The Nature of
Mythology and Folklore
Anituo
A Pilipino Reconstructionist religion based on the Pre-Hispanic beliefs of the people of what is now
known as the Philippines prior to the arrival of Christianity and colonialism.
Mythology
It is the study of myths and the myths themselves, which are stories told as symbols of fundamental
truths within societies having a strong oral traditions.
Folklore
This includes the traditional elements of the way of life of a group of people and creative expressions
developing naturally as part of this culture.
The Nature of Mythology
Mythology is the study of myths.
> Collecting Stories
> Literary evidence
> Archaeological evidence
Examining their Functions
> Teller or audience
> Society
Comparing Myths
> Motifs
> Traditions
Assessing Myths
> Significance
> Truth
Definitions of Myth
Webster
● A story that is usually of unknown origin and at least partially traditional that ostensibly relates
historical events usually of such description as to serve to explain some particular event, institution,
phenomenon, or natural AND PRESENT.
M. Reinhold, Past and Present
● A myth is a story about gods, other supernatural beings, or heroes of a long past.
H.J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology
● Myths are certain products of the imagination of a people which take the form of stories.
J. Peradotto, Classical Mythology
● Myth is a cognitive structure analogous to language through which primitive people organize their
experiences.
R.J. Schork, Classical Mythology, The Classic Journal
● Greek and Hellenue Calcare in Joyeu
● Myth is the symbolic form which is generated, shaped, and transmitted by the creative imagination of
pre- and extra-logical people as they respond to and encapsulate the wealth of experience.
Characteristics of Myth
Mythos - authoritative speech
● A traditional story
> A story is a narrative with plot
> It has beginning, middle, and end.
> It contains characters having certain mental imprints.
> It describes conflict, resolution and within a setting.
● With collective importance
> Myths are "traditional" tales from Lat. trado, "hand over."
> Handed over orally and transmit a culture's sense of itself: past wisdom, memories, and models
> will create constant changes in the myth.
> Various ways of emphasizing motives and meaning for the group.
Additional Traits:
> A myth has no identifiable author.
> A myth that is written down in a literary form uses a story that preceded it.
> Sometimes the myths are even different in detail.
> One version is not more true than another.
Types of Myths
by Morford and Lenardon
1. Pure Myth / True Myth / Myth Proper / Divine Myth
> Primitive Science or Religion
> Natural phenomena or the origin of things
> How individuals should behave toward the gods
2. Saga or Legend
> Primitive History
> Historical fact
3. Folk-tale or Fairy-tale
> Primitive Fiction
> For pleasure and amusement
Types of Myths
(The Global Myths by Alexander Eliot)
Primitive myths
> Stories about nature as told by shamans
Pagan myths
> Greek and Roman's tales of the interplay between deities and humans
Sacred myths
> Stories from current eastern and western religions such as Christianity and Hinduism
Scientific myths
> Considered as the most solemn and revered creeds of science
Types of Myths
by David Adams Leeming's
The world of myths
Cosmic myths
> Including narratives of the creation and end of the world
Theistic myths
> Portray the deities
Hero myths
> With accounts of individuals
Place and object myths
> Describe places and objects
Types of Myths
in The New Encyclopedia Britannica
Cosmological myths
> Concerned with the creation of cosmos
Life-crisis myths
> Deal with the crucial events in human life; birth, puberty, marriage and death
Hunting and agricultural myths
> Revolve around animals and hunt
Myths about extraordinary individuals
> Focus on extraordinary individuals such as culture hero, trickster, god-king, and savior
● Mythology Serves Many Purposes
● Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture
● Myths present guidelines for living
● Myths justify a culture's activities
● Myths give meaning to life
● Myths explain the unexplainable
● Myths offer role models
Bibliography
Leeming, David. Mythology: World of Culture. New York, USA: Newsweek Books, 1977.
Morford, Mark P. and Lenardon, Robert J. Classical Mythology. New York, USA: Oxford University Press,
2003
Theories Related to the
Study of Mythology
1. Ancient Theories
2. Rationalism
3. Naturalism
4. Etymological Theory
5. Ritualism
6. Allegorical Theory
7. Diffusionism
8. Euhemerism
9. Modern Theories
10. Evolutionism
11. Freudianism
12. Jungian Archetypes
Theories Related to the
Study of Mythology
ANCIENT THEORIES
1. Rationalism
- According to this theory, myths represent an early form of logical thinking: they all, have a logical base.
2. Etymological Theory
- This theory states that all myths derive from and can be traced back to certain words in the language.
Persephone
From Wikipedia, the tee encyclopedia
This article is about the Greek goddess For other uses, see Persephone (disambiguatony)
Greet mythology, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora "The maiden" the daughter of Zeus and the
harvest goddess Demeter, and is the queen of the underworld Homer describes her as.
3. Allegorical theory
- In the allegorical explanation, all myths contain hidden meanings which the narratives deliberately
conceals or encodes.
" Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let
alone believed by the masses." - PLATO
4. Euhemerism
- Euhemerus, a Greek who lived from 325-275 BC, maintained that all myths arise from historical events
which were merely exaggerated.
MODERN THEORIES
1. Naturalism
- In this hypothesis, all myths are thought to arise from an attempt to explain natural phenomena.
● People who believe in this theory narrow the source of myths by tracing their origins from the worship
of the sun or the moon.
2. Ritualism
- According to this theory, all myths are invented to accompany and explain religious ritual; they
describe the significant events which have resulted in a particular ceremony.
3. Diffusionism
- The diffusionists maintain that all myths arose from a few major cultural centers and spread
throughout the world
4. Evolutionism
- Myth making occurs at a certain stage in the evolution of the human mind.
● Myths, are therefore, an essential part of all developing societies and the similarities from one culture
to the next can be explained by the relatively limited number of experiences open to such communities
when myths arise.
5. Freudianism
- When Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychology, interpreted the dreams of his patients, he
found great similarities between them and the ancient myths.
- Freud believes that certain infantile are repressed.
• i.e. they are eliminated from the conscious mind but continues to exist within the individual in some
other form.
• Sometimes these feelings emerge into consciousness under various disguises, one of which is the
myth.
6. Jungian archetypes
- Carl Jung was a prominent psychologist who, while he accepted Freud's theory about the origin of
myths, did not believe that it went far in explaining the striking similarities between the motifs found in
ancient stories and those of his patients.
● He postulated that each of us possesses a "collective unconscious" which we inherit genetically.
● It contains very general ideas, themes, or motifs which are passed along from one generation to
another and and are retained as part of our human inheritance.
Structuralism
● This theory is a fairly recent development and is closely allied with the research of linguists.
● According to this theory, all human behavior, the way we eat, dress, speak, is patterned into codes
which have the characteristics of language.
● To understand the real meaning of myth, therefore, we must analyze it linguistically.
Historical-critical theory
● This theory maintains that there are a multitude of factors which influence the origin and
development of myths and that no single explanation will suffice.
● We must examine each story individually to see how it began and evolved.
Myth and Truth
Myth is a many-faceted personal and cultural phenomenon created to provide a reality and a unity to
what is transitory and fragmented in the world.
Myth provides us with absolutes in the place of ephemeral values and with a comforting perception of
the world that is necessary to make the insecurity and terror of existence bearable.
- Myth in a sense is the highest reality; and the thoughtless dismissal of myth as untruth, fiction or a lie is
the most barren and misleading definition of all.
Myth and Religion
- Religious ceremonies and cults are based on mythology.
● Mircea Eliade
• He defines myth as a tale satisfying the yearning of human beings for a fundamental orientation
rooted in a sacred timelessness
• Myth provides in the imagination a spiritual release from historical time
