Saturday, 4 June 2016

Mixing Mythologies

In The King Of Ys by Poul and Karen Anderson, Niall of the Nine Hostages from Irish mythology and Dahut from Breton mythology are associated with each other although the Andersons explain why no one knows this. How many literary or dramatic cases are there of mixing mythologies?

In the film of The Ten Commandments, the Pharaoh receives gifts from King Priam of Troy;

in The World's Desire, Odysseus goes to Egypt where he meets a Pharaoh and I thought also Moses although the Wiki summary does not mention this;

Arthur Conan Doyle has a short story where Aeneas meets Moses (I think);

"Mazikeen, daughter of Lilith. The passion she shares with Lucifer Morningstar goes unremarked in myth and legend. All the more reason, perhaps, to believe in it."
-Mike Carey, Lucifer: Evensong (New York, 2007), p. 67.

Thus, Niall and Dahut are in illustrious company.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I've actually read Sir Henry Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang's novel THE WORLD'S DESIRE and others of Haggard's books. By and large I liked them even if the style and language is florid and rather purple. I esp. enjoyed KING SOLOMON'S MINES and NADA THE LILY.

Sean