I love many world myths and legends but my absolute favourite would have to be Ancient Egyptian mythology. Then probably Norse, then Greek. I also enjoy The Dreaming stories.

I LOVE Mythology!!! My favorites are Greek and Norse, though I know more Greek Myths then I do Norse.
I think one of the first Myths I ever head, was when I was really little, I used to read The Children’s book of Virtues, they had the story of Theseus and the Minotaur and also The Riddle of the Sphinx.
I also grew up watching the Ray Harryhausen movies like: The original Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts and Sinbad.
I Love the creatures in those movies, Medusa and the Hydra being my favorites. I Love the stories in Myth!

Mythology is something that has interested my for about as long as I can remember. I grew up reading it, first in rather simplified form in The Junior Classics - a multi-volume set collecting not only myths but fairy tales, abridged versions of classic literature, and more.

But once I found the connection between the classical constellations and Greek mythology, I was off and running, and devoured more-detailed versions that were closer to the originals (like English versions of the Iliad and Odyssey).

(An excellent example of that connection between the night sky and Greek myth is rising for us now as night falls: just about every northern constellation in the autumn night sky comes from the Perseus-Andromeda-Cassiopeia myth loosely retold in Clash of the Titans).

I was lucky enough to have a mythology class in high school, where I was introduced to other works like Ovid's Metamorphoses and Edith Hamilton's classic Mythology - copies of which I still keep around for reference or occasional reading.

Those children's books my parents had also included Norse mythology, and I enjoyed reading some of those tales as well. In fact, I might choose Norse as my favorite just because it's familiar but not quite as 'overdone' in the movies as Greek/Roman stories are.

(Incidentally, science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton wrote a Norse-flavored tale called A Yank at Valhalla back in 1950, and it was another book I read as a kid. It's a sci-fi flavored approach to the end-time tale of Ragnarok - as well as a nod to Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court).

Just about every major mythos has an approach to the constellations and the heavens, and right now I'm reading a book called They Dance in the Sky: Native American Star Myths by Jean Guard Monroe and Ray A. Williamson. Fascinating stuff, in part because it's so different than the Greek tales usually attached to the constellations (for example, Raven, the Trickster, plays a part in some of these stories. He really doesn't have a counterpart among the Greeks, though to some extent Loki takes his place in the Norse).

Other mythologies I've only touched upon in my reading but still find interesting are the Chinese (they have some fun stories about the characters they've attached to the constellations surrounding the Milky Way) and Australian (the whole Dreamtime idea).

Incidentally, your poll selections offer several mythoi I'm not familiar with (especially Russian, Creek, and Albanian). I just may have to investigate these sometime.

edit: I've read some Egyptian as well, but not as much as some others. I really enjoyed it when LOST began tapping into those stories in its later seasons.

I don't know much about mythology...but I'm trying to educate myself on it.

Could someone more knowledgeable give a run down on the most popular "characters" from each of the different types of mythology?

I know that I find the story of Beowulf quite interesting...

I don't want to vote until I'm more sure of my answer, but it'd probably be something between English, Norse, or Egyptian. (Is there such a thing as "Celtic mythology" and "Viking mythology" or is that included in Norse or English...)

Valiant_Lucy, I believe Viking mythology would be classed as Norse but I'm not sure if Celtic mythology is something similiar or even the same thing.
I'm not sure why English mythology is listed on the poll. I imagine it would be a combination of Norse and Germaic mythology.

Best known mythological figures? I'll start.
The Dreaming - Rainbow Serpent
Greek mythology - Heracules, Hades, Cerebus, Zeus, Poseidon, Medusa etc.
Egyptian mythology - Horus/Ra, Thoth, Osiris, Anubis, Set
Norse mythology - Odin, Loki

I've been interested in mythology as long as I can remember. I think finding an interest in them at an early age (about 7 years old), helped to give me the drive to read (which I wasn't apt to do and certainly didn't enjoy doing at the time). The first mythology I was introducted too was the Australian Aboriginal Dreaming stories. They fascinated me and the unique Aboriginal art lent some credibilty to the tales. It really fired up my imagination. Not long after I stumbled upon Greek mythology, which was very interesting. I read children's editions of the classics and researched the god, goddesses and creatures. After that, I discovered Roy Pond's Egyptian series, which birthed my interest in Egyptian mythology. From there I read Lord of the Rings, which invited me to learn more about Celtic/Norse? mythology. All very interesting. I keep returning to the basic mythologies and discovering new things. But Egyptian mythology will always be my favourite.

My favourites mythological gods, goddesses and creatures:

Greek:
Hades
Cerebus

Norse:
Odin

Egyptian:
Thoth
Horus/Ra
Set
Anubis
Ammit
Apep
Ma'at
Osiris
Honourable mention: Tawaret (Lost reference)

Australian Aboriginal Dreaming:
Bunyip
Mungoon Galli
Rainbow Serpent

Greek is my favorite with Egyptian a very close second.

Ooh! Horus in the Egyptian Myths? Sounds familiar...

I like Apollo and Athena, since both are great Gods. The story of the origin of fire in the Greek Mythology really fascinates me. The one where Prometheus steals the fire from the gods for good reasons.

The Pandora's box too was great to read. The source of all sorrows and problems and devastation. Plus they said that because of Pandora's curiosity, we now have those but, it's okay, Life is full of problems and no one can escape that. LOL.

Pandora's Box just plagarised the Fall of Mankind in the Garden of Eden and changed some details to adapt it to Ancient Greek culture. It's still a fascinating myth.

I think most folks are going to pick Greek mythology as their preferred as it's the only one they're probably familiar with, and I include myself in this. What brief glimpses I've gotten of Norse mythology is truly fascinating stuff (I think this was a shared mythology in Scandanavia, Germany, and maybe a tiny part of England). I'm wondering if English mythology is referring to King Arthur...?

Shadowlander: Yeah, you're right. Greek Mythology is somewhat famous in our time.

Warrior4Jesus: I didn't think of that, nice though. Thanks for that info. Might need it in our History class. .

No worries Sandy!

Shadowlander, I thought England had no original myth to call it's own and that's why Tolkien created his stories of Middle Earth? Wasn't King Arthur originally a French tale but adapted to the English culture of the time?

Pandora's Box just plagarised the Fall of Mankind in the Garden of Eden and changed some details to adapt it to Ancient Greek culture. It's still a fascinating myth.

That's a good point, Warrior. In a similar vein, many mythologies (including the Dreamtime as I recall) have some variation of the Noah flood story. Perhaps Lewis might call this reflections of the True Myth?

But I don't want to turn this into a Narnia and Christianity discussion, so...

...Viking mythology would be classed as Norse but I'm not sure if Celtic mythology is something similiar or even the same thing.

I'd agree that the Vikings had the Norse mythology.

Celtic mythology, though is different. In fact, each of the main cultural groups in today's UK - the English, the Scots, the Welsh, and the Irish - have their own mythos, though there's some overlap.

For example, both the Irish and Scots have the Banshee, a female spirit often associated with impending death. The Irish have the tale of Cú Chulainn, also called the Hound of Ulster (both of these myths were tapped for 2 UK-based segments of the animated Gargoyles series, which drew heavily upon mythology as well as Shakespeare and the Arthur stories).

Welsh mythology is collected in the Mabinogion, which does include some Arthur-like references and also a tale of dragons which some have said is a reason for the presence of a dragon on the Flag of Wales.

Incidentally, Lloyd Alexander's 5-book series The Chronicles of Prydain draws heavily from Welsh mythology and is an easy-to-read introduction.

Speaking of dragons, English mythology also has the tale of George and the Dragon.

What brief glimpses I've gotten of Norse mythology is truly fascinating stuff...

Shadowlander, I like the Norse stories partly because they're not so familiar as the Greek, and some of them are new takes on old tales. For example, Thor and his hammer Mjolnir are occasionally sent out on tasks that vaguely resemble the Labors of Heracles.

A bit of trivia: Our names for the days of the week are all taken from mythology - and thus indirectly from the names of the seven celestial objects known in classical times. Some survive from the Roman era and are pretty obvious (Saturday, Sunday, Monday), but the others were adapted to Northern/Teutonic/Norse mythology:

Tuesday is Tyr's Day (the Norse god of war). Its association to Mars (the Roman god of war) is easier to see in the French Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday (the Romance languages like Spanish, French, and Italian all come from the ancient Latin and thus preserve these connections).

Wednesday is Woden's (Odin's) Day. In Spanish, it's miércoles - Mercury's Day.

Thursday is Thor's Day (god of Thunder). Its association to Jupiter can be seen in the Spanish jueves.

Friday is Frigga's Day (or Freya's Day), the goddess of love. Its connection to Venus can be seen both from the Spanish viernes and the ancient Norse name for the planet Venus (Friggjarstjarna, Frigga's star).

[/geek moment ]

Welsh!!

I like the Welsh myths because they are also based in some real history. Warrior, the French altered the Arthurian tales to make them more mythological and romantic, but the origins of Arthur lie in Wales. He was a real person. Merlin has also been tied to a real person. The French added the love affair between Gwynevere and Lancelot among other things. I personally believe the Welsh myths and legends descend from another origin altogether, but they (the original, unromantic tales) are my favorite.

A very CLOSE second, however, is Norse Mythology, which I've only just discovered this year. Those stories have such humor and heart and action and, oh, everything!! I just LOVE them!

I must say I like Russian mythology, I guess just because I know most about it. Did anyone else here read Russian mythology?