I was inspired by the thread on Norse mythology. I’m thinking more along the lines of Greek/Norse/Celtic mythology, but I’ll leave the definition broad. If you want to include stuff from the bible or whatever, that’s fine with me.
My favorite is Hermes. He’s just a really cool character. A messenger who’s a bit of a prankster. What’s there not to like?
Also, the crazy inkeeper in the story of Theseus. He had only one bed. If someone was too short, he’d stretch them on the rack, and if they were too long he chopped off their legs.
Odysseus. Super smart, dogged, ever curious, and a trickster figure. It didn’t hurt, when I was a horny adolescent, that he bagged a lot of chicks but still loved Penelope above all others.
Athena. Not only is she the goddess of so many cool enterprises (wisdom, cleverness, war, and, in a sense, technology), but her creation, being born from the mother of all migraines, is freaking sweet.
Vainamoinen. So badass, he made a giant swallow him just to learn a spell. Then he used his awesome powers of being an obnoxious jerk to make the giant spit him back out. If I were a tenth that awesome, I would rule the world.
Marduk. Not for killing his mom the dragon, but rather for his fifty names. My three favorites are:
Kwashiankashor, who confronts the chaos;
Lugalubdubur; and
Lugga Lugga, King Death.
I am very partial to Lugh or Lug Lámfhada or Lleu Llaw Gyffes in Wales.
He was a child of both the Tuatha Dé Danann & the Fomorians.
In Middle-Earth/Arda mythology, I am most fond of Olórin, also known as Incánus, Tharkûn, Lathspell, Stormcrow, Mithrandir, The White Rider, Gandalf Greyhame, Gandalf the Grey, and later Gandalf the White.
Through him Wotan wins back Freia and youth, and tricks the Ring from Albreich.
He eventually destroys the gods when he burns Valhalla.
Loge: “I an truely impressed with your power and magic, Albreich. But shouldn’t a paranoid bastard like yourself be able to change his shape into something besides a dragon, somrthing small, to hide from his enemies? But perhaps that is too hard.”
Albreich:“I can change into anything you can name, Mr. Smart guy!”
Loge:“Oh, do you think a toad would be to difficult?”
Albreich"Ha! Watch this!"
Wotan:“Sieze the beast!”
