this is the thread where we try to interpret certain devices that keep re-appearing in mythology, fables, and faery-tales. all myths and tales have, to some degree, a piece of what the people that made them fear, hope for, believe, and know. this is the thread that we find them.

feathered snakes
feathered snakes appear often. native american culture is just dripping with feathered snakes, quetzacotle, texatlipoca, the manulaxtca, the water serpents, ect. the nagas and bruhpas of the far east, basilisks of north africa, and the midgard serpent (who has feathers in some of the more ancient tellings) all are some sort of feathered snake. why do feathered serpents pop up in mythology so much? well, birds are essentially creatures of the sky, and snakes are solely creatures of the ground, but both snakes and birds come from eggs. a snake with feathers could symbolize the paradoxes of the world we live in, life/death, light/dark, good/evil, creation/destruction, ect.

Or monsters with human faces?

sure, lets think about monsters with animal bodies and human faces. in terms of out-right scaryness, what would be more frightening, a goat, or a goat with the face of a human?
maybe human-faced animal monsters symbolize the fact that often times, humans are act like little more than savage, brutal animals. maybe human-faced animal monsters represent getting back to our evolutionary roots (because, contrary to what darwin would have you believe, he did by no means come up with the theory of evolution. essentially the same idea had been around since roman times).

hows about giant turtles? in several myths, the hero asks a giant turtle a question that would help him complete his quest. there are very few chinese myths that dont involve giant tortoises, ancient wise tortoises, or both. several faery-tales have the hero try to climb a mountain, only to have it move beneath him, and he discovers it was the shell of a giant turtle. so whats it mean? theyre symbolic of wisdom and age, of course, but other than tortoises being able to live very long, perhaps the inventers of the tales meant to teach a lesson from the turtles slow and steady plodding.

what about gold? well, thats a pretty obvious one. the golden rule is, whoever has the gold makes the rules. gold was power. if you had enough gold, you could do just about anything you wanted. it was the hope of all people to have that much gold. but, maybe its more than that. gold is like no other metal.....its yellow. it is relatively rare, especially if you knew as little about finding it as the people who invented these myths did. both of those together could be symbolic of being special, standing out.

how about the number three? three appears in faery-tales so much its almost annoying, and alot in mythology too. what makes three better than other numbers? i have no idea on this one, except maybe that the people making the stories couldnt count any higher than three.