* Santa Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and simply " Santa ", is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.

The most complete existing works dealing with the mythical origins of the constellations are by the Hellenistic writer termed pseudo-Eratosthenes and an early Roman writer styled pseudo-Hyginus.

Although mythical elements are not so prominent in Exodus as in Genesis, the echoes of ancient legends are crucial to understanding the book's origins and purpose: for example, the story of the infant Moses's salvation from the Nile has its basis in an earlier legend of king Sargon, while the story of the parting of the Red Sea trades on Mesopotamian creation mythology.

Strabo referred Pisa's origins to the mythical Nestor, king of Pylos, after the fall of Troy.

The origins and development of this honour were obscure: Roman historians placed the first triumph in the mythical past.

Two ancient legends tell of mythical origins for the city.

Norse mythology, as recorded in the Poetic Edda ( compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources ) and the Prose Edda ( written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century ) provide different mythical origins for the beings.

From its origins as totems or the stylized depiction of natural creatures, the Chinese dragon evolved to become a mythical animal.

In his work on the history of religion, Eliade is most highly regarded for his writings on Alchemy, Shamanism, Yoga and what he called the eternal return — the implicit belief, supposedly present in religious thought in general, that religious behavior is not only an imitation of, but also a participation in, sacred events, and thus restores the mythical time of origins.

In all four of these works, Doherty presents views on the origins of Christianity, specifically promoting the view that Jesus is a mythical figure rather than a historical person.

While they do eventually become factual lines, unlike those of Geoffrey, their origins are vague and often incorporate both aspects of mythical British history and mythical Irish history.

It is generally thought that the Romanies, because they had no written language until relatively recently, have origins obscured by some mythical past.

It is thought to date from the 15th century and narrates the mythical and dynastic origins of the Kek ' chi ' people, and their relationships with neighboring people.

* First man or woman, found in mythical traditions of human origins

Ginzburg proposes that these mythical structures have their origins in the ancient shamanism of central Eurasia.

Different interpretations of the origins of the mythical Pohjola exist.

Lebor Gabála Érenn ( The Book of the Taking of Ireland ) is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages.

There are three main mythical elements of the novel: classical stories alluding to foundations and origins, characters resembling mythical heroes, and supernatural elements "

They are believed to have migrated from Tibet like the Gurungs and other prominent ethnic groups, however, there is an interesting mythical story describing Magar's origins and versions of three different language groups are presented.

Heroic narratives feature one of several major culture heroes, or recurring protagonists of mythical origins, such as Kotan-Kor-Kamui, or the Owl God.

* The Annotated Mage, a website with issue-by-issue annotations of the mythical origins of Mage: The Hero Discovered

* Biblioclasm: the mythical origins, magic powers, and perishability of the written word, ( Rowman & Littlefield, 1989 ), ISBN 978-0-8476-7502-9

As such they were key works in shaping how the Welsh thought of themselves and others, tracing their origins back to Brutus, the mythical founder of the Britain.

In fact, the Inca Empire was conceived like an ambitious and audacious civilizing project, based on a mythical thought, in which the harmony of the relationships between the human being, nature, and gods was truly essential.

* Aztlan ( a future reincarnation of a defunct, mythical Aztec Empire to be " re "- established in lands now found in the Southwestern U. S., a central theme in Chicano political activism.

Tun Ledang Shah ( 1234 – 1463 ) was a mythical but probably based on a real character in the ancient Malay history who was assumed to live during the 13th century Srivijayan Empire till the 15th century Sultanate of Malacca.

The Longships, a group of rocky islets are just over a mile offshore of Land's End, and the Isles of Scilly lie approximately southwest – the mythical lost land of Lyonesse ( referred to in Arthurian literature ) was supposedly located between Scilly and the mainland.

In the mythical geography of ancient Slavs, the land of the dead was assumed to lie across the sea, where migrating birds would fly every winter.

: One must put aside many of the mythical or false accounts such as those of Phaethon and of the Heliades changed into black poplars near the Eridanos ( a river that does not exist anywhere on earth, although it is said to be near the Po ), and of the Islands of Amber that lie off the Po, and of the guinea-fowl on them, because none of these exist in this area.

It is named, on account of its remote location, after the mythical land of Thule, said by ancient geographers to lie at the extreme end of the earth.

In that regard, the mythical seeress Sibyl of Anatolian origin, with her ecstatic art, looks unrelated to the oracle itself.

Rousseau's conception of alpine purity was later emphasized with the publication of Albrecht von Haller's poem Die Alpen that described the mountains as an area of mythical purity.

An early 17th century Japanese manuscript, the Sankai Ibutsu (), describes the baku as a shy, Chinese mythical chimera with an elephant ’ s trunk, rhinoceros eyes, an ox tail, and tiger paws, which protected against pestilence and evil, although eating nightmares was not included among its abilities.

Plutarch mentions that the Athenians saw the phantom of King Theseus, the mythical hero of Athens, leading the army in full battle gear in the charge against the Persians, and indeed he was depicted in the mural of the Stoa Poikile fighting for the Athenians, along with the twelve Olympian gods and other heroes.

Khmer temples were typically enclosed by a concentric series of walls, with the central sanctuary in the middle ; this arrangement represented the mountain ranges surrounding Mount Meru, the mythical home of the gods.

In connection with this interpretation, David and Margaret Leeming describe Genesis 1 as a " demythologized myth ", and John L. McKenzie asserts that the writer of Genesis 1 has " excised the mythical elements " from his creation story.

According to Mircea Eliade, one pervasive mythical theme associates heroes with the slaying of dragons, a theme which Eliade traces back to " the very ancient cosmogonico-heroic myth " of a battle between a divine hero and a dragon.

In other words, by the simple fact that he was regarded as a hero, de Gozon was identified with a category, an archetype, which equipped him with a mythical biography from which it was impossible to omit combat with a reptilian monster.

Encounters often take the form of battles with ' monsters ' – a generic term used in D & D to describe potentially hostile beings such as animals, aberrant beings or mythical creatures.

An early image of winged Daedalus appears on an Etruscan jug of ca 630 BC found at Cerveteri, where a winged figure captioned Taitale appears on one side of the vessel, paired on the other side, uniquely, with Metaia, Medea: " its linking of these two mythical figures is unparalleled ," Robin Lane Fox observes: " The link was probably based on their wondrous, miraculous art.

Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

The dialogue often contrasts so strongly with the mythical and heroic setting, it looks as if Euripides aimed at parody, as for example in The Trojan Women, where the heroine's rationalized prayer provokes comment from Menelaus:

She is compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates ; he adds that she gained the epithet chrysopous ( golden-foot ) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe.

The Prose Edda consists of a Prologue and three separate books: Gylfaginning, concerning the creation and foretold destruction and rebirth of the Norse mythical world, Skáldskaparmál, a dialogue between Ægir, a supernatural figure connected with the sea, and Bragi, a god connected with skaldship, and Háttatal, a demonstration of verse forms used in Norse mythology.

These great lantern-structures are colorfully painted with mythical figures ; and teams of men carry them through the streets as crowds shout encouragement.

The cap implies ennobling effects, as seen in its association with Homer ’ s Ulysses and the mythical twins, Castor and Pollux.

It is cheerfully anachronistic and light-hearted, set in a fantasy Great Britain of long ago, with mythical creatures, medieval knights, and primitive firearms.

The religious and mythical themes in Star Wars were inspired by Lucas ' interest in the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell, and he would eventually come to identify strongly with the Eastern religious philosophies he studied and incorporated into his films, which were a major inspiration for " the Force.

He associates the Great Auk with the mythical roc bird as a method of formally returning the main character to a sleepy land of fantasy and memory.

The animal was a source of fascination for the Chinese people, who associated it with the mythical Qilin.