Mythology and Primal Instincts
Making a new myth in a circle jerk culture of borrowing other patchworks to make it "your own" sucks!
It’s not a surprise that when I write a mythological story, I always retrun to the Ancestors. The Ancestors that speak through our primal world. If wi-fi might be our primal mode of communication, mythology delves right into the heart of our psyche. It speaks through volumes of untold aggression and awakening that modern men need to feel.
As my degree was in English literature, studying the classics made me remember what the Ancestors said to me. “Don’t be a pussy. Pick up a shovel. Dig a ditch. Awaken everything you have repressed in your stoic gaze.”
When I write mythological stories, I do return to God of War, the original trilogy, and not the 2018 sequel. Kratos, voiced by TC Carson, is why all millennial men were introduced to Greek Mythology. Fuck the Clash of the Titans reboot, because that series wanted to be God of War.
Seriously, when I wrote my current mythological story, Scaled Desecration, set in an Africa that revolves around “the Here and After”, while being inspired by Michael Ondaatje and Robert E. Howard’s Conan series, I also made a list in my head about what most mythological stories have in their treasure trove of metaphors, motifs, symbols, and narratives:
· Sibling rivalry (Hebrew Bible: Cain and Abel)
· Patrichal/Matriarchal Conflict (Greek: Cronos, Rhea)
· Large animals that serve their own purpose (Norse: Bjorn, Greek: Pan)
· Gods that interfere with mortals everyday existence (Greek, Pan) (Norse, Loki[1])
· Trees (Tolkien, Treebard) (Mesoptamian: Ningiszida)
· Apples (Greek myth “labors” or tests) (Christian: “forbidden fruit”
· Snakes (Hebrew and Christian Bible: Satan) (Mespotamian: Ningiszida) (Elden Ring: Mesmmer)
This is just a few that I adhered to, but I did leave snakes out of this new myth, because it’s always surfaced throughout every culture. From Mesopotamian’s Sumerian deity Ningishzida[2], lord of the underworld and “Lord of the Productive Tree”, to the Bible’s Satan, appearing as a snake in the Garden of Paradise.
All of these examples prove that while mythology is a fruitful well to pull from, modern myths usually use ancient cultures as the backbone for their “myth” stories. While my myth story took place in Africa, using Africa would have been disrespectful and somehow cheap, but knowing their culture is what I wanted to do. Where I took it, is the surprise, and to my surprise, was like a kidney stone to write. But it was enjoyable, and somehow achieved what I wanted to do. While it isn’t out yet, this will show that my love for myth is what drives me to full on God Mode. Manmade thought into flesh king of all mortals. As a writer, and thinker.
[1] https://historycooperative.org/trickster-gods/. Found 08.22.2024
[2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ningishzida. Found 08.22.2024.