiris from Egypt, and the story where she travels the world to gather the scattered pieces of his body.

Ishtar from Mesopotamia

Norse - Ragnarok (doom of the gods), when Odin and Fenrir will fight until the world ends :)

And from Ireland it is definitely the Sidhe.

I'm sure there's more, but now it's bedtime...

48Poptropica
Oct 19, 2010, 3:35 pm

Wow. Lots!

49rolandperkins
Oct 20, 2010, 4:40 pm

Kwan Yin, god>goddess (originally male, from what I've read, now female.)
I'm not sure of the "in mythology" part of the heading for this one, as I don't know any stories about her.

I'm Irish but don't know the language; but I've heard that Sidhe (47) is pronounced "She".
Never got interested in the Sidhe, but it comes out to a good pronoun in English, if that pronunciation is right. And one of my favorite lines in 'Joyce is
". . . a reine* of the Sidhe, a queen shebean" .

*pronounced (approximately) "wren", a f avorite animal of Joyce.

50Poptropica
Oct 20, 2010, 7:12 pm

Cool

51MisfitKotLD
Ago 15, 2012, 10:26 pm

Loki and Set have some interesting (in bizarre ways) myths. So does Siva. I think my favorite is that Kali is an unstoppable berserker who can only be stopped by Siva's prone form about to be trampled under her feet.

52Morigue
Ago 16, 2012, 8:12 am

Athene has been my favorite since I was young and over time I've also come to enjoy the triple deity The Morrigan from Irish mythology.

53lokidragon
Oct 3, 2012, 2:23 pm

Well Loki of course, but I also like the Native American "Raven" mythos...yes I have a thing for trickster gods and goddesses!

54tuna.moriarty
Ene 4, 2020, 8:11 pm

Favorite god is by far Loki, though every time I think of him I imagine him with a goat tied to his testicles. I think the closest behind him is Apollo.

Favorite goddess? Tie between Artemis and Sekhmet.

As for stories, I love the story of Hyacinth (Apollo's gay lover), The Book of Thoth and of course Ragnarok. Oh, and that one when Thor's hammer gets stolen and he ends up dressing as Freya to get it back. Classic.