How accurate is the myth info?

As accurate as I can get it. There are whole regions of research in mythology that just cannot be found or has just never been published. There are holes and incomplete facts in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiforms completing the histories and relationships of their deities to make them as complete as a scale to be comparable to the well-known Gods of the Graeco-Roman Empire (a region that covered Greece, Italy, Spain, much of Southern Europe, the Western Rim of Asia and Northern Africa). Even where the research consistently contradicts itself, I try to go by the most official or recurring version or at least by the recurring themes that are prevalent through so many cultures who lived in close proximity to each other. Sometimes, I get the best info by shifting through a given deity's numerous names and titles and as long as the attributes of his spouse remain constant, I can come up with their parentage, history and progeny. Where there are holes on the history itself, such as how a character came from Point A to Point B, I do resort to a bit of literary license. I'm a big fan of the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" handbooks, and I try to create these profiles to be as close to their style as possible. This site is not meant to be an inventory of every appearance of that character but to provide likely biographies of mythologically characters and as close to a scenario incorporating their myriad universe counterparts.  

Why does your information different from the Marvel/DC sites?
Well, because DC skews the actual facts to fit their stories, and Marvel is describing a fictional universe than mythological universe. At one time, Marvel wanted to keep it straight, but their writers got a little lazy and snatched a lot of names from myth to use as names for new characters. The current writers are now trying to back-pedaling and claiming that those characters ARE the mythological characters and using creative license to try and force those literary characters to be the mythological beings they want them to be. Personally, as a writer of fiction myself, I'm not sure that was their intent. The guide you are here at now is an effort to give bios to these mythological characters as accurately as possible with just the right skewing of the comics to be more faithful to the mythology, and a bit less to the comics. What you see here is 80% mythological, 15% logic and assumptive research and 5% creative license to fill in gaps not found in the research or to better explain the legends in a more coherent easy-to-follow sense. Bottom line, in order to configure many of these deities into compatible biographies, some of but not all of their cultural and religious traits have been examined and re-deciphered into becoming three-dimensional beings. 

Did these figures really exist?

Several of these figures were based on lost and forgotten god-kings and warriors. Odin was based on the ancient Saxon King Wotan while Zeus possibly refers to an ancient pre-Hellenic ruler whose history was connected to his descendants and other similar rulers. The Hindu, Chinese, Japanese and Mexican cultures deified their ancient divine ancestors while incidents like the Trojan War were possibly based on real events glorified and embellished through oral retellings until finally inscribed for all to read. The Celtic and Finnish myths were repeated mouth to mouth for thousands of years and when they were finally written down, the Early Catholic Church had them rewritten as they were finally recorded.

Where did you get the idea for the site?

I've been supplying mythological info for the Marvel Appendix website from basically the same month I was introduced to the Internet as a valuable tool for research until it was decided "mythological-faithful" was no longer a prerequisite, but it's not my site and I can't give the characters the full details they deserve there. I've also got a post at All Experts for answering mythological and paranormal questions. I've seen a lot of wonderful myth sites out there, and seem very weak ones, and I wanted to create the kind of site I wanted to see. It hasn't been an easy job because I'm just not that bright at times and I make a lot of dumb mistakes. I've been helped and supported along by several friends such as Stephanie Pennington (web design), Diane Amantea and Amanda Collins (emotional support), Michael Hoskins (tech support), Matt Burton (DC Comics History), Galen Blackpool (Legendary Journeys expertise) and Stuart Vandal (pics). By typing my name or screen names into a search engine, one can see umpteen sites I've been connected to over the years.

Marvel Gods vs. DC Gods vs. Legendary Journeys Gods.....

In my opinion, Marvel has done the best job in portraying the scope, power, relationships and likely modern histories of the gods of Earth. The gods in the Hercules/Xena TV series were just as wonderfully adapted, but highlighted by remarkable costumes and talented actors. When it comes to playing gods in motion pictures, Hollywood seems to be stuck on the belief that the gods only wore togas, but Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi tossed out that notion in the "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" TV-series (and Hollywood picked it up up again with remakes of "The Odyssey" and "Jason and the Argonauts"). However, Kevin Sorbo's portrayal of Hercules was of a big boy scout while the mythological Hercules was very much like as he is in the Marvel Universe, brash, head strong and a bit self-centered. There are several things I find at fault with the gods in the DC Universe. One,  they're often reduced to Wonder Woman supporting characters,: two, their deities are no where as powerful as their Marvel counterparts (but then neither were the Legendary Journeys" versions) and three,  the writers and creators often rewrite whole myths and plot points to fit their stories. Their Circe acts and behaves much more like the witch Medea than the actual deity. Another thing, the current DC Universe has been built on characters obtained from Fox Features Syndicate, Charlton Comics, Fawcett Publications and others so there is no way of truly figuring how just how many appearances its gods have made in the still expanding and still being altered continuity. The "Crisis of Infinite Earths" and "War Of the Gods" storylines have tried to address these changes but have actually contributed to an even more convoluted and contradictory timeline.   

How do you choose photos to pose as the likeness of the gods?

First off, I decided to do this to be universe neutral so that no one thought this site was specific to Marvel, DC or anyone else, although I did choose some significant "Legendary Journeys" actors and some faces are inspired directly from Marvel Comics artwork. I usually try to go to the actor or actress who has been the most faithful to the character (classic Steve Reeves over Kevin Sorbo for Hercules, Isabella Rosselini as Athena from "The Odyssey"), or I get inspiration from the given artwork to that character (which explains why some of the Mesopotamian Gods so far have Semitic characteristics). Sometimes I get influenced by actors who have already played nearly identical TV/Movie roles (Linda Gray from "Dallas" as the beleaguered wife Hera). With all the fair to weak actresses that have played Aphrodite over the years, I went with Reese Witherspoon whose "Legally Blonde" character, Elle Woods, was one goddess degree off, and because she doesn't look like she fell out of a gala Hollywood party (same reason I chose Sienna Guillory ("Helen of Troy") as Helen over Diane Kruger ("Troy") ). When I was in high school, I used to make lists of the best characters to play the various super-heroes and I still kind of use that same sort of non-specific "casting call" to choose the best possible celebrities (preferably obscure or forgotten actors over major stars)  to create the best visual depictions of the deities that will appear on this site. (Maybe in the far future I'll post that superhero/actor list to the internet for others to peruse).  I'm sometimes limited by the amount of decent pictures of an obscure actor versus a more popular one and sometimes the type of characters a given actor plays gravitates him to a given god (Orlando Bloom as Lugh). I also kind of wonder just how these celebrities would react to seeing themselves on this site. 

Why didn't you include a god's appearance in a certain TV Series/movie/book/comic?

Because I'm trying to create bios based on the pattern of Marvel Comics' original "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" series rather than an inventory of every appearance out there. I'm sure there are even appearances out there that I'm not aware of. It is far more easier to to explain a character's motivations to another than it is to describe every encounter involved.

Another point, several writers usually use mythological names to name characters of their own creation without expecting them to be the same beings. This is very obvious in the Conan novels by Robert E. Howard and the "before written history" adventures in the Marvel and DC Universes. In this case, I may give the history of the pretender or imposter and leave the link between the god and imposter unconfirmed (as in the Dagon and Anubis profiles), or I may just clarify the distinction under CLARIFICATIONS. It just depends on the likelihood and probability of the two being one and the same.

The comparison of One True God to "gods?"

My take on this is rather similar to that of the Marvel Universe: that there is an all-powerful guiding force to the universe and that the beings worshipped as gods by mortal man are aware of His presence, His prominence and His power. In some instances, a retired deity can become religious and believe in Him and His son. My fictionalized interpretation in the Marvel and DC Universes is that the gods are physical beings that were worshipped by mortal man and that "god" (small "g") is the occupation of these beings nor the name or title of their collective races, but a title belonging and owned by the figure from Judeo-Christian faith.  

How do the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" compare with the mythological versions?

I'm not completely familiar with the Percy Jackson books. I've got nothing against them; I just don't read that much fiction, but going by the movie, I think Richard Riordan has his own take on the myths or he's tweaking details to create situations. A few points:

• I have a hard time accepting that someone as powerful as Zeus would irrationally blame a young man completely unaware of his godly lineage of stealing a lightning bolt. If Zeus truly believes Percy stole it, how does he explain how Percy got in and out of Olympus without knowing where it is. Is it possible he was manufacturing events to guide Percy to his destiny?
• Why would Zeus irrationally forbade the gods from frequenting Earth when he was most notorious for frequenting Earth before the Trojan War?
• Athena is a virgin-goddess; she would not have a daughter. Could Annabeth be adopted?
• Why is Richard Riordan prejudiced against deities not from Olympus? We don't hear a single thing about Norse, Egyptian or Celtic demigods, etc. and, yet, Chiron apparently has enough students in an specific age range to fill his school?   
• Just from the movie, Persephone is portrayed by an African-American actress. Another African-American actor is depicted on Olympus. Someone got an explanation for this? 

How do the "Legendary Journeys" compare with the mythological versions?

Like I said, Sorbo's Hercules is a boy scout, a far cry from the myth. Another thing, Sorbo's Hercules was not time period specific; he was meeting characters like Caesar, King Arthur, Morrigan and Gilgamesh who lived several millennia apart while being contemporary with Xena whose existence was nearly preclusive to the reigns of Julius Caesar and Claudius. However, like Hercules, Xena's "life" was stretched even further across time to include the time periods of King David, Goliath, Helen of Troy, Beowulf, Cecrops, Queen Boudicea and Odysseus. However, the "Legendary Journeys" episode, "Yes, Virginia, There Is A Hercules" confirms that the timeline of the series can be a fictional TV series in a fictional reality so I'm not taking all these all these appearances at face value. The Hercules in the Marvel Universe can't even recall major details in his own myths so it is possible, but not unreasonable, to suppose some but not all of the "Legendary Journeys" could have appeared in the boundaries of the timeline of the Marvel Universe. 

Are Xena and Gabrielle real/lesbian undertones?

Xena ("avenger") is a name that did come from Greece, but Gabrielle's name ("heroine of God") comes from the Hebrew religion. Neither of them exist in mythology and are both copyrighted to Renaissance Pictures, the motion picture agency connected to Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi. As far as the "big" question, my take is that they had a very "close" relationship that had "lesbian" traits, but they both preferred members of the opposite sex instead of each other.

What's with the Superhero profiles?

Why not? After the first original "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" series, I had created several more-detailed and elaborate "Handbook"-style entries for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and others in order to challenge my resourceful muscle. The "Who's Who in the DC Universe" series was interesting and informative, but it wasn't very in-depth, it strayed often to non-canon characters and it didn't give a true picture of the DC Universe. It was basically a reference series to  the characters of DC Comics than a true handbook guide of the DC Universe. As much as I would like to divulge more detailed histories like this for more DC characters, I'm sticking to the more iconic characters. Check my links pages for sites on more DC Universe devoted profile sites.

Can you help me get some of the books you have listed?

I haven't the time or finances to get all the books that I want. Your best bet is to check with a local top book retailer for some of the more current books and sites like Abe Books for obtaining out-of-print books.  

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