History Main / MythicalMotifs

** Fi's singing is outright compared to that of a [[OurSirensAreDifferent siren call], which it essentially is because she wants Link to come and reclaim her as his weapon.

** For Zelda, it's [[Myth/GreekMythology Athena]]. Zelda is the wisest woman in the land and one of the most powerful magic-wielders, and she's also associated with [[TheOwlKnowingOne owls]], just as Athena was an undefeated warrior goddess and the goddess of wisdom who was said to have a little owl accompanying her.

Perhaps a character's story is acknowledged as a HistoryRepeats version or WholePlotReference of a mythical tale like the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'' or the ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}''. Maybe they are named for a specific [[OurGodsAreDifferent god]], wield a weapon [[ForgedByTheGods made by the god]], or have an appearance and powers that echo that god's domain. Maybe each member of a team is patterned after a mythical group, like the pantheon of Myth/EgyptianMythology, or the {{Western|Zodiac}} or {{Eastern Zodiac}}s. Another common variant is to mix this trope with AnimalMotifs and compare an aspect of the story to a mythical creature; for example, a particularly tough and quick-tempered character may be compared to a dragon, or a MacGuffin or delicate-but-powerful or wise character may be compared to a unicorn. Or maybe just naming your powerful monster "[[Myth/AztecMythology Quetzalcoatl]]" or "[[Literature/BabaYaga Baba Yaga]]" [[RuleOfCool just sounds cool]]. Regardless of the specifics, Mythical Motifs make the motif-bearer seem ancient and powerful.

Mythical motifs are similar to AnimalMotifs, but with mythical creatures being used as symbols. They, like animals, can be used to underline something important in the plot or to convey a character's personality. A particularly tough and quick-tempered character may be compared to a dragon, or a MacGuffin or delicate-but-powerful or wise character may be compared to a unicorn.

It can also be the use of mythology as a motif.

Here is a partial list of mythical creatures:

[[index]]
* '''BasiliskAndCockatrice''': Two related creatures, often related to a rooster and/or salamander; nobody knows what they look like because [[DeadlyGaze anyone who meets their gaze dies instantly]]. An example of mythical creature which causes BrownNote harm to human beings, which makes it a BrownNoteBeing.
* '''[[ClassicalChimera Chimera]]''': Part lion, part goat and part snake, fire breathing, sometimes with wings, generally dangerous.
* '''[[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]]''':
[[/index]]
** Western: Solitary, violent, fire breathing, {{greed}}y, dangerous. May [[ToServeMan eat people]] or [[DragonHoard guard hoards of treasure]].
** Eastern: Power; strength; nobility; male; likes to play [[TigerVersusDragon Hide and Seek with tigers]]; generally benevolent.
[[index]]
* '''[[OurGryphonsAreDifferent Griffin]]''': Part lion, part eagle; noble, generally. Symbol of kingship/holy power.
* '''[[{{Medusa}} Gorgon]]''': Hideous monsters, causes people to [[TakenForGranite turn to stone]] (from the Medusa myth). Another example of how mythic creatures can be a BrownNoteBeing.
* '''{{Hellhound}}''': Either a vicious hunter, a vicious guardian or a PortentOfDoom.
* '''{{Hydra|Problem}}''': Many headed creature, where if you cut off one head, two more grow in its place.[[note]](The plebeians in ''Theatre/{{Coriolanus}}'' are called a Hydra.)[[/note]]
* '''{{Kitsune}}''': Illusions, mystery, trickery, cunning and wisdom. Also associated with femininity, despite their reputation of being [[GenderBender males who turn into attractive human females]].
* '''[[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Mermaid]]''': Half-fish, half-human beings.
* '''{{Ouroboros}}''': A serpent eating its own tail: Infinity, alchemy, death and rebirth; lives at the edge of the world or at [[WorldTree its base]].
* '''{{Pegasus}}''' (or winged horses in general): Freedom, high ideals, thought. Can be called "horse of the poets" thanks to his connection with Athena and the Muses, so is also linked with imagination, and writers in particular.
* '''[[ThePhoenix Phoenix]]''': A flaming bird capable of rising again from the ashes: Death and rebirth; fire; eternal life; (Eastern) female.
* '''[[FierySalamander Salamander]]''': Amphibians and reptiles with [[PlayingWithFire fire powers]].
* '''[[RiddlingSphinx Sphinx]]''': Cunning, mystery, riddles, desires. ''Terribly'' mysterious.
* '''{{Unicorn}}''': Purity, [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic rarity, magic]], power (which goes against tradition, 'cause in heraldry they are chained down because they're violent [=MFs=]). Usually the [[LastOfHisKind last of its kind]]. Often associated with virgins. Famously a heraldic beast of Scotland, and features on the UK Coat of Arms.
[[/index]]

* ''ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist'' has a significant ties with dragons -- Sometimes he's known as the "Immortal Dragon Iron Fist"; his costume has a stylized dragon on it; he has a dragon tattoo on his chest; his powers come from an ancient dragon, Shou-Lao.

* '''[[HydraProblem Hydra]]''': Many headed creature, where if you cut off one head, two more grow in its place.[[note]](The plebeians in ''Theatre/{{Coriolanus}}'' are called a Hydra.)[[/note]]

* '''{{Unicorn}}''': Purity, [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic rarity, magic]], power (which goes against tradition, 'cause in heraldry they are chained down because they're violent [=MFs=]). Usually the [[LastOfHisKind last of its kind]]. Often associated with virgins. Famously a heraldic beast of Scotland, and features on the UK Coat of Arms.

* The Dragonmarked Houses in TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} all have mythological beasts as their crests.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Motifs from Japanese, Norse, Classical and Abrahamic mythologies abound in ''Franchise/BlazBlue'':

*** Dinosaur Ryuuzaki's ace cards being [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons dra]][[DinosaursAreDragons gons]].
*** Rebecca later moved from her old deck to a [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons Dragon]] deck.

** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': The six Signers have [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons dragons]] as their Signer monsters and ace cards, but none of them use a Dragon archetype.

* Most of the guilds in ''Manga/FairyTail'' have a mythical motif in their name, including the titular Fairy Tail (fairies), Quatro Cerberos, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, Grimoire Heart (Devils), Phantom Lord and recently Sabertooth and Mermaid Heel.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', the Unicorn is the symbol of the CoolShip ''White Base''. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Later on in life]], Gundam pilot Amuro Ray adopts it as his own.
** The Unicorn motif takes center stage again, but in the form of the titular unit of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn''.

* Aside from Kuwabara, the members of Team Urameshi from ''Anime/YuYuHakusho'' all have MythicalMotifs.
** The most obvious is Kurama having a connection to {{Kitsune}} as the guy actually ''was'' a kitsune in his former life before being reincarnated into a human. Kurama is quiet, secretive, cunning, and wise, with a feminine nature and appearance.
** Yusuke Urameshi has a [[ThePhoenix Phoenix]] motif, with his spirit animal being a phoenix and his BattleAura taking the shape of one when he decides to let loose. Yusuke first acquired his powers after dying and coming back to life at the start of the series.
** Hiei has a Dragon motif, with his attacks being named after dragons or to outright ''summon'' a dragon and throw it at his enemy. Oddly for a show so steeped in Eastern myth, his particular flavor of dragon is strictly Western; brooding, solitary, violent, and burning everything in its path. Hiei fits the motif like a glove.
* Takumi Kuzuryu in ''Manga/TanteiGakuenQ'' uses dragon in many of his works. In-universe, he's depicted as a handsome, elegant, genius noble man, traits his known descendants[[spoiler:, Ryu Amakusa for example,]] supposedly inherit. Those he considers legal descendants will contain kanji "Ryu" in their name, further solidifying the theme. [[spoiler:This is a hint for the climax's reveal that King Hades, while being Takumi Kuzuryu's (illegitimate) son, is not Ryu's biological grandfather.]]
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': ''Nanto Ho-oken'' style is the "Phoenix Fist".
* ''Anime/{{K}}'': Upon [[spoiler:becoming the new Red King]], Anna's motif is a phoenix, [[spoiler: symbolizing the rebirth of HOMRA.]]

* ''Manga/YuGiOh'':
** Dinosaur Ryuuzaki's ace cards being [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons dra]][[DinosaursAreDragons gons]].
** Rebecca later moved from her old deck to a [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons Dragon]] deck.
** Seto Kaiba's signature card is the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the spirit of which [[spoiler:was his past incarnation's lover]] and occasionally sends him plot-relevant visions. He actually themes his clothes and a commissioned private jet around it.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Judai is represented by a dragon.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': The six Signers have [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons dragons]] as their Signer monsters and ace cards, but none of them use a Dragon archetype.

* In a few different ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' stories, ComicBook/TheRiddler tries to give himself a Sphinx motif, being a crafty and wise riddle-giver who kills those that get it wrong. In the ''[[ComicBook/BatmanZeroYear Zero Year]]'' storyline, Batman deduces that while holding the city hostage, The Riddler is hiding underneath a Sphinx statue at the Gotham museum.
* ''ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist'' has a significant ties with dragons -- Sometimes he's known as the "Immortal Dragon Iron Fist"; his costume has a stylized dragon on it; he has a dragon tattoo on his chest; his powers come from an ancient dragon, Shou-Lao.

* Mayland Long (Oolong) from ''Literature/TeaWithTheBlackDragon'' by Creator/RAMacAvoy.

* The Ordo Hydra, another conspiracy group, in the ''Literature/InquisitionWar'' trilogy by Ian Watson ( a series of Warhammer 40000 novels). They are a secret group in the already secret group of the Ordo Malleus who are already part of the "mostly ignored of by the general population" group, the Inquisition. They are really secretive.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' the Targaryen have a three headed dragon as their coat of arms. The dragon heads represented Aegon, and his sisters, as well as their three dragons. House Stark has a direwolf as their sigil, while House Manderly has a Merman. The old Ghiscari Empire had the Harpy as their sigil, the cities of Slaver's Bay kept it as their heritage.

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', during [[spoiler:Lana Lang's]] return and last appearance, she gains a phoenix motif. She gets a phoenix medallion from her TrainingFromHell. Then when she gains superpowers, she also emits a [[BattleAura speed aura]] when she uses SuperSpeed. However, while all other speedsters usually leave behind a trail of translucent "shells" of themselves when they super speed, Lana has a solid, burning, orange aura, even though [[spoiler:she had a faint purple aura when she used SuperSpeed before]]. She bursts out of the containment chamber and waves her arms once to form the wings of a phoenix from the flames.

* The Alpha Legion from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' have the hydra as their symbol, representing the doctrine of autonomous operation and the ability to have multiple fronts who can act even without chains of command (the "head" being removed).
** The Thousand Sons, on the other hand, use the Ouroboros to signify their mystical nature.

* ''TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial'' lets you play as a human whose soul has been replaced by a spiritual embodiment of PrimalFear, which, in a very Jungian way, is represented by a monster of myth- dragons, giants, krakens, gorgons, that kind of thing.

* From ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', Sugilite, the fusion of Amethyst and Garnet, produces a dragon-shaped aura when she is formed.
** The fusion [[spoiler:Obsidian]] resembles various deities from Polynesian and Hindu mythology, particularly Kali.

* '''[[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Mermaid]]'''

* '''[[FierySalamander Salamander]]'''

* The Ordo Hydra, another conspiracy group, in the InquistionWarTrilogy by Ian Watson ( a series of Warhammer 40000 novels). They are a secret group in the already secret group of the Ordo Malleus who are already part of the "mostly ignored of by the general population" group, the Inquisition. They are really secretive.

* On ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', Cristóbal Rios has a thing for mermaids. His ship is named ''La Sirena'', which means "The Mermaid". He also has a mermaid tattoo on his arm and various mermaid stuff in his cabin.

* In a few different ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' stories, ComicBook/TheRiddler tries to give himself a Sphinx motif; being a crafty and wise riddle-given who kills those that get it wrong. In the ''[[ComicBook/BatmanZeroYear Zero Year]]'' storyline, Batman deduces that while holding the city hostage, The Riddler is hiding underneath a Sphinx statue at the Gotham museum.

* The murders in ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'' are based of the parts of a Sphinx, the migget-the face of a man, the Sir Thomas the tail of a bull, the American ambassador the wings of an eagle, and the British parliament the body of a lion.

* Mayland Long (Oolong) from ''Tea With The Black Dragon'' by Creator/RAMacAvoy.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' uses phoenixes heavily, especially in regards to the [[TheRebellion Rebel Alliance]]. Starbirds, the Star Wars equivalent of a phoenix, are used heavily in propaganda and pro-rebel graffiti art. The heroes repeatedly lose major battles only to recover and come back stronger and the growing rebellion is often compared to [[SparkOfRebellion fire spreading]]. Perhaps the biggest example would be in the latter half of season four, [[spoiler:when Kanan Jarrus dies in an inferno, and is (briefly) reincarnated as a Force being to advise Ezra one last time.]]

** Albus Dumbledore's Patronus is a phoenix, and he is otherwise associated with phoenixes because of his pet, Fawkes, and his secret organization the Order of the Phoenix. His brother, Aberforth, has a goat Patronus. This keeping with how he he once used "[[NoodleIncident inappropriate charms on a goat]]" and his place of business [[spoiler:The Hog's Head]] smells of goats.