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Myth

Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as
foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively
true, the identification of a narrative as a myth can be highly controversial. Many adherents of
religions view their own religions' stories as truth and so object to their characterization as myth, the
way they see the stories of other religions. As such, some scholars label all religious narratives "myths"
for practical reasons, such as to avoid depreciating any one tradition because cultures interpret each
other differently relative to one another.[1] Other scholars avoid using the term "myth" altogether and
instead use different terms like "sacred history", "holy story", or simply "history" to avoid placing
pejorative overtones on any sacred narrative.[2]

Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to religion or
spirituality.[3] Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and
legends to be true accounts of their remote past.[3][4][5][6] In particular, creation myths take place in a
primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form.[3][7][8][9] Other myths explain how a
society's customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified.[3][8] There is a complex
relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals.

The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as gods, demigods, and other
supernatural figures.[10][4][11][12] Others include humans, animals, or combinations in their
classification of myth.[13] Stories of everyday humans, although often of leaders of some type, are
usually contained in legends, as opposed to myths.[10][12] Myths are sometimes distinguished from
legends in that myths deal with gods, usually have no historical basis, and are set in a world of the
remote past, very different from that of the present.[12][14]

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 Ballads of bravery (1877) part of
events, the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of Arthurian mythology
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.[2]
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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”.[15][16]

Scholars in other fields use the term "myth" in varied ways.[17][18][19] In a broad sense, the word can
refer to any traditional story,[20][21][22] popular misconception or imaginary entity.[23]

Though myth and other folklore genres may overlap, myth is often thought to differ from genres such
as legend and folktale in that neither are considered to be sacred narratives.[24][25] Some kinds of
folktales, such as fairy stories, are not considered true by anyone, and may be seen as distinct from
myths for this reason.[26][27][28] Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural
humans,[3][29][30] while legends generally feature humans as their main characters.[3][31] Many
exceptions and combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid.[32][33] Moreover, as stories
spread between cultures or as faiths change, myths can come to be considered folktales, their divine
characters recast as either as humans or demihumans such as giants, elves and faeries.[29][34][35]
Conversely, historical and literary material may acquire mythological qualities over time. For example,
the Matter of Britain (the legendary history of Great Britain, especially those focused on King Arthur
and the knights of the Round Table)[36] and the Matter of France, seem distantly to originate in
historical events of the 5th and 8th-centuries respectively, and became mythologised over the
following centuries.

In colloquial use, "myth" can also be used of a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact, or any
false story.[37] This usage, which is often pejorative,[38] arose from labelling the religious myths and
beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well.[39]

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.[40] 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.[41]

Related terms

Mythology

In present use, "mythology" usually refers to the collection of myths of a group of people.[42] For
example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Celtic mythology and Hittite mythology all describe
the body of myths retold among those cultures.[43]

"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.[44]

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Key mythographers in the Classical tradition include:[45]

Ovid (43 BCE–17/18 CE), whose tellings of myths have been

profoundly influential;
Fabius Planciades Fulgentius, a Latin writer of the late-5th to
early-6th centuries, whose Mythologies (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 Opening lines of one of the
in later Renaissance Europe. Mabinogi myths from the Red Book
of Hergest (written pre-13c,
Other prominent mythographies include the thirteenth-century incorporating pre-Roman myths of
Prose Edda attributed to the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, which is Celtic gods):
the main surviving survey of Norse Mythology from the Middle Gereint vab Erbin. Arthur a deuodes
Ages. dala llys yg Caerllion ar Wysc...
(Geraint the son of Erbin. Arthur was
Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at the Colorado accustomed to hold his Court at
State University[46]) has termed India's Bhats as Caerlleon upon Usk...)
mythographers. [47]

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 symbolic, invades all cultural
manifestations and delves into the difficulties in understanding myth today. This cultural myth
criticism studies mythical manifestations in fields as wide as literature, film and television, theater,
sculpture, painting, video games, music, dancing, the Internet and other artistic fields.

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

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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.[48]

Mythos

Because "myth" is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, some scholars have opted for "mythos"
instead.[43] "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.[49] 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.[50][51] It was notoriously also suggested, separately, by
Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.

Etymology
The word "myth" comes from Ancient Greek μῦθος
(mȳthos),[52] meaning 'speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot'.
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."[37][49]
Odysseus Overcome by Demodocus'
In turn, Ancient Greek μυθολογία (mythología, 'story', 'lore', Song, by Francesco Hayez, 1813–15
'legends', or 'the telling of stories') combines the word mȳthos
with the suffix -λογία (-logia, 'study') in order to mean
'romance, fiction, story-telling.'[53] Accordingly, Plato used mythología as a general term for 'fiction'
or 'story-telling' of any kind.

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.[54]

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).[55][57][58]

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From Lydgate until the 17th or 18th century, "mythology" meant a moral, fable, allegory or a parable,
or collection of traditional stories,[55][60] understood to be false. It came eventually to be applied to
similar bodies of traditional stories among other polytheistic cultures around the world.[55]

Thus "mythology" entered the English language before "myth". Johnson's Dictionary, for example,
has an entry for mythology, but not for myth.[63] Indeed, the Greek loanword mythos[65] (pl. mythoi)
and Latinate mythus[67] (pl. mythi) both appeared in English before the first example of "myth" in
1830.[70]

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.[5][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.[2] 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

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(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 Vico, Schelling,
Schiller, Jung, Freud, Lévy-Bruhl, Lévi-Strauss, Frye, the Soviet school, and the Myth and Ritual
School.[90]

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.

Sallustius divided myths into five categories:[92]

theological;

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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.

Plato condemned poetic myth when discussing education in the Republic.

His critique was primarily on the grounds that the uneducated might take
the stories of gods and heroes literally. Nevertheless, he constantly
referred to myths throughout his writings. As Platonism developed in the
phases commonly called Middle Platonism and neoplatonism, writers
such as Plutarch, Porphyry, Proclus, Olympiodorus, and Damascius wrote
explicitly about the symbolic interpretation of traditional and Orphic
myths.[93]

Mythological themes were consciously employed in literature, beginning Myths and legends of
with Homer. The resulting work may expressly refer to a mythological Babylonia and Assyria
background without itself becoming part of a body of myths (Cupid and (1916)
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 This panel by Bartolomeo di Giovanni relates the

second half of the Metamorphoses. In the upper
The first modern, Western scholarly theories of myth left, Jupiter emerges from clouds to order Mercury
appeared during the second half of the 19th century[91] to rescue Io.[94][95]
—at the same time as "myth" was adopted as a
scholarly term in European languages.[37][49] They
were driven partly by a new interest in Europe's ancient past and vernacular culture, associated with
Romantic Nationalism and epitomised by the research of Jacob Grimm (1785–1863). This movement
drew European scholars' attention not only to Classical myths, but also material now associated with
Norse mythology, Finnish mythology, and so forth. Western theories were also partly driven by
Europeans' efforts to comprehend and control the cultures, stories and religions they were
encountering through colonialism. These encounters included both extremely old texts such as the
Sanskrit Rigveda and the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, and current oral narratives such as
mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas or stories told in traditional African
religions.[96]

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The intellectual context for nineteenth-century scholars was profoundly

shaped by emerging ideas about evolution. These ideas included the
recognition that many Eurasian languages—and therefore, conceivably,
stories—were all descended from a lost common ancestor (the Indo-
European language) which could rationally be reconstructed through the
comparison of its descendant languages. They also included the idea that
cultures might evolve in ways comparable to species.[96] In general, 19th-
century theories framed myth as a failed or obsolete mode of thought,
often by interpreting myth as the primitive counterpart of modern science
within a unilineal framework that imagined that human cultures are
travelling, at different speeds, along a linear path of cultural
development.[97]
Väinämöinen, the wise
demigod and one of the
Nature
significant characters of
Finnish mythological 19th-
One of the dominant mythological theories of the latter 19th century was
century epic poetry, The
nature mythology, the foremost exponents of which included Max Müller
Kalevala. (Väinämöinen's Play,
and Edward Burnett Tylor. This theory posited that "primitive man" was
Robert Wilhelm Ekman, 1866)
primarily concerned with the natural world. It tended to interpret myths
that seemed distasteful to European Victorians—such as tales about sex,
incest, or cannibalism—as metaphors for natural phenomena like agricultural fertility.[98] Unable to
conceive impersonal natural laws, early humans tried to explain natural phenomena by attributing
souls to inanimate objects, thus giving rise to animism.

According to Tylor, human thought evolved through stages, starting with mythological ideas and
gradually progressing to scientific ideas.[99] Müller also saw myth as originating from language, even
calling myth a "disease of language." He speculated that myths arose due to the lack of abstract nouns
and neuter gender in ancient languages. Anthropomorphic figures of speech, necessary in such
languages, were eventually taken literally, leading to the idea that natural phenomena were in
actuality conscious or divine.[81] Not all scholars, not even all 19th-century scholars, accepted this
view. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that "the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind and
not a stage in its historical development."[100] Recent scholarship, noting the fundamental lack of
evidence for "nature mythology" interpretations among people who actually circulated myths, has
likewise abandoned the key ideas of "nature mythology."[101][98]

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

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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 psychoanalytical

approaches to interpreting myth, led by Sigmund Freud, who, drawing
inspiration from Classical myth, began developing the concept of the
Oedipus complex in his 1899 The Interpretation of Dreams. Jung
likewise tried to understand the psychology behind world myths. Jung
asserted that all humans share certain innate unconscious psychological
forces, which he called archetypes. He believed similarities between the
myths of different cultures reveals the existence of these universal
archetypes.[104]

The mid-20th century saw the influential development of a structuralist

theory of mythology, led by Lévi-Strauss. Strauss argued that myths
reflect patterns in the mind and interpreted those patterns more as fixed
mental structures, specifically pairs of opposites (good/evil,
compassionate/callous), rather than unconscious feelings or urges.[105]
Meanwhile, Bronislaw Malinowski developed analyses of myths focusing Prometheus (1868) by
on their social functions in the real world. He is associated with the idea Gustave Moreau. In the
mythos of Hesiodus and
that myths such as origin stories might provide a "mythic charter"—a
possibly Aeschylus (the
legitimisation—for cultural norms and social institutions.[106] Thus,
Greek trilogy Prometheus
following the Structuralist Era (c. 1960s–1980s), the predominant
Bound, Prometheus
anthropological and sociological approaches to myth increasingly treated
Unbound and Prometheus
myth as a form of narrative that can be studied, interpreted, and analyzed Pyrphoros), Prometheus is
like ideology, history, and culture. In other words, myth is a form of bound and tortured for
understanding and telling stories that are connected to power, political giving fire to humanity.
structures, and political and economic interests.

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.

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 secularisation in Western culture. This made Western scholars more
willing to analyse narratives in the Abrahamic religions as myths; theologians such as Rudolf
Bultmann argued that a modern Christianity needed to demythologize;[107] and other religious
scholars embraced the idea that the mythical status of Abrahamic narratives was a legitimate feature
of their importance.[103] This, in his appendix to Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, and in The Myth of
the Eternal Return, Eliade attributed modern humans’ anxieties to their rejection of myths and the
sense of the sacred.
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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]

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.[113]

Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral

1929 Belgian banknote, depicting
tradition on a small scale, the film industry has enabled
Ceres, Neptune and caduceus
filmmakers to transmit myths to large audiences via film.[114] In
Jungian psychology myths are the expression of a culture or
society’s goals, fears, ambitions and dreams.[115]

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.[116] While many films are not as
obvious as Disney fairy tales, the plots of many films are based on the rough structure of myths.
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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.[117]

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.[118]

See also
Myths portal

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
1. David Leeming (2005). "Preface" (https://books.google.com/books?id=kQFtlva3HaYC&pg=PR7).
The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. p. vii, xii. ISBN 978-0-19-
515669-0.
2. Honko 1984, pp. 41–42, 49.
3. Bascom 1965, p. 9.
4. Simpson, Jacqueline, and Steve Roud, eds. 2003. "Myths." In A Dictionary of English Folklore.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191726644.
5. Eliade 1998, p. 23.
6. Pettazzoni 1984, p. 102.
7. Dundes 1984, p. 1.
8. Eliade 1998, p. 6.
9. Leeming, David Adams, and David Adams. A dictionary of creation myths. Oxford University
Press, 1994.
10. 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..
11. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1975). Hindu Myths (https://books.google.com/books?id=Af7TFlN5hm
sC&pg=PA19). Penguin. p. 19. 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."

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12. Baldick, Chris (2015). Legend (https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/97801987154

43.001.0001/acref-9780198715443-e-646?rskey=Nc4w5m&result=9). The Oxford Dictionary of
Literary Terms (4 ed.). Oxford University Press - Oxford Reference Online. 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.."
13. Winzeler, Robert L. (2008). Anthropology and Religion: What We Know, Think, and Question (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=uPJb-Yka0xAC). Rowman Altamira. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-7591-
1046-5.
14. 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....
15. Losada, José Manuel (2022). Mitocrítica cultural. Una definición del mito (in Spanish). Madrid:
Akal. p. 195. ISBN 978-84-460-5267-8.
16. Losada, José Manuel (2014). "Myth and Extraordinary Event". International Journal of Language
and Literature. 2 June: 31–55.
17. Dundes 1984, p. 147.
18. Doty 2004, pp. 11–12.
19. Segal 2015, p. 5.
20. Kirk 1984, p. 57.
21. Kirk 1973, p. 74.
22. Apollodorus 1976, p. 3.
23. "myth". Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-
Webster, Inc. 1993. p. 770 (https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersc00spri/page/770).
24. Salamon, Hagar; Goldberg, Harvey E. (2012). "Myth-Ritual-Symbol" (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=qhsdhM9tI3EC&pg=PA125). In Bendix, Regina F.; Hasan-Rokem, Galit (eds.). A
Companion to Folklore. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 125. ISBN 9781405194990.
25. Bascom 1965, p. 7.
26. Bascom 1965, pp. 9, 17.
27. Eliade 1998, pp. 10–11.
28. Pettazzoni 1984, pp. 99–101.
29. Simpson, Jacqueline, and Steve Roud, eds. 2003. "Myths." In A Dictionary of English Folklore.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191726644.
30. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1975). Hindu Myths (https://books.google.com/books?id=Af7TFlN5hm
sC&pg=PA19). Penguin. p. 19. 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."

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31. Baldick, Chris (2015). Legend (https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/97801987154

43.001.0001/acref-9780198715443-e-646?rskey=Nc4w5m&result=9). The Oxford Dictionary of
Literary Terms (4 ed.). Oxford University Press - Oxford Reference Online. 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.."
32. Kirk 1973, pp. 22, 32.
33. Kirk 1984, p. 55.
34. Doty 2004, p. 114.
35. Bascom 1965, p. 13.
36. "romance | literature and performance" (https://www.britannica.com/art/romance-literature-and-per
formance#toc50951). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
37. "Myth (https://web.archive.org/web/20200804055211/https://www.lexico.com/definition/myth)."
Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020. § 2.
38. Howells, Richard (1999). The Myth of the Titanic (https://books.google.com/books?id=34BdSTbnS
KUC&q=myth+pejorative&pg=PA37). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-22148-5.
39. Eliade, Mircea. 1967. Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. pp. 23, 162.
40. Winzeler, Robert L. 2012. Anthropology and Religion: What We Know, Think, and Question.
Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 105–06.
41. Browning, W. R. F. (2010). Myth (https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/978019954
3984.001.0001/acref-9780199543984-e-1296?rskey=PjDvHe&result=9). A Dictionary of the Bible
(2 ed.). Oxford University Press - Oxford Reference Online. 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."
42. Kirk 1973, p. 8.
43. 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."
44. "Mythography (https://web.archive.org/web/20200719000015/https://www.lexico.com/definition/my
thography)." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
45. Chance, Jane. 1994–2000. Medieval Mythography, 2 vols. Gainesville.
46. Horton, Katie (3 August 2015). "Dr. Snodgrass editor of new blog series: Bioculturalism" (https://an
thgr.colostate.edu/2015/08/snodgrass-bioculturalism/). Colorado State University. Retrieved
28 October 2020.
47. Snodgrass, Jeffrey G. (2004). "Hail to the Chief?: The Politics and Poetics of a Rajasthani 'Child
Sacrifice' ". Culture and Religion. 5 (1): 71–104. doi:10.1080/0143830042000200364 (https://doi.or
g/10.1080%2F0143830042000200364). ISSN 1475-5629 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1475-562
9). OCLC 54683133 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54683133). S2CID 144663317 (https://api.sem
anticscholar.org/CorpusID:144663317).

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48. Losada, José Manuel (2015). "Mitocrítica y metodología". Nuevas formas del mito. Logos Verlag.
p. 9. ISBN 978-3-8325-4040-1.
49. "mythos, n." 2003. In Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
50. "Mythopoeia (https://web.archive.org/web/20200804051551/https://www.lexico.com/definition/myth
opoeia)." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 31 May 2020.
51. See also: Mythopoeia (poem); cf. Tolkien, J. R. R. [1964] 2001. Tree and Leaf; Mythopoeia; The
Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JW-cQ-cypw
wC) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20221211183157/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=
JW-cQ-cypwwC) 11 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-
0-00-710504-5.
52. "myth | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth).
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
53. "-logy, comb. form." In Oxford English Dictionary (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1903.
54. Fulgentius, Fabius Planciades (1971). Fulgentius the Mythographer (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=73mJIuYfmzEC). Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-0162-6.
55. "mythology, n. (https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124702) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
210713104549/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=807ECB5AFE1729CE83B09E4BBB927748?
authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F124702) 13 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine."
Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003. Accessed 20 Aug
2014.
56. Lydgate, John. Troyyes Book, Vol. II, ll. 2487. (in Middle English) Reprinted in Henry Bergen's
Lydgate's Troy Book, Vol. I, p. 216 (https://archive.org/stream/lydgatestroybono9701lydguoft#pag
e/n241/mode/2up). Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co. (London), 1906. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
57. "...I [ Paris ] was ravisched in-to paradys.
"And Þus Þis god [sc. Mercury], diuers of liknes,
"More wonderful Þan I can expresse,
"Schewed hym silf in his appearance,
"Liche as he is discriued in Fulgence,
"In Þe book of his methologies..."[56]
58. Harper, Douglas. 2020. "Mythology (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mythology)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170702143024/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?ter
m=mythology) 2 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine." Online Etymology Dictionary.
59. Browne, Thomas. Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into Many Received Tenets and
Commonly Presumed Truths, Vol. I, Ch. VIII. (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo1
8.html) Edward Dod (London), 1646. Reprinted 1672.
60. All which [sc. John Mandevil's support of Ctesias's claims] may still be received in some
acceptions of morality, and to a pregnant invention, may afford commendable mythologie; but in
a natural and proper exposition, it containeth impossibilities, and things inconsistent with truth.[59]
61. 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. (h
ttp://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/?p=19456) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170701145
956/http://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/?p=19456) 1 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine W.
Strahan (London), 1755.
62. Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language, p. 1345 (http://johnsonsdictionaryonline.c
om/?page_id=7070&i=1345) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170701145745/http://johnso
nsdictionaryonline.com/?page_id=7070&i=1345) 1 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine. W. Strahan
(London), 1755. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.

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63. Johnson's Dictionary, for example, has entries for mythology,[61] mythologist, mythologize,
mythological, and mythologically [62]
64. 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. (http://www.cl
assicapologetics.com/s/shuckcre.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210713104547/http
s://classicapologetics.com/s/shuckcre.pdf) 13 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine J. & R. Tonson &
S. Draper (London), 1753. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
65. "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 occaſion it. And of this Sort we generally find the Mythoi told of them..."[64]
66. 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 (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=IA8LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA335). W. Pickering. pp. 335–.
67. "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."[66]
68. Abraham of Hekel (1651). "Historia Arabum(History of the Arabs)" (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=APDxSjZkOS8C&pg=PA175). 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" (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=QdNbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA269). Letters Concerning Mythology. printed in the
year. pp. 269–.
69. 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 (https://books.google.com/books?id=BoJEAAAAcAAJ). R. Ackermann. In
the Westminster Review, No. XXIII, Art. III, p. 44 (https://archive.org/stream/westminsterrevi09was
ogoog#page/n56/mode/2up). Rob't Heward (London), 1829. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
70. "According to the rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, 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.[68] 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.[69]
71. Littleton 1973, p. 32.
72. Eliade 1998, p. 8.
73. Honko 1984, p. 51.
74. Eliade 1998, p. 19.
75. Barthes 1972, p. .
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76. Sinha, Namya (4 July 2016). "No society can exist without myth, says Devdutt Pattanaik" (https://w
ww.hindustantimes.com/books/no-society-can-exist-without-myth-says-devdutt-pattanaik/story-PG
1v4iB17j07dV5Vyv86QN.html). Hindustan Times. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
77. Shaikh, Jamal (8 July 2018). "Interview: Devdutt Pattanaik "Facts are everybody's truth. Fiction is
nobody's truth. Myths are somebody's truth" " (https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/interview-d
evdutt-pattanaik-facts-are-everybody-s-truth-fiction-is-nobody-s-truth-myths-are-somebody-s-truth/
story-bF0Y9JzlqKyLMAiKYNGTbL.html). Hindustan Times. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
78. Bulfinch 2004, p. 194.
79. Honko 1984, p. 45.
80. "Euhemerism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions.
81. Segal 2015, p. 20.
82. Bulfinch 2004, p. 195.
83. Frankfort et al. 2013, p. 4.
84. Frankfort et al. 2013, p. 15.
85. Segal 2015, p. 61.
86. Graf 1996, p. 40.
87. Meletinsky 2014, pp. 19–20.
88. Segal 2015, p. 63.
89. Frazer 1913, p. 711.
90. Lanoue, Guy. Foreword. In Meletinsky (2014), p. viii..
91. Segal 2015, p. 1.
92. "On the Gods and the World." ch. 5; See: Collected Writings on the Gods and the World. Frome:
The Prometheus Trust. 1995.
93. 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.
94. "The Myth of Io" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130516084101/http://art.thewalters.org/detail/182
98). The Walters Art Museum. Archived from the original (http://art.thewalters.org/detail/18298) on
16 May 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
95. For more information on this panel, please see Zeri catalogue number 64, pp. 100–101
96. 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.
97. Segal 2015, pp. 3–4.
98. McKinnell, John. 2005. Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend. Cambridge: Brewer. pp. 14-
15.
99. Segal 2015, p. 4.
100. Mâche, Francois-Bernard (1992). Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion (https://books.
google.com/books?id=YNCVOY423HsC&pg=PA8). p. 8. ISBN 978-3-7186-5321-8.
101. 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.
102. Segal 2015, pp. 67–68.
103. Segal 2015, p. 3.

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104. Boeree.
105. Segal 2015, p. 113.
106. Birenbaum, Harvey. 1988. Myth and Mind. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. pp. 152–53.
107. Bultmann, Rudolf. 1958. Jesus Christ and Mythology. New York: Scribner.
108. Hyers 1984, p. 107.
109. 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.
110. Ramanujan, A. K. 1991. "Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on
Translation (https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3j49n8h7&chunk.id=d0e1254
&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e1254&brand=ucpress)." 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/ (http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft3j49n8h7/) Archived (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20080514082733/http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft3j49n8h7/) 14 May 2008 at the Wayback
Machine
111. Ramanujan, A. K. [1991] 2004. "Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas (http://www.trans-techresearch.net/w
p-content/uploads/2015/05/three-hundred-Ramayanas-A-K-Ramanujan.pdf) Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20181005173023/http://www.trans-techresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/
three-hundred-Ramayanas-A-K-Ramanujan.pdf) 5 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine." Pp.
131–60 in The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-
0-19-566896-4.
112. For example: Dowden, Ken. 1992. The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
113. Ostenson, Jonathan (2013). "Exploring the Boundaries of Narrative: Video Games in the English
Classroom" (http://www.ncte.org/library/nctefiles/resources/journals/ej/1026-jul2013/ej1026explori
ng.pdf) (PDF). www2.ncte.org/.
114. Singer, Irving (2008). Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film. MIT Press. pp. 3–6.
115. Indick, William (2004). "Classical Heroes in Modern Movies: Mythological Patterns of the
Superhero". Journal of Media Psychology.
116. Koven, Michael (2003). Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: A Necessary Critical
Survey. University of Illinois Press. pp. 176–195.
117. Corner 1999, pp. 47–59.
118. Mead, Rebecca (22 October 2014). "The Percy Jackson Problem" (https://www.newyorker.com/cul
ture/cultural-comment/percy-jackson-problem). The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X (https://www.wo
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External links
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