Saturday, April 18, 2009

Saturday's Super Site

Dragons and griffins and selkies, oh my. I've always been fascinated with the mythical and the fantastic. I must've been the only child in my elementary school to check out D'Aulaires' Greek Myths between the fall of my third grade year and the spring of my fifth. (Not because no one else wanted it, but because I always had it checked out.)

In honor of that age-old, and lifelong, love of mythology, today's Super Site is Encyclopedia Mythica.

Want to know about Bellerophon and Pegasus? How about Gilgamesh and Enkidu? Maybe Irish mythology is more your style, or perhaps you have a hankering for a bit of Native American mythos. It's all there.

Personally I have to stay away from this site because once I start strolling through its pages, I'm lost for hours. A quick peek at Isis leads to a little glimpse of other mother goddesses and then off to their sons and their sons' arch enemies... I'd call this site a tremendous time suck, but the thing is so informative I can't put it in the same category as Solitaire or Tetris.

Yes, I know. I don't write stories that require a deep knowledge of mythology. Yet. (Maybe not ever.) But if I proceed from the idea that everything could eventually be used for my writing, then this site is no worse than other research I do where I get lost in the ideas. From the plot of any mythology my own stories can grow. The interplay of gods and mortals, the heroes on a wondrous quest, the damsel in distress.

Or maybe it's just for fun. I guess from time to time, that's okay, too. ;o)

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