When and where did you learn about Greek/roman and others mythology?

[jian]

When I first looked at this thread, I guessed that not only would a lot of people respond, but that initial exposures would skew kind of young. That’s because so much of the hobby is linked to mythology, even if only tangentially or inspirationally.

But why did my thoughts veer that way in the first place? Because IME, mythologies are seemingly not widely taught in American schools. The strongest indicators of that I ever witnessed in person was that I was the guy repeatedly explaining professors’ classical references- like “sword of Damocles”- to my fellow law students.

Classical references of course used to be a much, much bigger part of well-educated English-speaking culture. It would have been almost inconceivable that someone going to college in the US or U.K. a century ago would not have know about Damocles (or Cicero, who popularised the story), in the same way that most such people would have read and even memorised Longfellow (if American) or Tennyson (if British) at school.

But there’s been a massive explosion in popular culture since then (and more people go to university) so honestly finding a modern college student knowing about Damocles now is about as likely as finding one who can explain the Copenhagen interpretation - you’ll probably find one person in your average non-specific (not classics or physics) lecture hall, but maybe not more than one.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What about the tales of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit stories of Uncle Remus? People tend to forget that they have an African origin via American slave culture.

Ive also wondered how much American people hear about Loa and similar 'Voodoo' myth - which make an appearance in a few early zombie movies.

A lot of Greek myth also veers in to Africa due to the old trade with Nubia and Punt

And, of course, let’s not forget the legends of Native American peoples from Canada to the tip of Chile AS WELL AS the tall tales of post-colonial Americans.

While some could be glossed over as merely humans doing extraordinary things, you see many heroic figures in other cultures lauded for similar achievements. And Paul Bunyan & Babe are clearly NOT natural.

 

[Morrus]

What about the tales of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit stories of Uncle Remus? People tend to forget that they have an African origin via American slave culture.

Nope, not part of my upbringing. American mythology, cryptids, etc. I’ve only really heard about via Americans on these boards or Americans I’ve worked with for publishing reasons. My cultural upbringing was pretty solidly European.

 

[Staffan]

Like many countries, Sweden has a tradition of advent calendars where you open a little flap on the calendar for every day in December until Christmas (which is celebrated on the 24th here – the religious part is still on the 25th for those who care about that, but the family stuff is on the 24th). I don't know if other countries have the tradition of children's TV or radio shows with accompanying calendars, but here it's a thing, and I'm pretty sure it was a bigger thing when I was a kid and most people only had access to the two public service tv channels.

Anyway, in 1981 the TV advent calendar was "Stjärnhuset", or "The Star House". It was a bit unorthodox in two ways. One was that it wasn't all that Christmasy. The other was that instead of having a traditional calendar with flaps, you had a sheet of stickers and a starry sky to put them on. Each episode would talk about both some astronomical stuff and also about a Greek myth tied to one of the constellations, with the myth part being illustrated with still images, and the stickers had images of whatever the constellation was supposed to be. So the end result would look like this:

(By Elisabeth Nyman, Gotlands museum - Adventskalender julkalender, CC BY 4.0, File:Stjärnhuset papperskalender.jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

There was also a framing device of an old lady teaching a younger but adult man about these things – I think they were supposed to be related but I'm not sure. The framing story had some Christmas stuff but not very much.

So, when 5 year old Staffan saw this, this immediately ignited two interests in him: Greek Mythology, and Astronomy. And that's probably what lead to my interest in fantasy as well.

 

[billd91]

What about the tales of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit stories of Uncle Remus? People tend to forget that they have an African origin via American slave culture.

Ive also wondered how much American people hear about Loa and similar 'Voodoo' myth - which make an appearance in a few early zombie movies.

A lot of Greek myth also veers in to Africa due to the old trade with Nubia and Punt (eg Andromeda was Ethiopian)

In the schools when I was a kid, this was virtually absent. Maybe an occasional story about Hiawatha, but in white American culture, the mythology was virtually all about Classical (Greek, Roman, Egyptian) or Northern European (Norse, Beowulf) in the 1970s. In other words, the stuff oriented toward dominant Western European culture for us kids from same.
My kids' experience was a little different in the sense that they were a lot more likely to encounter stories about Indigenous American or African myths than I was, though even theirs was pretty steeped in Greek and Norse myths when any mythology was present.

 

[Ryujin]

What about the tales of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit stories of Uncle Remus? People tend to forget that they have an African origin via American slave culture.

Ive also wondered how much American people hear about Loa and similar 'Voodoo' myth - which make an appearance in a few early zombie movies.

A lot of Greek myth also veers in to Africa due to the old trade with Nubia and Punt (eg Andromeda was Ethiopian)

I think that my first introduction or Voudon mythology was 1973's "Live and Let Die", which I think that I saw around 1975 (was too young for it in theatres).

 

[trappedslider]

When i was growing and in school, we got told the tall tales of the old west Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, but it wasn't till high school senior year (2004) that we did Beowulf.

 

[Morrus]

When i was growing and in school, we got told the tall tales of the old west Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, but it wasn't till high school senior year (2004) that we did Beowulf.

Whereas I heard about Beowulf as a kid, but only learned about Paul Bunyan when we published Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters a few years ago, and Mike Myler (the primary writer) included him. If we hadn't published that book, I still wouldn't have heard of him to this day. That is definitely a local mythological feature.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So, at least when i was growing up in the school system (1990-2004 roughly), I had never heard any mythology beyond knowing the basics due to Disney movies, then internet memes, then the Percy Jackson and other related books.

But what about you fellow forum users?

Primary school, and then D&D. I learned about vocabulary and history from the same sources in the same order, and fostered a lifelong love of all three from the combination of the two.

 

[Micah Sweet]

My memory of when I got into mythology (mostly Greek, Norse & Egyptian) dates back to at least 2nd grade, possibly 1st or preschool- somewhere between 5-7yo. D'Aulaires' & Bullfinch’s, among others.

That’s about the same time I was reading tons of comics, my Dad’s sci-fi & fantasy books, the Odyssey, and other stuff, too.

Oh yeah. Marvel comics too, a few years after D&D.