Mythology

A myth is a story about the remote past which is considered true within the society in which it is told.^[1] Creation myths take place long ago, during the first existing period of time: the primordial age.^[2]

Legend refers to the collected myths of a group of people—their body of stories which they tell to explain nature, history, and customs.^[3] It can also refer to the study of such myths.^[4][5]

Myths are often associated with religion or spirituality and can be very important to those who believe in them.^[6]

Characteristics

Mythological characters are normally non-human; they can be gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures.^[7] Some myths are used to explain how a particular reality came into existence, how a society works, and why it is structured the way it is.^[2]

Thor, the Norse god of thunder, battles the Jötnar in this 1872 painting by Mårten Eskil Winge.

Myths are different from folktales and legends. The definitions of these are not agreed upon, but myths are generally understood to be true, about the remote past, and containing non-human characters.^[7] In contrast, legends usually feature human characters and folktales are understood as fiction.^[7]

The word myth is often used to mean false. For this reason, some religious people object to their beliefs being called myths and some scholars choose to avoid it in favour of other terms.^[8] Other scholars choose to call all religious stories myths in order to avoid treating one religion as more important or true than another.^[9]

Content of myths

All cultures have developed their own mythology over time. Mythology includes the legends of their history, their religions, their heroes, and their stories of how the world was created. These stories have a great symbolic power, and this may be a major reason why they survive as long as they do, sometimes for thousands of years.

The main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods, or supernatural humans,^[10][11][12] while legends generally feature humans as their main characters.^[10] Many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid.^[4]

Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests, and they can be closely linked to religion or spirituality.^[10] In fact, many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths to be true accounts of their remote past.^{[10][11][13][14]}

Often, myths explain how a society's customs, institutions and taboos were established and sanctified. Folktales are different: the people who tell them know they're fiction.^[10][13][14] As stories spread to other cultures or as faiths change, however, myths can come to be considered folktales.^[10][15] Sometimes myths and legends get merged. Their divine characters get recast as humans or as demihumans (such as giants, elves, and faeries).^[11]

Creation myths

See the main article: Creation myth

Creation myths take place in some early primordial age when the world had not reached its present form.^[13][16]

Creation myths describe the "official" belief as to how world was created. These myths differ greatly between societies, as any collection of myths clearly shows.^[17] Over the last three centuries, the power of myths over the minds of people has been challenged by the growth of science.^[18]

Historians' views on myths

Many historians^[who?] think myths are about actual events that have become connected with strong symbolic meaning.

One way of thinking about this process is to imagine 'myths' as lying at the far end of an imaginary line. At one end of the line is 'dispassionate [unemotional] account', and 'legendary occurrence' or 'mythical status' is near the other end.

As an event progresses toward the 'mythical' end of this line or continuum, the way people think, feel and talk about the event changes. It may gain greater historical significance while the 'facts' become less important. By the time one arrives at the mythical end of the line, the story has "taken on a life of its own" and the facts of the original event have become almost unimportant.

Related pages

• Mythology (book)
• Social psychology