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Yannis
Yannis
7:35 AM
@naltipar It's all based on translation. No source needed. — Young Guilo May 4 at 12:02
:/
 
 
1 hour later…
Yannis
Yannis
8:37 AM
in Complaints, yesterday, by fredsbend
You know, I just want to say that I'm upset. I'm upset that I can't answer all the questions I want before someone else does. I'm upset that so many of the questions and answers make me feel dumb because I've never even heard of their topics. I'm upset that so many of the site's users are smarter than me.
:)
 
 
1 hour later…
Ixrec
Ixrec
9:58 AM
@Yannis if it makes you feel any better, I just upvoted the other answer that has actual sources
 
Yannis
Yannis
10:27 AM
Well, I won't deny it's good to see the sourced answer outrank the unsourced one. Thanks @Ixrec.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
I just went through the question again
My answer doesn't actually answer the question
:p
 
Yannis
Yannis
> Odin chooses for Valhalla, while Freya chooses for Folkvang
@EroSɘnnin That's an answer, isn't it?
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
> How was it decided, which one would go to which place? And why did the need to have many "paradises" (whatever you many call it) exist?
I didn't answer the whole thing
Its incomplete X(
 
Yannis
Yannis
Oh, sure, it's incomplete. However, I'd take a partial answer that points to the actual tales over an unsourced attempt at a complete answer any day.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
Lol. So I have another task on my things-to-do list
 
Yannis
Yannis
10:39 AM
Answering questions is good. Helping people discover the amazing tales behind their questions is better.
6
 
 
1 hour later…
Yannis
Yannis
11:53 AM
-1
Q: Why Overlord Xenu killed billions of people 75 million years ago?

kenorbOn Wikipedia page we can read that Galactic Overlord Xenu brought billions of his people (Teegeeack) to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Why he decided to kill billions of his people? And secondly, if he wanted them dead, why bo...

scientology extraterrestrials
Thus, the extraterrestrials tag was created.
blargh.
 
naltipar
naltipar
@EroSɘnnin your answer is better since it is cited, but still incomplete as you have said. So, I can't accept it. I am more interested in the second part of the question.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
12:25 PM
@naltipar I'm working on the second part :D
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
1:25 PM
 
naltipar
naltipar
1:49 PM
Thanks a lot, @EroSɘnnin
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
:D
 
 
3 hours later…
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
4:46 PM
> Do we know of any stories associated with it? Is it mentioned in Hittite mythology?
a specific myth from Hittite mytho?
 
Yannis
Yannis
A simple mention of the beast in passing in a Hittite tale would be good enough for me. I'm not necessarily looking for a myth focused on the chimera. From the little research I did, it's possible that no such myth survived long enough for us to find out about it.
Of course, if you found a Hittite myth about the chimera, that's an instant green checkmark.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
I did find something
have to double check though
 
Yannis
Yannis
The theory about the Hittite carving being just a depiction of the Greek myth?
That could be true, I guess, but the Hittite carving is old, possibly older than Homer (and the Greek myth). Also, it's not exactly the same beast. It has a human head in the front, instead of a goat head in the middle.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
Oh :/
Well, back to research then
 
Yannis
Yannis
5:01 PM
The theory is plausible, though, and a valid answer. Especially if you can show us that it's not only Robert Graves that thinks that's what happened.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
Okay .. hang on
 
Yannis
Yannis
Got to run now, cu later.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
Sure :)
I'll ping you more details later
 
naltipar
naltipar
5:48 PM
@HDE226868 You've changed a tag in one of my question from volkvang to volkvangr
while I had done the opposite some hours ago
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@naltipar My bad; I should have seen that in the history. Why did you originally make the change?
 
naltipar
naltipar
quoting @EroSɘnnin answer: "and Folkvang (Old Norse Fólkvangr"
I actually didn't know which one to use
and I'm the only one who has used those tags
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
I should have left the tags along.
I did see that you used "Folkvangr" in the title and body, so I thought that might be preferable.
 
naltipar
naltipar
Yeah, you're right, that's how I had written the question (and the tag) at first, then I changed the question according to @EroSɘnnin's answer
I'll leave it as it is for now, we'll need a tag synonym for that
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
That's a good solution (synonymizing).
 
naltipar
naltipar
6:04 PM
@EroSɘnnin since you have answered my question about Valhalla and Volkvangr, you might be able to answer this one without spending much time searching for sources
7
Q: How do the valkyries choose among the warriors in a battle?

DeionThe valkyries are female demigod warriors from the Norse mythology. They served Odin by choosing, among the warriors in a battle, who dies and who lives and from the ones who die which ones go to Valhalla, to become Odin's einherjar and wait in the Valhalla's hall for Ragnarok. Is it explained h...

norse
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
Congrats to @Yannis on passing 2k!
2
 
durron597
durron597
6:24 PM
Can we stop allowing scientology questions now?
 
naltipar
naltipar
@durron I believe it shouldn't be allowed, but most users seem to disagree
 
durron597
durron597
@naltipar The voting on these new questions doesn't seem to bear that out
5
Q: Is scientology on topic here?

PiperI'm asking this in response to this question - are questions relating to scientology on topic here at mythology.SE?

discussion scope
Okay, is there any scenario where aliens are on topic?
Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines /ˈnæzkə/ are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 km (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana about 400 km south of Lima. Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD. The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas, and...
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
if you mean the one about why did Xenu do whatever, iirc that had more to do with the question being lazy than anything else
we've had lazy questions about "regular" mythology too
 
durron597
durron597
2
Q: Was Cadmus the only mortal whose wedding was attended by Olympians?

JodyCadmus married Harmonia. Their wedding was the first between mortals that was ever attended by Olympians, whose favor ensured Cadmus a long and successful reign.

ancient-greek
I see positive score
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I was thinking of the one about how many people did Zeus sleep with
 
durron597
durron597
6:31 PM
That question has had positive score even though I've grumped about it in chat at least twice.
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 I downvoted
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I didn't vote either way
 
durron597
durron597
I don't think people are downvoting the scientology question because it's lazy, I think they're doing it because it's about aliens.
And that's why I'm asking if questions about something like the Nazca lines are on topic.
The stuff about the Annunaki has also not been well received.
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 I downvoted because it's lazy
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 I downvoted for laziness, because all the info is within arm's reach, so to speak. I still don't like the E.T.-angle, but that goes with Scientology, I guess.
 
durron597
durron597
6:33 PM
@HDE226868 Did you downvote the Cadmus question?
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I don't see why aliens would have anything to do with it, if Zeus' origin story involved him moving from some other planet to Earth we'd still consider him on-topic
 
Christofian
Christofian
I think the problem with this question (mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/612/…) is it's asking for a scientific explanation, which should be off-topic. I don't think it has anything to do with scientology
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
and of course there is the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 I actually upvoted before I did some thinking. Then it was too late to withdraw my vote. If it's edited, I'll change that.
 
durron597
durron597
-2
Q: Who were the Anunnaki according to Sumerians' tales?

kenorbWho were the Anunnaki? Were they gods, demigods or different race? And what was their role? How do we tell who they were?

sumerian mesopotamia anunnaki
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
6:34 PM
@Christofian you're right, the scientific explanation thing is also a big part of it
@durron597 that's another good example of a "lazy" question
I'm trying to think of some mythical character other than Princess Kaguya who is clearly an "alien" yet ancient enough to be "safely" on-topic
 
durron597
durron597
@HDE226868 It's edited.
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 It's downvoted.
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I should probably have downvoted more of these lazy questions though
it's private beta so I shouldn't feel bad about "ganging up" on askers yet
 
durron597
durron597
Do we want to have a "too lazy" custom close reason? Or should we just rely on downvotes?
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
the long and complex history of "general reference" probably covers that
 
durron597
durron597
6:38 PM
@Ixrec Downvoting bad questions is the essence of Stack Exchange.
 
naltipar
naltipar
I don't see how Scientology could be on-topic by the way
 
durron597
durron597
@naltipar Because it's questions about the stories of a particular cultural group.
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
imo scientology is an overlap between us and SciFi.SE, but it would probably be more on-topic and get better answers at SciFi.SE
 
durron597
durron597
Every time I tried to come up with an on-topic criteria that would kill Scientology, it got heavily downvoted in meta.
And what I don't want to do is say "scientology is banned just because"
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
@durron597 I just realized the Xenu Q is one of the few I did downvote already
it was that lazy
 
durron597
durron597
6:40 PM
Did you downvote the cadmus question?
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I did just now
 
durron597
durron597
I don't know why that question really bothers me, but it does
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
it was at 0 when I did that but somehow it's back at 1?
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 if we ban Scientology we'll either have to say it's not a real religion, or we'll have to say modern religions are off-topic. I'm not sure if the community wants to pursue either one of these options
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
we might need a meta discussion there
 
durron597
durron597
6:41 PM
probably because it had a score of like 4 at one point.
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
Did someone reverse a downvote and then upvote on the Cadmus Q? I'm looking at the rep history.
 
durron597
durron597
@Christofian Well, recall my first idea was to ban stories by age
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I still don't get what's so inherently bad about scientology
 
durron597
durron597
Then I tried semaphore's idea of "stories that predate modernity in the host culture"
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
insisting that we need to find a way to make it off-topic almost feels disrespectful
 
durron597
durron597
6:42 PM
@Ixrec Because it is stories that were made up by a greedy science fiction writer
I actually would be okay with Scientology if questions about Tolkien were okay too
2
Or Cthulhu
it's the double standard
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 I think there's merit to that idea, but I don't think the community wants to close off questions about christianity/hinduism
(I personally agree with you)
 
durron597
durron597
@Christofian How are stories about christianity/hinduism banned if you ban by age?
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
Tolkein's stories don't have a religious following afaik, do they?
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 because they're modern religions? I thought that's what you meant by age
 
durron597
durron597
No, the age of the story
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
6:44 PM
What's the current position on the greek vs. ancient-greek issue?
 
durron597
durron597
like, the exodus was 3000 years ago
 
naltipar
naltipar
ancient-greek should be a synonym
 
durron597
durron597
@HDE226868 Unsettled. It's going to be greek and ancient-greek OR greek and greek-folklore
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 Should both be on the Cadmus question, then?
 
durron597
durron597
There is greek mythology that isn't hellenistic.
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
6:45 PM
is the proposal that greek-folklore would cover modern stuff?
 
durron597
durron597
@HDE226868 That tag issue isn't settled yet
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
of those two I would favor the former solely for clarity
 
durron597
durron597
This is one of @Yannis big issues
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
everyone knows what "ancient greek" means
though neither of them make it clear what the "just greek" tag means
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 do we have any "greek-folklore" questions yet? I don't think the issue can be resolved until we do
 
durron597
durron597
6:46 PM
if we're going to do ancient-greek that opens up a big can of worms about not allowing chinese but only han-chinese and so forth
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
and the compromise of sufficiently-old-chinese
 
durron597
durron597
@Christofian No because right now we're doing greek vs ancient-greek except many questions are tagged incorrectly.
Personally, I haven't done a big retagging yet because the issue isn't settled.
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 do we have any "modern-greek-folklore" questions, not are there questions tagged [greek-folklore]?
 
durron597
durron597
Either way, scope is much more important than tags
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 I would support that
 
durron597
durron597
6:49 PM
@Christofian I don't think so, but I want to include @Yannis before we do anything on this issue. His feelings are stronger than mine
 
Christofian
Christofian
@durron597 I think we need a question about modern greek folklore before we can make a tagging decision: otherwise we're debating tagging for questions that don't exist yet
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
10/15 questions on the front page are unanswered, including the newest 6.
 
durron597
durron597
@HDE226868 Well I can't answer mabinogion questions as I've never even read a summary of it.
Two of them are terrible scientology questions
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
for me it's more like 5/15, and the top 5 are all answered; which tab are you looking at?
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 Well, those are out of the question.
 
durron597
durron597
6:53 PM
I'm actually trying to research the valkyrie question in the background
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@Ixrec "Newest." Sorry, I should have specified.
@durron597 I've resigned myself to those (maginogion) being unanswered for a while.
 
durron597
durron597
I'm still waiting for my judeo-christian questions to be answered.
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 I was tempted by both, but I think there are those who know the subject much better than I.
 
durron597
durron597
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 I know, I've done the same thing many times, but still. . .
 
durron597
durron597
7:01 PM
I'd really love an answer to the linguistics one
 
Christofian
Christofian
@HDE226868 I don't think I'll be able to answer any of those other than the bishop one, but I can take a look.
 
durron597
durron597
The other scientology question is now down to -5
 
Christofian
Christofian
(these myths were written a while ago, and we don't know everything the authors intended)
quick question: is there a reason why my answer here hasn't gotten any attention: mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/499/…
 
durron597
durron597
@Christofian Personally, because I know even less about african myths than other myths and I haven't been reading them. Upvoted now
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
in my case I simply never saw the answer; I upvoted the question ages ago and haven't seen it since
 
Semaphore
Semaphore
7:24 PM
i dont think we really need to worry about retagging until there's more content around
2
 
durron597
durron597
@Semaphore Agree
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
7:59 PM
I can't believe it, I actually got upvotes for a flying spaghetti monster Q&A
 
durron597
durron597
@Ixrec I want to downvote your question and upvote your answer
Thinking about it.
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I promise my next question will be normal
 
durron597
durron597
I don't want to downvote you for a question to test site scope
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
feel free to suggest an edit to make it non downvote-worthy
 
durron597
durron597
@Ixrec I just think it's off topic.
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
8:08 PM
fair enough
 
durron597
durron597
But, I might be wrong about that
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I'm not sure which if any meta thread is the right place to add a link to this
I guess I'll let someone else do that
 
durron597
durron597
It's an excellent example of something to test site scope. Just like this
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
ah, so you did do that on purpose, lol
 
durron597
durron597
@Ixrec Well, that was day 1, I wasn't thinking about that yet. But I didn't delete it for that reason.
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
8:22 PM
@durron597 How's this?
 
durron597
durron597
8:36 PM
@HDE226868 Upvoted but I'll probably wait to accept until Public
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 I wouldn't blame you for doing so.
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
9:04 PM
@naltipar I guess I can answer that using details from the other answer :D
 
naltipar
naltipar
Yes, exactly
 
Ero Sɘnnin
Ero Sɘnnin
But I'm afraid that will have to wait for a bit
I have something to attend to
See ya guys later :)
 
naltipar
naltipar
see you later
 
durron597
durron597
9:33 PM
oof. I don't want to pay $10 for an ebook "The Prose Edda"
just for a stackexchange answer, lol
 
Yannis
Yannis
@durron597 Hm... Are sources for the various Scientology myths available to people outside the church? From what I gather, most of the material is only available to people who reached a certain level. Almost all we know about the Xenu crap are either from leaked documents that the church denies are true, or from disgruntled past members.
Could we exploit this to declare Scientology off topic? Isn't it fair to say that there's absolutely no chance we'll ever get an actual expert to answer Xenu questions?
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I think that argument would also apply to the aboriginal australian myths
if I'm remembering correctly that they still keep most of the stories to themselves
 
Yannis
Yannis
From what I understand, the church has declared all leaked information false anyway. Even if most past members agree that the Xenu myth is at the core of their teachings.
 
durron597
durron597
@Yannis You might be on to something.
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
ah, good point
 
Yannis
Yannis
9:43 PM
@Ixrec Sure, but do they actively declare them false (sometimes even with lawsuits) when the myths make it to the outside?
 
durron597
durron597
"Scientology is off topic because the Church of Scientology doesn't want non members to discuss the subject matter."
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
cue meta complaints about censorship
 
Yannis
Yannis
Not only they don't want non members to discuss the subject matter, but they've also told us repeatedly that what we non operating thetans think we know about the subject matter is false.
 
durron597
durron597
So, this is interesting. Googling for "The Prose Edda" didn't work, but going to my library's website and searching for it in their catalog led me to a free copy.
 
Yannis
Yannis
Your library's website fails at SEO.
 
durron597
durron597
9:48 PM
@Yannis I don't know about "fails" but I think the paid version are just really good at it.
 
durron597
durron597
10:05 PM
Both questions are about how it's decided who goes to Valhalla.
There is little that I would say that is not in the answer to the first question.
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
hm, the proposed duplicate's answer doesn't appear to say how or why certain people are chosen for Valhalla
 
durron597
durron597
> You say that all men who since the beginning of the world have fallen in battle have come to Odin in Valhal. What does he have to give them to eat? It seems to me there must be a great throng of people. Har answered: It is true, as you remark, that there is a great throng; many more are yet to come there, and still they will be thought too few when the wolf52 comes.
I dunno
I don't feel confident posting that
Especially since it seems to contradict @EroSɘnnin 's answer. What do you think @naltipar ?
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
new question maybe?
 
durron597
durron597
Hmm perhaps.
 
The gods discuss...
The gods discuss...
10:20 PM
2
Q: How do I quote poetry, with newlines intact?

femtoRgonA number of mythological sources are written in verse, and maintaining lines is usually ideal. You can get a new line by adding an extra line between each line of the quote, but this produces an awful lot of extra white space. Taking a random example from the Poetic Edda: > Counsel me, Frigg, ...

support markdown
 
The gods discuss...
The gods discuss...
10:35 PM
0
Q: Are we becoming too Greek?

HDE 226868This is the resurrection of an earlier (now deleted) answer of mine, which, as per the recommendation of durron597, has become a new question. I took a look the other day at our tags. Here are our most popular ones: greek - 67 questions norse - 22 questions mythical-creatures - 16 questions su...

discussion tags
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
@durron597 ^
 
durron597
durron597
@HDE226868 answered
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
11:03 PM
Interesting question.
5
Q: Where should I ask a question about mythology?

PiccoloI was going to ask a mythology question (about the ancient Romans) on history.stackexhange, but then I looked at their FAQ: It is not [for questions] about: ... Mythology Where would be the proper place to ask that? Is there an appropriate SE site?

discussion site-recommendation
 
santiago
santiago
hi
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
Relatively free publicity, though I don't know how many people will see my answer.
@Santiago Hi.
 
santiago
santiago
how are we all?
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
I'm fine. It's the weekend, which is nice. How about you?
 
santiago
santiago
pretty good
I have an idea for a question, but do not know if it would go well
 
HDE 226868
HDE 226868
11:07 PM
What is it?
 
santiago
santiago
personality cult myths (e.g. North Korea)
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
wow, that's a tough one to pick a site for
wikipedia categorizes "personality cult" as a "political phenomenon", and on Politics.SE I do see politics.stackexchange.com/questions/4671/…
might be worth asking on their meta if questions like that are on-topic
 
santiago
santiago
hmmm
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I don't see any existing meta Qs about it
Sociology.SE is only a proposal so I can't think of anywhere else it'd belong
 
santiago
santiago
I was thinking along th lines of "where did the myth behind personality cults originate?" and use NK as one of the examples
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
11:12 PM
I'm not sure what that question means; is there a single myth that cults of personality originate from?
 
santiago
santiago
that's the question (worded better)
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
hm, if I'm interpreting that right, my gut feeling is it'd probably get closed as too broad
even if we deemed it on-topic
 
santiago
santiago
that's why I thought I would ask here before progressing
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I think it would have to be about a specific personality cult to be answerably narrow (on any site)
then it would come down to whether you're asking about why the cult did X which happens to be related to a myth, or you're asking about some aspect of a myth that the cult happened to use
eg mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/477/… is on-topic here because I was asking about an aspect of a myth that Marvel happened to use, rather than the other way around
 
santiago
santiago
hmmm
how about -
i have a question in mind, but can't word it
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
11:24 PM
asking good questions is hard
 
santiago
santiago
tis true
lol, as an aside "The myth of Jon Skeet's superpowers"
hmmm i'll come back to it later
hey @Ixrec, I think I may have it
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
what does it look like now?
 
santiago
santiago
"Is there a mythological precedence for North Korea's Juche ideology?"
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
I'm still not sure but the fact that I know nothing about Juche is preventing me from helping further
hmm, do you have any particular reason to think that there is a precedent? or this is mere speculation?
after skimming the wiki article on Juche for a bit, it and its known inspirations seem to be 100% political
 
santiago
santiago
11:44 PM
I do have an article that claims Confucian roots, but you're probably right
thank you for the time!
 
Ixrec
Ixrec
np
 

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