81 replies to this topic

[Beowulf]

If places in the Hyborian Age were somewhat based on real life is it possible that any of the religions were too?

[Orkin]

Mitra is direct for Mithra, a middle eastern cult popular in ancient Rome.

It appears to be undergoing a sort of renewal:
http://www.mithraeum.org/

Right, that's the low-hanging fruit, then...

[Bri]

Ishtar was definitely based on a real deity and religion. The basics of the real McCoy can be found here:
http://wondersmith.c...oes/goddess.htm

-Bri

[nabonidus11]

Here's another name borrowed from history/myth. Set the evil god of the Stygians.

Encyclopedia Entry on Set

Some critics felt that the practice of using actual names from history or variants added to the "realism" of the Hyborian Age as an actual time that has been forgotten. I agree. For me it has worked to suspend my disbelief and make the stories that much more fun. Seeing the Cimmerians as a tribe known by the ancient Greeks was fun when I was taking an ancient history course. And there are other examples!

[Kane]

Try doing a google search for "Temple of Set".

It ain't just for Stygians anymore.

[loonatik]

Mitra is direct for Mithra, a middle eastern cult popular in ancient Rome.

I don't think so.Mitra was an ancient god of Indo-Aryan civilisation at the time of 2500 B.C
Also,Hanuman who appears in one of the reh conan stories is also a real god.He is a Monkey God in the Hindu religion who appears in the epic of Ramayana.Robert E. Howard was obviously well versed in ancient mythologies.

[Orkin]

Mitra is direct for Mithra, a middle eastern cult popular in ancient Rome.

I don't think so.Mitra was an ancient god of Indo-Aryan civilisation at the time of 2500 B.C
Also,Hanuman who appears in one of the reh conan stories is also a real god.He is a Monkey God in the Hindu religion who appears in the epic of Ramayana.Robert E. Howard was obviously well versed in ancient mythologies.

Yes, the Romans "borrowed" Mithra (as they did so much of the rest of their culture) from another culture. In particular, Mithras is a diety in the Zoroastrian religion, if I'm not mistaken, from Persia.

[Merlin]

just to ask: since when is a Frost Giant really a god anyways?

In Norse and Greek mythology (and others), the 'gods' are preceded by an older divine family of giants or titans, which represent an earlier, more primal consciousness and society. In the historical-era Norse myths the gods of Asgard and the giants of Jotunheim exist at the same time and often fight each other. Howard's conceit is that the ?sir of that mythology are euhemerized mortals of the Hyborian Age.

So what are the gods of Nordheim -- 'the gods of ice and snow' mentioned in "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" -- other than Ymir the frost-giant, Atali his daughter, and those two ice-giants?

Hunwulf in "The Garden of Fear" 'acknowledged no gods but Ymir and his daughters'.

Kurt Busiek has his ?sir invoke Audhambla, Buri, and Bor, all from the appropriate stage of Norse myth.

[Orkin]

Howard's conceit is that the ?sir of that mythology are euhemerized mortals of the Hyborian Age.

Actually that was the running theory back in his day.

[Merlin]

It's great fiction, but awful history of religion.

Hang on, Bor of course is the original god of the Hyborians. How does this work?

[Kane]

Hang on, Bor of course is the original god of the Hyborians. How does this work?

Well, in Howard's essay on the history of Conan's world, he states that Bor was an actual person who latter became deified by the Hyborians.

It could be that through trade and travel mention of bor came to the Aseir and Vanir. Through time bor became a lesser god in their beliefs. We know this has happened in actual history. Look what a little known war god in an ancient Middle East pantheon was able to do in a few thousand years.

[Orkin]

It's great fiction, but awful history of religion.

Welcome to the crazy world of Hyborian Geographic!

[Nogoodnamesleft]

I hear Conan (novel, because I know even less about comic Conan than novel Conan) has killed a few gods (I don't really care if they were just beings masquerading as gods or whatever, sort of like how in the MU, gods are only superhuman extradimensional races, which totally sucks), who were they?

Also, who and or what is Vulkah/Valka/Valukah? How do you spell that? And exactly what mythology is he from? If you don't know what I mean by that, what I mean is that all Hyborian gods (or so it seems, except for some that are probably made-up) are actually those of real-life ancient civilizations, EG, Set was Egyptian, Crom was part of the Irish pantheon, Ymir was a character from ancient Nordic mythology, etc. As well, what is Valukah (probably yet another SP problem in there) a god OF? When did his worship start?

Lastly but not least, I hear there were some differences between novel Conan and comic Conan...what were they? And I hear comic Conan was even tougher...how so?! What did he do that puts him above a guy who is already more powerful than any wild animals (from what I can tell, anyways), besides trash Captain America (who I hate)?

[Zula]

Check out this link for information concerning Valka (a god worshipped in King Kull's day.)
www.rehupa.com
Look under 'analysis/criticism' and click on Religion in the Day's of King Kull.

[Kortoso]

Or, actually, Mithras, the inspiration for Howard's Hyborian god:
Exploring "The Mithraic Mysteries"
It's a lecture at my local planetarium.

Edited by Kortoso, 01 November 2005 - 12:05 AM.

[Strom]

Cool stuff! Interesting possibility- if you end up going to the discussion, fill us in on what the secret may of been and if it makes sense.

Thanks Kortoso!

[Kortoso]

Looking at the descriptions of Mitra and His worship in The Black Colossus seems to show some similarities to Buddhism. Anyone get that?

[deuce]

Looking at the descriptions of Mitra and His worship in The Black Colossus seems to show some similarities to Buddhism. Anyone get that?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mitra/Mithra/Mithras was a real god in ancient and classical times. Not particularly Buddha-like, at least from what we know now. He started out as an Iranian(Persian) sun-god, cognate with Tyr and Nuada. His cult spread west, where it was picked up by the Romans and eventually had a strong influence on the early Christian church. Howard seems to have picked him up from London's "The Star-Rover", where he also picked up the Vanir, Aesir and the whole James Allison-style reincarnation adventure tale. Did I mention that Mitra's feast/birth-day is on December 25th?

[Xaltotun]

Looking at the descriptions of Mitra and His worship in The Black Colossus seems to show some similarities to Buddhism. Anyone get that?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Someone in the Mongoose Publishing Conan RPG boards mentioned a possible connection to Mithraic religion, which is more likely than Buddhism. (Therein I remarked that Mitra is Sanskrit for friend, while mithra may have meant something like alliance, compact, agreement in Old Persian [?]) However, the more pacifist nature of Mitra-worship would make it seem closer to Buddhism. Hmmm.

[Kortoso]

It's pretty obvious that Mitra = Mithras, but REH's descriptions of the temple of Mitra in The Black Colossus, suggests a more asture presentation than we see in actual images of the Roman Mithras.

Sculptured relief from ancient Rome:



And here's a neat tour of an actual Mithraic temple:
http://museums.ncl.a...hras/frames.htm

Edited by Kortoso, 08 January 2006 - 07:41 PM.