Myth
Mythology |
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Myth is a genre of folklore or theology consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. For folklorists, historians, philosophers or theologians this is very different from the use of "myth" which simply meaning something that is not true. Instead, the truth value of a myth is not a defining criterion.[1]
Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to
Etymology
The word "myth" comes from Ancient Greek μῦθος (mȳthos),[9] meaning 'speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot'. In turn, Ancient Greek μυθολογία (mythología, 'story', 'lore', 'legends', or 'the telling of stories') combines the word mȳthos with the suffix -λογία (-logia, 'study') in order to mean 'romance, fiction, story-telling.'[10] Accordingly, Plato used mythología as a general term for 'fiction' or 'story-telling' of any kind. In Anglicised form, this Greek word began to be used in English (and was likewise adapted into other European languages) in the early 19th century, in a much narrower sense, as a scholarly term for "[a] traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events."[11][12]
The Greek term mythología was then borrowed into Late Latin, occurring in the title of Latin author Fulgentius' 5th-century Mythologiæ to denote what we now call classical mythology—i.e., Greco-Roman etiological stories involving their gods. Fulgentius' Mythologiæ explicitly treated its subject matter as allegories requiring interpretation and not as true events.[13] The Latin term was then adopted in Middle French as mythologie. Whether from French or Latin usage, English adopted the word "mythology" in the 15th century, initially meaning 'the exposition of a myth or myths', 'the interpretation of fables', or 'a book of such expositions'. The word is first attested in John Lydgate's Troy Book (c. 1425).[14][16][17]
From Lydgate until the 17th or 18th century, "mythology" meant a
Protagonists and structure
The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as
Definitions
Myth
Definitions of "myth" vary to some extent among scholars, though Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko offers a widely-cited definition:
Myth, a story of the gods, a religious account of the beginning of the world, the creation, fundamental events, the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of which the world, nature and culture were created together with all parts thereof and given their order, which still obtains. A myth expresses and confirms society's religious values and norms, it provides a pattern of behavior to be imitated, testifies to the efficacy of ritual with its practical ends and establishes the sanctity of cult.[35]
Another definition of myth comes from myth criticism theorist and professor José Manuel Losada. According to Cultural Myth Criticism, the studies of myth must explain and understand "myth from inside", that is, only "as a myth". Losada defines myth as "a functional, symbolic and thematic narrative of one or several extraordinary events with a transcendent, sacred and supernatural referent; that lacks, in principle, historical testimony; and that refers to an individual or collective, but always absolute, cosmogony or eschatology".[36][37] According to the hylistic myth research by assyriologist Annette Zgoll and classic philologist Christian Zgoll, "A myth can be defined as an Erzählstoff [narrative material] which is polymorphic through its variants and – depending on the variant – polystratic; an Erzählstoff in which transcending interpretations of what can be experienced are combined into a hyleme sequence with an implicit claim to relevance for the interpretation and mastering of the human condition."[38]
Scholars in other fields use the term "myth" in varied ways.
Though myth and other folklore genres may overlap, myth is often thought to differ from genres such as
In colloquial use, "myth" can also be used of a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact, or any false story.[11] This usage, which is often pejorative,[57] arose from labelling the religious myths and beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well.[58]
As commonly used by folklorists and academics in other relevant fields, such as anthropology, "myth" has no implication whether the narrative may be understood as true or otherwise.[59] Among biblical scholars of both the Old and New Testament, the word "myth" has a technical meaning, in that it usually refers to "describe the actions of the other‐worldly in terms of this world" such as the Creation and the Fall.[60]
Since "myth" is popularly used to describe stories that are not
Related terms
Mythology
In present use, "mythology" usually refers to the collection of myths of a group of people.
"Mythology" can also refer to the study of myths and mythologies.
Mythography
The compilation or description of myths is sometimes known as "mythography", a term also used for a scholarly anthology of myths or of the study of myths generally.[64]
Key mythographers in the Classical tradition include:[65]
- Ovid (43 BCE–17/18 CE), whose tellings of myths have been profoundly influential;
- Latin: Mitologiarum libri III) gathered and gave moralistic interpretations of a wide range of myths;
- the anonymous medieval Vatican Mythographers, who developed anthologies of Classical myths that remained influential to the end of the Middle Ages; and
- Renaissance scholar Natalis Comes, whose ten-book Mythologiae became a standard source for classical mythology in later Renaissance Europe.
Other prominent mythographies include the thirteenth-century
Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at the
Myth Criticism
Myth criticism is a system of anthropological interpretation of culture created by French philosopher Gilbert Durand. Scholars have used myth criticism to explain the mythical roots of contemporary fiction, which means that modern myth criticism needs to be interdisciplinary.
José Manuel Losada offers his own methodologic, hermeneutic and epistemological approach to myth. While assuming mythopoetical perspectives, Losada's Cultural Myth Criticism takes a step further, incorporating the study of the transcendent dimension (its function, its disappearance) to evaluate the role of myth as a mirror of contemporary culture.
Cultural Myth Criticism
Cultural myth criticism, without abandoning the analysis of the
Myth criticism, a discipline that studies myths (mythology contains them, like a pantheon its statues), is by nature interdisciplinary: it combines the contributions of literary theory, the history of literature, the fine arts and the new ways of dissemination in the age of communication. Likewise, it undertakes its object of study from its interrelation with other human and social sciences, in particular sociology, anthropology and economics. The need for an approach, for a methodology that allows us to understand the complexity of the myth and its manifestations in contemporary times, is justified.[68]
Mythos
Because "myth" is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, some scholars have opted for "mythos" instead.[63] "Mythos" now more commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a "plot point" or to a body of interconnected myths or stories, especially those belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.[12] It is sometimes used specifically for modern, fictional mythologies, such as the world building of H. P. Lovecraft.
Mythopoeia
Mythopoeia (mytho- + -poeia, 'I make myth') was termed by J. R. R. Tolkien, amongst others, to refer to the "conscious generation" of mythology.[69][70] It was notoriously also suggested, separately, by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.
Interpretations
Comparative mythology
Comparative mythology is a systematic comparison of myths from different cultures. It seeks to discover underlying themes that are common to the myths of multiple cultures. In some cases, comparative mythologists use the similarities between separate mythologies to argue that those mythologies have a common source. This source may inspire myths or provide a common "protomythology" that diverged into the mythologies of each culture.[71]
Functionalism
A number of commentators have argued that myths function to form and shape society and social behaviour. Eliade argued that one of the foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior[72][73] and that myths may provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present, returning to the mythical age, thereby coming closer to the divine.[4][73][74]
Honko asserted that, in some cases, a society reenacts a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the mythical age. For example, it might reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present.[35] Similarly, Barthes argued that modern culture explores religious experience. Since it is not the job of science to define human morality, a religious experience is an attempt to connect with a perceived moral past, which is in contrast with the technological present.[75]
Pattanaik defines mythology as "the subjective truth of people communicated through stories, symbols and rituals."[76] He says, "Facts are everybody's truth. Fiction is nobody's truth. Myths are somebody's truth."[77]
Euhemerism
One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of historical events.[78][79] According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborate upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gain the status of gods.[78][79] For example, the myth of the wind-god Aeolus may have evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret the winds.[78] Herodotus (fifth-century BCE) and Prodicus made claims of this kind.[79] This theory is named euhemerism after mythologist Euhemerus (c. 320 BCE), who suggested that Greek gods developed from legends about humans.[79][80]
Allegory
Some theories propose that myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun, Poseidon represents water, and so on.[79] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite romantic desire, and so on.[79] Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature and gradually came to be interpreted literally. For example, a poetic description of the sea as "raging" was eventually taken literally and the sea was then thought of as a raging god.[81]
Personification
Some thinkers claimed that myths result from the personification of objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshiped natural phenomena, such as fire and air, gradually deifying them.[82] For example, according to this theory, ancients tended to view things as gods, not as mere objects.[83] Thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, giving rise to myths.[84]
Ritualism
According to the myth-ritual theory, myth is tied to ritual.[85] In its most extreme form, this theory claims myths arose to explain rituals.[86] This claim was first put forward by Smith,[87] who argued that people begin performing rituals for reasons not related to myth. Forgetting the original reason for a ritual, they account for it by inventing a myth and claiming the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth.[88] James George Frazer—author of The Golden Bough, a book on the comparative study of mythology and religion—argued that humans started out with a belief in magical rituals; later, they began to lose faith in magic and invented myths about gods, reinterpreting their rituals as religious rituals intended to appease the gods.[89]
Academic discipline history
Historically, important approaches to the study of mythology have included those of
Ancient Greece
The critical interpretation of myth began with the Presocratics.[91] Euhemerus was one of the most important pre-modern mythologists. He interpreted myths as accounts of actual historical events, though distorted over many retellings.
- theological;
- physical (or concerning natural law);
- animistic (or concerning soul);
- material; and
- mixed, which concerns myths that show the interaction between two or more of the previous categories and are particularly used in initiations.
Mythological themes were consciously employed in literature, beginning with Homer. The resulting work may expressly refer to a mythological background without itself becoming part of a body of myths (Cupid and Psyche). Medieval romance in particular plays with this process of turning myth into literature. Euhemerism, as stated earlier, refers to the rationalization of myths, putting themes formerly imbued with mythological qualities into pragmatic contexts. An example of this would be following a cultural or religious paradigm shift (notably the re-interpretation of pagan mythology following Christianization).
European Renaissance
Interest in polytheistic mythology revived during the Renaissance, with early works of mythography appearing in the sixteenth century, among them the Theologia Mythologica (1532).
19th century
The first modern, Western scholarly theories of myth appeared during the second half of the 19th century
The intellectual context for nineteenth-century scholars was profoundly shaped by emerging ideas about
Nature
One of the dominant mythological theories of the latter 19th century was nature mythology, the foremost exponents of which included
According to Tylor, human thought evolved through stages, starting with mythological ideas and gradually progressing to scientific ideas.
Ritual
Frazer saw myths as a misinterpretation of magical rituals, which were themselves based on a mistaken idea of natural law. This idea was central to the "myth and ritual" school of thought.[102] According to Frazer, humans begin with an unfounded belief in impersonal magical laws. When they realize applications of these laws do not work, they give up their belief in natural law in favor of a belief in personal gods controlling nature, thus giving rise to religious myths. Meanwhile, humans continue practicing formerly magical rituals through force of habit, reinterpreting them as reenactments of mythical events. Finally, humans come to realize nature follows natural laws, and they discover their true nature through science. Here again, science makes myth obsolete as humans progress "from magic through religion to science."[89] Segal asserted that by pitting mythical thought against modern scientific thought, such theories imply modern humans must abandon myth.[103]
20th century
The earlier 20th century saw major work developing
The mid-20th century saw the influential development of a
These approaches contrast with approaches, such as those of Joseph Campbell and Eliade, which hold that myth has some type of essential connection to ultimate sacred meanings that transcend cultural specifics. In particular, myth was studied in relation to history from diverse social sciences. Most of these studies share the assumption that history and myth are not distinct in the sense that history is factual, real, accurate, and truth, while myth is the opposite.[citation needed]
In the 1950s, Barthes published a series of essays examining modern myths and the process of their creation in his book Mythologies, which stood as an early work in the emerging post-structuralist approach to mythology, which recognised myths' existence in the modern world and in popular culture.[75]
The 20th century saw rapid
The Christian theologian Conrad Hyers wrote:[108]
[M]yth today has come to have negative connotations which are the complete opposite of its meaning in a religious context... In a religious context, myths are storied vehicles of supreme truth, the most basic and important truths of all. By them, people regulate and interpret their lives and find worth and purpose in their existence. Myths put one in touch with sacred realities, the fundamental sources of being, power, and truth. They are seen not only as being the opposite of error but also as being clearly distinguishable from stories told for entertainment and from the workaday, domestic, practical language of a people. They provide answers to the mysteries of being and becoming, mysteries which, as mysteries, are hidden, yet mysteries which are revealed through story and ritual. Myths deal not only with truth but with ultimate truth.
21st century
Both in 19th-century research, which tended to see existing records of stories and folklore as imperfect fragments of partially lost myths, and in 20th-century structuralist work, which sought to identify underlying patterns and structures in often diverse versions of a given myth, there had been a tendency to synthesise sources to attempt to reconstruct what scholars supposed to be more perfect or underlying forms of myths. From the late 20th century, researchers influenced by postmodernism tended instead to argue that each account of a given myth has its own cultural significance and meaning, and argued that rather than representing degradation from a once more perfect form, myths are inherently plastic and variable.[109] There is, consequently, no such thing as the 'original version' or 'original form' of a myth. One prominent example of this movement was A. K. Ramanujan's essay "Three Hundred Ramayanas".[110][111]
Correspondingly, scholars challenged the precedence that had once been given to texts as a medium for mythology, arguing that other media, such as the visual arts or even landscape and place-naming, could be as or more important.[112] Myths are not texts, but narrative materials (Erzählstoffe) that can be adapted in various media (such as epics, hymns, handbooks, movies, dances, etc.).[113] In contrast to other academic approaches, which primarily focus on the (social) function of myths, hylistic myth research aims to understand myths and their nature out of themselves. As part of the Göttingen myth research, Annette and Christian Zgoll developed the method of hylistics (narrative material research) to extract mythical materials from their media and make possible a transmedial comparison.[114] The content of the medium is broken down into the smallest possible plot components (hylemes), which are listed in standardized form (so-called hyleme analysis).[115] Inconsistencies in content can indicate stratification, i.e. the overlapping of several materials, narrative variants and edition layers within the same medial concretion.[116] To a certain extent, this can also be used to reconstruct earlier and alternative variants of the same material that were in competition and/or were combined with each other.[117] The juxtaposition of hyleme sequences enables the systematic comparison of different variants of the same material or several different materials that are related or structurally similar to each other.[118] In his overall presentation of the hundred-year history of myth research, the classical philologist and myth researcher Udo Reinhardt mentions Christian Zgoll's basic work Tractatus mythologicus as "the latest handbook on myth theory" with "outstanding significance" for modern myth research.[119]
Modernity
Scholars in the field of cultural studies research how myth has worked itself into modern discourses. Mythological discourse can reach greater audiences than ever before via digital media. Various mythic elements appear in popular culture, as well as television, cinema and video games.[120]
Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral tradition on a small scale, the film industry has enabled filmmakers to transmit myths to large audiences via film.[121] In Jungian psychology, myths are the expression of a culture or society's goals, fears, ambitions and dreams.[122]
The basis of modern visual storytelling is rooted in the mythological tradition. Many contemporary films rely on ancient myths to construct narratives. The Walt Disney Company is well-known among cultural study scholars for "reinventing" traditional childhood myths.[123] While few films are as obvious as Disney fairy tales, the plots of many films are based on the rough structure of myths. Mythological archetypes, such as the cautionary tale regarding the abuse of technology, battles between gods and creation stories, are often the subject of major film productions. These films are often created under the guise of cyberpunk action films, fantasy, dramas and apocalyptic tales.[124]
21st-century films such as Clash of the Titans, Immortals and Thor continue the trend of using traditional mythology to frame modern plots. Authors use mythology as a basis for their books, such as Rick Riordan, whose Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is situated in a modern-day world where the Greek deities are manifest.[125]
Scholars, particularly those within the field of fan studies, and fans of popular culture have also noted a connection between fan fiction and myth.[126] Ika Willis identified three models of this: fan fiction as a reclaiming of popular stories from corporations, myth as a means of critiquing or dismantling hegemonic power, and myth as "a commons of story and a universal story world".[126] Willis supports the third model, a universal story world, and argues that fanfiction can be seen as mythic due to its hyperseriality—a term invented by Sarah Iles Johnston to describe a hyperconnected universe in which characters and stories are interwoven. In an interview for the New York Times, Henry Jenkins stated that fanfiction 'is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk.'[127]
See also
- List of mythologies
- List of mythological objects
- List of mythology books and sources
- Magic and mythology
- Mythopoeia, artificially constructed mythology, mainly for the purpose of storytelling
Notes
- ^ Deretic Irena. Why are myths true: Plato on the veracity of myths. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, 2020, vol. 36, issue 3, pp. 441–451.
- ^ a b c d e f Bascom 1965, p. 9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0191726644.
- ^ a b Eliade 1998, p. 23.
- ^ Pettazzoni 1984, p. 102.
- ^ Dundes 1984, p. 1.
- ^ a b Eliade 1998, p. 6.
- ^ Leeming, David Adams, and David Adams. A dictionary of creation myths. Oxford University Press, 1994.
- ^ "myth | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ "-logy, comb. form." In Oxford English Dictionary (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1903.
- ^ a b c "Myth." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020. § 2.
- ^ a b c "mythos, n." 2003. In Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-8142-0162-6.
- ^ a b c "mythology, n. Archived 13 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine." Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
- ^ Lydgate, John. Troyyes Book, Vol. II, ll. 2487. (in Middle English) Reprinted in Henry Bergen's Lydgate's Troy Book, Vol. I, p. 216. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co. (London), 1906. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
- Þe book of his methologies..."[15]
- ^ Harper, Douglas. 2020. "Mythology Archived 2 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine." Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Browne, Thomas. Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into Many Received Tenets and Commonly Presumed Truths, Vol. I, Ch. VIII. Edward Dod (London), 1646. Reprinted 1672.
- ^ Johnson, Samuel. "Mythology" in A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the Words are Deduced from their Originals, and Illustrated in their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers to which are Prefixed a History of the Language and an English Grammar, p. 1345. Archived 1 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine W. Strahan (London), 1755.
- ^ Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language, p. 1345 Archived 1 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine. W. Strahan (London), 1755. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
- mythologist, mythologize, mythological, and mythologically[21]
- ^ Shuckford, Samuel. The Creation and Fall of Man. A Supplemental Discourse to the Preface of the First Volume of the Sacred and Profane History of the World Connected, pp. xx–xxi. Archived 13 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine J. & R. Tonson & S. Draper (London), 1753. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
- ^ "That Mythology came in upon this Alteration of their [Egyptians' Theology, is obviously evident: for the mingling the Hiſtory of theſe Men when Mortals, with what came to be aſcribed to them when Gods, would naturally occaion it. And of this Sort we generally find the Mythoi told of them..."[23]
- ^ Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "On the Prometheus of Æschylus: An Essay, preparatory to a series of disquisitions respecting the Egyptian, in connection with the sacerdotal, theology, and in contrast with the mysteries of ancient Greece." Royal Society of Literature (London), 18 May 1825. Reprinted in Coleridge, Henry Nelson (1836). The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Shakespeare, with an introductory matter on poetry, the drama, and the stage. Notes on Ben Jonson; Beaumont and Fletcher; On the Prometheus of Æschylus [and others. W. Pickering. pp. 335–.
- ^ "Long before the entire separation of metaphysics from poetry, that is, while yet poesy, in all its several species of verse, music, statuary, &c. continued mythic;—while yet poetry remained the union of the sensuous and the philosophic mind;—the efficient presence of the latter in the synthesis of the two, had manifested itself in the sublime mythus περὶ γενέσεως τοῦ νοῦ ἐν ἀνθρωποῖς concerning the genesis, or the birth of the νοῦς or reason in man."[25]
- Abraham of Hekel (1651). "Historia Arabum(History of the Arabs)". Chronicon orientale, nunc primum Latinitate donatum ab Abrahamo Ecchellensi Syro Maronita e Libano, linguarum Syriacae, ... cui accessit eiusdem Supplementum historiae orientalis (The Oriental Chronicles. e Typographia regia. pp. 175–. (in Latin) Translated in paraphrase in Blackwell, Thomas (1748). "Letter Seventeenth". Letters Concerning Mythology. printed in the year. pp. 269–.
- ^ Anonymous review of Upham, Edward (1829). The History and Doctrine of Budhism: Popularly Illustrated: with Notices of the Kappooism, Or Demon Worship, and of the Bali, Or Planetary Incantations, of Ceylon. R. Ackermann. In the Westminster Review, No. XXIII, Art. III, p. 44. Rob't Heward (London), 1829. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
- Enos, discoursing on the splendor of the heavenly bodies, insisted that, since God had thus exalted them above the other parts of creation, it was but reasonable that we should praise, extol, and honour them. The consequence of this exhortation, says the rabbi, was the building of temples to the stars, and the establishment of idolatry throughout the world. By the Arabian divines, the imputation is laid upon the patriarch Abraham; who, they say, on coming out from the dark cave in which he had been brought up, was so astonished at the sight of the stars, that he worshipped Hesperus, the Moon, and the Sun successively as they rose.[27] These two stories are good illustrations of the origin of "myths", by means of which, even the most natural sentiment is traced to its cause in the circumstances of fabulous history.[28]
- ^ a b Bascom 1965, p. 4,5, Myths are often associated with theology and ritual. Their main characters are not usually human beings, but they often have human attributes; they are animals, deities, or culture heroes, whose actions are set in an earlier world, when the earth was different from what it is today, or in another world such as the sky or underworld....Legends are more often secular than sacred, and their principal characters are human. They tell of migrations, wars and victories, deeds of past heroes, chiefs, and kings, and succession in ruling dynasties..
- ^ ISBN 978-0-14-044306-6.
I think it can be well argued as a matter of principle that, just as 'biography is about chaps', so mythology is about gods.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-871544-3.)
A story or group of stories handed down through popular oral tradition, usually consisting of an exaggerated or unreliable account of some actually or possibly historical person—often a saint, monarch, or popular hero. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern humans rather than gods, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths do not; but these distinctions are difficult to maintain consistently. The term was originally applied to accounts of saints' lives..
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ignored (help - ISBN 978-0-7591-1046-5.
- ^ Bascom 1965, p. 4-5, Myths are often associated with theology and ritual...Their main characters are not usually human beings, but they often have human attributes; they are animals, deities, or culture heroes, whose actions are set in an earlier world, when the earth was different from what it is today, or in another world such as the sky or underworld. Myths account for the origin of the world, of mankind, of death....
- ^ a b c Honko 1984, pp. 41–42, 49.
- ISBN 978-84-460-5267-8.
- ^ Losada, José Manuel (2014). "Myth and Extraordinary Event". International Journal of Language and Literature. 2 June: 31–55.
- ISBN 978-3-11-065252-9.
- ^ Dundes 1984, p. 147.
- ^ Doty 2004, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Segal 2015, p. 5.
- ^ Kirk 1984, p. 57.
- ^ Kirk 1973, p. 74.
- ^ Apollodorus 1976, p. 3.
- ^ "myth". Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1993. p. 770.
- ISBN 978-1405194990.
- ^ Bascom 1965, p. 7.
- ^ Bascom 1965, pp. 9, 17.
- ^ Eliade 1998, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Pettazzoni 1984, pp. 99–101.
- ISBN 978-0-19-871544-3.)
A story or group of stories handed down through popular oral tradition, usually consisting of an exaggerated or unreliable account of some actually or possibly historical person—often a saint, monarch, or popular hero. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern humans rather than gods, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths do not; but these distinctions are difficult to maintain consistently. The term was originally applied to accounts of saints' lives..
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ignored (help - ^ Kirk 1973, pp. 22, 32.
- ^ Kirk 1984, p. 55.
- ^ Doty 2004, p. 114.
- ^ Bascom 1965, p. 13.
- ^ "romance | literature and performance". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-312-22148-5.
- ^ Eliade, Mircea. 1967. Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. pp. 23, 162.
- ^ Winzeler, Robert L. 2012. Anthropology and Religion: What We Know, Think, and Question. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 105–106.
- ISBN 978-0-19-954398-4.)
In modern parlance, a myth is a legend or fairy‐story unbelievable and untrue but nevertheless disseminated. It has a more technical meaning in biblical studies and covers those stories or narratives which describe the actions of the other‐worldly in terms of this world, in both OT and NT. In Genesis the Creation and the Fall are myths, and are markedly similar to the creation stories of Israel's Near Eastern neighbours.
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- ^ Kirk 1973, p. 8.
- ^ a b Grassie, William (March 1998). "Science as Epic? Can the modern evolutionary cosmology be a mythic story for our time?". Science & Spirit. 9 (1).
The word 'myth' is popularly understood to mean idle fancy, fiction, or falsehood; but there is another meaning of the word in academic discourse... Using the original Greek term mythos is perhaps a better way to distinguish this more positive and all-encompassing definition of the word.
- ^ "Mythography." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
- ^ Chance, Jane. 1994–2000. Medieval Mythography, 2 vols. Gainesville.
- ^ Horton, Katie (3 August 2015). "Dr. Snodgrass editor of new blog series: Bioculturalism". Colorado State University. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
- S2CID 144663317.
- ISBN 978-3-8325-4040-1.
- ^ "Mythopoeia." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 31 May 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-00-710504-5.
- ^ Littleton 1973, p. 32.
- ^ Eliade 1998, p. 8.
- ^ a b Honko 1984, p. 51.
- ^ Eliade 1998, p. 19.
- ^ a b Barthes 1972, p. [page needed].
- ^ Sinha, Namya (4 July 2016). "No society can exist without myth, says Devdutt Pattanaik". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Shaikh, Jamal (8 July 2018). "Interview: Devdutt Pattanaik "Facts are everybody's truth. Fiction is nobody's truth. Myths are somebody's truth"". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ a b c Bulfinch 2004, p. 194.
- ^ a b c d e f Honko 1984, p. 45.
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions.
- ^ a b Segal 2015, p. 20.
- ^ Bulfinch 2004, p. 195.
- ^ Frankfort et al. 2013, p. 4.
- ^ Frankfort et al. 2013, p. 15.
- ^ Segal 2015, p. 61.
- ^ Graf 1996, p. 40.
- ^ Meletinsky 2014, pp. 19–20.
- ^ Segal 2015, p. 63.
- ^ a b Frazer 1913, p. 711.
- ^ Lanoue, Guy. Foreword. In Meletinsky (2014), p. viii..
- ^ a b Segal 2015, p. 1.
- ^ "On the Gods and the World." ch. 5; See: Collected Writings on the Gods and the World. Frome: The Prometheus Trust. 1995.
- ^ Perhaps the most extended passage of philosophic interpretation of myth is to be found in the fifth and sixth essays of Proclus’ Commentary on the Republic (to be found in The Works of Plato I, trans. Thomas Taylor, The Prometheus Trust, Frome, 1996); Porphyry's analysis of the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs is another important work in this area (Select Works of Porphyry, Thomas Taylor The Prometheus Trust, Frome, 1994). See the external links below for a full English translation.
- The Walters Art Museum. Archived from the originalon 16 May 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
- ^ For more information on this panel, please see Zeri catalogue number 64, pp. 100–101
- ^ a b Shippey, Tom. 2005. "A Revolution Reconsidered: Mythography and Mythology in the Nineteenth Century." pp. 1–28 in The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm’s Mythology of the Monstrous, edited by T. Shippey. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. pp. 4–13.
- ^ Segal 2015, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Brewer. pp. 14-15.
- ^ Segal 2015, p. 4.
- ISBN 978-3-7186-5321-8.
- ^ Dorson, Richard M. 1955. "The Eclipse of Solar Mythology." pp. 25–63 in Myth: A Symposium, edited by T. A. Sebeok. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- ^ Segal 2015, pp. 67–68.
- ^ a b Segal 2015, p. 3.
- ^ Boeree.[full citation needed]
- ^ Segal 2015, p. 113.
- ^ Birenbaum, Harvey. 1988. Myth and Mind. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. pp. 152–153.
- Scribner.
- ^ Hyers 1984, p. 107.
- ^ For example: McKinnell, John. 1994. Both One and Many: Essays on Change and Variety in Late Norse Heathenism, (Philologia: saggi, ricerche, edizioni 1, edited by T. Pàroli). Rome.
- ^ Ramanujan, A. K. 1991. "Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation." pp. 22–48 in Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, edited by P. Richman. Berkeley: University of California Press. ark: 13030/ft3j49n8h7/ Archived 14 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-0-19-566896-4.
- ^ For example: Dowden, Ken. 1992. The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
- ^ Zgoll, Christian (2019). Tractatus mythologicus. Theorie und Methodik zur Erforschung von Mythen als Grundlegung einer allgemeinen, transmedialen und komparatistischen Stoffwissenschaft (= Mythological Studies 1). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. pp. 25–31. ISBN 978-3-11054119-9.
- ^ "Auszeichnung in der Altorientalistik und Klassischen Philologie". Informationsdienst Wissenschaft. 17 November 2023.
- ^ Zgoll, Christian (2019). Tractatus mythologicus. Theorie und Methodik zur Erforschung von Mythen als Grundlegung einer allgemeinen, transmedialen und komparatistischen Stoffwissenschaft (= Mythological Studies 1). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. pp. 109–118. ISBN 978-3-11054119-9.
- ^ Zgoll, Christian (2019). Tractatus mythologicus. Theorie und Methodik zur Erforschung von Mythen als Grundlegung einer allgemeinen, transmedialen und komparatistischen Stoffwissenschaft (= Mythological Studies 1). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. pp. 316–369. ISBN 978-3-11054119-9.
- ^ Zgoll, Christian (2019). Tractatus mythologicus. Theorie und Methodik zur Erforschung von Mythen als Grundlegung einer allgemeinen, transmedialen und komparatistischen Stoffwissenschaft (= Mythological Studies 1). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. pp. 508–516. ISBN 978-3-11054119-9.
- ^ Zgoll, Christian (2019). Tractatus mythologicus. Theorie und Methodik zur Erforschung von Mythen als Grundlegung einer allgemeinen, transmedialen und komparatistischen Stoffwissenschaft (= Mythological Studies 1). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. pp. 164–204. ISBN 978-3-11054119-9.
- ^ Reinhardt, Udo (2022). : Hundert Jahre Forschungen zum antiken Mythos (1918/20–2018/20). Ein selektiver Überblick (Altertum – Rezeption – Narratologie) (= Mythological Studies 5). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. pp. 325–322. ISBN 978-3-11-078634-7
- ^ Ostenson, Jonathan (2013). "Exploring the Boundaries of Narrative: Video Games in the English Classroom" (PDF). www2.ncte.org/.
- ^ Singer, Irving (2008). Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film. MIT Press. pp. 3–6.
- ^ Indick, William (2004). "Classical Heroes in Modern Movies: Mythological Patterns of the Superhero". Journal of Media Psychology.
- ^ Koven, Michael (2003). Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: A Necessary Critical Survey. University of Illinois Press. pp. 176–195.
- ^ Corner 1999, pp. 47–59.
- ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ^ ISSN 1941-2258.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
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