- Key People:
- John William Waterhouse
myth
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What is a myth?
A myth is a symbolic, traditional narrative of unknown origin that relates actual events, often associated with religious beliefs. Myths recount extraordinary events involving gods or superhuman beings in a time set apart from ordinary human experience. These narratives present themselves as authoritative and factual, without needing justification, even when at odds with natural law. The word myth comes from the Greek mythos, encompassing meanings from "word" and "story" to "fiction". Myths reflect and explore a people’s self-image and are central to studying individual societies and human culture.
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How are myths different from legends or fairy tales?
Myths, legends, and fairy tales are all traditional narratives, but they differ in key ways. Myths often explain the worldview of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. They deal with gods, goddesses, and heroes in serious ways, and are often connected with rituals.
Legends are traditional stories believed to have a historical basis, like the legends of King Arthur or Robin Hood. They may contain supernatural elements, but are often set in a historical setting with key facts that give the story believability.
Fairy tales, unlike myths, are stories for children about a young person who confronts strange or magical events. They tend to be set in a vague time and place, and often begin with "Once upon a time".
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Where did ancient myths come from?
Myths are present in every society and appear to be a basic part of human culture. Because there is such a wide variety of myths, it is hard to make generalizations about them. Myths reflect, express, and explore a people’s self-image in both general and specific ways.
Myths often explain the origin of the world, human beings, or societal institutions. They can also justify rituals, customs, and social structures. Many myths are known today because they became part of a written tradition. These myths explore heroic values and provide models for human existence.
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What are some common themes found in myths?
Myths are symbolic narratives fundamental to human culture, reflecting a society's self-image and values. Creation myths explain the world's origin and humanity's place in it, setting cultural norms. Myths often explore the origins of human institutions and natural phenomena. Recurring themes include journeys to the land of the dead, recognition by tokens, and victory against impossible odds.
Myths frequently contain symbols and symbolic actions, sometimes making it difficult to distinguish between a myth and a collection of symbols in story form. They can be etiological, explaining origins, but also serve as models for cultural expression and identity. Myths may be invoked in magic, with good triumphing over evil. Myths often imply a cyclical view of time and renewal, seen in themes of rebirth, reincarnation, and seasonal cycles.
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How did myths help explain natural events to early people?
Myths helped early people understand the world by explaining natural or cultural phenomena through stories. For example, an Abenaki Indian myth explains the origin of corn by narrating how a lonely man met a woman who instructed him to drag her over burned ground, from which corn appeared. This narrative form made the explanation memorable and credible, which was especially important in traditional education. Myths also validated rituals and cultic customs, such as the Ceram myth, where the killing of Hainuwele led to the creation of tubers, which then validated the associated cultic celebration. These myths often reflect a society's way of life, such as agricultural practices or hunting customs.
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How do myths influence literature and culture today?
Myths are fundamental to human culture, reflecting a society's self-image and values. They persist in contemporary literature and culture by exploring self-expression and embodying modern confidence in moral values.
Myths offer a model for human behavior, providing guidance on war, peace, life, death, truth, falsehood, good, and evil. They evolve into modern narratives featuring phantom hitchhikers and quests with dragons. Even in modern society, myths address profound needs, borrowing from submerged traditions, influencing architecture and arts, and shaping political movements and ideologies. They persist as a means of healing, renewing artistic expression, and exploring heroic values.
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myth, a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief. It is distinguished from symbolic behavior (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples, icons). Myths are specific accounts of gods or superhuman beings involved in extraordinary events or circumstances in a time that is unspecified but which is understood as existing apart from ordinary human experience. The term mythology denotes both the study of myth and the body of myths belonging to a particular religious tradition.
As with all religious symbolism, there is no attempt to justify mythic narratives or even to render them plausible. Every myth presents itself as an authoritative, factual account, no matter how much the narrated events are at variance with natural law or ordinary experience. By extension from this primary religious meaning, the word myth may also be used more loosely to refer to an ideological belief when that belief is the object of a quasi-religious faith; an example would be the Marxist eschatological myth of the withering away of the state.
While the outline of myths from a past period or from a society other than one’s own can usually be seen quite clearly, to recognize the myths that are dominant in one’s own time and society is always difficult. This is hardly surprising, because a myth has its authority not by proving itself but by presenting itself. In this sense the authority of a myth indeed “goes without saying,” and the myth can be outlined in detail only when its authority is no longer unquestioned but has been rejected or overcome in some manner by another, more comprehensive myth.
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The word myth derives from the Greek mythos, which has a range of meanings from “word,” through “saying” and “story,” to “fiction”; the unquestioned validity of mythos can be contrasted with logos, the word whose validity or truth can be argued and demonstrated. Because myths narrate fantastic events with no attempt at proof, it is sometimes assumed that they are simply stories with no factual basis, and the word has become a synonym for falsehood or, at best, misconception. In the study of religion, however, it is important to distinguish between myths and stories that are merely untrue.
The first part of this article discusses the nature, study, functions, cultural impact, and types of myth, taking into account the various approaches to the subject offered by modern branches of knowledge. In the second part, the specialized topic of the role of animals and plants in myth is examined in some detail. The mythologies of specific cultures are covered in the articles Greek religion, Roman religion, and Germanic religion.
The nature, functions, and types of myth
Myth has existed in every society. Indeed, it would seem to be a basic constituent of human culture. Because the variety is so great, it is difficult to generalize about the nature of myths. But it is clear that in their general characteristics and in their details a people’s myths reflect, express, and explore the people’s self-image. The study of myth is thus of central importance in the study both of individual societies and of human culture as a whole.