These 9 oddly specific myths occur over and over again in different cultures scattered throughout the world. For more fun with the world’s great myths, check out MythsRetold.
1. The Flood
Everybody knows about Noah's Ark, but Jehova isn't the only god to ever say “screw it, let's start over.”
The Cree tell a story about how the trickster Wisakedjak pissed off the Creator so much he flooded everything and Wisakedjak had to rebuild it from scratch.
According to the Mayans, the gods have already destroyed the world twice, once by water, which means that we're all currently living in the Third World.
In the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh runs into an old immortal named Utnapishtim, who has to build a boat and fill it with animals and plants to save from the oncoming flood.
And even the Greeks got in on the flood action when Zeus decided to get rid of everyone after a fiasco involving Pandora's Box. Only one man and his wife survived ... by building a sturdy boat and weathering the deluge.
2. What If God Was One Of Us?
Gods absolutely love pretending to be humans and then busting other humans for being dicks, apparently.
In Greek mythology, Zeus visits a king named Lycaeon, to check up on his hospitality skills. Lycaeon, who is not that great of a host it turns out, tries to have him killed in his sleep and then feeds him dead babies. :( Zeus gets fed up – figuratively and literally – and turns Lycaeon into the world's first werewolf.
The Norse have basically the exact same story. Odin shows up at a king's house to scope out his hospitality, and ends up tied to a wall, getting alternately stabbed and set on fire for eight solid days. And what does he do when he finally runs out of patience? He turns the king and everyone else in the house into, you guessed it, wolves.
Old mythology is full of stories like this, probably because everybody thought it was a good idea to scare each other into being good hosts.
