Analysis / Sadly Mythtaken

• The Bible:
  • "Apocalypse:"
    • An "apocalypse" is simply knowledge acquired, or a "revelation" if roughly translated. But nowadays we also use it to mean "the end of the world", thanks to The Book of Revelation, which was all about an "apocalypse" (i.e. a revelation) regarding the end of the world. Any story in a post-apocalyptic setting where the Book of Revelation stuff has already happened is sadly mythtaken.
    • 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.
    • Similar to Armageddon, Azazel is often depicted as a living being in a lot of media, including religious texts such as Enoch which describes "him" as a fallen angel. However Leviticus makes it clear that, Azazel is a place, an Earthly place where Hebrews set captive goats free. This is one of the reasons Enoch is an apocryphal book. But you know, fallen angels are supposedly more interesting than goat havens, so everyone goes with Enoch's version or something similar instead.
  • The Forbidden Fruit consumed by Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis is often portrayed as an apple. This had to do with the story being translated to Latin, where the word for the noun "evil" (malum) was similar to the word for "apple" (mālum). Thus the apple was a sort of Visual Pun. Unless the people who came up with the original story had contact with people from in or around modern-day Kazakhstan, it's unlikely that they would have even known what an apple was. Theories for what the fruit originally was include figs, grapes, pomegranates, dates, and even wheat, all much more familiar to the people of the Fertile Crescent. Of course, it also might have been a unique, fantastical fruit; not that it really matters, as it is more important that it is forbidden than that it is fruit, and the violation of that prohibition is why there is evil in the world.
  • Any depiction of a cherub or other angel as a winged baby. Said winged babies are more accurately called putti and have no relevance to angels, but some how got consolidated and confused with cherubim. Said cherubim are actually rather monstrous in form, with four faces, of an ox, a lion, a man and an eagle, four wings, and with many eyes covering its body, in and out. and one was given a flaming sword to guard the Garden of Eden with, which would be rather humorous if it really were a winged baby.
  • The depiction of Jezebel as a prostitute. She put on her makeup and finery before facing Jehu in order to Face Death with Dignity, not because she was trying to seduce him. She never actually engages in prostitution in the text; the confusion may stem from not only her putting on makeup and appearing in front of a large window, but also the fact that the pagan religion she was trying to promote sometimes involved ritual prostitution in the name of certain fertility gods such as Ba'al and Asherah. She may also be getting confused with a cult leader/another wannabe High Priestess from the Book of Revelation, even though the two are distinct characters. (Indeed, the Jezebel from that story may herself be getting confused with the Whore of Babylon.)
  • Mary Magdalene's portrayal as a former prostitute is Older Than Print, going back to a sermon by Pope Gregory I conflating her with two other Biblical characters, Mary of Bethany (sister of Lazarus) and an unnamed "sinful woman" who anointed Jesus's feet. In the canonical gospels Magdalene was possessed by seven demons, and she was one of the first to witness to Jesus's resurrection, and that's about all we're told about her.
  • Pretty much everything about the modern Christian notion of The Devil is a thick soup of misinterpretations, combining unrelated entities, and outright ascended fanfiction conflating Satan, Ezekiel's "Lucifer", Eden's serpent, demons/evil spririts, the apocalyptic Beast and Dragon, and the Zoroastrian concept of a grand force of evil as God's eternal opponent. Just for one, the excerpt of Ezekiel people like to quote as describing the Devil's origin as an angel in heaven and his fall from grace: nothing to do with supernatural evil. The chapter in question is a prophet's warning to Tyros, a historical monarch, starting with a lengthy praise for Tyros full of metaphorical descriptions of his earlier glory, eminence, and virtue.

• "Allah", which is the Arabic name for the God of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, is sometimes mistaken by those unfamiliar with Islam or the Arabic language to be the name of an actual, distinct god that Muslims worship that has no connection to the Christian God. In fact, not only is "Allah" the same God that Jews and Christians worship, but Islam also views the Torah (Tawrat) and Bible (Injil) as being religious texts revealed by God that are of equal importance to the Quran. Furthermore, Muslims view Jesus (Isa) as not only one of their 25 Prophets, but is also considered to be the Messiah^note Though not actually God's son who will return to judge the dead.
• Anubis:
  • Pick any media where he 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 Sadly Mythcharacterized 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 everyday life of the Egyptians, but more important when it came to death, which the Egyptians were morbidly obsessed with - hence he appears all over their tombs and therefore has become very recognizable. 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 aversion was Disney's Gargoyles cartoon. Anubis makes an appearance, and has to repeatedly point out that he isn't good or evil. He does what he does, which was, in the Gargoyles universe, wielding power over who lives and who dies, but that power was applied indiscriminately. Though surprising for a Disney cartoon aimed more or less at younger viewers, it wasn't all that odd for Gargoyles to try and make a point like death isn't inherently good or evil.
  • Another aversion comes from The Kane Chronicles where Anubis is presented as a minor deity who is simply guarding Osiris's realm as he waited for Osiris's return.
  • While there's no excuse for the movie, the original Yu-Gi-Oh! comic had a fairly accurate portrayal of Anubis' trial of Ma'at, though with the original character Shadi in place of Anubis himself.
  • Age of Mythology averts this. Anubis appears as a minor god, and isn't so much as mentioned by name in the campaign. The Guardian Statue that appears briefly, bears some resemblance to him, and the protagonist's former archnemesis, who appears in two flashbacks, where he's killed, dressed like his followers, but that sums up all references made to him in the story. The god of the dead is Osiris, and he's on the heroes' side. The God of Evil who aids the villains is Set.
  • Another interesting quasi-aversion is Stargate SG-1. While the semi-Ascended Goa'uld Anubis is in fact evil—indeed, the Big Bad, and a pretty scary one at that—Anubis is simply the worst of a bad bunch, all of whom pose as ancient gods, and all of whom are evil (except for the Tok'ra rebels, of course), regardless of the alignment of the mythological gods: Heru'ur, another antagonist, is a stand in for the unambiguously-good Horus; the same goes for Ba'al (who is unquestionably evil before his Character Development and Enemy Mine). To the writers' credit, they have Daniel Jackson occasionally try to remind us that the Anubis the Egyptians believed in was not evil.
  • 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 retconned Anubis as the Embalmer. They did the same thing to Horus and Set, who were the guardians of Ra's solar barge, and turned them into Osiris' son and evil brother. Mythology marches on.
  • Downplayed in Pharaoh, where every god has fixed domains, regardless of the time period. Osiris is solely responsible for agriculture, and Anubis is only referenced as an add-on to the temple complex of Set, which reduces the quantity of linen required by embalmers. Set is no more or less likely that the other gods to turn on you, and, when he does, he only attacks your military.
• 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 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 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, World Wrestling Entertainment has been doing their part to correct this misconception (albeit unintentionally) by crafting a Heel–Face Turn for the Punjabi wrestler "The Great Khali" in 2008 and having him fight Kane, who is literally known as "The Devil's Favorite Demon."
• While he is often treated as a Buddha (a person who attained enlightenment), and sometimes as an incarnation of Maitreya, many depictions of Budai (also nicknamed the Laughing Buddha) usually by people with little to no knowledge of Buddhism, will treat him as THE Buddha, the deity Buddhists worship. In reality, the Buddha (Siddharta Gautama) is not worshiped as a deity at all, but rather revered for his wisdom and as an example of enlightenment. Some people do worship Buddha as a god. Most don't claim to be Buddhist.
• Modern depictions of Classical Mythology usually make the Titans a species of Giant. But in the original Greek myths the Titans are all gods, not Giants. Only in the last years of Classical antiquity did writers start getting them confused with the Giants, because both fought wars against the Olympian gods, and both were defeated. In fact some Greek gods, including some with significant worship such as Rhea and Hecate, were considered Titans who sided with Zeus in his war against the other Titans. The sun god Helios and moon goddess Selene are also Titans.
• Chinese
  • The notion of "foo dogs" is a Western misconception, based on the mis-identification of Chinese guardian lion spirits' statues as canine. The existence of several Asian dog breeds that were named for, and bred to resemble, such divine leonine protectors has only exacerbated the misconception. This one actually goes both ways at once. Lions were an outside, 'exotic' animal in ancient China (read: no one actually knew what they looked like), known about mainly from other cultures' mythic portrayals, so when depicting such creatures, Chinese artists would depict them using the features they would naturally associate with such a noble, majestic four-legged guardian. (Besides, everyone knows they're gerbils.)
  • Yin and Yang have been misinterpreted as just good versus evil or light versus darkness, when actually Taoism teaches the importance of harmony in the world with the two sides of yin (examples of what it has represented are darkness/shadow, water, femininity, and calmness) and yang (which has represented fire/heat, light, aggression, and masculinity) working in concert rather than being at odds. One case of this is in The Legend of Korra where Raava and Vaatu are the spirits of light/peace and darkness/chaos who strongly invoke yin-yang symbolism (to the point of turning into the symbol in battle), with the two in ancient conflict that ends with Raava victorious.
  • Not even the Chinese themselves are immune to this: nowadays, it is common to describe disastrous fires as "being visited by Zhurong", the ancient Chinese god of fire, despite that he is supposed to be a constructive, benevolent deity.
• Mesoamerican:
  • 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. The Maya calendar doesn't end in 2012◊ any more than the Western calendar ends in December 31st of every year.
  • Aztec lore and mythology often gets this treatment as well, and the guy who gets the brunt of it is poor Quetzalcoatl. Many works of fiction have depicted Quetzalcoatl as an evil being, when in reality he is the most merciful and bloodless member of the entire pantheon. His sacrifice demands included such things as tortillas, butterflies, birds and snakes. One wonders why someone wouldn't just use one of their gods who actually did demand human sacrifice.
  • The whole sacrifice angle seems to have put a black mark on the Aztec pantheon as a whole, but in their religion there was a very good reason for it. Without sacrifices, the gods would lose their strength. Without it, they would be unable to keep the tzitzimime, star daemons, from descending upon the world and tearing it apart. Then the whole Universe would go kaput. In their eyes, sacrifice was for a noble cause (the Aztecs were just far more enthusiastic about the number of people they sacrificed in contrast to their neighboring societies).
  • Part of the misconceptions may also be due to the demonization and simplification of the gods by European invaders. Aztec deities were by no means "evil". All of them had good and bad traits. Even the gods of war and darkness governed vital aspects of the world that could be considered good, such as courage and the sun. The good gods have had their petty, jealous and occasionally cruel moments as well.
• Any depiction of reincarnation as an advantage that allows you to come back to life and carry on with what you were doing. The driving point of Buddhism is that desires and attachments bring suffering, and by clinging to them you're doomed to come back to existence and continue to suffer; you're expected to rise above the worldly things and let go, thereby achieving Nirvana and end the cycle of reincarnation. To put it in different terms, reincarnation isn't an "extra life", it's you getting defeated by the end boss and having to start the game from the beginning again.
• While we are at it, Nirvana is not some sort of un-being or vanishing after death (claiming that would be a major heresy in Buddhism) but a transcendent state that is literally incomprehensible aside from the name and it's believed reality. The closest description is the "Four-fold negation" principle which describes Nirvana in negative terms thusly — "Nirvana is neither existence, nor non-existence, nor absence of the two, nor the merging of the two". Your mind is now free to break, thank you.
• Lastly, while Buddhism gets a rap for being atheistic, it is more accurate to describe it as non-theistic, apatheistic or ietsist, since whether there are any gods is irrelevant to the religion; the primary aim is liberate oneself from the karmic cycle of reincarnation via achieving Nirvana.
• Cryptozoology:
  • Pop-culture accounts of Bigfoot are a present-day example, typically depicting the cryptid in question as ape-like, extremely elusive of humans, and animalistic in habit. The creature's appearance in Native American folklore is often cited as "evidence" that it really exists and has since ancient times ... even though the original stories of ts'emekwes, stiyaha, skoocooms, sásq'ets, Dzoonokwa or Slapu generally depict them as intelligent, social beings who can speak human languages, use tools, weapons, and fire, and boldly raid villages for food, supplies, or women and children to eat and/or impress into their own bands.
  • The popular depiction of the Yeti with white fur is this, as the creature was described to be reddish-brown. Ironically, there has been eyewitness reports of a white Bigfoot.
• Medusa:
  • For variances in how ugly or attractive she and other Gorgons are depicted, see Gorgeous Gorgon.
  • The earliest known versions of the story are clear on how her powers of petrification work: If you look directly upon Medusa yourself, you are turned to stone. How Perseus defeated Medusa was that he used a mirror (specifically his bronze shield polished to mirror sheen) to look at Medusa without being turned to stone, then used that to position himself for a killing blow. Modern works vary on this, often making it so that showing Medusa herself in a mirror would cause herself to turn into stone, which is suggested nowhere in ancient myths^note A result of her myth getting mixed up with the legends of basilisks, which killed people by looking at them, and therefore died when shown a mirror. In turn, most legends about basilisks state their victims simply dropped dead, while many of their modern portrayals borrow Medusa's petrification gimmick instead..
  • In Greek myths, Medusa was the mortal sister of fellow Gorgons Stheno and Euryale, and thus a monster to begin with. It was Ovid who made her a human woman raped by Poseidon and cursed by Athena. (Ovid particularly liked portraying the Olympians as Jerkass Gods.)