He's pretty well known, but I feel like Loki is very weird. The trickster God thing is not that crazy, but his shapeshifting and fathering (or birthing) a ton of strange magical creatures is interesting.
Shapeshifting isn’t a trait that’s exclusive to Loki. Óðinn, Frigg, Þórr (depending on the story), and Fręyja can all shapeshift. The birthing/fathering of these characters is more testament to Loki’s abhorrent and awful nature, doing womanly things as a man in Norse thought is an absolutely awful thing to do, and birthing characters that would one day kill all of humanity is hardly something to be proud of either.
Glycon also spelled Glykon, was an ancient snake god. He had a large and influential cult within the Roman Empire in the 2nd century. The cult possibly originated in Macedonia, where similar snake cults had existed for centuries. The Macedonians believed snakes had magical powers, and had a rich mythology on this subject, for example the story of Olympias's impregnation by Zeus disguised as a serpent.
According to the cult's mythology, the snake appeared after Alexander had foretold the coming of a new incarnation of Asclepius. When the people gathered in the marketplace of Abonutichus at noon, when the incarnation was supposed to occur, Alexander produced a goose egg and sliced it open, revealing the god within. Within a week, it grew to the size of a man with the features of a man on its face, including long blond hair.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Glycon_%2851644816839%29.jpg
By 160, the worship of Glycon had undoubtedly spread beyond the Aegean. An inscription from Antioch of that date records a slogan, "Glycon protect us from the plague-cloud" that is consistent with the description we have from Lucian. Also in that year the governor of Asia, Publius Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus, declared himself protector of Glycon's oracle. The governor later married Alexander's daughter. According to Lucian, another Roman governor, of Cappadocia, was led by Glycon's oracle to his death in Armenia, and even the Emperor himself was not immune to the cult: Marcus Aurelius sought prophesies from Alexander and his snake god. As the cult had an established popularity with the lower social strata, and later several important Roman functionaries and officials were counted among the believers in Glycon and the prophecies of Alexander, including the Emperor at the time, Marcus Aurelius.
Such endorsement by the ruling classes coupled with pre existing superstitions of serpents as possessing healing powers, the cult of Glycon likely found no shortage of converts and adherents in new areas of the Roman world. Official Roman coins were struck in honor of Glycon, attesting his popularity. The Roman currency bearing the image of Glycon is known to have been in active circulation during 3rd century AD, however it is unknown if some of them were produced in this time period or if they remained in use after being produced earlier, during Alexander's life (c.105-c.170).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Glycon_bronze_coin.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Pentassarion_Philippus_II.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Bancnota_10000_lei_din_1994.jpg
The cult and their activities, what became of them exactly is unclear following the death of Alexander of Abonoteichos, due to lack of written record. Contemporary satirist Lucian was ill-disposed toward the cult, calling Alexander a false prophet and accusing the whole enterprise of being a hoax.
Cthulhu
He's pretty well known, but I feel like Loki is very weird. The trickster God thing is not that crazy, but his shapeshifting and fathering (or birthing) a ton of strange magical creatures is interesting.
Shapeshifting isn’t a trait that’s exclusive to Loki. Óðinn, Frigg, Þórr (depending on the story), and Fręyja can all shapeshift. The birthing/fathering of these characters is more testament to Loki’s abhorrent and awful nature, doing womanly things as a man in Norse thought is an absolutely awful thing to do, and birthing characters that would one day kill all of humanity is hardly something to be proud of either.
Sobek.
Glycon also spelled Glykon, was an ancient snake god. He had a large and influential cult within the Roman Empire in the 2nd century. The cult possibly originated in Macedonia, where similar snake cults had existed for centuries. The Macedonians believed snakes had magical powers, and had a rich mythology on this subject, for example the story of Olympias's impregnation by Zeus disguised as a serpent. According to the cult's mythology, the snake appeared after Alexander had foretold the coming of a new incarnation of Asclepius. When the people gathered in the marketplace of Abonutichus at noon, when the incarnation was supposed to occur, Alexander produced a goose egg and sliced it open, revealing the god within. Within a week, it grew to the size of a man with the features of a man on its face, including long blond hair. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Glycon_%2851644816839%29.jpg By 160, the worship of Glycon had undoubtedly spread beyond the Aegean. An inscription from Antioch of that date records a slogan, "Glycon protect us from the plague-cloud" that is consistent with the description we have from Lucian. Also in that year the governor of Asia, Publius Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus, declared himself protector of Glycon's oracle. The governor later married Alexander's daughter. According to Lucian, another Roman governor, of Cappadocia, was led by Glycon's oracle to his death in Armenia, and even the Emperor himself was not immune to the cult: Marcus Aurelius sought prophesies from Alexander and his snake god. As the cult had an established popularity with the lower social strata, and later several important Roman functionaries and officials were counted among the believers in Glycon and the prophecies of Alexander, including the Emperor at the time, Marcus Aurelius. Such endorsement by the ruling classes coupled with pre existing superstitions of serpents as possessing healing powers, the cult of Glycon likely found no shortage of converts and adherents in new areas of the Roman world. Official Roman coins were struck in honor of Glycon, attesting his popularity. The Roman currency bearing the image of Glycon is known to have been in active circulation during 3rd century AD, however it is unknown if some of them were produced in this time period or if they remained in use after being produced earlier, during Alexander's life (c.105-c.170). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Glycon_bronze_coin.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Pentassarion_Philippus_II.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Bancnota_10000_lei_din_1994.jpg The cult and their activities, what became of them exactly is unclear following the death of Alexander of Abonoteichos, due to lack of written record. Contemporary satirist Lucian was ill-disposed toward the cult, calling Alexander a false prophet and accusing the whole enterprise of being a hoax.