Mythology Crossover

[Aurora]

So, I was poking around the internet, and found this line about the Nibelungenlied, a Germanic myth:
"After killing the dragon, Siegfried then bathed in its blood, which rendered him invulnerable. Unfortunately for Siegfried, a leaf fell onto his back from a linden tree, and the small patch of skin that the leaf covered did not come into contact with the dragon's blood, leaving Siegfried vulnerable in that single spot"

I'm sure it's fairly obvious that this immediately made me think of Percy bathing in the River Styx. But what I wonder is this: Did Rick Riordan know of this other mythology? Did he take it from this Germanic legend?

[[deleted user]]

Probably not, he probably just took it from the myth of Achillies heel, but he could have taken it from the Germanic myth.

[johanna (jo)]

^
Yeah... Percy bathed in the River Styx because that's what Achilles did.

[Sarah]

lots of mythologys sound the same.

[Sam]

The river styx is from Greek Mythology...

[Julia]

It's weird, I know there are TONS of different versions of myths, but I just find it funny/annoying how different they can get >.<

For example, I have a Greek Mythology book that says that Achilles mom was a Nymph who married a mortal, but wasn't happy about it because that meant her children wouldn't be mortal. So, she tried to, like, fry immortal-ness into them by roasting them over this sacred fire-of-some-sorts (don't remember the exact details.) None of them survived, but Achilles wasn't almost immortal when his father came and started freaking out and took him away, so he was invulnerable except for his heel, where his mother held him over the fire.

But then in Percy Jackson, Achilles' mother held him in the River Styx by his heel, so that was why he was invulnerable.

It confuses me >.<

[Ryan]

I think that it may have just been a coinicedence. Maybe the myth about the dragon's blood and the River Styx were really just the same thing but told in different mythologies

[Aurora]

Oh, what I meant was about the fact that the leaf was in Siegfried's small of his back, and it made him vulnerable there, and so was Percy's vulnerable spot. I wasn't talking about the part about the invulnerability as a whole. That's to be expected to find similar themes in mythology.

[johanna (jo)]

Aurora wrote: "Oh, what I meant was about the fact that the leaf was in Siegfried's small of his back, and it made him vulnerable there, and so was Percy's vulnerable spot. I wasn't talking about the part about t..."

Oh LOL, maybe :o

[Janussa]

All mythology (that I know of) comes from somewhere so maybe the Germans heard the story and made it there own, like the Romans made the Greek gods their own.

[Joe]

Either way the Germanic tale i from the story of the river styx.

[Lily]

Aurora wrote: "Oh, what I meant was about the fact that the leaf was in Siegfried's small of his back, and it made him vulnerable there, and so was Percy's vulnerable spot. I wasn't talking about the part about t..."

That actually is kinda weird.

[BubblesTheMonkey]

Abel wrote: "Probably not, he probably just took it from the myth of Achillies heel, but he could have taken it from the Germanic myth."

Agree, though that's an interesting observation.