Stargazer and Cymru, thanks for clearings things up for me.

De_De, I don't think I've read any Russian mythology. Can you share some with us?

Currently I've been watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and thinking about how ideas beget other ideas. New ideas are fashioned from old ideas. Think of the concept behind the Terminator. It's essentially a modern interpretation of Frankenstein's monster, which in turn borrowed heavily from the Golem belonging to Jewish mysticism. But even the Golem myth was just a exaggerated tale/corruption of God creating Adam from the clay of the earth. All of these can be traced back to the first few chapters of Genesis. I find that fascinating.

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.

haha that's me too! We did a whole semester on Greek Mythology during freshman year. And I can honestly say I don't remember a single thing. I remember the Olympians and the Titans and the story of Pandora and the whole Chaos to order concept, but besides that I don't remember all the smaller stories. My favorite mythology moment during english class was when my friend pronounced "Penelope" as "Pe-ne-lope" so that it rhymes with "cantaloupe". And not only did she do this once but 5 times before she remembered.

I'd garner that Greek mythology is the most well-known in the Western World, at least in Europe, Australasia and the Americas.

Norse looks and sounds interesting though. I like the name, Norse, kinda rhymes with horse, hihi.

Hades's myth is interesting. The part where he brings Persephone with him in the Underworld is tragic for a mother. I like how they compared the seasons to the myths.

Yes, that was sad, but that was practically the only bad thing Hades ever did. If you read about what some of the other gods got up to...

Greek and Egyptian are tied. I've loved and studied them since I was much younger but they are the only two countries whose mythology I've really gotten in to, though I do know a bit of Norse mythology.

I just read some of the Trojan War story. It was so epic! I love how they thought of the Trojan Horse and the men inside it. In the movie Troy it was seen, but some said that it wasn't used for battle, i think? But in that movie, I was in Hector's side, not much of Achilles, though I like Achilles because of his strength, courage and love for Briseis.

I'd garner that Greek mythology is the most well-known in the Western World, at least in Europe, Australasia and the Americas.

Indeed, and I think the Greek influence is so strong in very large part because so much of Western culture is based upon it (Rome's was too, in many major ways).

I'd very much like to look into Norse mythology, but I wouldn't have the foggiest idea of where to start. I have a nebulous idea of some of the players...Odin, Thor, Loki...I know that they're always battling giants, and that there's a giant wolf named Ragnarok which appears at the end of the world. Valhalla, the Viking version of Heaven, basically is a combat arena where everyday souls do battle in the afterlife and when it's all over everyone feasts and parties (like it's 1999...oh, nevermind ) they start the whole thing from scratch the next day.

Is the story of The Ring of the Nieberlung (sp?) based on actual Norse mythology? Or is it just some other mythology? Much of composter Wagner's success revolves around it. Does anyone know?

And DeDe, tell us about Russian mythology...I don't know that many of us have ever had any real exposure to it.

I'd garner that Greek mythology is the most well-known in the Western World, at least in Europe, Australasia and the Americas.

Alas, very true. But the rise of the internet has made learning about other mythoi a lot easier. When I was a young'un, all we had was the library.

Fortunately, the reference I mentioned in my earlier post as my first real exposure to mythology, The Junior Classics, included Norse - as well as Indian and Native American - stories in addition to the Greek.

For The Mabinogion I use this page which contains links to a translation. The main page does include a disclaimer that some question has been made as to the accuracy of this translation, but I suspect it's all right for leisurely reading (as opposed to a scholarly discourse ).

The Encyclopedia Mythica is an interesting all-around resource for quick info on a wide variety of areas - but often wikipedia may contain more-detailed articles.

I'd very much like to look into Norse mythology, but I wouldn't have the foggiest idea of where to start.

I'd encourage you to check it out! As Cymru mentioned on the previous page, the stories are entertaining, often with unexpected humor.

In addition to online sources, I'd recommend my current source, The Norse Myths Introduced and Retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland. In addition to an introductory section which describes the Norse cosmology and pantheon, it contains 32 stories from the creation to Ragnarok.

Incidentally, Ragnarok actually refers to the Norse end-time story; it is often translated "twilight of the gods" (though some scholars dispute the accuracy of that translation). In it the Aesir (the familiar gods like Odin, Thor, Tyr, and the rest) are defeated and the world is reborn. In a part reminiscent of the Genesis flood, two human survive the chaos by hiding in the World Ash Tree.

The "Big bad wolf" is named variously Fenris or Fenrir (originally Fenrisúlfr), and while he is currently in chains, eventually he will be released and will cooperate with Loki, the giants, and others to bring down the Aesir and end the world at Ragnarok.

Incidentally, the old American versions of LWW include these references to Norse mythology: Fenris Ulf refers to Fenrir, and there's also a reference to the World Ash Tree (Yggadrasil).

Norse cosmology is, in some sense, similar to our Western one: there are three planes: above, is Asgard, the home of the Aesir. Midgard is our world and contains all mortal living things; and below is the underworld, called Niflheim.

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As has been noted, many mythological stories seek to explain some aspect of the natural world (such as the Greek tale of Hades and Persephone to explain the seasons). In the Norse, one such explanation is the Rainbow Bridge, called Bifrost, which sometimes appears and connects Asgard to Midgard.

Is the story of The Ring of the Nieberlung (sp?) based on actual Norse mythology? Or is it just some other mythology?

It's been far too long since I've studied this, but as I recall Wagner's ring cycle is based partly on Norse myths but also on a 5th/6th century Germanic epic called The Nibelungenleid (Song of the Nibelungs). Its summary on wikipedia does sound a lot like the Norse.

In this past year I have learned a lot about Norse Mythology, it’s definatley tied with Greek for my favorite!
One story I really like, even though it is sad is the story of the god Baldr’s death.
In cause no one knows the story and is interested:

The god Baldr started having dreams about his own death and then his mother started to have the same dreams. Baldr became depressed about the dream fearing it was prophetic.
So his mother Frigg made every object on the earth promise not to never hurt Baldr. Every object vowed not to hurt Baldr, except for Mistletoe which Frigg thought was to harmless to bother asking it to make the promise.
After this the gods gathered around Baldr, amusing themselves by throwing objects at him, which upon hitting him would simple bounce off without harming him.
When Loki learned that mistletoe was the only object that had not made the promised, he took some and made a spear (in some versions an arrow) from the mistletoe and hurried to the place where all the gods were throwing objects.
Hodr was among the gods, he was Baldr’s blind brother. Loki gave Hodr the spear and encouraged him to join the others and throw the spear at Baldr he helped him aim right at Baldr. The spear killed Baldr and all mourned him.
After the shock of his death, Frigg asked the Æsir if they would go to Hel for her to go and retrieve Baldr. Hermóðr agreed to go and rides Sleipnir (The eight legged horse, one of my favorite creatures) to Hel.
After a long journey, Hermóðr arrives in Hel, he meets with Hel and pleads for the return of Baldr on behalf of Frigg.
Hel says she will give Baldr back if all things will weep for Baldr.
Upon hearing this everyone weeps for Baldr except for one giantess, and since she did not weep, Baldr remained in Hel.
The gods discovered that the giantess had been Loki in disguise (Loki is a Shapeshifter). They hunted him down and tied him to three rocks. Then they tied a serpent above him, the venom from the snake dripped upon his face burning him terribly.
His wife Sigyn gathered the venom in a bowl to keep the venom from burning Loki.
But from time to time she had to turn away and empty the bowl, at which point the venom would again drip and burn Loki, who writhed in pain, thus causing earthquakes.
He would eventually free himself in time to attack the gods at Ragnarök.

Can anyone tell me who is the mother of Hercules? or, is he also called as Heracles? .

Heracles/Hercules' mother was named Alcmene.

And for some strange reason that reminds me of 2 1990s-era TV shows called Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (in which Alcmene made a number of appearances) and its Xena spinoff.

*waits for the boos and catcalls to die down*

Hercules (and to a lesser extent Xena) were, in their earliest shows at least, vaguely faithful to some original myths, even if the shows were action/adventure over storytelling at times. Iolaus, who was Hercules' sidekick in the show, is a 'real' mythological figure (Hercules' nephew).

It was in later seasons (which I really didn't watch much) that the shows (especially Xena) began investigating all sorts of other mythoi, like the Norse, Irish, and even Chinese (if I recall correctly). Interesting, but a bit hard to swallow given the show's original Greek setting.

But perhaps they inspired some kids out there to investigate the actual stories...

In a similar vein, a show I mentioned in an earlier post also explored some mythology: the 1990s animated Gargoyles - though in this case it was primarily UK-based stories (like the Hound of Ulster, the Banshee, along with lots of Shakespearean influence). There was an episode in which the heroes visited Australia and encountered a shaman who described the Dreamtime, but as I understand this treatment was altered somewhat to fit the show's plot.

A very accessible version of some of the Norse stories can be found in an older Neil Gaiman children's novel called Odd and The Frost Giants. I read it in one sitting. Very cute - very clean compared to Gaiman's other novels where these same Norse gods make an appearance.

The Ring of the Nibelung was written by Wagner but draws heavily from the Norse myths. The Twilight of the Gods portion of The Ring Saga is really about the old myths dying out during the age when Christianity swept through those countries. The film The Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King (the American title for The Ring of the Nibelungs) is very good at showing this. The American version loses about 45 minutes on DVD, but they tend to play the film in its 3 hour entirety when its on the Sci Fi channel. If you have an All-Region player, you can purchase the film full length from Amazon's uk site under the name The Sword of Xanten.

So much of Tolkien's Middle-Earth and George Lucas's Star Wars comes from here. The name Skywalker goes back to Norse mythology.

The myths themselves can be confusing as there was no interest in those that recorded them in maintaining consistency. There is no chronological format. Gods/characters die in one story only to appear suddenly alive in another story which was supposed to happen at a later time. If you just let that go when you read them, it helps!

The mythology of Middle-Earth, though I don't think that counts

Well I suppose that would count. He was trying to 'make a mythology', anyway.
I like the Norse, and I like the Greek, so I can't decide between them.
Interesting note: 'Heracles' actually meant 'glory of Hera' and Zeus named him that to try and placate her. It didn't work.