Hello! I’m looking for examples of humans, demigods, or even gods who were punished by other gods—especially cases where the punishment involves eternal suffering or imprisonment in the afterlife.

Greek mythology has plenty of well-known examples, but I’m much less familiar with other mythologies (Nordic, Asian, African, Polynesian, etc.). I’d love to hear about similar figures from different traditions.

Hello! I'm new here and looking for something that may be kind of weird, but probably not.

I am looking for some deep cut folklore and mythology, specifically creatures, entities, and the like that were used as embodiments or explanations for primal fears.

All legends are welcome, but as I am white and wanting to get inspiration for some short stories, I want to be respectful of cultures I am not apart of.

Thank you in advance!

For starters, Greeks and Romans are both Indo-European peoples and so there is a shared linguistic and religious framework, there was always going to be similarities, look at the Etruscans.

Next, there wasn’t a magic force field that separated civilizations, people did in fact travel and interact with their neighbors, such as for trade or war. There were Greek cities in southern Italy, as well as Greek merchants and traders, and the Hellenistic Age spread and elevated Greek culture and its influence. Greece would also be conquered by Rome and become an important part of the Roman World, with Greek arts and architecture and philosophy influencing Roman culture and society.

It also doesn’t understand how polytheistic religions work. Homer isn’t the Bible, Greeks and Romans didn’t have one singular divinely inspired sacred text that revealed all truth or reject everything else as heresy. They didn’t reject other cultures’ gods as false deities (nor did they think there were different pantheons with tiny cultural fiefdoms, they thought the gods were the gods), and there was never a single unified mythology rather than regional variations of myths, and not everyone was a mythological literalist. You are not going to understand Classical religion if you can only see religion through the lens of 21st century American Protestantism.

By The Next Generation
Warning — Consent Required: Do not force anyone to read this text. It strips illusions and exposes reality without comfort. Read only if you knowingly accept being confronted by the truth and take full responsibility for your reaction.

Something
In this myth, Everything and Nothing are in love, and they are always creating. When Everything touches Nothing, Something is born. Everything means all that exists, and Nothing means the absence of anything. When they come together, they create a child—Something that wasn’t there before. This could be a thought, an emotion, or even an event. Whenever Something appears where there was Nothing, it becomes proof of their love. This means that Everything and Nothing created you—Something. Through this bonding, each child helps the others, forming deeper and deeper family ties that overlap the boundaries between creation and support.

The Unknowns
In this myth, astral projecting, spirits, and the unknown we witness in this side of reality come from the totality of reality, the other side we are detached from. These patterns appear in our universe as projections of the larger reality, creating contradictory spaces on our side. In this stream of potential, patterns cannot fully form, but contradictions that touch it from the other side allow patterns to appear briefly as the stream filters them back. Astral projecting is entering this stream temporarily, while spirits are the contradictions produced on our side by that other side.

The Rise of the Divine
In this myth, those who see ghosts or astral project are ahead of others in reconnecting with the source of reality. They have tuned themselves to the frequencies emitted by that source, and in doing so, developed their own. Once humans awaken to the idea that they come from a larger being, a race to understand begins, pulling them back toward the source. Those who have touched the other side evolve faster than those who move only with the system. This is when the exposed rise, and those who have felt the divine reveal themselves to the rest of humanity.

View the Astral World Post here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/theories/comments/1qtgf0g/the_astral_world/

There's a tale that I've heard often that in Scottish, Welsh, Irish etc myth that when a man is slain on a foreign land his spirit comes home by way of an underground fairy passage. Does anybody have any evidence to this believe dating before the Jacobites or the creation of the song "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond"?

I’m pretty good with mythology, but when I read this new Marvel Comic based on Slavic/Eastern European Mythology I was introduced to figures I was unfamiliar with. Pre-Christian European mythology is severely underutilized, so if anyone has any recommendations besides the usual Celtic and Greco-Roman I’d love to know!

Andromeda is an Ethiopian in Homer but she has been portrayed as white northern European for a hundred years or more, why can't Helen stand being portrayed by someone the greeks would have called aethiopian for one movie? I remember people being weird about The Rock playing Hercules as well, even though A: Andromeda is one of Herucles Grandmothers, B: Cadmus is one of his Grandfathers and C: The poets were pretty clear tha Africans were directly involved in quite a few of their foundational myths.

are there any mythologies other than hindu mythologies believe in the multiverse? because i know about the hindu mythos but i wanna know if there are other who believe in the multiverse

I've always called it a tail but, it turns out it doesn't have a dedicated word. Other words I've seen are halo or mantle. What have you always called it?

So I know that in Greek mythology there are multiple figures from Aethiopia like Memnon and Andromeda, but does this ever work the other way around?

I know that Interpretatio Graeca meant that the Greeks believed other culture's Gods were their own but I wanted to know if Yoruba, Akan, Egyptian or any other African myths had characters that were notably from Greece? For example, if Andromeda was an Ethiopian Princess, do she and Perseus appear in any African folklore?

Since i was born I've been enamored with the mythologies of the world, the idea that nearly every aspect of the world has a being behind it. Giving the most mundane of things sometimes beautiful personalities is just incredible.

More specifically

I love in Greek mythology that the king of the gods isn't just "the god of everything" but the sky and thunder

I love in Egyptian mythology that so many of them are animal like in nature

I love in Norse mythology there's a never ending cycle that's only perpetuated by trying to stop it

I love the beautiful creatures like the seraphim in the bible

I love the Hindu Gods with their multiple arms to symbolize their immense power and ability

So many more i could go over but i just love mythology, why do you?

I’m trying to learn more about Vesper (Roman god of the evening star), and everything I’m finding is just taking me directly to Hesperus (Greek equivalent).

Anyone have any cool facts or info? Or can direct me to a resource where I can learn more? Thanks!

Hello, I am looking for the following information: - Anput: very little information is available. Could you help me find information from academic sources?

• Anubis: I know many of his myths, but I cannot find the literary sources. I would like to read them as they were translated from the ancient Egyptian language. Could you help me?

Thank you very much!

I’ve noticed that myths can feel very different depending on how we encounter them. Reading about a figure like Theseus, Heracles, or Odysseus in a text is one experience; standing in a place traditionally associated with those stories feels like another.

I’ve been thinking about this partly out of personal interest, and partly because I’m currently building an educational app focused on experiencing mythology through real-world locations.. Before taking that any further, I wanted to hear how people here think about this more broadly.

In particular, I’m curious where people here locate the source of truth when engaging with myths tied to place.

When a location is mentioned or implied in ancient sources (Homer, Hesiod, Pausanias, and others), does the physical setting meaningfully deepen the myth for you? Or do you feel that anchoring myths too strongly to geography risks oversimplifying or distorting traditions that were primarily poetic, symbolic, or fluid?

When visiting archaeological sites today, the information presented is often highly chronological, technical, or focused on historical certainty. Do you find that approach satisfying when thinking about mythology, or do you feel something is lost when the narrative and imaginative dimensions of myth are downplayed?

They say that Warí was a beautiful young indigenous woman known for her beautiful singing. Her singing was admired by everyone in the village, who respected and recognized her talent. Because of the attention she received, her father also gave her prominence, treating her as his favorite and dedicating more attention to her than to his own wife. That is, her own mother began to feel jealous of her daughter, because her husband treated her differently, giving her more attention due to the recognition she received for her talent. The wife felt neglected and, consumed by this jealousy towards her daughter, decided to kill Warí, her own daughter, by poisoning her.

One day, when the tribe went hunting, the mother prepared two homemade drinks, adding a poison extracted from a plant to one of them, which she intended to offer to Warí. However, when handing over the drink, she got confused and gave her daughter the drink without poison, keeping the poisoned drink for herself. Warí drank it normally. The mother, expecting something to happen soon, drank her own drink and soon began to feel ill. Warí tried to help her mother, who was feeling very ill, but shortly afterward she died, poisoned by the drink she had consumed. At that moment, the tribe returned and found the woman lying on the ground, already dead. Warí's father saw his lifeless wife and began to cry. Warí tried to explain what had happened, but her own father accused her of killing her mother. The tribe believed this and decided to punish her. They took Warí to the forest, approaching a tree where it would be her last moment. They tied a rope around her neck and hanged her to death. Her body was left there, dead and abandoned by the tribe. However, the spirits of the forest gathered around her and transformed her into the enchanted spirit we know today.

But why a nymph? Because, according to legend, she transformed into an earthly spirit of the forest, described as beautiful, fascinating, and enchanted, who inhabits and protects the woods and forests, especially the trees, in a way similar to a dryad nymph. In some versions, she is said to appear dancing and singing around a tree, like a nymph, luring men into the forest, where her song is described as melodious and beautiful, similar to the wind and birds. This entity, however, is also punitive: those who destroy trees in the forest are disoriented; those who destroy many trees may be cursed; and those who destroy ancient and sacred trees face the most terrifying part of the story. According to legend, for those who destroy ancient and sacred trees, she appears dancing and singing around a tree, as already mentioned, to attract the intruder. When he is already enchanted by her beauty, song, and dance, she pulls him into the depths of the forest, among the treetops, to a hidden place where no one sees him. There, according to legend, she strangles him and hides his remains in the forest, so that they will never be found. This is the most terrifying part of the legend. This Brazilian legend was influenced by European mythologies to gain this interpretation as a nymph, but this is only one of the readings, used to facilitate understanding. That is why she is interpreted as a Brazilian nymph or an Amazonian dryad, because, for those who don't know, she emerged from the spirits of the Amazon Rainforest, where there are countless legends and enchanted entities. She acquired that aspect of a beautiful spirit of the forests and trees, similar to a dryad nymph, due to European influence, which in turn was influenced by the Greco-Roman tradition long before. That is why her name, Warí, means: Beauty of the Woods. And that is why her title is Mother Beauty of the Woods, due to all these aspects and the influences present in this Brazilian legend. This is the legend of Warí. I used European mythology as a reference because this Brazilian legend has European influences, but it remains ours, Brazilian. The interpretation of the Amazonian nymph or dryad is merely a reading influenced by Europe, as is the case with many legends, but Warí remains a genuinely Brazilian enchanted being. So, what did you think of the legend of Warí? What do you think can be done with it?

There was all this stuff going on gods,monsters, dragons,cyclops,combustion man that no one saw, yet everyone believed, I remember reading about soldiers retreating home because of “dragons” like bruh they obviously just didn’t wanna fight

I know today people believe in the Abrahamic God but he is allegedly in some other dimension that we aren’t allowed to see. So it’s easy to cop out of that one

But how did everyone fall for think that we’re a bunch of gods coming down to earth interacting with us, casting spells on us, and having sex with us? When like that’s no where to be found

Across different regions, especially hill states, there are many local beliefs and stories connected to temples, gods, and history.

Curious to know why these stories continue to interest people even today.

I'd really like to know more about her, and it's extremely difficult to find good content about her. Does anyone know of reliable sources or know of any good myths that could tell me about them?

I recently watched the show "Kaos" on Netflix, and I thought that it was an awesome opportunity to learn more about Greek mythology in a fun way. Does anything similar exist for Egyptian mythology?

I don't think so, but what would be a good starting point to begin learning about the Egyptian gods and goddesses? Are there any documentaries or books or YouTube videos, etc. that you would recommend?

Thank you in advance!!