ARTICLE

Finding creative inspiration in mythology

Reviews:

How to have a beautiful mind by Edward De Bono

Are you battling to work out a storyline? Is your painting missing something to make it complete? We look at how mythology has helped to inspire some of today’s most popular stories including The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Trek, and Star Gate SG-1. Perhaps a dose of mythology can inspire you too.

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia are packed with mythology from author CS Lewis's own and other religions. I think Lewis was fascinated by the similarities in the mythology across various religions, and explored this point in his books.

It is possible that Lewis found inspiration for the character Aslan from the Hindu god Vishnu, who appeared in the form of a half-man-half-lion known as Narasimha. As Narasimha, he was able to defeat a demon who had been granted supernatural immortality.

Aslan explains that the White Witch originates from Lilith, the first wife of Adam as incorporated in Judaic and Muslim mythology. Lilith's offspring are sometimes known as the Djinn, which Jadis (the White Witch) refers to herself as in The Magician's Nephew.

The Lord of the Rings

JRR Tolkien, at one time a close friend of CS Lewis, also chose to explore religious themes and mythology in his writing.

It is possible Tolkien got his term "Middle Earth" from the Norse world "Midgard" or "Middle World", one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology and the world of humans.

"Alfheim" is another of the nine Norse worlds and is the world of the Light Elves, which was found on the highest level of the Norse universe. Tolkien may have been inspired by this concept to develop his elves as a more highly advanced race than the human or hobbit characters, as opposed to the way faerie-folk of Celtic and European mythology are depicted.

Harry Potter

JK Rowling must have had so much fun coming up with the names for her characters. She has used the Roman goddess of war to name Minerva McGonagall, and "Alastor" (Mad-Eye Moody) is the name of a battle-hardened Spartan soldier in Homer's Iliad (does this give us any clues as to their roles in the final book?). The Greek counterpart of Minerva, Athena, is also known as the goddess of wisdom, power, and education.

Remus Lupin's name comes from one of the twin boys who were raised by wolves (Romulus and Remus) and "lupus" refers to the moon.

Although not mythologically based, I'm convinced that the Patil twins, Parvarti and Padma, were inspired by two of the lovers of the protagonist in Salman Rushdie's Midnight’s Children – Parvarti-the-witch and Padma the dung-lotus goddess.

Star Trek

The initial planets in our own solar system were named after Roman gods and goddesses, so Gene Roddenbery and the writers of Star Trek continued the theme when they named Vulcan, and the twin planets, Romulus and Remus. Vulcan was the Roman god of fire – an obvious choice for a hot, dry planet with a red sun.

The latest Star Trek incarnation, Enterprise, features the Xindhi as the nemeses of the star ship's crew. Xindhi are Albanian elves which are occasionally malevolent.

Star Gate SG-1

Star Gate SG-1, and the original movie Star Gate, are full of references to mythology from Egyptian (Ra, Apophis, Anubis, etc) to Hindi (Nirrti).

Later episodes of Star Gate SG-1 introduce the Asgard race, and include the characters Thor and Loki. Asgard is another of the nine Norse worlds on the highest level of the universe.

From Amazon.com:

For some modern mythological inspiration, try The Nine Modern Day Muses by Jill Baldwin Badonsky

The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set

The Lord of the Rings Box Set from Amazon.com

Harry Potter Box Set Books 1 - 7