Extra Mythology

We'll periodically, in-between series, do a Mythology Matters video, where we talk about some of the writing and research choices we made and topics we didn't really get to cover in the full illustrated episodes. We'll talk about some of the plot holes we found in our Celtic myth episodes!

Did you know that the Wendigo myth can be thought of as a warning against overconsumption of the natural world? We talk about this and other fun facts that we didn't really get to cover in our animated Wendigo episode!

The myth of Gilgamesh is a metaphor for building a civilization--yes, really? Let's go behind-the-scenes on our Bronze Age myth!

In this episode, Extra Credits goes to King's Landing--er, so we can talk about the things we couldn't fit in to our Persian myths episodes, *obviously.*

In this episode, we talk about the distinction between Nart and Russian myths, and how mythology is used to create the idea of shared culture between people in a large, spread-out nation.

We learn about how some classic Japanese myths were created thanks to the combined influence of Shinto and Buddhism. Also, a lot of horror myths actually come from Noh theater! Is a myth still mythology if it was very deliberately invented by an author?

Today we talk about how we sort through and decipher the sources used for our Australian Aboriginal myths. For example, we found one very interesting book that turned out to be plagiarized from an Indigenous Australian man, David Unaipon.

Mythology sources continue to be very complicated, especially when invading colonizers are involved. We discuss our writing process for our recent Aztec myth episodes!

There can be a tension between hearing old stories in the modern age, dealing with simplified retellings and understanding older cultural values through a modern lens. We discuss writing Samson and Delilah and where we think the story is coming from. What are your thoughts?

Anansi is a great example of the trickster god, so of course, there are some aspects of his stories that are tricky to tell. James talks about the difficulties of making shorter stories into a full episode narrative and what to consider "canon" for myths that have changed so much over time.