Knowledge skills for Mythology

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Religious Ritual defaults from Theology but not Literature.

I doubt anyone reading this has any points in Ancient Greek (or Roman) Theology but most have some knowledge of the classical gods and heroes. Our knowledge would be coming from Literature and not Theology.

I would guess that the Literature skill allows you to remember the stories, and the theology tells you how to apply them. In previous eras, a Homeric style bard probably knows the literature ... in the modern era, it's quite possible to be a fantasy writer with no actual knowledge of "real world" history, mythology or anything else, but the better ones will have.

Originally Posted by Inky

Christianity has a little of this too - well-known legends that are not actually from any Bible or in official church teaching. Fan-fiction, you might call it. For instance, a lot of mediaeval carols feature apocryphal or plain made-up incidents from the life of Jesus, e.g. "King Herod and the Cock" or "The Miraculous Harvest". And as some of you may know, "Lucifer" was never supposed to be another name for the devil, but somehow it stuck. And there's the legend about how Mary Magdalene may or may not have married Jesus and may or may not have settled in Provence, which maybe actually has ancient origins but, whether it has or not, seems to have been embroidered on many ways by many different people!

And then there's things that happen when magic gets in on the act - which may involve making mythology up on purpose. Going by a few odds and ends I've read, there seems to be a Germanic tradition of making spells by describing a completely made-up incident where the gods did the thing you're trying to do.

I understand that some of the pseudo-Christian stuff may also include pagan material that re-skinned (as per the pagan and Christian charms to unlame a horse you quoted).