NekoCatSidhe t1_jefearu wrote on March 31, 2023 at 4:43 PM

Reply to comment by storytroupes in Do you think it's still possible to create new genres? by DiagonallyStripedRat

I see those more as mythology and epic poetry, even if they inspired modern epic fantasy through Tolkien. And the people who originally created these myths probably did not see them as being fantasy or even fiction, but as reality, because they believed that gods and spirits and other supernatural creatures actually existed. That is quite different from the modern fantasy genre.

DiagonallyStripedRat OP t1_jegenx6 wrote on March 31, 2023 at 8:43 PM

This is a different topic but I can't help the feeling that ancient people didn't take their myths as literally as we think they did. Ever heard modern religious people say ,,oh the Bible/Quoran/Tora isn't to be taken literally, God isn't an old guy with a beard sitring on a cloud, these are all metaphores and paralels and parables that speak of an idea etc"?

What if ancient Greeks were like ,,oh the myth of Persephone isn't to be taken literally, I mean, she didn't ACTUALLY collapse beneath the crust of the earth! It simply meant, that..."