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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. The main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods, or
supernatural humans.[1][2][3] Stories of everyday human beings, although often of leaders of some type,
are usually contained in legends, as opposed to myths.

Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests or priestesses and are closely linked to religion or
spirituality.[1] Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and
legends to be true accounts of their remote past.[1][2][4][5] In particular, creation myths take place in a
primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form.[1][6][7] Other myths explain how a
society's customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified.[1][7] There is a complex
relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals.

The term mythology may either refer to the study of myths in general, or a body of myths regarding a
particular subject.[8] The study of myth began in ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by
Euhemerus, Plato, and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists and later revived by Renaissance
mythographers. Today, the study of myth continues in a wide variety of academic fields, including
folklore studies, philology, psychology, and anthropology.[9] Moreover, the academic comparisons of
bodies of myth are known as comparative mythology.

Since the term myth is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a
narrative as a myth can be highly political: many adherents of religions view their religion's stories as
true and therefore object to the stories being characterised as myths. Nevertheless, scholars now
routinely speak of Jewish mythology, Christian mythology, Islamic mythology, Hindu mythology, and so
forth. Traditionally, Western scholarship, with its Judeo-Christian heritage, has viewed narratives in the
Abrahamic religions as being the province of theology rather than mythology. Meanwhile, identifying
religious stories of colonised cultures, such as stories in Hinduism, as myths enabled Western scholars to
imply that they were of lower truth-value than the stories of Christianity. Labelling all religious
narratives as myths can be thought of as treating different traditions with parity.[10]

Contents
Definitions
Myth
Mythology
Mythography
Mythos
Mythopoeia
Etymology
Meanings in Ancient Greece
Interpreting myths
Comparative mythology
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Functionalism
Euhemerism
Allegory
Personification
Myth-ritual theory
History of the academic discipline
Ancient Greece
European Renaissance
Nineteenth century
Nature mythology
Myth and ritual
Twentieth century
Twenty-first century
Modern mythology
See also
Notes
References
External links

Definitions

Myth

Definitions of myth vary to some extent among scholars, though

Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko offers a widely-cited definition:[11]

Myth, a story of the gods, a religious account of the

beginning of the world, the creation, fundamental events, Ballads of bravery (1877) part of
the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of which the Arthurian mythology
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.

Scholars in other fields use the term myth in varied ways.[12][13][14] In a broad sense, the word can refer
to any traditional story,[15][16][17] popular misconception or imaginary entity.[18]

However, while 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.[19][20] 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.[21][22][23] Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural

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humans,[1][2][3] while legends generally feature humans as their main characters.[1] However, many
exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid.[24][25] 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.[2][26][27] 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)[28] 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, the word myth can also be used of a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact, or
any false story.[29] This usage, which is often pejorative,[30] arose from labelling the religious myths and
beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well.[31] However,
as commonly used by folklorists and academics in other relevant fields, such as anthropology, the term
myth has no implication whether the narrative may be understood as true or otherwise.[32]

Mythology

In present use, mythology usually refers to the collected myths of a group of people, but may also mean
the study of such myths.[33] For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, and Hittite mythology all
describe the body of myths retold among those cultures. Folklorist Alan Dundes defines myth as a sacred
narrative that explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present form. Dundes classified a
sacred narrative as "a story that serves to define the fundamental worldview of a culture by explaining
aspects of the natural world and delineating the psychological and social practices and ideals of a
society."[34] Anthropologist Bruce Lincoln defines myth as "ideology in narrative form."[35]

Mythography

The compilation or description of myths is sometimes known as mythography, a term which can also be
used of a scholarly anthology of myths (or, confusingly, of the study of myths generally).[36]

Key mythographers in the Classical tradition include:[37]

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 in later Renaissance Europe.

Other prominent mythographies include the thirteenth-century Prose Edda attributed to the Icelander
Snorri Sturluson, which is the main surviving survey of Norse Mythology from the Middle Ages.

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at the Colorado State University[38]) has termed India's
Bhats as mythographers.[39]

Mythos

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Because myth is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, some scholars have opted to use the term mythos
instead.[34] However, 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.[40] 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.[41][42] It was notoriously also suggested, separately, by Nazi
ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.

Etymology
The word myth comes from Ancient Greek μῦθος (mȳthos),[43]
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."[29][40]
Odysseus Overcome by
In turn, Ancient Greek μυθολογία (mythología, 'story,' 'lore,'
Demodocus' Song, by Francesco
'legends,' or 'the telling of stories') combines the word mȳthos with Hayez, 1813–15
the suffix -λογία (-logia, 'study') in order to mean 'romance, fiction,
story-telling.'[44] 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.[45]

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).[46][48][49]

From Lydgate until the 17th or 18th century, mythology was used to mean a moral, fable, allegory or a
parable, or collection of traditional stories,[46][51] understood to be false. It came eventually to be applied
to similar bodies of traditional stories among other polytheistic cultures around the world.[46]

Thus the word mythology entered the English language before the word myth. Johnson's Dictionary, for
example, has an entry for mythology, but not for myth.[54] Indeed, the Greek loanword mythos[56] (pl.
mythoi) and Latinate mythus[58] (pl. mythi) both appeared in English before the first example of myth
in 1830.[61]

Meanings in Ancient Greece

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The term μῦθος (mȳthos) appears in the works of Homer and other poets of Homer's era, in which the
term had several meanings: 'conversation,' 'narrative,' 'speech,' 'story,' 'tale,' and 'word.'[62]

Similar to the related term λόγος (logos), mythos expresses whatever can be delivered in the form of
words. These can be contrasted with Greek ἔργον (ergon, 'action,' 'deed,' or 'work').[62] However, the
term mythos lacks an explicit distinction between true or false narratives.[62]

In the context of Ancient Greek theatre, mythos referred to the myth, narrative, plot, and the story of a
play.[63] According to David Wiles, the Greek term mythos in this era covered an entire spectrum of
different meanings, from undeniable falsehoods to stories with religious and symbolic significance.[63]

According to philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BCE), the spirit of a theatrical play was its mythos.[63] The
term mythos was also used for the source material of Greek tragedy. The tragedians of the era could
draw inspiration from Greek mythology, a body of "traditional storylines" which concerned gods and
heroes.[63] David Wiles observes that modern conceptions about Greek tragedy can be misleading. It is
commonly thought that the ancient audience members were already familiar with the mythos behind a
play, and could predict the outcome of the play. However, the Greek dramatists were not expected to
faithfully reproduce traditional myths when adapting them for the stage. They were instead recreating
the myths and producing new versions.[63] Storytellers like Euripides (c. 480–406 BCE) relied on
suspense to excite their audiences. In one of his works, Merope attempts to kill her son's murderer with
an axe, unaware that the man in question is actually her son. According to an ancient description of
audience reactions to this work, the audience members were genuinely unsure of whether she would
commit filicide or she will be stopped in time. They rose to their feet in terror and caused an uproar.[63]

David Wiles points that the traditional mythos of Ancient Greece, was primarily a part of its oral
tradition. The Greeks of this era were a literate culture but produced no sacred texts. There were no
definitive or authoritative versions of myths recorded in texts and preserved forever in an unchanging
form.[64] Instead multiple variants of myths were in circulation. These variants were adapted into songs,
dances, poetry, and visual art. Performers of myths could freely reshape their source material for a new
work, adapting it to the needs of a new audience or in response to a new situation.[64]

Children in Ancient Greece were familiar with traditional myths from an early age. According to the
philosopher Plato (c. 428–347 BCE), mothers and nursemaids narrated myths and stories to the
children in their charge: David Wiles describes them as a repository of mythological lore.[64]

Bruce Lincoln has called attention to the apparent meaning of the terms mythos and logos in the works
of Hesiod. In Theogony, Hesiod attributes to the Muses the ability to both proclaim truths and narrate
plausible falsehoods (i.e., falsehoods which seem like real things).[65] The verb used for narrating the
falsehoods in the text is legein, which is etymologically associated with logos. There are two variants in
the manuscript tradition for the verb used to proclaim truths. One variant uses gerusasthai, the other
mythesasthai. The latter is a form of the verb mytheomai ('to speak,' 'to tell'), which is etymologically
associated with mythos.[65] In the Works and Days, Hesiod describes his dispute with his brother
Perses. He also announces to his readers his intention to tell true things to his brother. The verb he uses
for telling the truth is mythesaimen, another form of mytheomai.[65]

Lincoln draws the conclusion that Hesiod associated the "speech of mythos" (as Lincoln calls it) with
telling the truth. While he associated the "speech of logos" with telling lies, and hiding one's true
thoughts (dissimulation).[65] This conclusion is strengthened by the use of the plural term logoi (the
plural form of logos) elsewhere in Hesiod's works. Three times the term is associated with the term

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seductive and three times with the term falsehoods.[65] In his genealogy of the gods, Hesiod lists logoi
among the children of Eris, the goddess personifying strife. Eris' children are ominous figures, which
personify various physical and verbal forms of conflict.[65]

Interpreting myths

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.[66]

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[67][68] 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][68][69]

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.[11] 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.[70]

Pattanaik defines mythology as "the subjective truth of people communicated through stories, symbols
and rituals."[71] He says, "Facts are everybody's truth. Fiction is nobody's truth. Myths are somebody's
truth."[72]

Euhemerism

One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of historical events.[73][74] According to this theory,
storytellers repeatedly elaborate upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gain the
status of gods.[73][74] 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.[73] Herodotus (fifth-century
BCE) and Prodicus made claims of this kind.[74] This theory is named euhemerism after mythologist
Euhemerus (c. 320 BCE), who suggested that Greek gods developed from legends about human
beings.[74][75]

Allegory

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Some theories propose that myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun,
Poseidon represents water, and so on.[74] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for
philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite desire, and so on.[74]
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.[76]

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.[77] For example, according to this theory, ancients tended to view things as gods, not as mere
objects.[78] Thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, giving rise to myths.[79]

Myth-ritual theory

According to the myth-ritual theory, myth is tied to ritual.[80] In its most extreme form, this theory
claims myths arose to explain rituals.[81] This claim was first put forward by Smith,[82] 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.[83] Frazer 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.[84]

History of the academic discipline

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.[85]

Ancient Greece

The critical interpretation of myth began with the Presocratics.[86] 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:[87]

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.

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Plato famously 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.[88]

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- Myths and legends of
interpretation of pagan mythology following Christianization). Babylonia and Assyria
(1916)

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).

Nineteenth 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[86]— to rescue Io.[89][90]
at the same time as the word myth was adopted as a
scholarly term in European languages.[29][40] 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.[91]

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.[91] 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.[92]

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Nature mythology

One of the dominant mythological theories of the latter 19th century was nature mythology, the
foremost exponents of which included Max Müller and Edward Burnett Tylor. This theory posited that
"primitive man" was 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 being
metaphors for natural phenomena like agricultural fertility.[93] 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.[94] 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 beings or gods.[76] Not all scholars, not even all 19th-century scholars, accepted this view,
however: Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that "the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind and
not a stage in its historical development."[95] 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."[96][93]

Myth and ritual

James George 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.[97]
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."[84] Segal asserted that by pitting mythical thought against modern scientific
thought, such theories imply modern humans must abandon myth.[98]

Twentieth 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.[99]

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.[100] Meanwhile, Bronislaw Malinowski developed analyses of myths
focusing on their social functions in the real world. He is associated with the idea that myths such as
origin stories might provide a "mythic charter"—a legitimisation—for cultural norms and social
institutions.[101] Thus, following the Structuralist Era (c. 1960s–1980s), the predominant
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anthropological and sociological approaches to myth increasingly treated

myth as a form of narrative that can be studied, interpreted, and analyzed
like ideology, history, and culture. In other words, myth is a form of
understanding and telling stories that are connected to power, political
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 Prometheus (1868) by
recognised myths' existence in the modern world and in popular Gustave Moreau. In the
culture.[102] mythos of Hesiodus and
possibly Aeschylus (the
The 20th century saw rapid secularisation in Western culture. This made Greek trilogy Prometheus
Western scholars more willing to analyse narratives in the Abrahamic Bound, Prometheus
religions as myths; theologians such as Rudolf Bultmann argued that a Unbound and Prometheus
modern Christianity needed to demythologize;[103] and other religious Pyrphoros), Prometheus is
scholars embraced the idea that the mythical status of Abrahamic bound and tortured for
giving fire to humanity.
narratives was a legitimate feature of their importance.[98] 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.

The Christian theologian Conrad Hyers wrote:[104]

[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, however, 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.

Twenty-first 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
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forms of myths. From the late 20th century, however, 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.[105] 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".[106][107]

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.[108]

Modern mythology
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 television, cinema and video games.[109]

Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral

tradition on a small scale, the film industry has enabled filmmakers
1929 Belgian banknote, depicting to transmit myths to large audiences via film.[110] In Jungian
Ceres, Neptune and caduceus psychology myths are the expression of a culture or society’s goals,
fears, ambitions and dreams.[111]

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.[112] While many films are not 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.[113]

21st-century films such as Clash of the Titans, Immortals and Thor continue the trend of mining
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.[114]

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
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1. Bascom 1965, p. 9.
2. Simpson, Jacqueline, and Steve Roud, eds. 2003. "Myths." In A Dictionary of English Folklore.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191726644.
3. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1975). Hindu Myths (https://books.google.com/books?id=Af7TFlN5hmsC
&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."
4. Eliade 1998, p. 23.
5. Pettazzoni 1984, p. 102.
6. Dundes 1984, p. 1.
7. Eliade 1998, p. 6.
8. "myth | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth). Encyclopedia
Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
9. Von Franz, M. L. (2017). The interpretation of fairy tales: Revised edition. London: Shambhala
Publications.
10. David Leeming (2005). "Preface" (https://books.google.com/books?id=kQFtlva3HaYC&pg=PR7).
The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. p. vii. ISBN 978-0-19-515669-
0.
11. Honko, Lauri (1984). "The Problem of Defining Myth" (https://books.google.com/books?id=l5Om2AL
AFbEC&pg=PA49). In Dundes, Alan (ed.). Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth.
University of California Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780520051928.
12. Dundes 1984, p. 147.
13. Doty 2004, pp. 11–12.
14. Segal 2015, p. 5.
15. Kirk 1984, p. 57.
16. Kirk 1973, p. 74.
17. Apollodorus 1976, p. 3.
18. "myth". Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-
Webster, Inc. 1993. p. 770 (https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersc00spri/page/770).
19. Salamon, Hagar; Goldberg, Harvey E. (2012). "Myth-Ritual-Symbol" (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=qhsdhM9tI3EC&pg=PA125). In Bendix, Regina F.; Hasan-Rokem, Galit (eds.). A Companion to
Folklore. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 125. ISBN 9781405194990.
20. Bascom 1965, p. 7.
21. Bascom 1965, pp. 9, 17.
22. Eliade 1998, pp. 10–11.
23. Pettazzoni 1984, pp. 99–101.
24. Kirk 1973, pp. 22, 32.
25. Kirk 1984, p. 55.
26. Doty 2004, p. 114.
27. Bascom 1965, p. 13.
28. "romance | literature and performance" (https://www.britannica.com/art/romance-literature-and-perfor
mance#toc50951). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
29. "Myth (https://www.lexico.com/definition/myth)." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2020.
Retrieved 21 May 2020. § 2.
30. Howells, Richard (1999). The Myth of the Titanic (https://books.google.com/books?id=34BdSTbnSK
UC&q=myth+pejorative&pg=PA37). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-22148-5.
31. Eliade, Mircea. 1967. Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. pp. 23, 162.

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32. Winzeler, Robert L. 2012. Anthropology and Religion: What We Know, Think, and Question.
Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 105–06.
33. Kirk 1973, p. 8.
34. 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."
35. Lincoln, Bruce (2006). "An Early Moment in the Discourse of "Terrorism": Reflections on a Tale from
Marco Polo". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 48 (2): 242–59.
doi:10.1017/s0010417506000107 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2Fs0010417506000107).
JSTOR 3879351 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3879351). "More precisely, mythic discourse deals in
master categories that have multiple referents: levels of the cosmos, terrestrial geographies, plant
and animal species, logical categories, and the like. Their plots serve to organize the relations
among these categories and to justify a hierarchy among them, establishing the rightness (or at least
the necessity) of a world in which heaven is above the earth, the lion the king of beasts, the cooked
more pleasing than the raw."
36. "Mythography (https://www.lexico.com/definition/mythography)." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
37. Chance, Jane. 1994–2000. Medieval Mythography, 2 vols. Gainesville.
38. Horton, Katie (3 August 2015). "Dr. Snodgrass editor of new blog series: Bioculturalism" (https://anth
gr.colostate.edu/2015/08/snodgrass-bioculturalism/). Colorado State University. Retrieved
28 October 2020.
39. 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.org/
10.1080%2F0143830042000200364). ISSN 1475-5629 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1475-5629).
OCLC 54683133 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54683133).
40. "mythos, n." 2003. In Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
41. "Mythopoeia (https://www.lexico.com/definition/mythopoeia)." Lexico. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. 31 May 2020.
42. 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-cypww
C). London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710504-5.
43. "myth | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth). Encyclopedia
Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
44. "-logy, comb. form." In Oxford English Dictionary (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1903.
45. Fulgentius, Fabius Planciades (1971). Fulgentius the Mythographer (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=73mJIuYfmzEC). Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-0162-6.
46. "mythology, n. (https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124702)." Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.).
Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
47. 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#page/n
241/mode/2up). Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co. (London), 1906. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
48. "...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..."[47]

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49. Harper, Douglas. 2020. "Mythology (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mythology)." Online

Etymology Dictionary.
50. Browne, Thomas. Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into Many Received Tenets and Commonly
Presumed Truths, Vol. I, Ch. VIII. (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo18.html)
Edward Dod (London), 1646. Reprinted 1672.
51. 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.[50]
52. 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. (htt
p://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/?p=19456) W. Strahan (London), 1755.
53. Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language, p. 1345 (http://johnsonsdictionaryonline.co
m/?page_id=7070&i=1345). W. Strahan (London), 1755. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
54. Johnson's Dictionary, for example, has entries for mythology,[52] mythologist, mythologize,
mythological, and mythologically [53]
55. 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.clas
sicapologetics.com/s/shuckcre.pdf) J. & R. Tonson & S. Draper (London), 1753. Accessed 20 Aug
2014.
56. "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..."[55]
57. 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.google.com/books?id=IA8L
AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA335). W. Pickering. pp. 335–.
58. "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."[57]
59. Abraham of Hekel (1651). "Historia Arabum(History of the Arabs)" (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=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.google.com/books?id=
QdNbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA269). Letters Concerning Mythology. printed in the year. pp. 269–.
60. 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/westminsterrevi09wasogoog
#page/n56/mode/2up). Rob't Heward (London), 1829. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.

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61. "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, however, 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.[59] 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.[60]
62. Anderson (2004), p. 61
63. Wiles (2000), pp. 5–6
64. Wiles (2000), p. 12
65. Lincoln (1999), pp. 3–5
66. Littleton 1973, p. 32.
67. Eliade 1998, p. 8.
68. Honko 1984, p. 51.
69. Eliade 1998, p. 19.
70. Barthes 1972.
71. Sinha, Namya (4 July 2016). "No society can exist without myth, says Devdutt Pattanaik" (https://ww
w.hindustantimes.com/books/no-society-can-exist-without-myth-says-devdutt-pattanaik/story-PG1v4i
B17j07dV5Vyv86QN.html). Hindustan Times. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
72. 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-dev
dutt-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.
73. Bulfinch 2004, p. 194.
74. Honko 1984, p. 45.
75. "Euhemerism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions.
76. Segal 2015, p. 20.
77. Bulfinch 2004, p. 195.
78. Frankfort et al. 2013, p. 4.
79. Frankfort et al. 2013, p. 15.
80. Segal 2015, p. 61.
81. Graf 1996, p. 40.
82. Meletinsky 2014, pp. 19–20.
83. Segal 2015, p. 63.
84. Frazer 1913, p. 711.
85. Guy Lanoue, Foreword to Meletinsky, p. viii.
86. Segal 2015, p. 1.
87. "On the Gods and the World." ch. 5; See: Collected Writings on the Gods and the World. Frome: The
Prometheus Trust. 1995.
88. 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.

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89. "The Myth of Io"

(https://web.archive.org/web/20130516084101/http://art.thewalters.org/detail/18298). The Walters Art
Museum. Archived from the original (http://art.thewalters.org/detail/18298) on 16 May 2013.
Retrieved 18 December 2015.
90. For more information on this panel, please see Zeri catalogue number 64, pp. 100–101
91. 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.
92. Segal 2015, pp. 3–4.
93. McKinnell, John. 2005. Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend. Cambridge: Brewer. pp. 14-15.
94. Segal 2015, p. 4.
95. Mâche, Francois-Bernard (1992). Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=YNCVOY423HsC&pg=PA8). p. 8. ISBN 978-3-7186-5321-8.
96. 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.
97. Segal 2015, pp. 67–68.
98. Segal 2015, p. 3.
99. Boeree.
00. Segal 2015, p. 113.
01. Birenbaum, Harvey. 1988. Myth and Mind. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. pp. 152–53.
02. Barthes, Roland (1972). Mythologies (https://books.google.com/books?id=wsGDVdYoRA4C&q=Bart
hes+Mythologies). Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0-09-997220-4.
03. Bultmann, Rudolf. 1958. Jesus Christ and Mythology. New York: Scribner.
04. Hyers 1984, p. 107.
05. 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.
06. 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&t
oc.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/)
07. Ramanujan, A. K. [1991] 2004. "Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas (http://www.trans-techresearch.net/wp-c
ontent/uploads/2015/05/three-hundred-Ramayanas-A-K-Ramanujan.pdf)." Pp. 131–60 in The
Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-566896-4.
08. For example: Dowden, Ken. 1992. The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
09. 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/ej1026exploring.
pdf) (PDF). www2.ncte.org/.
10. Singer, Irving (2008). Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film. MIT Press. pp. 3–6.
11. Indick, William (2004). "Classical Heroes in Modern Movies: Mythological Patterns of the Superhero".
Journal of Media Psychology.
12. Koven, Michael (2003). Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: A Necessary Critical
Survey. University of Illinois Press. pp. 176–195.
13. Corner 1999, pp. 47–59.
14. Mead, Rebecca (22 October 2014). "The Percy Jackson Problem" (https://www.newyorker.com/cultur
e/cultural-comment/percy-jackson-problem). The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X (https://www.worldca
t.org/issn/0028-792X). Retrieved 6 November 2017.

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