One Piece: Examples Of The Mythology Oda uses

It always manages to surprise me how multidimensional One Piece actually is. When reading people rarely if they are not familiar with the concepts of mythology may never even notice such things, but the fact is that basically every big concepts that revolve around the world of One Piece are somewhow based on real world mythologies. I've picked up the most interesting ones.

Original magnificent posts by Foxy The Silver Fox, you can also find more of the Mythology of One Piece there

East Blue

-Real life French pirate Olivier Levasseur threw a cryptogram to the people before getting executed saying that anyone who could unlock it would receive it's treasure. This obviously resembles Gol D Roger.

-Devil Fruits may be linked to the Book of Genesis, in which a serpent tempts Adam and Eve to eat the fruit that God specifically said not to eat. They eat the fruit and gain knowledge, but are punished for the rest of their lives.

-Animal that represents Zoro is a tiger: There is an old indian myth of a prince who saved a starving tiger, like starving Zoro was saved from Helmeppo by Luffy.

-Usopp is based on a Tengu + Pinocchio based on him lying and having that characteristic nose. His character animal is chameleon.

-Journey of East Blue ends in Loguetown, which can thought as "logue" as in "prologue" for the story that Luffy and Strawhat pirates had emerged. It can also be deduced as epilogue for Gol D Rogers journey ending.

Baroque works & Reverse mountain

-Strawhats get swallowed by whale Laboon, which resembles the story of Jonah who was swallowed by a great fish and lived inside it for three whole days.

-At Whiskey Peak the strawhats are offered lots of wood, wine etc. but the people there were in fact part of criminal organization called Baroque Works: There's a similar Greek story of Odysseus where him and his men were captured by Goddess Circe who offered them wine, cheese and beautiful ladies.

-In Little Garden The Strawhats encounter Dorry and Brogy who are giants based on vikings. Elbaf is "Fable" spelled backwards.

-Chopper is obviously based on Rudolph the Reindeer who has a red nose: both have colored nose and both were basically exiled by their kin: Choppers birthday is also on Xmas eve.

-Rumble ball resembles "rum ball", German origin truffle-like confection flavored with chocolate and rum.

-Animal that represents Chopper is Tanuki, which are considered as innocent, like Chopper.

 -Hiluluk's name comes from Ancient Greek word "Chirurg" meaning "Surgeon".


Alabasta

-Mr 2 or Bon Clay represents swan, which in Celtic Mythology are sign of change or change of mood. Fits Bon Clay's identity as an okama and his power of Clone-Clone Fruit. His name was later revealed to be Bentham, which can be related to Jeremy Bentham who was supporting homosexuality, women's rights etc.

-Alabastas name may came from alabaster that is a mineral found in Egyptian architecture and art. The whole kingdom being desert resembles Egypt and Middle-East.

-Ace gives Luffy his "Vivre" card, which means "to live" in French.

-In Egypt there was a deification of crocodiles called Sobek who had the opposite power of Shichibukai's Crocodile: to put stop to droughts.

-There was also a Egyptian Deity called Horus, who had the head of a bird and was a guardian of Egypt: Pell had a Falcon model Zoan fruit and was the guardin of Alabasta.

-The Poneglyph which was found in Alabast was in Tomb of the Kings, resembling Egypt's Valley of the Kings: the poneglyph's design is from Rosetta Stone, which was found in 1799 during the French expedition to Egypt.

-The Ancient Weapon Pluton -> Pluto, The god of the Underworld -> Greek Hades

-Nico Robin's character is based on eagle, Eagles are considered having lots of wisdom.

Jaya

-Strawhats are ridiculed by Bellamy pirates in Mock town, the name comes from them mocking Luffy and his group because of their dreams.

-Montblanc Cricket comes from a french dessert that looks like Montblanc's hair.

-Knock Up Stream is based on Charybdis, which is a monster in Greek Mythology that creates whirlpools and shoots them ships that get caught in it into the air.

-Doc Q is based on one of the Four Horseman Of the Apocalypse, Death. Doc q also carries a scythe.

-Van Auger may be based on Adolphus from "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". Adolphus was a sniper who was able to shoot an apple off a tree nine hundred miles away.

-The Blackbeard pirates themselves have a philosophy that fate is in control of everything: Blackbeard's theme is "three", as in Shanks' scar, his jollyroger etc. In Greek Mythology there was three sisters of fate who controlled death by cutting someones life string. Those who have watched Disneys Hercules will surely know of this.

Skypiea

-The name Skypiea comes from the saying "Pie in the Sky" which basically means a slim chance of something happening.

-Pierre, Gan Fall's bird who ate the Horse Zoan Fruit is based on Pegasus.

-Gan Falls armor reminds of Don Quixote De La Mancha

-The Shandians are based on indians, native americans who were ripped of their homeland, just like the Skypieans took the land from the Shandians. Also Shandians design reminds me of indians.

-Giant Jack -> folk tale Jack and the Beanstalk

-Klabautermann is based on, surprise surprise, Klabautermann

-Enel represents Shinto Thunder God Raijin, they both have drums on their back with tomoe symbols.

-Logia is based on New Testament where term "Logia" is spoken by Jesus Christ that Logias "speak" with forces of nature.