The term mythology can refer to either the study of myths, or to a body of myths.^[1] For example, comparative mythology Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common is the study of connections between myths from different cultures,^[2] whereas Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the is the body of myths from ancient Greece Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under Athenian. The term "myth" is often used colloquially A colloquialism is a linguistic phrase that is characteristic of or only appropriate for casual, ordinary, familiar, and/or informal written or spoken conversation, rather than for formal speech, standard writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier to refer to a false story,^[3][4] but academic use of the term generally does not pass judgment on truth or falsity.^[4][5] In the study of folklore Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics. The adjective "folkloristic" for an academically oriented study is also, a myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form.^[5][6][7] Many scholars in other fields use the term "myth" in somewhat different ways.^[7][8][9] In a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story.^[10]

Nature of myths

Typical characteristics

The main characters in myths are usually gods or supernatural heroes.^[11][12][13] As sacred stories, myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and closely linked to religion.^[11] In the society in which it is told, a myth is usually regarded as a true account of the remote past.^{[11][12][14][15]} In fact, many societies have two categories of traditional narrative, "true stories" or myths, and "false stories" or fables.^[16] Myths generally take place in a primordial age, when the world had not yet achieved its current form,^[11] and explain how the world gained its current form^{[5][6][7][17]} and how customs, institutions Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human collectivity. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human and taboos A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and forbidden based on moral judgment and sometimes even religious beliefs. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. The term comes from the Tongan word tabu, meaning set apart or forbidden, and were established.^[11][17]

Related concepts

Closely related to myth are legend A legend in the narrow sense is a Christian hagiographical account, often collected in a legendary (legendarium). Because saints' lives are often embellished with many miracle stories, "legend" in a wider sense came to refer to any story that is set in a historical context but that contains non-historical or fantastic elements. The and folktale Folklore consists of culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The academic and usually. Myths, legends, and folktales are different types of traditional story.^[18] Unlike myths, folktales can take place at any time and any place, and they are not considered true or sacred by the societies that tell them.^[11] Like myths, legends are stories that are traditionally considered true, but are set in a more recent time, when the world was much as it is today.^[11] Legends generally feature humans as their main characters, whereas myths generally focus on superhuman characters.^[11]

The distinction between myth, legend, and folktale is meant simply as a useful tool for grouping traditional stories.^[19] In many cultures, it is hard to draw a sharp line between myths and legends.^[20] Instead of dividing their traditional stories into myths, legends, and folktales, some cultures divide them into two categories, one that roughly corresponds to folktales, and one that combines myths and legends.^[21] Even myths and folktales are not completely distinct. A story may be considered true (and therefore a myth) in one society, but considered fictional (and therefore a folktale) in another society.^[22][23] In fact, when a myth loses its status as part of a religious system, it often takes on traits more typical of folktales, with its formerly divine characters reinterpreted as human heroes, giants, or fairies.^[12]

Myth, legend, and folktale are only a few of the categories of traditional stories. Other categories include anecdotes An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place. However, over time, modification in reuse may convert and some kinds of jokes A joke is a question, short story, or depiction of a situation made with the intent of being humorous. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices. Jokes may have a punchline that will end the sentence to make it humorous.^[19] Traditional stories, in turn, are only one category within folklore, which also includes items such as gestures, costumes, and music.^[23]

Origins of myth

Euhemerism

One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of real historical events.^[24][25] According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborated upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gained the status of gods.^[24][25] For example, one might argue that the myth of the wind-god Aeolus Aeolus or Eolus (Greek: Αἴολος Aiolos /ájjolos/, Modern Greek: /ˈe.olos/ ) was the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology. In fact this name was shared by three mythic characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which. Diodorus evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret the winds.^[24] Herodotus Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC). He was born in Caria, Halicarnassus (modern day Bodrum, Turkey). He is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain (5th century BC) and Prodicus Prodicus of Ceos was a Greek philosopher, and part of the first generation of Sophists. He came to Athens as ambassador from Ceos, and became known as a speaker and a teacher. Plato treats him with greater respect than the other sophists, and in several of the Platonic dialogues Socrates appears as the friend of Prodicus. Prodicus made linguistics made claims of this kind.^[25] This theory is named "euhemerism" after the mythologist Euhemerus Euhemerus (working late fourth century B.C.) was a Greek mythographer at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily as the most probable location, while others champion Chios, or Tegea (c.320 BC), who suggested that the Greek gods developed from legends about human beings.^[25][26]

Allegory

Some theories propose that myths began as allegories Allegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying meaning other than the literal. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often. According to one theory, myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, and plague; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and represents fire, Poseidon Poseidon was the god of the sea, storms, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age represents water, and so on.^[25] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena Athena or Athene (/əˈθiːniː/; Attic: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnā or Ἀθηναία, Athēnaia; Epic: Ἀθηναίη, Athēnaiē; Ionic: Ἀθήνη, Athēnē; Doric: Ἀθάνα, Athana; Latin: Minerva), also referred to as Pallas Athena (Παλλάς Αθηνά; pronounced /ˈpæləs/), is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, represents wise judgment, Aphrodite Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. According to Greek poet Hesiod, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus' genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the aphros (sea foam) arose Aphrodite represents desire, etc.^[25] The 19th century Sanskritist The Sanskrit grammatical tradition of vyākaraṇa is one of the six Vedanga disciplines. It has its roots in late Vedic India, and includes the famous work, Aṣṭādhyāyī, of Pāṇini (ca. 4th century BCE) Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller , more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology, a discipline he introduced to the British reading public, supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed that myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature, but 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.^[27]

Personification

Some thinkers believe that myths resulted from the personification of inanimate objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshipped natural phenomena such as fire and air, gradually coming to describe them as gods.^[28] For example, according to the theory of mythopoeic thought Mythopoeic thought is a hypothetical stage of human thought preceding modern thought, proposed by Henri Frankfort and his wife Henriette Antonia Frankfort in the 1940s. According to this proposal, there was a "mythopoeic" stage, in which humanity did not think in terms of generalizations and impersonal laws: instead, humans saw each, the ancients tended to view things as persons, not as mere objects;^[29] thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, thus giving rise to myths.^[30]

The myth-ritual theory

According to the myth-ritual theory, the existence of myth is tied to ritual.^[31] In its most extreme form, this theory claims that myths arose to explain rituals.^[32] This claim was first put forward by the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith William Robertson Smith was a Scottish orientalist, Old Testament scholar, professor of divinity, and minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Biblica. He is also known for his book Religion of the Semites, which is considered a foundational text in the.^[33] According to Smith, people begin performing rituals for some reason that is not related to myth; later, after they have forgotten the original reason for a ritual, they try to account for the ritual by inventing a myth and claiming that the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth.^[34] The anthropologist James Frazer Sir James George Frazer , was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion had a similar theory. Frazer believed that primitive man starts out with a belief in magical laws; later, when man begins to lose faith in magic, he invents myths about gods and claims that his formerly magical rituals are religious rituals intended to appease the gods.^[35]

Functions of myth

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of argued that one of the foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior^[36][37] and that myths may also provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present and return to the mythical age, thereby bringing themselves closer to the divine.^[14][37][38]

Larui Honko asserts that, in some cases, a society will reenact a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the mythical age. For example, it will reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present.^[39] Similarly, Roland Barthes argues that modern culture explores religious experience. Because 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.^[40]

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss." defined myths as having four basic functions: the Mystical Function--experiencing the awe of the universe; the Cosmological Function--explaining the shape of the universe; the Sociological Function--supporting and validating a certain social order; and the Pedagogical Function--how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.^[41]

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