How Accurate Does Mythology/Folklore Needs to Be?

[ToxicRamen]

One of my story ideas I wanted to use would involve the Egyptian God Set and the Sumerian Goddess of War & Love Inanna. I had this idea to use them together since Inanna's other versions of herself are the Semitic War/Love Goddess, Anat or Astarte who happens to be one of the consorts of Set that were outside of the Egyptian pantheon.

However these goddesses are also similar to the Mesopotamian War/Love Goddess, Ishtar. And there was a story that involved Inanna journeying to the Underworld and when she came back her husband Dumuiz didn't mourn for her but was celebrating her absence and she sacrificed him to the Underworld demons. Even though there was a similar story for Ishtar, I didn't see a similar ending to it and I wanted to use her instead since she is a different version of Inanna and I felt the name Ishtar sounded better.

But I was wondering when I use mythology for my ideas how accurate do I need to be? In most comics, tv shows, and movies, mythology and folklore tend not to be really accurate from its original context, for example Disney's Hercules which change different aspects of how Hercules was Zeus's and Hera's son(Which he's not) and they made Hades a villain.(I mean, for some reason, Hades would always be the bad guy because he's God of the Underworld)

I want to be creative and use mythology/folklore for my ideas in different ways but I want to make sure I respect the source material when using them.

[VermillionWorks]

I've seen plenty of stories take names or concepts from mythology but use a lot of their own thing for the story/setting (basically just making them inspired by mythology but not trying hard to be accurate to the original tales), and many of them seemed to know less about their source material than you do, so I think you'd be fine with a few things being different, even with you trying to be more accurate than others. =P

[Kura]

You can be as accurate as you want to be.

The project I'm working on has plenty of gods from different mythologies on it (Set, Osiris, Bast, Yama, Chronos, Psyche, Eros the four horsemen to name a few) though their stories within my series more so 'take place after the myths' then as a 'retelling of the myths' I try to keep them true to certain parts of their mythologies while taking liberties when I need to. After all it is your story you can change things up if you want, unless it's your intent you don't have to completely educate your readers in the myths, you just need to give them a story.

Although, a personal pet peeve I have with reading stories like this, is when the writer ignores myth to the point that they are making the deities act completely out of character. You don't want to give readers that are actually interested in mythology knee-jerk reactions that make them scream at their computer something along the lines of "But Hades would NEVER DO THAT!!!!! That's a friggen Zeus move right there COME ON!!!"

Also keep in mind that some readers will be aware of the myths your basing you story off of, while others will be completely new. Then there are some that only know as much as the last fictional story they read that had characters based off those myths (which is not always 100% correct, even though some can be pretty close) I actually had to buy and read through 'Rick Riordan' novels to figure out what the heck some of my readers were basing some of their ideas and theories from. And for all of these groups of them complete accuracy is not a requirement. (except for purists on the myth end, who will probably not be reading comics that might have the possibility to mess up myth anyway)

[bakasama25]

Well, with some myths there's versions of say, Hades and Persephone, that tell the myth differently. The most well known version is the one where Hades just kidnaps Persephone, her mom, Demeter, throws a fit and eventually the gods make deal to have Persephone stay in Hades part of the time there and rest on Earth.

There's another version where Persephone uses being kipnapped as a way to get away her overbearing mother. One of goddesses helps Hades and Persephone by keeping Demeter, occupied while they go on their honeymoon. That version ends they same way as the other version.

The point is that myths tend to have certain fluidity that allows some creativity. Just don't make a mythical character have really out there characterization.

[Kura]

This is also a situation, there are already multiple tellings of myths.

Myths getting even more confusing and changing when syncretism comes into play, and myths and folklore start merging into or absorbing other mythos, Greek and Roman regions are big names that have a lot of gods and myths going back and forth that were often merged or had their myths altered to be 'the same god' because they had similar myths or roles. Even a number of Egyptian deities were changed, Bast, for example, was transformed from a warrior deity to a goddess with roles more similar to Artemis, the Greek moon goddess.

To take Persephone and Hades as an example, one of the reasons there are different tellings is because there is a Roman and a Greek telling of this myth (Proserpina and Pluto) along with there also being variations within the own Greek mythos, and then all those multiple versions being combined or picked from to create new mythos. Resulting in many different variations that overall lead to generally the same thing, but have different events leading up to it.

[RandomEncounterComic]

Folklore is currently around 20 pages long, but we've got plans to keep on telling stories for a long, long time.

(Sorry, couldn't resist! For what it's worth, I think you should reason some Greek, Chinese, or Native American mythos. Many of those stories transcend time, and work as both a set of morals for a bygone age and a reminder that people have always been searching for ways to capture the creativity, fear, heroism, a tragedy of the human spirit. Most often, they're as long as they need to be.)

[El_Psy_Congroo]

I think it depends on your story. If you are having characters referencing mythology, and if they are to be somewhat authoritative, then you may want to strive for more accuracy. In my comic, for example, luckily my setting allows for a bit of wiggle room - maybe not for mythology but for history. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where a lot of history and knowledge has been lost so its very easy for characters to have a skewed version of events.

If your story is a retelling of the myth itself you could definitely allow more wiggle room even if you're well versed in the source material, in order to add your take to the story. Shakespeare wrote many "historical" plays that did not always take a scholarly approach to events. Awareness of the original myths helps, but does not have to define what you bring to the table. Perhaps, at least on a superficial aesthetic level, you can put Egyptian and Sumerian imagery and architecture into your comic, to show the relationship. Its not as if those cultures never had contact, thats what Syncretism is all about after all. You can even bring up the fact that it is a retelling or go for the "fictionally correct version of events lost to mankind until now" trope.

[J.Z.Castillo]

Personally, I really like accuracy, but I very much appreciate a good adaptation of mythology into a story, meaning the story has to be good and engaging and interesting if you are going to appropriate it into your own narrative. All in all, I would rather see a really good adaptation over a completely accurate "retelling." Now, if you sprinkle accuracy over a really good appropriated narrative? I will eat. That. Shit. UP!! That would be my perfect haven.

[sarrowsmith10]

Even stories and movies that are "based on a true story" people know that everything should be taken with a grain of salt. Even in modern day Christianity, the religion often has a hard time deciding if God is all merciful (christian movies in general), or a vengeful (that awful Noah movie with Russel Crow) or an absentee type personality (Supernatural). And this is something that modern people base their whole lives off of. So, you don't even necessarily need to make personalities match the actual mythology. Use the established mythos as a foundation and let your creative wings fly and make changes were you need to, to make your story work.

If Once Upon a Time by Disney can make Peter Pan evil and still make millions off of their show, I think you can tell whatever story you like.

[J.Z.Castillo]

Ugh, that Peter Pan story line was so annoying... how are you going to make Henry the truest believer (or whatver da fuqq) and THEN make him the Author? Talk about OP! Don't EVEN get me started on that Frozen storyline! And now Regina split herself in two? Like whaaaatttt???? Can't this show have a character that's just badass?? Why do we have to have "heroes" and "villains"? I hope they address this next season... I love the show, but sometimes I can't even!

[sarrowsmith10]

@mrjonzap
I stopped watching after they decided to go into Hades or something. I was too confused and gave up. I missed a season somewhere along the way too. Most of the Author stuff I missed... Probably had nothing to do with the mythos in the show, more just like its hard to keep track of a thousand characters and the bazillion storylines going on. And how every character is someone's father's brother's son's cat's godfather's child who is also the father of the previously mentioned brother... and so forth.

[Kura]

Even in modern day Christianity, the religion often has a hard time deciding if God is all merciful (christian movies in general), or a vengeful (that awful Noah movie with Russel Crow) or an absentee type personality (Supernatural)

To be fair those can all be pretty damn canon depending on your point of view (and or spiritual relationship) Though I won't go into that much because no need to change this into a religion topic. Just interesting how so many varying personalities can all accurately portray that particular entity. Jesus is much more easy to characterize than the big capital G.

By out of character I mean more like "Jesus is walking down a path, a blind begger approaches him asking for his blessing, Jesus kicks him in the face and walks off saying 'ew..." Note that you can have a character be completely on an apposing side yet still be in character.

[KeraJoan]

I agree with a lot of the others that you should have as much as you want. However my personal pet peeve is when a story/movie/whatever starts off with a giant prologue explaining all of the major components, like who rules the kingdoms, who are the gods, etc.. Whatever you decide to do, the background information, like the stuff in your description, should be discovered organically with the story. That way people new to the mythology won't get scared away/ bored and the people familiar with it won't view it as a summary and also get bored. Anywho to summarize my point; the story and the interactions between the characters should take precedence regardless if that aligns with the mythology. Respect the mythology, but don't let it be your ruling factor.
Good luck on your story!

[sarrowsmith10]

By out of character I mean more like "Jesus is walking down a path, a blind begger approaches him asking for his blessing, Jesus kicks him in the face and walks off saying 'ew..." Note that you can have a character be completely on an apposing side yet still be in character.

Yah, I agree with that.

[glennsong]

I use the Chinese folktale the Lady of the Moon as a background for my story. I do retell it and then the comic is a continuation from that story. The characters Chang'e, Houyi, and Jade (the rabbit) show up in my story as well. I wanted to honor the source material too, but even this tale has a few different tellings so I'm not worried about completely adhering to it's true origin considering people may have different ideas as to what the origin of it is.

[AnnaLandin]

Mythology is constantly re-interpreted, even within the culture in which it is told. The only reason why we modern people think of stuff as "original versions" is that that is the version that got written down - I'm pretty sure Ancient Egyptians and Sumerians had multiple myths telling the stories of Set and Inanna, all of them different depending on who was telling them, where they were from, and when they were being told.

Respecting the source-material has less to do with being 100% accurate to the written-down versions, and more to do with staying true to the spirit of the material - and most of all, do your research. You say you want to use Ishtar instead of Inanna for your story, but that you "didn't see" an ending to the Ishtar-story - research more. Read more. Find out how that story ends, if an ending exists, and then decide what to do with it.

As a Swede, I'm long since used to people getting the Norse myths terribly, terribly wrong - and it's usually mistakes they could have fixed if they, you know, just read some actual books instead of skimming Wikipedia. Their mistakes don't offend me - I'm an atheist living in modern Sweden, I'm not going to be offended by misrepresented Norse myth - but it does make me roll my eyes, because it would have been so easy to get right - and in a lot of cases, a lot more interesting.

I mean, I see tons of stories about Loki and his betrayals of his fellow gods/giants - but very few stories about the giant wolves Skoll and Hate who devour the children who move the sun and the moon across the sky; or about that one time Odin and his real blood brothers killed the frost giant Ymir and fashioned the entire world out of his flesh (did you know the clouds are actually Ymir's brain?).

Dig deep into your source-material, and you might find it's a lot more potential there than you thought.