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{{trope}}
[[File:SATW-Nordic-
{{quote|"''Now, Stephen, these are definitive, absolute facts about a '''myth?'''''"
|'''[[Eddie Izzard]]''', winning at [[QI]] forever.}}
When the writers take aspects from an intricate mythology or religion, twist their original meaning, and misuse them out of context for something far from its original purpose. It can be people, places, objects, anything up to and including [[God]]. Maybe they [[Did Not Do the Research]], or maybe they did after all, but [[They Just Didn't Care]], assuming that they didn't need to be accurate if they were using names and figures in a new context and purpose. It's not necessarily [[Faux Symbolism]] because often they don't even pretend to have intended some deep religious meaning behind it.
To be fair, many ancient sources don't agree on the specific interpretations of individual myths and legends, and many ancient writers would interpret them to prove whatever point they were trying to make. For example, most contemporary portrayals of the sorceress Medea have the deaths of her children be an accident, or a case of mistaken interpretation where the children turn out all right at the end. It wasn't until [[Medea
This frequently happens to any god, no matter how benign, who happens to have any dominion over death or the underworld, due to [[Bad Powers, Bad People]].
In Western media, due to the [[Jesus Taboo]] and the like, pagan mythologies are more susceptible. The Japanese, on the other hand, have no qualms about bizarre portrayals of
When this kind of thing happens in real life, it's more commonly known as '''cultural appropriation''' and typically involves taking something (say, a myth or ritual item) from a specific culture or belief system and stripping it of all or most of its significance, [[Bowdlerise|Bowdlerizing it]], and/or dumbing it down to make it marketable to the masses.
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* [[Disneyfication]]
* [[Everybody Hates Hades]]
* [[Excalibur in
* [[Hijacked
* [[King of All Cosmos]]
* [[Lost in Imitation]]
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{{examples|Examples (that don't fit into the subtropes)}}
== Advertising ==
* Pandora Jewelry. Sounds innocent enough... but if you know ''the actual myth of Pandora'', it is HILARIOUS. The SparkNotes version? Woman opens tempting-looking box and unleashes evil upon the world.
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== Anime
* Pretty much any anime with ''any'' Christianity-related themes. In the West, it's the least exotic religion you can find. In Japan, it's incredibly alien and interesting. Sadly, nobody,
* ''[[Ah
** Particularly since Norns were the equivalent of the Greek fates, and in supernatural powers terms could only really predict the future, each one predicting its own personal strand of the future as they weave together. They were Jotuns (giants), though, so they could quite easily kick the shit out of any pitiful human that dared trespass on their well.
*** Not just the future. It is commonly
*** Well, seeing that the sisters, who are never referred to as Norns, are really only named after the Norns.
*** But it ''is'' mentioned that they are given powers aligned with the past, present and future, which is why in the issue where they begin to lose their powers, Urd starts getting younger, Skuld gets older, and Belldandy simply gets sleepy (Urd is going backward, Skuld is going forward, and Belldandy simply stops).
*** And they '''are''' referred to as Norns; specifically, when Lind is angsting about something and Belldandy comforts her, Lind notes that Belldandy's wisdom is why she's a Norn.
* In ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', Centaurmon is the monster based on the Centaur that lives in a Labyrinth. One really wonders if the designers were instead thinking of the Minotaur.
* In ''[[Aquarian Age]]'', the "Age of Aquarius" is... a secret war that's gone on for thousands of years. As opposed to, y'know, a time of peace and prosperity that's recently begun or about to begin.
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* ''[[Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok]]'' ran away Norse myth and produced special results.
* Kinnikuman blundered badly with this. Supposedly, there are lots and lots of gods out there of various planets, yet there's still [[Satan]], and he's still the mastermind of all the Akuma Choujin/Demon Supermen. But Choujin don't go to Hell, they go to an underworld led by Choujin Enma. Then there's Ashuraman, who at least is correct in his depiction as a three-faced, six-armed individual. Of course, then we find out about his teacher, [[The Bible|Samson Teacher]] {{spoiler|who later becomes Satan Cross, one of the final [[Big Bad]]'s [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|subordinates]],}} who displays similar similar anatomy but has no reference to biblical Samson {{spoiler|or Satan}} at all.
* In ''[[
* Played for humor in ''[[Baccano
** In the [[Light Novels]], Isaac corrects Miria's notion that [[I Am Not Shazam|Frankenstein was the name of the monster instead of the doctor.]] The monster's name? Why, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelly, of course!
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' with Egyptian mythology, paying only basic homage to it and basically crafting its own mythology with the Egyptian background being only color flavor at best. The God Cards are a mixed bag. The Winged Dragon of Ra is the least offensive, though Ra having a Dragon is alien to the mythology. Slifer in the US is the "Saint Dragon of Osiris", and Obelisk is named after a type of monument the Egyptians made. Also: [[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
==
* ''[[The Mighty Thor]]''. Thor was married to [
** The original Thor was a bearded [[Fiery Redhead]], which was symbolic to the Norse. Marvel's Thor is clean-shaven and blond, which meant something completely different to the Norse. Likewise Sif's signatures were her long golden hair and demure demeanor. The Marvel version is a [[Xenafication|Xenafied]] brunette.
** Loki is Odin's adopted son, rather than his blood brother. (And ergo he should be Thor's ''step-uncle'')
** Kind of justified in that Ragnarok is a cyclical event that results in a new version of the Norse gods appearing every thousand or so years, with change, both physical and familial, occurring each time they get, for want of a better word, reincarnated.
* The Ragnarok [[Manhwa]] has the [[The Stoic|stoic]] Loki and the woman Fenrir, which people like to pair up. In mythology Loki was a [[The Trickster|trickster]] god and Fenrir was not only his ''son'', but an ''absolutely [[Attack of the 50
** Hell, Loki was a ''chick'' at one point!
*** Well he was a horse (in the original myth) at one point. A ''female'' horse.
* [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] villain Amora the Enchantress is based on Freya, who ''was'' indeed an enchantress, but she was never evil. And what kind of name for a ''Norse'' goddess is Amora, anyway?
** She was kind of evil.
* [[DC Comics]] has this too. Hera as a kind, merciful goddess, Zeus as a wise and good-natured god, although this is within the parameters of how ancient Greeks saw them. More glaring is that Ares, who according to Greek mythology was the Amazons' ancestor and one of the gods they supposedly worshipped most, is their inveterate enemy in ''[[Wonder Woman]]''.
** Done a bit better in the 52niverse, which follows Greek mythology a lot more closely.
* [[Jack Chick]] does this with ''every'' religion he writes about, [[
** This is a large part of why people thought his work was an example of [[Stealth Parody]] at first.
* In one issue of [[The Sandman]], Loki is making a [[Badass Boast]], and he references his children but claims that Fenrir is called "Sun-Eater". In Norse myth, Fenrir is destined to kill Odin at Ragnarok. His ''son'' Skoll is the one that eats the sun (his other son, Hati eats the moon).
* [[Marvel Universe]] versions of Ares and Achilles both mentions fighting side by side at Troy. In [[
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* ''[[Vampire Chronicles]]'' fanfic ''Rose Petals from a Vampire'' introduces an ancient Egyptian male vampire love interest for the [[Mary Sue]]. Since Enkil and Akasha in the books were identified with Osiris and Isis, the author thought it would be a good idea to name said vampire after another Egyptian deity, Nephthys. Good idea, except that Nephthys is a godd''ess''.
** It's not more wrong than identifying Enkil with an Egyptian god, which is right for the specific canon, but Enkil's just another spelling for a ''Babylonian'' god.
* In ''[[
== Films -- Animation ==
* This trope is particularly plentiful in Disney's ''[[Hercules (
** Despite using the Greek names for everyone else, the movie uses the hero's Roman name - Heracles is his actual Greek name, [[Serious Business|a distinction more than a few people are hung up over]].
** He was not the legitimate child of Zeus and Hera, but rather the product of one of Zeus's many affairs with human woman. This, rather than a magic potion, is why he was not immortal.
** He performed the famous twelve labors as punishment for having gone insane and killing his own wife (read Megara) and children because Hera struck him with temporary insanity to kill them, rather than to build a reputation as a hero.
** That's right, Hera absolutely ''hated'' him, being the child of Zeus and another woman, and fought her hardest to get him killed. She was not in any way a mother figure.
** The movie also places Narcissus on Mt. Olympus with the gods; he was not a god in the Greek myths. He was a mortal who was made to fall in love with his own reflection.
** Pegasus has absolutely nothing to do with Heracles. He was captured and tamed by Bellerophon. And then they exploded, to make the story shorter.
** Also the idea of having Megara be an independent woman is so wrong as to actually be hilarious, given that women were basically breathing objects in ancient times. She was given to Heracles as a trophy for defending Thebes and had, in no way, sold her soul to Hades. And, of course, as mentioned above, Heracles kills her.
** Unlike the others, the change in Hades isn't even [[Disneyfication]]. [[Everybody Hates Hades|He wasn't an evil god]], (he was
** The Titans are also basically depicted as
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[The Mask (
** In ''[[Son of the Mask]]'', Loki is Odin's son (in the Norse myths, he's actually a Jotun fostered by the Aesir, of which Odin is the foremost). And the creators apparently didn't even bother to research the series' own "mythology", presenting Loki and the Mask as separate entities, while the original film established that Loki was trapped within the Mask.
* ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' makes so much hash of its source material that an exhaustive catalog of the errors would be a challenge. Considering that the errors begin, in a way, with the title of the film, this should not be too surprising: the film considers a ''Titan'' to be just about any large, disagreeable monster such as the Kraken (which is Scandinavian, anyway; the creature depicted by the movie is actually supposed to be Cetus) or Medusa, while in Greek mythology the Titans were an early group of gods. The main storyline follows the main events of the Perseus myth, but also muddles together unrelated stories, such as Pegasus, as well as nonsensical elements that appear nowhere in any of the cobbled-together myths, such as a mechanical owl.
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** [[The Remake]] has Hades as the evil "God of Hell," who is trying to (you guessed it) [[Take Over the World]].
*** Not to mention that Medusa's lair is apparently in/near the Underworld, Perseus hated all the gods, {{spoiler|he ends up with the wrong girl}}, and Pegasus isn't the unique child of a very unique mother, but rather a name for winged horses in general...a myth-loving person may cry like a baby by the end of the movie.
* [[
* Almost any Western movie ever, when it comes to ''Kali'', the Hindu Goddess of death, destruction and disease, but also the Goddess of mercy and forgiveness and good health. More on her on [
** To oversimplify the issue, Durga fought demons so strong she has to be reborn in the form specifically prepared for this task, while Kali slaughtered lesser foes. Kali is also a [http://www.festivalsinindia.net/goddesses/kali.html mother figure]
** Mostly, these confusions arose because Hinduism itself (as most Europeans know it) is a result of several transformations. First was Vedanta introduced in VIII century AD, last was "Hindu Reformation" of late XIX - early XX. For one of ''local'' interpretations, there's [[Rudyard Kipling|guy who grew there and spoke their language]] and his ''Shiv and the Grasshopper'', where neither Shiv nor Parbati are portrayed as anything anywhere near "gods of destruction," but "Shiva the Preserver" was invoked. BTW, he's blue-necked because he drank primal poison capable of wiping out the rest of the universe. But if you see Trimurti as personification of Guna (3 flavours of prime driving force), it makes sense that face of Tamas is a pinnacle of body's force ("food giver," Great Ascetic, creator of dance) and raw force as such (ultimate not-to-be-trifled-with but not very ''actively'' dangerous power, both "Destroyer" and "Preserver" depending on situation)... and, well, have such an outstanding "significant other."
** The villains in ''Temple of Doom'' were Thugee (although highly distorted ones, no Thug would be stupid enough to act openly), and at least some of the real members of the group claimed to worship Kali as death. The problem is, the movie treats this as being the correct and only interpretation of Kali, who is actively evil and makes people [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] with her blood.
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** The killer Kali statue from ''Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' may be an in-character example, as the evil wizard who controlled it showed few signs of ''being'' Hindu, although he did recognize what goddess the statue represented. Animating the thing was just a convenient way for him to impress the local savages and create a many-sword-wielding Mook.
*** The green-painted savages who worshiped the statue weren't intended to be typical of Kali-worshipers either; they're just a Stone Age tribe that'd moved into the ruins and adopted the statue as a deity because it looked impressive.
* The plot-driver in ''[[
*** In one instance in the Old Testament, the Ark bestowed blessings on the man who kept it in his house. The film turned this up to eleven and gave the Ark properties similar to the Spear of Destiny. The bit about the Ark killing those who disrespected it is Biblically accurate however.
** Neither does the "Holy Grail as granter of eternal life" seen in the third movie. The writers came with that after toying with the idea of having Indy retrieve the Holy Grail in the [[Action Prologue]] and then going to look for some version of the [[Fountain of Youth]] in the movie proper. Somebody suggested to mix the two, and the rest is History.
* The film ''[[Godzilla]], Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack'' has [[Our Dragons Are Different|King Ghidorah]] as [[Expy|sort of a variation of]] the Yamata No Orochi. However, Orochi has EIGHT heads and Ghidorah only has three. The film [[Justified Trope|explains this]] by stating that Ghidorah hasn't matured enough yet to have grown all eight heads.
** Averted with the film ''Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla'' which actually does a fairly accurate representation of the Okinawa mythologies of the Shisa in regards with the daikaiju King Seesar.
* Evil Bodhisattva in ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]''. Yipes. Not all Bodhisattvas are [[Good Is Not Nice|very nice]], though evil is a pretty strong stretch.
* ''[[Mission: Impossible (
** Another confusion happens in a second [[Tom Cruise]] movie, ''[[Knight and Day]]'' (which at least filmed a couple of scenes in Seville). Nope, San Fermín is not the national holiday of Spain or something like that. It's a local holiday in Pamplona only.
* ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy Returns]]'' has Anubis as a "dark god". To make it even worse, someone was described as ''selling his soul to Anubis''. Anubis carries ''all'' the souls of the dead to the underworld, but he isn't in possession of those souls, nor is there any equivalent of hell in the Egyptian afterlife (undeserving souls are simply fed to a monster; yes, it sounds awful, but think about this: it's not ''eternal'').
** To clarify, the closest thing to a "dark god" in the Egyptian pantheon was Set, who was still a figure of benevolent worship, and not completely evil, depending on which myth you read, although he was pretty much universally a jerkass, sometimes acting as Ra's bodyguard, only to turn around and murder Osiris (although he recovered), only to turn into Horus' [[Butt Monkey]] for a while while acting [[Chaotic Stupid]] (seriously, [[What an Idiot!|trying to make a canoe out of stone?]]).
** The first film also has Imhotep being terrified of cats, due to the claim that they are the guardians of the underworld. The Duat (underworld) in the actual myths was guarded by monstrous serpents, and someone in Imhotep's position, having assisting in the murder of the Pharaoh, the living incarnation of the sun god Ra, was guilty of the single worst crime imaginable, and there was a punishment reserved specifically for people who had committed this particularly horrid type of blasphemy: to be tied with one's arms behind one's back in the underworld in a position designed to cause terrible pain while having a multi-headed serpent eternally breathe fire into your face.
** "The Book of the Dead" is not a physical book; it's a collection of death-related texts from tomb walls and coffins (and it's really called "The Book of Coming Forth By Day"). Plus, even if it were a single artifact, it wouldn't have been the codex-style "book" seen in the film, as that format wasn't used till the late Roman Empire.
*** The only way to enjoy the first two ''Mummy'' movies is to turn off every neuron you have that knows anything about actual Egypt. In the third one, you need to turn off China as well.
* ''[[
* Name a Mesoamerican god. ''Quetzalcoatl''. Name that only one thing you know about Mesoamerican religions. ''They practiced [[Human Sacrifice]]''. So that's it! You'll place the climax of your movie on a scene featuring a human sacrifice to Quetzalcoatl! Except that's just ''wrong''. Quetzalcoatl did not demand human sacrifice. He allegedly disliked it, and was "fed" on birds and butterflies only. Better candidates for your classic [[Religion of Evil]] scene would be the god of war Huitzilopochtli or the god of water, Tlaloc. A lot of movies like ''[[Apocalypto]]'' and other media botch this (notice ''Apocalypto'' takes place in Mayan lands, and Quetzalcoatl is thus referenced by his Mayan name, Kukulkan).
** More than that, Aztec priests took the names of their gods, and one named Quetzalcoatl tried to end the human sacrifice. He was executed as a heretic for this, naturally.
* ''[[
** It's possible, of course, that this would have been deliberate on the part of the author, if he wished to tap into the common belief among some Christians that the various pagan deities might actually have existed, but were actually demonic deceivers. In that case, the 'protects children' itself would have been a deceit.
* ''[[Dogma]]'' features muses, and an angel named Loki, but since in the ''Dogma''-verse, [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|humans can imagine anything about cosmology and it becomes true]]...
** Only if it has a papal sanction.
== Literature ==
* In ''[[Prydain Chronicles|The Chronicles of Prydain]]'', the characters have names from [[Celtic Mythology|Welsh mythology]], and like other [[Hijacked
* [[
* In Immanuel Velikovsky's supposedly nonfiction book ''Worlds in Collision'', he put forth a pseudoscience explanation for various cataclysms based on the idea that Venus was the Roman version of the Greek Athena. In fact Venus is the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite, a fact that even bad pop song writers should be able to tell you.
* Early in his writing career, Robert E. Howard realized he was horrible at making up names. So the [[Conan the Barbarian|Conan the Cimmerian]] stories are liberally sprinkled with historical and mythical names for characters and places that don't necessarily relate to the narrative context.
** In some cases (particularly with the Aesir and the Vanir tribes) that what we know of ancient mythology is actually half-remembered tales of real events from the Hyborean Age. So in the Conan universe, we're ''all'' guilty of this trope.
* Justified in [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s ''Books of Swords'' trilogy, as, while Vulcan is, as pointed out in the essay at the end of the first book, more like a Norse Jotun in personality than the Vulcan of Greco-Roman myth, {{spoiler|
* Herman Melville betrayed his (or his character's) ignorance of Greek mythology when, in ''[[Moby
* [[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[The Halloween Tree]]'' features a downright painful mangling of Egyptian mythology. It equates Osiris with Ra, as well as equating Osiris' resurrection with both the cycle of day and night and the changing of the seasons.
* One can forgive [[Dante]]'s merging of Greek and Christian takes of the afterlife and mythology in his ''Divine Comedy'' as creative liberty, but one ''cannot'' forgive him for his use of the centaurs in the outer ring of the seventh circle of Hell, for one distinct reason: he put ''Chiron'', a [[Defector From Decadence]] and revered ''healer'' and ''sage'', as the ''leader'' of the centaurs driving the damned back into the boiling blood river, and put ''Nessus'', a notorious [[Complete Monster]] known for ''raping Hercules' second wife and tricking her into poisoning him to death'', as the one the one who helps Dante and Virgil across the river. Apparently, all Dante ever knew about them was that they were both centaurs and Nessus carried Herc's wife across a river before raping her.
** Consider also that: 1) Nessus helps Dante and Virgil only because he is ordered
*** He should know enough about Chiron from Statius' ''Achilleid'',
** Consider further that in Dante, people are in Hell because ''God wants them there.'' Easing their suffering would be an evil act, approving of their suffering is just. Chiron being the leader of the centaurs in administering the punishment could actually mean that he is closer and more obedient to God.
* You can blame Lafcadio Hearn for the fact that any Westerner who's heard of the ''[[Tricksters|mujina]]'' probably has it confused with the ''noppera-bō'' (or "[[The Blank|faceless ghost]]"), and for mislabeling the ''[[I Am a Humanitarian|nukekubi]]'' as ''[[Tricksters|rokuro-kubi]]''.
* Bridget Wood's Celtic fantasy novels. But hey, it replaces all semblance of plot with bestiality and gory rape, so that's alright then.
* Some criticisms of ''[[Twilight (
** In ''Twilight'', Meyer describes varacolaci as being "a powerful undead being who could appear as a beautiful, pale-skinned human", while they are more famously known as wolf demons that cause solar and lunar eclipses by swallowing the sun and moon respectively. They also appear as ''dry'' pale-skinned humans, not beautiful. In ''Breaking Dawn'' and ''Midnight Sun'', Meyer cites the incubus and succubus as vampires who are known in mythology as being promiscuous and impregnating human women. Both of them were demons who were believed to be the cause of nightmares and wet dreams. Also in ''Breaking Dawn'', the cleaning lady at Bella and Edward's honeymoon site believes that Edward is a "libishomen", described as "a blood-drinking demon who preys exclusively on beautiful women". In reality, lobishomen (the real name of the libishomen in mythology) were monkey-like werewolves.
*** One of those is actually justified; Edward implied that myths about incubi were made up by humans based on vampires like him. The other cases are valid, though, and there was also a mention of 'actual' werewolves that operate on 'full moon and silver bullets' logic. The silver bullets are more of a Hollywood concept.
* Related to the above, the fandom of ''[[Dracula (
* The characters of ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' use the idea of Atlas holding up the celestial sphere as a model of great men being constrained by the demands of lesser beings. If Atlas ever got tired of the weight, all he'd have to do is shrug it off and it'd be the end for them, right? Well, in the original myth, Atlas was holding up the ''sky'', and he was doing so at the command of ''the gods'', as punishment for siding with the Titans in the Titanomachy. For added giggles, this had the side effect of preventing Gaia from doing the nasty with Ouranos and creating more problems for the gods. Additionally, shrugging off the weight without someone else to hold it for him (like Heracles in one of the myths) would only result in Atlas and everyone getting the sky dropped on them. Ironically enough attempting to "Go Galt" and separate yourself from the rest of society in real life can have similar messy consequences since many of those other beings are responsible for ensuring that "great men" have nice things (Who Cleans Galt's John?). In any event, Atlas was eventually turned to stone by Perseus anyway, making the shrugging a moot point.
* ''[[Harry Potter (
** Snape also says that a Kappa is a Mongolian beast in an offhand comment, correcting a student in one book. However, ''[[Fantastic Beasts and Where
* In ''Hush, Hush'', the characters constantly turn to the Book of Enoch as a reference for the rules of fallen angels. This is reinforced by the fact that the only fallen angels we see are ones who procreated with humans to create the Nephilim (as recorded in the Book of Enoch). According to the book though, the angels did not fall because of lust for human women, but because they were supposed to watch over the Garden of Eden and instead tempted Eve with the apple so that they could lay claim to Earth. {{spoiler|We later find out that the fallen angels get shots at both becoming a guardian angel (saving a human life) or becoming a human (killing a Nephilim), the latter situation allegedly having been recorded in the Book of Enoch. There is no such story there, and in fact the Book makes it very clear that the fallen angels have absolutely no chance of redemption at all.}}
* In [[Older Than Feudalism|Petronius's The Satyricon]], Trimalchio narrates a skit about the Trojan War to his dinner guests and completely butchers the mythology. This was a satire of nouveau riche merchants, whereas proper aristocratic Romans would've received an education in Greek literature and philosophy.
== Live-Action TV ==
* While ''[[Stargate (
** Even there it's a little unclear. Sometimes the Goa'uld seemed to be impersonating or taking on the roles of mythological figures that existed before those Goa'uld came to Earth, while other times the Goa'uld seemed to be using their own names and identities which happened to inspire the myths we now know. That might be [[Depending
*** The Asgard used holoprojectors to disguise that they were small and grey, though. ''SG-1'''s position on the Goa'uld seems to have shifted over time. It was pretty clearly a case of the Goa'uld being the inspiration for mythology, but characters started quite pointedly saying the Goa'uld ''assumed'' the roles of gods. (Presumably someone became uncomfortable with the unfortunate implications for well, every religion in the world).
** In the Season 1 episode "Thor's Hammer" ([[The One With...|The One Where We Learn of the Asgard]]), Daniel says that Thor had a hammer called, well, [[Exactly What It Says
*** And sometimes it's an axe.
*** That ''might'' have been a matter of [[No Pronunciation Guide]]; [[The Matrix]] faced a similar problem where one of the hoverships was named ''The Mjolnir'', but everyone called it The Hammer because no one on set could agree on how to pronounce Mjolnir.
* Despite having approximately the same relationship to [[Crossover Cosmology|myth]] and [[Anachronism Stew|history]] that spray cheese has to food, ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' and ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' had a pretty good grasp of the ''personalities'' of the gods, spirits and other critters they appropriated from various mythologies. Zeus was a philandering jerk; Ares was bullheaded, aggressive, not too bright, and rotten to the core; Thor was bullheaded, aggressive, and not too bright, but at least well-meaning; and so forth...
** While Xena usually has a (relatively) good grasp on mythology, the episode "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" included Bacchus as a demon lord of some kind, his Bacchae followers (more correctly Maenads) as vampires, and, worst of all, dryads as ''skeletal harpies''. What were they thinking?
** The makers of Hercules took a look at Typhon – the biggest and most dangerous monster in all of Greek mythology, the greatest enemy ever faced by Zeus and the Olympian gods – and decided to make him into a dim-witted but lovable oaf. Apparently having him as a villain would have been just too awesome or something.
* ''McMillan and Wife'' did an episode where Sally is stalked and kidnapped by "Satanists". They figure out who the bad guy is because he makes references to ancient
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', the Halloween episode is notorious among certain circles for portraying Janus as a god of chaos. Nothing could be further from the truth; while the "division of self" does fit the idea of people and their costumes becoming one, Janus could better be portrayed as a god of Order, not Chaos, especially in his role as god of portals, doors, and gateways.
** Another episode involved invoking Diana for a spell meant to make someone fall in love, or at least lust, with someone else. Part of her domain was virginity. Of course, [[Fridge Brilliance|this could be why the spell went so horribly wrong]].
* ''[[Supernatural]]'': The show started out with urban legends and was very faithful to them. It started doing the same kind of 'square peg into round hole' approach to its monsters-of-the-week as ''[[
** One of the most talked-about examples is the episode "Hammer of the Gods", in which all pagan (and Hindu, who are treated as pagan despite not being so) deities are man-eaters. It's vaguely interpreted that gods feast on human flesh when there's little faith left to sustain them... in which case, it's surprising to hear that ''all of India'' embraced Islam at some point in the history of the Supernatural-verse.
** [[Archangel Gabriel]] is strangely a [[Trickster Archetype]].
== Myths & Legends ==
* [[
** [[Hijacked
** Texts such as the Lebor Gabala Erenn are essentially the Celtic(mainly Irish) equivalent of the Eddas; and also have a rather incoherent Christian time line tacked on. Interestingly, the author of the Book of Leinster was so afraid of being branded a heretic after listing the Tuatha De Danann that he added the disclaimer "Although the author enumerates them, he does not worship them."
* Norse myths continued to suffer: In Victorian times, the ''Poetic Edda''
** And Wagner's [[Spiritual Successor]] to the Ring cycle, ''Parsifal'', is the myth of the Holy Grail remade in the image of the Bayreuth Theater. At least Wagner didn't invent the
*** Wagner's Ring is something of a cross between two versions of the same story, and Wagner's own personal sensibilities (the stories being the Middle High German ''[[
* Any later work that describes Circe as a "sorceress." In ''[[
** She is daughter of Helios, the Sun god, and Perse or Perseis, one of the thousands of daughters of the Titans Okeanos and Thetys, and thus the daughter of a major and a minor deity.
* Pick any media where [[Egyptian Mythology|Anubis]] appears. The mistaken uses of Anubis as evil, tremendously powerful, or the chief god of death in the Egyptian pantheon are so rampant and constant that they qualify as perhaps one of the most egregious examples of [[Critical Research Failure]] in current culture. To be specific: Anubis was the ''guardian'' of the resting places of the dead, and the judge of dead souls. These were his only roles, making him a minor deity in the Egyptian pantheon. The chief deity of the dead was Osiris, and ''nothing'' to do with death was inherently ''evil''. In actuality, given his role as guardian Anubis could be considered one of the more benevolent deities of the Egyptian pantheon, so long as you don't mess with his charges.
** An interesting [[Averted Trope|aversion]] was the ''Disney's [[
** ''[[
** Another interesting quasi-aversion is ''[[Stargate SG
** It's important to point out that Egyptian beliefs differed from nome to nome, and suffered MASSIVE retcons as time went by. Anubis was originally the God of the Underworld, but when the cult of Osiris (who was originally a water deity) rose to prominence, they [[
* Just about every Western work with Kali (the Hindu night-goddess) in it. Mostly this is due to exaggerated stories about the Thuggee cult and general Western misunderstanding of Hindu deities. Several Hindu deities assume terrifying forms to [[Good Is Not Nice|slay demons]]. One Hindu writer tried to explain this idea by saying that Kali can be like a cherished watchdog: to you, the dog will be cuddly and loving and a great friend, but [[Let's Get Dangerous|furious and dangerous to anyone they think might harm you]]. Moreover, Kali's chopping off of heads symbolizes her chopping off bad thoughts and inflated egos, and her chopping off of hands symbolises her cutting off bad deeds.
** Strangely enough, [[
* While he is often treated as a [[
** Some people do worship Buddah as a god. [[It Makes Sense in Context|Most don't claim to be Buddhist]].
* An apocalypse is simply knowledge acquired, or a revelation if roughly translated. If talking of the Apocalypse from [[The Bible|The Book of Revelation]] specifically, then that's supposed to be the end of the world and any so called [[Post Apocalyptic]] setting that takes place where it happened is sadly mythtaken.
** For that matter, the apocalypse itself. It was supposed to be an allegory for the fall of the Roman Empire, rather than [[The End of the World
** On that note, "Armageddon" properly refers to the ''place'' of a battle during the end of the world, not to the end of the world itself. The name means Mount Megiddo, a place in Israel inhabited from 7000 BC to 586 BC, with the area resettled by a kibbutz in 1949 AD.
** Whoever started the idea that the Maya calendar predicts an apocalypse in 2012 did not do the research. 2012 is the umpteenth anniversary of the creation of the universe in the Maya calendar, the end of one ''bak'tun'' (394.25 years) and beginning of the next one. It has nothing to do with the world ending. If ancient Maya calendars stop at 2012, it's because it was still a long way off and they weren't trying to create an ''infinitely long'' calendar.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** D&D has angelic beings known as Asuras and Devas. Both of which are the names of benevolent spirits... But in different cultures (Iran and India respectively) both which use a variant of the OTHER name for a class of EVIL spirits.
***
** There is a monster called a Medusa, which is ye olde snake-headed woman; in the original mythology, Medusa was an individual's name, and she and her sisters were collectively called Gorgons. D&D ''has'' creatures called "gorgons," but the mythic creature they most closely resemble is the catoblepas. And it got catoblepas...
** Tiamat, the goddess of evil dragons, is named after the Babylonian figure that
*** Although this specific depiction was invented by ''Dungeons and Dragons'', and helped popularize the idea that she's a dragon, the idea of her as a dragon or sea serpent does predate ''Dungeons and Dragons''. It mostly owes to the specific mention of her as the mother of dragons and sea serpents in the [[
*** The writers of [[The Real Ghostbusters]] had one Mesopotamian-mythology-themed episode in which Marduk fights against Tiamat -
*** Tiamat of the Sumerians and later Babylonians is often conflated with the Ugaritic god Lotan (in [[The Bible]], God defeats both of them). Lotan was in fact depicted to be a multi-headed dragon and sea god, who was defeated by Baal Hadad.
** Bahamut, the benevolent god of good dragons, is similarly named for the giant fish/whale/turtle (depends who you ask) of Arabian myth, which carries the world on its back. Think 'Behemoth'.
*** Some people have also been getting angry at ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' for spreading the image that Bahamut was a dragon. [[Did Not Do the Research|Lies.]] Bahamut's been listed as a benevolent dragon in Dungeons and dragons canon since the 70s - ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' was just based off of ''[[Dungeons
*** A minor interesting note, though, is that some time ago, D&D added a character named Kuyutha, Exarch of Bahamut (his champion of sorts), whose name is based on ''Kujata'', the giant bull who rests on top of Arabian Bahamut.
** The lamia is a monster that, depending on the edition, is: a woman's upper body with a snake's tail instead of legs; a female lion-taur; or a woman who can turn into a swarm of insects ''a la'' the Mummy. In Greek mythology, Lamia was a woman transformed into a child-killing demon, and later a whole class of quasi-vampiric spirits were called ''lamiae'' (singular ''lamia'').
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** In fact, D&D ended up wielding this trope against ''itself''. In the first edition of AD&D, the demons didn't have species names; they were simply "Type III Demon," "Type VI Demon," and so on, in order of increasing power. Balor, Vrock, Marilith, and all those were the names of particular demons, samples (or possibly leaders) of their respective types. In the 2nd edition of the game, the given names had morphed over to be applied as species names of the entire Type, so all Type VI Demons were now called Balors, etc., and the "Type ___" designations went by the wayside.
** Speaking of the Fomorians... As of 4th Edition each Fomor has a cursed Evil Eye that gives them a magical power, but also a painful curse. This was originally a quality of only Balor, but it was [[Rule of Cool|too cool a concept]] not to apply to the whole race.
** Then there are kobolds. The name originally referred to a type of elf or brownie from Germanic folklore, usually found in a house, on a ship, or in a mine. It was applied to a race of
** ''Deities and Demigods'' sourcebook turns [[Norse Mythology|Sif]], goddess of beauty, wealth, and the harvest into [[Weak but Skilled]] [[Action Girl]].
*** And [[It Got Worse]]. When she appears in [[TV Tropes]], people dismiss [[Weak but Skilled]] part and turn her into [[Hot Chick
*** She's been like that at [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] for decades now.
*** Don't forget that it depicts Odin and Apollo as [[Chaotic Good]]. Or that it gives Hercules and Thor high Wisdom scores. Or that Hephaestus has a base speed twice as high as a human's.
**** Thor is a wise god(read the Alviss myth), he just prefers not to think much.
** D&D is also responsible for re-perpetuating Hearn's confusion of the ''mujina'' with the ''noppera-bō''.
** An early ''Deities and Demigods'' features Lakota mythology. Suffice it to say, it is full of errors, many dealing with [[Character Alignment]].
* ''[[Scion]]'' has a deliberate example. In Judeo-Christian tradition, cherubim are the second-highest rank of angels. When Thoth used angelic ranks to classify the Hands of Aten (which locked their power levels), however, he used "cherubim" for the ''lowest'' rank. The reason? Ever since Raphael, humans have associated "cherub" with winged babies (which themselves are derived from the Greek Erotes), and so the idea has more resonance than "cherubim" as kick-ass angel warrior, trapping the Hands thus named in a weakened state.
* [[White Wolf]]'s ''[[The World of Darkness
** The [[Vampire: The Masquerade
** ''Gilgul'' is a concept of reincarnation in Jewish Kabbalism, but in the ''[[
** A few relating to the Tzimisce vampire clan of East European vampire sorcerers and [[Body Horror]] makers:
*** ''Vozhd'' is an old Slavonic word meaning "leader", but refers to giant, barn-sized [[Body Horror]] monstrosities the Tzimisce create by merging several dozen people or animals together.
*** ''Bogatyri'' was a term for a group of medieval Russian folk heroes, but in the [[
*** ''Szlachta'' is a Polish word referring to a historic class of nobility, but refers to ghouls fleshcrafted by the Tzimisce into pure killing machines.
* In ''[[Pathfinder]]'', the [http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Nuckelavee Nuckelavee] is portrayed accurately by the artists, but the fluff describes it as "[[
== Theater ==
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* ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'', with Norse mythology.
** To give a few examples: the game claims Ragnarok will be between the Aesir and the Vanir (the original has the Aesir against the Jotuns), Surt was in frost-encased Jotunheim (when Surt was a ''fire'' giant), and makes Frey and Freya into Aesir (they're Vanir). Oh, and Odin has both eyes.
* The ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' games. All of them. The ''[[Dungeons
** In ''Heroes of Might and Magic'', Nagas are portrayed as the ''Dungeons and Dragons'' monster, Mariliths. In fact, Nagas and Garudas are presented as Anthropomorphic monsters often. Garudas have actually been [[Reconstruction|brought back]] to their origins because this ties better with the possibility that they might be [[Ancient Astronauts]].
** The third game also has "Gorgons" that are giant metallic bulls, just like in ''D&D''.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', Shiva is a goddess of ice and snow and not the eight-armed male Hindu god of destruction. However, this mythtake is explainable: "Shiva" is a pun on the phonetically similar "Shiver" (ice, snow,
** Revenant Wings plays around with this however in that there are 3 Shiva Summons. Shiva, Shivar, and Shivan. (Shiva, Darling Shiva, and Baby Shiva in the Japanese version) Shivar is male. (And Stated to be Shiva's Lover, while Shivan, again female, is her child)
** Several Final Fantasies also mess with Celtic mythology for a bit, including summons such as Cú Chulainn and Máel Dúin. This gets somehwhat weird when it turns out Máel Dúin (or Maduin, or Madeen, depending on the translator) is actually important to the plot in FFVI and FFIX. (It gets even weirder when the only instance of the halfway correct translation of the character's name is a recurring random enemy called "Maelduin," who is a ''blind fish'').
** Then there's Odin and his steed Sleipnir, the latter of which keeps losing or gaining limbs with each interpretation. Odin himself always has both of his eyes, he has all of a sudden grown horns, and he is never found wielding his spear Gungnir, but rather the [[Single
*** At least he does [http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=lp7xlm1_9f0 use his spear] in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]''.
*** In most of his appearances, his summon does a die roll and on success it uses Zantetsuken ("Iron-Cutting Sword"), killing everything on the screen, and on failure uses Gungnir, which hits one random enemy for a fair amount of damage. Zantetsuken ("Iron-Cutting Sword") is a reference to Gram, given to Sigurd, broken, and when it was later reforged, it split the anvil in half.
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** In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', a creature that is clearly a chimera is labeled as a harpy.
*** Probably more of a case of [[Blind Idiot Translation]]; earlier FF games are full of errors and oddities, Final Fantasy VII being no exception.
* ''[[Castlevania]]'' falls into this a few times, although the worst example by far is [[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow
* ''[[God of War]]'' does this with Greek mythology, generally making it [[Darker and Edgier]] while excising some of the [[Squick]]. But, like the TV ''Hercules'' example above, it generally hits on the established personalities of the deities.
** ''God of War'' makes an all-too common mistake modern adaptations of Greek myths often make (mainly due to [[Values Dissonance]]): depicting the Greek pantheon as ruthless tyrants who oppress and abuse humanity. The truth is that Greek myths were lighthearted, reflecting the general disposition of the people who invented them. The [[Darker and Edgier]] elements were first conceived in the dark ages.
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** It's been suggested this is a case of the names being swapped through mistranslation: Beowulf shares a few characteristics with the Geryon described in Divine Comedy (he has a small scorpion-like tail), and Geryon is described as being a steed to noble heroes, possibly the Beowulf from the poem.
** On the other hand, the original game hits close to accurate with Alastor, a sword found impaled into a statue of the Judge of Death: in demonology, Alastor is the name given to the supreme arbiter of the court of Hell. Or, alternately, Hell's chief Executioner.
*** But that itself is an example of
** Also, Beowulf's name and design really make no sense at all when you discover where his likeness came from. His original inspiration was almost certainly [
** It's interesting with the weapon Ifrit. The weapon gives you control over fire, in addition to increasing your physical strength. Ifrit were known to be very extremely physically strong, and were considered to be demons, but the fire doesn't really fit unless it was a reference to [[Arabian Nights
** Naming a succubus [
* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'', pretty much in every single one of its numerous incarnations, does this to some extent. However, they're generally excused for their creative license for the sheer amount they get '''''[[Shown Their Work|right]]''''', especially given the prevalence of this trope. As the massive bibliographies for the games included in some of the Japanese-only companion books clearly indicate, this is not so much a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]] as "Did the research, but [[Rule of Cool|decided something else would be cooler.]]" Rather disappointingly, though, especially with its traditionally major role in the franchise, [[Mascot Mook|Cerberus]] remains some sort of lion-wolf with only one head in all but three games, due to its portrayal in the original ''Digital Devil Saga'' novels and anime [[Adaptation Displacement|from which the video games took off]].
** As an example of minor deviancies, Metatron is adorned with crosses despite not being in Christian canon.
* ''[[Darksiders]]: Wrath of War'' can top any of the above for bizarre portrayal of
** That's only the tip of the iceberg as far as ''Darksiders'' is concerned. For a game that is obstentially based off of [[The Bible|The Book of Revelation]], it bears very little resemblance to it.
* ''[[The Battle of Olympus]]'' isn't as bad as some examples on this page (apart from the necessary change of having Orpheus fight monsters that were killed by other heroes in the actual myths, and placing some creatures and characters in the wrong locations), but still has a few clangers. Gaia is depicted as a sexless-looking, hostile golem, rather than the goddess of the Earth. On a smaller scale, Orpheus' love interest is renamed Helene (Eurydice who?), the Hydra has only one head, Prometheus is guarded by the Nemean Lion rather than savaged by an eagle, and Circe is depicted as an old crone instead of [[The Vamp]]. Hades is the [[Big Bad]], but that's somewhat justified by his kidnapping of Helene being modelled on that of Persephone in the myth.
* ''[[
** Boreas, minor Greek god of the north wind, is ''a giant snow-cone machine'' in the ''Golden Sun'' universe. That is all.
*** Until ''Dark Dawn'', in which he became a giant, ''literal'' Iron Horse. Wait, ''what?''
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** Ramses is a ridiculous giant head with even more ridiculous floating fists.
** Perhaps the most hilarious example occurs with the summon Neptune (derived from the Roman name for the god of the sea, Neptunus). At certain point in ''Golden Sun: The Lost Age'', you fight a boss named Poseidon, which is the same entity only now under its Greek name. You can technically have the summon attack itself.
** And then there's Moloch, the Canaanite god of [[The Bible|Biblical fame]], whose man-made idol with a [[Kill It
** Coatlicue, the devouring Aztec goddess with snakes for head and clothing, a statue of whom was [[Or So
* In ''[[Mortal Kombat
* ''[[Rygar]]'': The Legendary Adventure. It's very obvious that [[They Just Didn't Care]] about accuracy, and the game [[Excuse Plot|doesn't suffer for it]].
* [[Kid Icarus]]. The queen of the underworld is Medusa, [[Demonic Spider|Pluton]] is a common enemy that steals your weapons, Pandora is a giant soap bubble and goddess of calamity and deceit, and [[Gannon Banned|Tanatos]] is a snake that lives in Medusa's hair.
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== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Jet Dream (
* Lampshaded and averted in ''[[Spinnerette]]'' , when Heather asks her roomate Sahira (who is hindu) why she hasn't likened her to a Hindu goddesses (since she has six arms), Sahira laughs it off and tells her she only bears the most superficial resemblance to a Hindu Goddess, and it would be like saying she looks like Jesus because she grew a beard.
== Web Original ==
* Erotic works in the furry fandom sometimes use part-animal gods as sex symbols, regardless of how much sense it would make (although Zeus was famous for shape shifting and then having sex, so this isn't anything new). ''Anubis: Dark Desires'', an erotic comic book anthology, is a prime example. Except, weirdly enough, apart from the erotic aspect, those stories remain fairly true to the mythology.
* [[Cleolinda Jones]] pokes fun at the examples from the ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' remake in her [http://m15m.livejournal.com/22342.html Movies in Fifteen Minutes] review of it.
{{quote|
ZEUS: Well, technically, our parents were the titans, but your hellrobes don't go too well with my sparkle armor, so maybe that counts. }}
== Western Animation ==
* An episode of ''[[Tutenstein]]'' has Set trap Ra for
**Otherwise, the show did a good job at [[Averted|averting]] this, [[Shown Their Work|sticking close to the original Egyptian Myths]].
* ''[[Mummies Alive]]'' did this with Egyptian mythology in so many ways: Egyptians believing in reincarnation, Ancient Egyptian deities behaving more like rogue mystic entities behaving losely like their mythological namesakes (when Anubis, god of the dead, is portrayed as a moronic entity with a dog motif, you know it's bad).
** When Anubis is portrayed as god of the dead, or god of death, you also know it was bad. That role belonged to Osiris, Anubis was a very minor god of embalment.
* Pandora's Box in ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. For one thing, it turned Pandora into a [[Badass]] supernatural being who guards the Box from being opened. In the actual myth, Pandora is the first woman in the world, and she opens the Box because she can't resist the [[Schmuck Bait]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' repeats the usual error in making Anubis a demonic figure of menace instead of a sedate guide.
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[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
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