Ok so I've been meaning to ask this for a while now. I've been trying to find the origins of some of the most universal symbology that's been used in ancient cults since the dawn of our species. Stuff that appears over and over again in ancient texts, rites and depictions regardless of culture or time period, and for most of them there's relatively simple explanations:
>dragons
Dragons are just the mythified (is that a word?) version of snakes, and snakes are humanity's oldest predator. Our fear of snakes goes back so far long before we even stood upright, but snakes have also been observed to shed their skin (regeneration) and disappear into nothingness that we can't help but ascribe supernatural/magical abilities to them.
>vampires
Humans quickly understood that blood is a vital life fluid, so naturally anything involving it would mean a de- or increase in ones mortality, but the most likely origin of the "vampire" idea is probably bats or insects which suck blood from animals.
>flood myth
Most likely because of the end of the ice age causing a lot of rivers and shores to literally flood, which ancient people observed.
>messiah figure born on 24/25th december
"Basic" astronomy, sun worship is one of - if not THE oldest forms of cultism, makes sense ot make the central hero of your religion synonymous with one of the most important pagan holidays.
>heaven and hell
Basic "good vs bad" dichotomy, going along the intrinsic human notion of up=good, down=bad (thumbs up/thumbs down etc).
Only one problem... where the FUCK do giants come into this? Every major religion and mythology has them. All the other things I mentioned all stem from real-life phenomena, you can see where they come from even if they've evolved over millenia. We have 0 (zero) historical evidence of giant hominids running around 8000 years ago, and yet the Torah, the Bible, the Edda and shitloads of other ancient texts and legends speak of them. What gives? What are they not telling us?
>dragons
Dragons are just the mythified (is that a word?) version of snakes, and snakes are humanity's oldest predator. Our fear of snakes goes back so far long before we even stood upright, but snakes have also been observed to shed their skin (regeneration) and disappear into nothingness that we can't help but ascribe supernatural/magical abilities to them.
>vampires
Humans quickly understood that blood is a vital life fluid, so naturally anything involving it would mean a de- or increase in ones mortality, but the most likely origin of the "vampire" idea is probably bats or insects which suck blood from animals.
>flood myth
Most likely because of the end of the ice age causing a lot of rivers and shores to literally flood, which ancient people observed.
>messiah figure born on 24/25th december
"Basic" astronomy, sun worship is one of - if not THE oldest forms of cultism, makes sense ot make the central hero of your religion synonymous with one of the most important pagan holidays.
>heaven and hell
Basic "good vs bad" dichotomy, going along the intrinsic human notion of up=good, down=bad (thumbs up/thumbs down etc).
Only one problem... where the FUCK do giants come into this? Every major religion and mythology has them. All the other things I mentioned all stem from real-life phenomena, you can see where they come from even if they've evolved over millenia. We have 0 (zero) historical evidence of giant hominids running around 8000 years ago, and yet the Torah, the Bible, the Edda and shitloads of other ancient texts and legends speak of them. What gives? What are they not telling us?
