Mythology

For other uses, see Mythology (disambiguation).
Old Norse stories (1900)

Mythology can refer to the collected myths of a group of people—their collection of stories they tell to explain nature, history, and customs[1]—or to the study of such myths.[2]

As a collection of explanatory stories, mythology is a vital feature of every culture. Many sources for myths have been proposed, ranging from personification of nature or personification of natural phenomena, to truthful or hyperbolic accounts of historical events to explanations of existing rituals. Although the term is complicated by its implicit condescension, mythologizing is not just an ancient or primitive practice, as shown by contemporary mythopoeia such as urban legends and the expansive fictional mythoi created by fantasy novels and comics. A culture's collective mythology helps convey belonging, shared and religious experiences, behavioral models, and moral and practical lessons.

The study of myth dates back to ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by Euhemerus, Plato, and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists and later revived by Renaissance mythographers. The nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as a primitive and failed counterpart of science (E. B. Tylor), a "disease of language" (Max Müller), or a misinterpretation of magical ritual (James Frazer).

Recent approaches have rejected conflict between the value of myth and rational thought, often viewing myths as expressions to understand general psychological, cultural, or societal truths, rather than as inaccurate historical accounts.

Etymology

The term mythology predates the word myth by centuries.[3] It first appeared in the fifteenth-century,[6] borrowed from the Middle French term mythologie. The word mythology, ("exposition of myths"), comes from Middle French mythologie, from Late Latin mythologia, from Greek μυθολογία mythologia ("legendary lore, a telling of mythic legends; a legend, story, tale") from μῦθος mythos ("myth") and -λογία -logia ("study").[8][9] Both terms translated the subject of Latin author Fulgentius' fifth-century Mythologiæ, which was concerned with the explication of Greek and Roman stories about their gods, commonly referred to as classical mythology. Although Fulgentius' conflation with the contemporary African Saint Fulgentius is now questioned,[10] the Mythologiæ explicitly treated its subject matter as allegories requiring interpretation and not as true events.[11] (The word mythología [μυθολογία] appears in Plato, but was used as a general term for "fiction" or "story-telling" of any kind,[9] combining mỹthos [μῦθος, "narrative, fiction"] and -logía [-λογία, "discourse, able to speak about"].[12]) From Lydgate until the seventeenth or eighteenth-century, mythology was similarly used to mean a moral, fable, allegory, or a parable.[9] From its earliest use in reference to a collection of traditional stories or beliefs,[13] mythology implied the falsehood of the stories being described. Although, with its remaining association with sacred tales of the Greeks and Romans, it came to be applied by analogy with similar bodies of traditional stories among other polytheistic cultures around the world.[9] The Greek loanword mythos[15] (pl. mythoi) and Latinate mythus[17] (pl. mythi) both appeared in English before the first attestation of myth in 1830.[19]

Terminology

See also: Legend and Folklore
Ballads of bravery (1877) part of Arthurian 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.[2] For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures. However, landscape mythology describes the study of landscape used across various peoples with ties to totemism. Alan Dundes defined myth as a sacred narrative, which explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present for.,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 societ.y;[22] Bruce Lincoln defined myth as "ideology in narrative form."[23] Many scholars in other fields use the term myth in somewhat different ways;[24][25][26] in a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story,[27] popular misconception, or imaginary entity.[28] Due to this pejorative sense, some scholars opt to return to the earlier term mythos.[22] Its use was similarly pejorative and now more commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a "plot point" or to a collective mythology,[29] as in the world building of H.P. Lovecraft.

Mythology is now often sharply distinguished from didactic literature such as fables, but its relationship with other traditional stories, such as legends and folktales, is much more nebulous.[30][31] Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods, or supernatural humans,[34][35][36] while legends generally feature humans as their main characters.[34] However, many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid.[37] Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and are closely linked to religion or spirituality.[34] In fact, many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths to be true accounts of their remote past.[34][35][38][39] Creation myths particularly, take place in a primordial age when the world had not yet achieved its current form.[34][40][41] Other myths explain how a society's customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified.[34][41] A separate space is created for folktales,[42][43] which are not considered true by the people who tell them.[34] As stories spread to other cultures or as faiths change, myths can come to be considered folktales,[33][44] sometimes even to the point of being reinterpreted as one. Its divine characters are recast as either as humans or demihumans such as giants, elves, and faeries.[35]

Origins

Palmyrenian relief Louvre

Euhemerism

Main article: Euhemerism
See also: Herodotus

One theory claims myths are distorted accounts of real historical events.[45][46] According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborate upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gain the status of gods.[45][46] For example, one might argue that the myth of the wind-god Aeolus evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret the winds.[45] Herodotus (fifth-century BC) and Prodicus also made claims of this kind.[46] This theory is named euhemerism after mythologist Euhemerus (c.320 BC), who suggested that Greek gods developed from legends about human beings.[46][47]

Allegory

Some theories propose that myths began as allegories. According to one such theory, myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun, Poseidon represents water, and so on.[46] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite represents desire, and so on.[46] The nineteenth-century Sanskritist Max Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature, but 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.[48]

Personification

Some thinkers believe myths resulted from the personification of inanimate objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshiped natural phenomena, such as fire and air, gradually coming to describe them as gods.[49] For example, according to the theory of mythopoeic thought, the ancients tended to view things as persons, not as mere objects;[50] thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, giving rise to myths.[51]

Myth-ritual theory

See also: Myth and ritual

According to the myth-ritual theory, the existence of myth is tied to ritual.[52] In its most extreme form, this theory claims myths arose to explain rituals.[53] This claim was first put forward by the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith.[54] According to Smith, people begin performing rituals for a reason that is not related to myth. Forgetting the original reason for a ritual, they try to account for it by inventing a myth and claiming the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth.[55] James Frazer, an anthropologist, has a similar theory. He believes primitive humans start out with a belief in magical laws. Later, when they begin to lose faith in magic, they invent myths about gods, claiming that their formerly considered magical rituals are actually religious rituals intended to appease the gods.[56]

Functions of myth

Holy Grail digital art part of Christian mythology.

Mircea Eliade, a historian, argued that one of the foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior[57][58] and that myths may also provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present, returning to the mythical age, thereby bringing themselves closer to the divine.[38][58][59]

Lauri Honko asserte that, in some cases, a society will reenact a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the mythical age. For example, it will reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present.[60] Similarly, Roland 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.[61]

Joseph Campbell writes:

"In the long view of the history of mankind, four essential functions of mythology can be discerned. The first and most distinctive – vitalizing all – is that of eliciting and supporting a sense of awe before the mystery of being." [62] "The second function of mythology is to render a cosmology, an image of the universe that will support and be supported by this sense of awe before the mystery of the presence and the presence of a mystery." [63] "A third function of mythology is to support the current social order, to integrate the individual organically with his group;"[64] "The fourth function of mythology is to initiate the individual into the order of realities of his own psyche, guiding him toward his own spiritual enrichment and realization."[65]

In a later work Campbell explains the relationship of myth to civilization:

The rise and fall of civilisations in the long, broad course of history can be seen largely to be a function of the integrity and cogency of their supporting canons of myth; for not authority but aspiration is the motivator, builder, and transformer of civilisation. A mythological canon is an organisation of symbols, ineffable in import, by which the energies of aspiration are evoked and gathered toward a focus.[66]

Yet the history of civilisation is not one of harmony.

There are two pathologies. One is interpreting myth as pseudo-science, as though it had to do with directing nature instead of putting oneself in accord with nature, and the other is the political interpretation of myths to the advantage of one group within a society, or one society within a group of nations.[67]

Campbell gives his answer to the question, "what is the function of myth today?" in the second episode of Bill Moyers's The Power of Myth series.

Study of mythology

Myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria (1916).

Historically, the important approaches to the study of mythology have been those of Vico, Schelling, Schiller, Jung, Freud, Lévy-Bruhl, Lévi-Strauss, Frye, the Soviet school, and the Myth and Ritual School.[68]

Pre-modern theories

The critical interpretation of myth goes back as far as the Presocratics.[69] Euhemerus was one of the most important pre-modern mythologists. He interpreted myths as accounts of actual historical events - distorted over many retellings. Sallustius,[70] divided myths into five categories – theological, physical (or concerning natural laws), animistic (or concerning soul), material, and mixed. Mixed concerns myths which show the interaction between two or more of the previous categories and are particularly used in initiations.

To those who are trying to change content of the myth according to probability would find criticism in Plato's Phaedrus (229d), in which Socrates says that it is the province of one who is "vehemently curious and laborious, and not entirely happy . . ."

Plato famously condemned poetic myth, when discussing the education of the young, in the Republic, primarily on the grounds there was a danger the young and uneducated might take the stories of gods and heroes literally. Nevertheless, he constantly referred to myths of all kinds throughout his writings. As Platonism developed in the phases commonly called Middle Platonism and neoplatonism, such writers as Plutarch, Porphyry, Proclus, Olympiodorus, and Damascius wrote explicitly about the symbolic interpretation of traditional and Orphic myths.[71] Interest in polytheistic mythology revived during the Renaissance, with early works on mythography appearing in the sixteenth-century, such as the Theologia mythologica (1532). While myths are not the same as fables, legends, folktales, fairy tales, anecdotes, or fiction, the concepts may overlap. Notably, during the nineteenth century period of Romanticism, folktales and fairy tales were perceived as eroded fragments of earlier mythology (famously by the Brothers Grimm and Elias Lönnrot). Mythological themes are often consciously employed in literature, beginning with Homer. The resulting work may expressly refer to a mythological background without itself being 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-interpretation of pagan mythology following Christianization).

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) and the Matter of France, based on historical events of the fifth and eighth-centuries respectively, were first made into epic poetry and became partly mythological over the following centuries. "Conscious generation" of mythology has been termed mythopoeia by J. R. R. Tolkien, and was notoriously also suggested, very separately, by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.

Nineteenth-century theories

The first scholarly theories of myth appeared during the second half of the nineteenth-century.[69] In general, these nineteenth-century theories framed myth as a failed or obsolete mode of thought, often by interpreting myth as the primitive counterpart of modern science.[72]

For example, E. B. Tylor interpreted myth as an attempt at a literal explanation for natural phenomena. Unable to conceive impersonal natural laws, early humans tried to explain natural phenomena by attributing souls to inanimate objects, giving rise to animism.[73] According to Tylor, human thought evolves through various stages, starting with mythological ideas and gradually progressing to scientific ideas. Not all scholars, not even all nineteenth-century scholars, have agreed with his view. For example, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed "the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind, and not a stage in its historical development."[74]

Max Müller called 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.[75]

James Frazer saw myths as a misinterpretation of magical rituals, which were themselves based on a mistaken idea of natural law.[76] 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."[56]

Robert Segal asserts that by pitting mythical thought against modern scientific thought, such theories imply modern humans must abandon myth.[77]

Twentieth-century theories

Prometheus (1868) by Gustave Moreau. In the mythos of Hesiodus and possibly Aeschylus (the Greek trilogy Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus Pyrphoros), Prometheus is bound and tortured for giving fire to humanity.

Many twentieth-century theories of myth rejected the nineteenth-century theories' opposition of myth and science. In general, "twentieth-century theories have tended to see myth as almost anything but an outdated counterpart to science […]. Consequently, modern individuals are not obliged to abandon myth for science."[77]

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung 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 from different cultures reveals the existence of these universal archetypes.[78]

Joseph Campbell believed there were two different orders of mythology: myths that "are metaphorical of spiritual potentiality in the human being," and myths "that have to do with specific societies."[79] His major work is The Masks of God I-IV. In the first volume, Primitive Mythology, he clearly outlines his intention:

Without straining beyond the treasuries of evidence already on hand in these widely scattered departments of our subject, therefore, but simply gathering from them the membra disjuncta of a unitary mythological science, I attempt in the following pages the first sketch of a natural history of the gods and heroes, such as in its final form should include in its purview all divine beings—as zoology includes all animals and botany all plants—not regarding any as sacrosanct or beyond its scientific domain. For, as in the visible world of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, so also in the visionary world of the gods: there has been a history, an evolution, a series of mutations, governed by laws; and to show forth such laws is the proper aim of science.[80]

In his fourth volume Campbell coined the phrase, creative mythology, which he explains as:

In the context of traditional mythology, the symbols are presented in socially maintained rites, through which the individual is required to experience, or will pretend to have experienced, certain insights, sentiments and commitments. In what I'm calling creative mythology, on the other hand, this order is reversed: the individual has had an experience of his own – of order, horror, beauty, or even mere exhilaration-which he seeks to communicate through signs; and if his realization has been of a certain depth and import, his communication will have the force and value of living myth-for those, that is to say, who receive and respond to it of themselves, with recognition, uncoerced.[81]

Claude Lévi-Strauss believed 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.[82]

In his appendix to Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, and in The Myth of the Eternal Return, Mircea Eliade attributed modern humans’ anxieties to their rejection of myths and the sense of the sacred.

In the 1950s, Roland Barthes published a series of essays examining modern myths and the process of their creation in his book Mythologies.

Following the Structuralist Era (roughly the 1960s to 1980s), the predominant anthropological and sociological approaches to myth increasingly treat 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 is connected to power, political structures, and political and economic interests. These approaches are very much in contrast to approaches such as those of Campbell and Eliade that hold that myth has some type of essential connection to ultimate sacred meanings that transcend cultural specifics. In particular, there is a long-standing exploration of myth in relation to history from diverse social sciences. Most of these studies share the assumption that there is no necessary difference between history and myth in the sense that history is factual, real, accurate, and truth, while myth is the opposite. Myth, like ideology, is a word used to disparage the histories (or ways of understanding) of other sociopolitical groups.

Comparative mythology

Main article: Comparative mythology

Comparative mythology is the systematic comparison of myths from different cultures.[83] It seeks to discover underlying themes that are common to the myths of multiple cultures.[83] In some cases, comparative mythologists use the similarities between different mythologies to argue that those mythologies have a common source. This common source may be a common source of inspiration (e.g. a certain natural phenomenon that inspired similar myths in different cultures) or a common "protomythology" that diverged into the various mythologies we see today.[83]

Nineteenth-century interpretations of myth were often highly comparative, seeking a common origin for all myths.[84] However, modern-day scholars tend to be more suspicious of comparative approaches, avoiding overly general or universal statements about mythology.[85] One exception to this modern trend is Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), which claims that all hero myths follow the same underlying pattern. This theory of a monomyth is out of favor with the mainstream study of mythology.[85]

Modern mythology

1929 Belgian banknote, depicting Ceres, Neptune and caduceus.

In modern society, myth is often regarded as historical or obsolete. Many scholars in the field of cultural studies are now beginning to research the idea that myth has worked itself into modern discourses. Modern formats of communication allow for widespread communication across the globe, thus enabling mythological discourse and exchange among greater audiences than ever before. Various elements of myth can now be found in television, cinema, and video games.

Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral tradition on a small scale, the technology of the film industry has enabled filmmakers to transmit myths to large audiences via film dissemination.[86] In the psychology of Carl Jung, myths are the expression of a culture or society’s goals, fears, ambitions, and dreams.[87] Film is ultimately an expression of the society in which it was credited, and reflects the norms and ideals of the time and location in which it is created. In this sense, film is simply the evolution of myth. The technological aspect of film changes the way myth is distributed, but the core idea of the myth is the same.

The basis of modern storytelling in both cinema and television lies deeply rooted in the mythological tradition. Many contemporary and technologically advanced movies often rely on ancient myths to construct narratives. The Disney Corporation is well-known among cultural study scholars for "reinventing" traditional childhood myths.[88] While many films are not as obvious as Disney fairy tales in respect to the employment of myth, the plots of many films are largely based on the rough structure of the myth. 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 movies, fantasy, dramas, and apocalyptic tales. Although the range of narratives, as well as the medium in which it is being told, is constantly increasing, it is clear myth continues to be a pervasive and essential component of the collective imagination.[89]

Recent films such as Clash of the Titans, Immortals, and Thor continue the trend of mining traditional mythology in order to create a plot for modern consumption.

With the invention of modern myths such as urban legends, the mythological tradition will carry on to the increasing variety of mediums available in the twenty-first-century and beyond. The crucial idea is that myth is not simply a collection of stories permanently fixed to a particular time and place in history, but an ongoing social practice within every society. Nowadays, many 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, as well as his Kane Chronicles with the Egyptian pantheon.

See also

Fu Xi and Nüwa represented as half-snake, half-human creatures
General
Mythological archetypes
Myth and religion
Lists

Notes

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "myth, n. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2003.
  2. 1 2 Kirk, p. 8; "myth", Encyclopedia Britannica
  3. ↑ Johnson's Dictionary, for example, has entries for mythology,[4] mythologist, mythologize, mythological, and mythologically but none for myth.[5]
  4. ↑ 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. W. Strahan (London), 1755.
  5. ↑ Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language, p. 1345. W. Strahan (London), 1755. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
  6. ↑ "...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..."[7]
  7. ↑ Lydgate, John. Troyyes Book, Vol. II, ll. 2487. (Middle English) Reprinted in Henry Bergen's Lydgate's Troy Book, Vol. I, p. 216. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co. (London), 1906. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
  8. ↑ "mythology". Online Etymology Dictionary
  9. 1 2 3 4 Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "mythology, n." 2003. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
  10. ↑ Hays, Gregory. "The date and identity of the mythographer Fulgentius" in Journal of Medieval Latin, Vol. 13, pp. 163 ff. 2003.
  11. ↑ Whitbread, Leslie George, tr. Fulgentius the Mythographer. Ohio State University Press (Columbus), 1971.
  12. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "-logy, comb. form". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1903.
  13. ↑ 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.[14]
  14. ↑ Browne, Thomas. Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenets and Commonly Presumed Truths, Vol. I, Ch. VIII. Edward Dod (London), 1646. Reprinted 1672.
  15. ↑ "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..."[16]
  16. ↑ 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. J. & R. Tonson & S. Draper (London), 1753. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
  17. ↑ "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 birth of the νοῦς or reason in man."[18]
  18. ↑ 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 Henry N. Coleridge's The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Vol. II., p. 335. Wm. Pickering (London), 1836. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
  19. ↑ "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.[20] These two stories are very 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.[21]
  20. ↑ Abrahamus Ecchellensis [Abraham of Hekel]. Historia Arabum [History of the Arabs] in Chronicon Orientale [The Oriental Chronicle], p. 175. Typographia Regia (Paris), 1651. (Latin) Translated in paraphrase in Thomas Blackwell's "Letter Seventeenth" in Letters concerning Mythology, p. 269. (London), 1748.
  21. ↑ Anonymous review of Edward Upham's "The History and Doctrine of Buddhism, Popularly Illustrated; with Notices of the Kapooism, or Demon Worship, and of the Bali, or Planetary Incantations of Ceylon." R. Ackermann (London), 1829. In the Westminster Review, No. XXIII, Art. III, p. 44. Rob't Heward (London), 1829. Accessed 20 Aug 2014.
  22. 1 2 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.
  23. ↑ 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): 242–259. doi:10.1017/s0010417506000107. JSTOR 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 earth, the lion the king of beasts, the cooked more pleasing than the raw.
  24. ↑ Dundes, "Madness", p. 147
  25. ↑ Doty, pp. 11–12
  26. ↑ Segal, p. 5
  27. ↑ Kirk, "Defining", p. 57; Kirk, Myth, p. 74; Simpson, p. 3
  28. ↑ "myth". Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1993. p. 770.
  29. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "mythos, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2003.
  30. ↑ Bascom, p. 7
  31. ↑ Note, however, that myth, legend, and folktale are only a few of the categories of traditional stories, which can also include anecdotes and some kinds of jokes.[32] Traditional stories, in turn, are only one category within folklore, which can be understood to include other acts and objects such as gestures, costumes, or music.[33]
  32. ↑ Bascom, p. 10
  33. 1 2 Doty, p. 114
  34. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bascom, p. 9
  35. 1 2 3 "myths", A Dictionary of English Folklore
  36. ↑ O'Flaherty, p.78: "I think it can be well argued as a matter of principle that, just as 'biography is about chaps', so mythology is about gods."
  37. ↑ Kirk, Myth, pp. 22, 32; Kirk, "Defining", p. 55
  38. 1 2 Eliade, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries p. 23
  39. ↑ Pettazzoni, p. 102
  40. ↑ Dundes, Introduction, p. 1
  41. 1 2 Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 6
  42. ↑ Bascom, p. 17
  43. ↑ Eliade, Myth and Reality, pp. 10–11; Pettazzoni, pp. 99–101
  44. ↑ Bascom, p. 13
  45. 1 2 3 Bulfinch, p. 194
  46. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Honko, p. 45
  47. ↑ "Euhemerism", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
  48. ↑ Segal, p. 20
  49. ↑ Bulfinch, p. 195
  50. ↑ Frankfort, p. 4
  51. ↑ Frankfort, p. 15
  52. ↑ Segal, p. 61
  53. ↑ Graf, p. 40
  54. ↑ Meletinsky pp. 19–20
  55. ↑ Segal, p. 63
  56. 1 2 Frazer, p. 711
  57. ↑ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 8
  58. 1 2 Honko, p. 51
  59. ↑ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 19
  60. ↑ Honko, p. 49
  61. ↑ Roland Barthes, Mythologies
  62. ↑ Campbell, Joseph (1991). Occidental Mythology. Arkana. p. 519. ISBN 0-14-019441-X.
  63. ↑ Campbell, Occidental Mythology p519
  64. ↑ Campbell, Occidental Mythology p520
  65. ↑ Campbell, Occidental Mythology p521
  66. ↑ Joseph Campbell, Creative Mythology p5
  67. ↑ Boa, Fraser (1994). The way of myth : talking with Joseph Campbell (1st Shambhala ed.). Boston: Shambhala. p. 152. ISBN 1-57062-042-3.
  68. ↑ Guy Lanoue, Foreword to Meletinsky, p.viii
  69. 1 2 Segal, p. 1
  70. ↑ On the Gods and the World, ch. 5, See Collected Writings on the Gods and the World, The Prometheus Trust, Frome, 1995
  71. ↑ 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.
  72. ↑ Segal, pp. 3–4
  73. ↑ Segal, p. 4
  74. ↑ Mâche (1992). Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion. p. 8.
  75. ↑ Segal, p.20
  76. ↑ Segal, pp. 67–68
  77. 1 2 Segal, p. 3
  78. ↑ Boeree
  79. ↑ Campbell, p. 22
  80. ↑ Campbell, Joseph (1991). Primitive Mythology. Arkana. p. 4. ISBN 0-14-019443-6.
  81. ↑ Campbell, Joseph (1991). Creative Mythology. Arkana. p. 4. ISBN 0-14-019440-1.
  82. ↑ Segal, p. 113
  83. 1 2 3 Littleton, p. 32
  84. ↑ Leonard
  85. 1 2 Northup, p. 8
  86. ↑ Singer, Irving (2008). Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film. MIT Press. pp. 3–6.
  87. ↑ Indick, William (November 18, 2004). "Classical Heroes in Modern Movies: Mythological Patterns of the Superhero". Journal of Media Psychology.
  88. ↑ Koven, Michael (2003). Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: A Necessary Critical Survey. University of Illinois Press. pp. 176–195.
  89. ↑ Corner, John (1999). Critical Ideas in Television Studies. Calredon Press. pp. 47–59.

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