Mythology

Origin and Definition

Derives from mythos, meaning a narrative, and logos, meaning speech or argument.
Refers to a body of stories that attempt to explain the origins and fundamental values of a given culture and the
nature of the universe and humanity
It can also mean stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret
natural events

Generally founded by imagination and intuition rather than objective evidence.

Myths identify and help explain human propensities and natural phenomena with the actions and attributes of
gods in a primordial past.
The truths inherent in myths thus are not reducible to their historical veracity; rather, like imaginative literature,
myths present abstract, often archetypical insights into human experience. In modern usage, myth is often used
pejoratively to dismiss a belief or opinion as false or unsupported by any evidence. Nevertheless, myths may tap
into dimensions of human experience, often religious, that science cannot access.
Mythology reflects humankind's quest for meaning. Most myths are in narrative form, and stories such
as Trojan War or Enkidu and Shiva reveal deep spiritual insights that endure for millenniums and speak to
different ages through the filter of different cultures. Anthropologists also speak of the myths of modern society,
enduring beliefs that re-present traditional myth in modern dress.

Classifications
Myths are not the same as fables, legends, folktales, fairy tales, anecdotes, or fiction, but the concepts may
overlap.
Mythological themes have often been consciously employed in literature, beginning with the works of Homer.
The resulting work may expressly refer to a mythological background without being itself part of a body of
myths (e.g., Cupid and Psyche). The medieval romance in particular plays with this process of turning myth into
literature.
Euhemerism is the theory that mythology has its origins in history. It suggests that gods are deified heroes of the
past, and when used, the term often refers to the process of explaining myths, putting topics formerly imbued
with mythological qualities into pragmatic contexts. An example would be the reinterpretation of pagan
mythology following the rise of Christianity. On the other hand, historical and literary material may become
more myth-like over time; for example, the Matter of Britain and the Matter of France; based on historical
events of the 5th and 8th centuries, respectively, were first made into epic poetry and over the following
centuries became more mythical. "Conscious generation" of mythology has been termed mythopoeia by J. R. R.
Tolkien, and also by the notorious Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.
Classification is based on a number of criteria, chiefly recurring themes and objectives, regardless of
cultural, geographical, and chronological origins. An individual myth may meet the criteria of more than
one of the following categories:
 Ritual myths: explain the performance of certain religious practices or patterns and are associated
with temples or centers of worship.
  Origin myths: describe the beginnings of a custom, name, or object.
 Cult myths: are often seen as explanations for elaborate festivals that magnify the power of the deity.
 Prestige myths: are usually associated with a divinely chosen hero, city, or people.
 Chthonic myths involve death and rebirth motifs, typically characterized by a journey to and return from
the underworld.
 Eschatological myths are stories which describe catastrophic ends to the present world order of the
writers. These extend beyond any potential historical scope, and thus can only be described
in mythic terms. Apocalyptic literature such as the New Testament Book of Revelation is an example of a
set of eschatological myths.
 Social myths reinforce or defend current social values or practices.
 Creation myths describe how a culture believes the universe was created.
Trickster myths are concerned with the pranks or tricks played by gods or heroes.
Formation of myths
What forces create myths? Robert Graves said of Greek myth:
"True myth may be defined as the reduction to narrative shorthand of ritual mime performed on public festivals,
and in many cases recorded pictorially."
Graves, who was deeply influenced by Sir James George Frazer's mythography The Golden Bough, agreed that
myths are generated by many cultural needs.
Myths authorize the cultural institutions of a tribe, a city, or a nation by connecting them with universal truths.
Myths justify the current occupation of a territory by a particular people, for instance.
All cultures have developed their own myths consisting of narratives of their history, their religions, and their
heroes. The great power of the symbolic meaning of these stories for the culture is a major reason why they
survive as long as they do, sometimes for thousands of years. François-Bernard Mâche distinguishes between
"myth, in the sense of this primary psychic image, with some kind of mytho-logy, or a system of words trying
with varying success to ensure a certain coherence between these images.
A collection of myths is called a mythos (e.g., the Roman mythology). A collection of mythos is
a mythoi (e.g., the Greek and Roman mythoi).
Joseph Campbell is one of the more notable recent authors to write about myths and the history of spirituality.
His book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1948) outlines the basic ideas upon which he continued to elaborate
until his death in 1987. These ideas, popularized in a series of books and videos, are considered to be
inspirational rather than scholarly, and are more widely-accepted among the general public than in academic
circles.
Religion and mythology
Mythology figures prominently in most religions, and most mythologies are related to at least one religion. Note
that here myth, refers to a spiritual, psychological or symbolical notion of truth unrelated to materialist or
objectivist notions. While there are many adherents of Abrahamic religions who regard the symbols and events
surrounding the origin and development of their faith's mythical tradition as literal history, there are other
followers who instead regard them as figurative representations of their beliefs. Most of the new age religions,
such as Neopaganism, have no objection to characterizing their religious texts as mythical.
The word mythology is used to refer to stories that, while they may not be strictly factual, reveal fundamental
truths and insights about human nature, often through the use of archetypes. These stories also express the
viewpoints and beliefs of the country, time period, culture, and/or religion in which they originated. Thus, it is
possible to describe the mythic elements within various faiths as "mythology" (e.g., " Hindu mythology";
" Yoruba mythology"; " Islamic mythology") without addressing the issue of the truth of the faith's fundamental
beliefs or claims about its history.

Myths as depictions of historical events

Although the status of a story as myth does not depend on it being based on historical events; myths which
surround a historical nucleus gradually become filled with symbolic meaning, and can be transformed, shifted
in time or place, or even reversed.
One way to conceptualize this process is to view myths as lying at the far end of a continuum ranging from
an impartial report at one extreme, through legendary occurrence, and reaching mythical status at the other
extreme. As an event progresses towards the mythical, facts become less important while the thoughts, feelings,
and interpretations of the people take on progressively greater historical significance. By the time the story
reaches the mythical end of the spectrum, it has taken on a life of its own and the facts of the original event have
become nearly irrelevant. One example of this process is the Trojan War, a topic firmly within the scope
of Greek mythology, though the extent of its historical basis in the Trojan cycle is disputed.
This method of interpreting myths as accounts of actual events, euhemerist exegesis, dates from antiquity and
can be traced back to Evhémère's Histoire sacrée (300 B.C.E.) which describes the inhabitants of the island of
Panchaia ("Everything-Good") in the Indian Ocean as normal people deified by popular naïveté. As Roland
Barthes affirms, "Myth is a word chosen by history. It could not come from the nature of things."
This process occurs in part because events become detached from their original context and new context is
substituted, often through analogy with current or recent events. Some Greek myths originated in Classical
times to provide explanations for inexplicable features of local cult practices, to account for the local epithet of
one of the Olympian gods, to interpret depictions of half-remembered figures and events, to account for the
deities' attributes or entheogens, or even to make sense of ancient icons. Some myths are invented in an attempt
to explain a harbinger's instructions, the origins of which have become obscured with the passage of time.
Conversely, descriptions of recent events are reemphasised in order to seem analogous with tradition. This
technique has been used by some religious conservatives in America to reinterpret prophecies in the Bible,
particularly those of the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. It was also used during the Russian
Communist era in propaganda about political situations to create misleading references to class struggles.
Until World War II, the fitness of the Emperor of Japan was linked to his mythical descent from the Shinto sun
goddess, Amaterasu.
Mâche argues that euhemerist exegesis, "was applied to capture and seize by force of reason qualities of
thought, which eluded it on every side." This process, he argues, often leads to interpretation of myths as
"disguised propaganda in the service of powerful individuals," and that the purpose of myths in this view is to
allow the "social order" to establish "its permanence on the illusion of a natural order." He argues against this
interpretation: "[W]hat puts an end to this caricature of certain speeches from May 1968 is, among other things,
precisely the fact that roles are not distributed once and for all in myths, as would be the case if they were a
variant of the idea of an 'opium of the people.'“

Against Barthes, Mâche argues that,

 "[M]yth therefore seems to choose history, rather than be chosen by it." "[B]eyond words and stories,
myth seems more like a psychic content from which words, gestures, and musics radiate. History only chooses
for it more or less becoming clothes. And these contents surge forth all the more vigorously from the nature of
things when reason tries to repress them. Whatever the roles and commentaries with which such and such a
socio-historic movement decks out the mythic image, the latter lives a largely autonomous life which
continually fascinates humanity. To denounce archaism only makes sense as a function of a 'progressive'
ideology, which itself begins to show a certain archaism and an obvious naivety."
Modern mythology
Film and book series like Star Wars and Tarzan may have strong mythological aspects that sometimes develop
into deep and intricate philosophical systems. These items, though not mythology, contain mythic themes that
meet similar psychological needs for certain people. One example of a fictional mythological system is that
developed by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. In addition, fans will sometimes
incorrectly use the term mythology to refer to a complex fictional world such as that of the Star Trek series.
Fiction, however, does not reach the level of actual mythology until people believe that it really happened. For
example, some people believe that fiction author Clive Barker's movie Candyman was based upon a true story,
and new stories have grown up around the figure. The same can be said for the Blair Witch and other such
stories. Many generated contemporary myths have achieved the status of urban legend.
The word is also used to refer to common, rarely-questioned contemporary value systems, especially when seen
as ideological or socially constructed (e.g., "the mythology of love"). In the 1950s, French structuralist
thinker Roland Barthes published a series of semiotic analyses of such modern myths and the process of their
creation, collected in his book Mythologies.