17
votes
Accepted
Have powerful mythological heroes ever run away or been deeply afraid?
Hector's last fight
A prime example is Hector trying to flee Achilles during their final duel in Book 22 of the Iliad. Hector was a celebrated warrior, the greatest of the Trojans and commander of ...
- 17.1k
11
votes
Have powerful mythological heroes ever run away or been deeply afraid?
This is just an initial list--I'll have to return when I have more time to provide references to source material, and will likely be expanding the list.
Enkidu frozen with fear in the Cedar forest [...
- 14.2k
10
votes
Accepted
Who was Zeus' first child conceived with a mortal?
Argos (and his brother Pelasgos)
According to Apollodorus, Hyginus, and Diodorus Siculus, the first mortal consort of Zeus was a princess named Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus. (This Niobe is not to be ...
- 9,870
10
votes
Accepted
Are the Nephilim the demi-gods of the bible?
It depends what you mean by "demi-god".
They are of somewhat divine origin, by most understandings of "sons of God" (ancient Hebrew sources identify them with angels of some description). They were ...
- 354
9
votes
Accepted
How did Hercules kill the lion without being clawed to death?
Presumably, by "the lion", you are referring to the Nemean Lion.
The Wrestler
The poet Theocritus addresses this precise issue in the 25th of his Idylls. In it, Heracles (whom the Romans called ...
- 9,870
8
votes
How long do demigods live for?
Definitions
Presumably by "demigods" you are referring to the relatively modern term as taken to denote a character from Greco-Roman mythology who is the offspring of a deity and of a human ...
- 9,870
7
votes
Accepted
After Triptolemus being added to Hades' jury, is Minos the most important judge?
From Plato's Gorgias, page 524:
οὗτοι οὖν ἐπειδὰν τελευτήσωσι, δικάσουσιν ἐν τῷ λειμῶνι, ἐν τῇ τριόδῳ
ἐξ ἧς φέρετον τὼ ὁδώ, ἡ μὲν εἰς μακάρων νήσους, ἡ δ᾽ εἰς Τάρταρον. καὶ
τοὺς μὲν ἐκ τῆς ...
- 5,388
7
votes
Have powerful mythological heroes ever run away or been deeply afraid?
Ares the god of war
Although in literature Ares represents the violent and physical untamed aspect of war, the last thing you would think is that the god of war is a coward.
In Homer's version of ...
- 4,068
6
votes
Are the Nephilim the demi-gods of the bible?
In accordance with both Jewish and Christian theology, there is only 1 God - Yahweh - who is the creator of everything: angels, people, animals, the universe, earth, etc. Worship of anything or anyone ...
5
votes
Are there any Demigods who became gods of their own power?
Heracles is one of the most famous characters in Greek Mythology who transcended from being a demigod to a god. Throughout his life, Heracles faced constant trials, many of them concocted by Hera due ...
- 588
4
votes
Are the Nephilim the demi-gods of the bible?
Are the Nephilim the demi-gods of the bible?
Impossible to say, but I doubt it.
Let us start by seeing who the Nephilim of the Scripture may truly be:
The Nephilim (Hebrew: נְפִילִים) were the ...
- 2,863
4
votes
Who was Zeus' first child conceived with a mortal?
I'm going to propose:
Minos, King of Crete
The reason is that he is a contemporary of Theseus' father, King Aegeus, and Theseus was in the first generation of heroes, which includes Herakles, who ...
- 14.2k
4
votes
Do any ancient sources describe Set as a mortal? And could Set be Sekhen?
Seth and Sekhen/Ka are completely unrelated names & meanings. Below are the names of Ka (left) and his queen Ha (right):
There are also inscriptions presenting an upright serekh with an upside-...
- 5,388
4
votes
Accepted
Are there any gods or similar beings other than Nemesis that laid eggs?
Yes. A really close fit, fulfilling all of your criteria in one narrative is the origin of a Burmese king called Pyusawhti, who is hatched from a dragon's egg and raised by peasants. Pyusawhti has a ...
- 9,870
4
votes
Accepted
Which Greek heroes used pankration?
Herakles' Opponent(s)
I have not found any ancient references to the idea that Herakles [Heracles] invented pankration [pancratium]. Pausanias' Description of Greece 5.8.4, however, does mention that ...
- 9,870
3
votes
(credible) Online Sources on Epiales, the Greek Spirit of Nightmares
BASICS
The most prevalent version of his name in literature across time thus
far is Ephialtes.
There seems to be a lost myth in which he does indeed get into a
fight with and is defeated by a hero, ...
- 9,870
3
votes
(credible) Online Sources on Epiales, the Greek Spirit of Nightmares
Here's a link to the Aeschylus mention in Suppliant Women.
Unfortunately, it's a single line with little detail. (In the Greek text, Epiales aka "Dark Dream", is ὄναρ μέλαν".)
Here is a passage ...
- 14.2k
3
votes
Are the Nephilim the demi-gods of the bible?
Nephilim are Enoch's version of the Mesopothamian corpora. Given that Enoch lived in the 3rd century before modern era he had no clue to whom he was referring to:
Nephilim are the hebrew language ...
3
votes
Why are the three Judges of the Underworld Zeus's sons?
Why These Persons?
Within the story the explanation is that these men, when they were alive in the upper world, conducted their affairs with especial attention to fairness. Minos and Rhadamanthys in ...
- 9,870
3
votes
Accepted
Demigods in Norse Mythology?
They mostly had children of their own.
The most famous such coupling is that of Rígsþula, which tells the story of how Heimdall, calling himself Rig, visits the homes of three different human couples,...
- 6,037
3
votes
Most gods in Egyptian pantheons are with animal faces?
Here, there are confusions, things we can answer and things which we cannot.
Greeks and Egyptians
Both Greeks and Egyptians are civilizations from the antique time. But:
Egypt runs from 3000 BC (...
- 3,512
2
votes
Were Ancient Europeans religious?
There has been a fair bit of work put into Proto-Indo-European religion construction. Some of it is of course arguable, but a lot of it is well-attested enough, and unique enough to Indo-Europeans, ...
- 1,193
2
votes
How long do demigods live for?
In the absence of any statements to the contrary, I think it is safe to assume that demigods have normal human lifespans for people of their rank and profession (i.e. Bronze Age soldiers and royalty). ...
- 546
2
votes
Did Greek mythology feature any significant Heroes without a divine lineage?
If you go up the family tree (as much as you can with varying parentages), most mythological figures will have an ancestor that is divine.
One of the only ones that comes to mind, as a hero who didn't ...
- 21
1
vote
How long do demigods live for?
Demigods are semi-immortal meaning that their ghost can live for centuries & their body ages more slowly than ordinary mortals. A demigod can earn immortality by completing quests for the gods.
1
vote
How long do demigods live for?
In myths, demigods normally live for the average human lifespan, but there is no riskier job than the one demigods have. The only demigod that actually had a happy ending was Perceus, but most of the ...
- 33
1
vote
Are the Nephilim the demi-gods of the bible?
Nephilim can be called demigods. The sons of gods are also referred to as gods by God in Ps 82:6. The word god describes where a being resides not a name. God is elohim in hebrew. In Ps 82:1 God (...
1
vote
How did Hercules kill the lion without being clawed to death?
There was a RL case of an explorer attacked by a (provoked) leopard, and strangling the leopard with his bare hands. Granted this was a leopard, not a lion; but neither was the explorer Heracles, so ...
- 396
1
vote
Why is Asclepius said to have been a god when he was killed?
The wiki seems to have been updated:
According to the Greek historian Plutarch (in De defectu oraculorum, "The Obsolescence of Oracles"), Pan is the only Greek god who actually dies.
I checked the ...
- 14.2k
1
vote
Were Ancient Europeans religious?
Before Christianity, people in European countries traditionally believed into complex hierarchies of gods, semi-gods and some really minor gods which are all well documented. In that sense, there was ...
- 343
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible