Last night, while in town lubricating my liver, I walked past a bookshop and noticed one of the windows had a display of mythology books. There was a mix of children's and adult books covering Greek, Norse, British, African, etc. I'm guessing they're trying to cash in on the Odyssey film.
But it got me thinking, every culture has its mythology and that mythology plays a large role in national identity.
But the USA does not currently have any history of mythology I can think of. Yes, I know the Indians do, but that's different. I know you've stuff like Mothman and Big Foot, but I can't think of any culturally significant American mythology.
So my question is, will the states ever develop an ancient mythology the same way other countries have? Will children in a thousand years delight in the tales of Trumps adventures, or historians argue if Micky Mouse was based on a real person?
It's true, as @Jersey2 stated we have regional, I will call "legends" at this point. As a Texan you have Pecos Bill and the participants at the Alamo. Some in the deep south still deify figures such as Robt. E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as Confederate "Killer Angels". Things like Paul Revere's ride and Custer's last stand are more fiction than fact modified to make a good poem, or barroom painting. I suppose I would contend that America's history is too new, the people too diverse and the land too vast to produce any one truly galvanizing national figure or cohesive narrative, also slavery plays such a major role in this countries formation that I think it'll be a difficult thing. We can see the current regime in charge trying to sanitize the situation, rewrite things, but the basic truth is already out. If we can ever convince everyone to agree that slavery is bad I think that story may be worthy of becoming myth over time. This raises the question. With modern methods of recording events and facts. Is it possible to develope a mythology that doesn't already exist? Those seem to require a certain amount of wonder... I doubt if a modern Arthurian myth could be created at all
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Alright, alright… I had to cheat and ask AI on this one. 🤢🤮🤢
Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed (based on a real person) are some but these along with the Headless Horseman are more like tall tales. We are too young to have myths which seems to take hundreds if not thousands of years. We would never have “gods” and many of the Greek and Roman mythology are stories of their gods.
“Settler and later American folklore produced its own body of legendary material, often closer to tall tales than classical mythology. Well-known figures include Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, and stories around places or events such as the Headless Horseman (from Washington Irving’s adaptation of older European motifs). American civic culture also has founding narratives—stories of the Revolution, the frontier, and national character—that function mythically even when they are partly historical.”
Ahhhh, we have Spiderman, Superman, Aquaman, lots of mans… Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman, The Joker… so many and others like GI Joe, so many on the peripheral.
The ancient myths served philosophical and religious purposes in their time. Informing young people on how the world works and how to behave. So tall tales that don’t explain the natural mysteries or end in simplified morals won’t make the cut. The superheroes have the morality edge, and we’re sort of past using myths to explain the natural mysteries. So i agree that the comic books have a limited shot. The problem is, they are only unique characters, not unique stories. Lots of people have drawn parallels between Superman and Jesus. You could spend days reading about them. If well read enough, most of the great comic books are unsurprising and almost feel plagiarized. Hell, DC and Marvel both literally incorporated the classic Greek and Roman gods and demigods into their stories. Games like “God of War” have expanded their stories and brought them to new generations better than most skools have done.
790 opinions shared on Entertainment & Arts topic.
Not likely. Even if the Abrahamic religions die off without taking the species with them, they still originated in Europe and northern Africa. Maybe Scientology or some of the spoof philosophies like the Pastafarians have a shot. Problem is that there will have to be a catastrophe immense enough to wipe out all records for them to emerge as “mythology”. Otherwise it just goes into the history books as another form of entertainment. I believe the species is done creating myths. The “Enlightenment” saw to that. Now if only it had ended people believing other lies and half-truths perpetuated by their cult leaders. Maybe the 2020 Presidential election will become a myth. The story grows every time i hear it, and it doesn’t matter which side is telling it. Neither is really interested in the facts. They just keep exaggerating or fabricating details that make the other side into the villains.
We've only been around for 250 years. But we have a mythology of sorts. Well, lies but we're determined to create some gods and goddesses to worship. There's no Mount Olympus or Valhalla. It's more intangible than those places.
It's Capitalism. Our gods are millionaires and billionaires. Our epic heroes are drugged out rock stars. Our goddesses are Hollywood starlets and fashion models and porn stars. Out Greek tragedies are acted out by the Kardashians and the Musk harem and the tRumps play out Hamlet on the daily news.
Hey it may not look like your mythology but it's our mythology. And every dumbass here aspires to be rich and beautiful with infinite wealth and power.
And the there's the whole sick White baby Jesus thing representing the dark underworld of twisted religion and cults.
362 opinions shared on Entertainment & Arts topic.
Wow that is a good question and I've never thought of it. You bring up Bigfoot, which is kind of like Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman... Maybe like you say, in future centuries people will be saying Mickey Mouse, or even Superman and Batman, were based on real people?
2.1K opinions shared on Entertainment & Arts topic.
"According to mythology, the United States is the greatest country in the world."
In reality, the United States is among the worst countries in the world. It is nothing but a warmonger and a financial exploiter of every other country.
6.8K opinions shared on Entertainment & Arts topic.
We have all the super heroes that are in the movies starting with the Man of Steel. After all , he fights for Truth 'Justice and the American way. As well as Captain America. the living legend of WW2.
664 opinions shared on Entertainment & Arts topic.
Native American mythology is quite extensive. There’s also the Headless Horseman, Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Bigfoot, the Dog Man, the Chupacabra has crossed the border, and a few notoriously cursed places
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It's true, as @Jersey2 stated we have regional, I will call "legends" at this point. As a Texan you have Pecos Bill and the participants at the Alamo. Some in the deep south still deify figures such as Robt. E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as Confederate "Killer Angels". Things like Paul Revere's ride and Custer's last stand are more fiction than fact modified to make a good poem, or barroom painting.
I suppose I would contend that America's history is too new, the people too diverse and the land too vast to produce any one truly galvanizing national figure or cohesive narrative, also slavery plays such a major role in this countries formation that I think it'll be a difficult thing. We can see the current regime in charge trying to sanitize the situation, rewrite things, but the basic truth is already out. If we can ever convince everyone to agree that slavery is bad I think that story may be worthy of becoming myth over time.
This raises the question. With modern methods of recording events and facts. Is it possible to develope a mythology that doesn't already exist? Those seem to require a certain amount of wonder... I doubt if a modern Arthurian myth could be created at all
Alright, alright… I had to cheat and ask AI on this one. 🤢🤮🤢
Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed (based on a real person) are some but these along with the Headless Horseman are more like tall tales. We are too young to have myths which seems to take hundreds if not thousands of years. We would never have “gods” and many of the Greek and Roman mythology are stories of their gods.
“Settler and later American folklore produced its own body of legendary material, often closer to tall tales than classical mythology. Well-known figures include Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, and stories around places or events such as the Headless Horseman (from Washington Irving’s adaptation of older European motifs). American civic culture also has founding narratives—stories of the Revolution, the frontier, and national character—that function mythically even when they are partly historical.”
Ahhhh, we have Spiderman, Superman, Aquaman, lots of mans… Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman, The Joker… so many and others like GI Joe, so many on the peripheral.
I would argue superheroes could evolve into the myths of the future.
Yes, that is where the time component comes in. We haven’t had hundreds or thousands of years with them yet.
The ancient myths served philosophical and religious purposes in their time. Informing young people on how the world works and how to behave. So tall tales that don’t explain the natural mysteries or end in simplified morals won’t make the cut. The superheroes have the morality edge, and we’re sort of past using myths to explain the natural mysteries. So i agree that the comic books have a limited shot. The problem is, they are only unique characters, not unique stories. Lots of people have drawn parallels between Superman and Jesus. You could spend days reading about them. If well read enough, most of the great comic books are unsurprising and almost feel plagiarized. Hell, DC and Marvel both literally incorporated the classic Greek and Roman gods and demigods into their stories. Games like “God of War” have expanded their stories and brought them to new generations better than most skools have done.
Not likely. Even if the Abrahamic religions die off without taking the species with them, they still originated in Europe and northern Africa.
Maybe Scientology or some of the spoof philosophies like the Pastafarians have a shot. Problem is that there will have to be a catastrophe immense enough to wipe out all records for them to emerge as “mythology”. Otherwise it just goes into the history books as another form of entertainment.
I believe the species is done creating myths. The “Enlightenment” saw to that. Now if only it had ended people believing other lies and half-truths perpetuated by their cult leaders.
Maybe the 2020 Presidential election will become a myth. The story grows every time i hear it, and it doesn’t matter which side is telling it. Neither is really interested in the facts. They just keep exaggerating or fabricating details that make the other side into the villains.
We've only been around for 250 years. But we have a mythology of sorts. Well, lies but we're determined to create some gods and goddesses to worship. There's no Mount Olympus or Valhalla. It's more intangible than those places.
It's Capitalism. Our gods are millionaires and billionaires. Our epic heroes are drugged out rock stars. Our goddesses are Hollywood starlets and fashion models and porn stars. Out Greek tragedies are acted out by the Kardashians and the Musk harem and the tRumps play out Hamlet on the daily news.
Hey it may not look like your mythology but it's our mythology. And every dumbass here aspires to be rich and beautiful with infinite wealth and power.
And the there's the whole sick White baby Jesus thing representing the dark underworld of twisted religion and cults.
Wow that is a good question and I've never thought of it. You bring up Bigfoot, which is kind of like Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman... Maybe like you say, in future centuries people will be saying Mickey Mouse, or even Superman and Batman, were based on real people?
"According to mythology, the United States is the greatest country in the world."
In reality, the United States is among the worst countries in the world. It is nothing but a warmonger and a financial exploiter of every other country.
I think they already have it, Headless Horseman is one of the most famous supernatural/mythical characters from the USA mythology.
"lubricating my liver"... oh, that's a good one. My old buddy got a jacked liver from drinking... just sayin'.
We have sasquatch, that about covers it...
We have all the super heroes that are in the movies starting with the Man of Steel. After all , he fights for Truth 'Justice and the American way. As well as Captain America. the living legend of WW2.
Unlikely. Our culture is too young and too variable. There are a few tall tales about Washington, Lincoln and Gen Patton but not really mythology.
well, so far... the USA has a lot of Big Foot Erotica...
who knows what they will make of it... in 1000 years from now
Native American mythology is quite extensive. There’s also the Headless Horseman, Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Bigfoot, the Dog Man, the Chupacabra has crossed the border, and a few notoriously cursed places
The Headless Horseman originated in Europe. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” just brought it to the states.
@Chazmatazz269 Well a lot of mythology is borrowed. Do you know how many babies in baskets who change the world mythology has?
They already have.
The notion that civilians have the paranoid right to kill each other when they are afraid.
We do. Paul Bunyan and babe the blue ox, Johnny apple seed etc.
Democrats have already done LOADS of that the past decade or so!!
Has nobody ever heard of Davy Crockett, The Bell Witch, Pecos Bill, John Henry, Paul Bunyan, or Captain Stormalong?
Mormonism.
I hope not