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Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since «myth» is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrative as a myth can be highly controversial. Many adherents of religions view their own religions’ stories as truth and so object to their characterization as myth, the way they see the stories of other religions. As such, some scholars label all religious narratives «myths» for practical reasons, such as to avoid depreciating any one tradition because cultures interpret each other differently relative to one another.^[1] Other scholars avoid using the term «myth» altogether and instead use different terms like «sacred history», «holy story», or simply «history» to avoid placing pejorative overtones on any sacred narrative.^[2]

Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to religion or spirituality.^[3] Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be true accounts of their remote past.^[3][4][5][6] In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form.^[3][7][8][9] Other myths explain how a society’s customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified.^[3][8] There is a complex relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals.

The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures.^{[10][4][11][12]} Others include humans, animals, or combinations in their classification of myth.^[13] Stories of everyday humans, although often of leaders of some type, are usually contained in legends, as opposed to myths.^[10][12] Myths are sometimes distinguished from legends in that myths deal with gods, usually have no historical basis, and are set in a world of the remote past, very different from that of the present.^[12][14]

Definitions

Myth

Definitions of «myth» vary to some extent among scholars, though Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko offers a widely-cited definition:

Myth, a story of the gods, a religious account of the beginning of the world, the creation, fundamental events, the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of which the world, nature and culture were created together with all parts thereof and given their order, which still obtains. A myth expresses and confirms society’s religious values and norms, it provides a pattern of behavior to be imitated, testifies to the efficacy of ritual with its practical ends and establishes the sanctity of cult.^[2]

Another definition of myth comes from myth criticism theorist and professor José Manuel Losada. According to Cultural Myth Criticism, the studies of myth must explain and understand “myth from inside”, that is, only “as a myth”. Losada defines myth as “a functional, symbolic and thematic narrative of one or several extraordinary events with a transcendent, sacred and supernatural referent; that lacks, in principle, historical testimony; and that refers to an individual or collective, but always absolute, cosmogony or eschatology”.^[15][16]

Scholars in other fields use the term «myth» in varied ways.^[17][18][19] In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story,^[20][21][22] popular misconception or imaginary entity.^[23]

Though myth and other folklore genres may overlap, myth is often thought to differ from genres such as legend and folktale in that neither are considered to be sacred narratives.^[24][25] Some kinds of folktales, such as fairy stories, are not considered true by anyone, and may be seen as distinct from myths for this reason.^[26][27][28] Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans,^[3][29][30] while legends generally feature humans as their main characters.^[3][31] Many exceptions and combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid.^[32][33] Moreover, as stories spread between cultures or as faiths change, myths can come to be considered folktales, their divine characters recast as either as humans or demihumans such as giants, elves and faeries.^[29][34][35] 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)^[36] and the Matter of France, seem distantly to originate in historical events of the 5th and 8th-centuries respectively, and became mythologised over the following centuries.

In colloquial use, «myth» can also be used of a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact, or any false story.^[37] This usage, which is often pejorative,^[38] arose from labelling the religious myths and beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well.^[39]

As commonly used by folklorists and academics in other relevant fields, such as anthropology, «myth» has no implication whether the narrative may be understood as true or otherwise.^[40] Among biblical scholars of both the Old and New Testament, the word «myth» has a technical meaning, in that it usually refers to «describe the actions of the other‐worldly in terms of this world» such as the Creation and the Fall.^[41]

Mythology

In present use, «mythology» usually refers to the collection of myths of a group of people.^[42] For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Celtic mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures.^[43]

«Mythology» can also refer to the study of myths and mythologies.

Mythography

The compilation or description of myths is sometimes known as «mythography», a term also used for a scholarly anthology of myths or of the study of myths generally.^[44]

Key mythographers in the Classical tradition include:^[45]

• Ovid (43 BCE–17/18 CE), whose tellings of myths have been profoundly influential;
• Fabius Planciades Fulgentius, a Latin writer of the late-5th to early-6th centuries, whose Mythologies (Latin: Mitologiarum libri III) gathered and gave moralistic interpretations of a wide range of myths;
• the anonymous medieval Vatican Mythographers, who developed anthologies of Classical myths that remained influential to the end of the Middle Ages; and
• Renaissance scholar Natalis Comes, whose ten-book Mythologiae became a standard source for classical mythology in later Renaissance Europe.

Other prominent mythographies include the thirteenth-century Prose Edda attributed to the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, which is the main surviving survey of Norse Mythology from the Middle Ages.

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at the Colorado State University^[46]) has termed India’s Bhats as mythographers.^[47]

Myth Criticism

Myth criticism is a system of anthropological interpretation of culture created by French philosopher Gilbert Durand. Scholars have used myth criticism to explain the mythical roots of contemporary fiction, which means that modern myth criticism needs to be interdisciplinary.

José Manuel Losada offers his own methodologic, hermeneutic and epistemological approach to myth. While assuming mythopoetical perspectives, Losada’s Cultural Myth Criticism takes a step further, incorporating the study of the transcendent dimension (its function, its disappearance) to evaluate the role of myth as a mirror of contemporary culture.

Cultural Myth Criticism

Cultural myth criticism, without abandoning the analysis of the symbolic, invades all cultural manifestations and delves into the difficulties in understanding myth today. This cultural myth criticism studies mythical manifestations in fields as wide as literature, film and television, theater, sculpture, painting, video games, music, dancing, the Internet and other artistic fields.

Myth criticism, a discipline that studies myths (mythology contains them, like a pantheon its statues), is by nature interdisciplinary: it combines the contributions of literary theory, the history of literature, the fine arts and the new ways of dissemination in the age of communication. Likewise, it undertakes its object of study from its interrelation with other human and social sciences, in particular sociology, anthropology and economics. The need for an approach, for a methodology that allows us to understand the complexity of the myth and its manifestations in contemporary times, is justified.^[48]

Mythos

Because «myth» is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, some scholars have opted for «mythos» instead.^[43] «Mythos» now more commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a «plot point» or to a body of interconnected myths or stories, especially those belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.^[49] It is sometimes used specifically for modern, fictional mythologies, such as the world building of H. P. Lovecraft.

Mythopoeia

Mythopoeia (mytho- + -poeia, ‘I make myth’) was termed by J. R. R. Tolkien, amongst others, to refer to the «conscious generation» of mythology.^[50][51] It was notoriously also suggested, separately, by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.

Etymology

The word «myth» comes from Ancient Greek μῦθος (mȳthos),^[52] meaning ‘speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot’. In Anglicised form, this Greek word began to be used in English (and was likewise adapted into other European languages) in the early 19th century, in a much narrower sense, as a scholarly term for «[a] traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.»^[37][49]

In turn, Ancient Greek μυθολογία (mythología, ‘story’, ‘lore’, ‘legends’, or ‘the telling of stories’) combines the word mȳthos with the suffix —λογία (-logia, ‘study’) in order to mean ‘romance, fiction, story-telling.’^[53] Accordingly, Plato used mythología as a general term for ‘fiction’ or ‘story-telling’ of any kind.

The Greek term mythología was then borrowed into Late Latin, occurring in the title of Latin author Fulgentius’ 5th-century Mythologiæ to denote what we now call classical mythology—i.e., Greco-Roman etiological stories involving their gods. Fulgentius’ Mythologiæ explicitly treated its subject matter as allegories requiring interpretation and not as true events.^[54]

The Latin term was then adopted in Middle French as mythologie. Whether from French or Latin usage, English adopted the word «mythology» in the 15th century, initially meaning ‘the exposition of a myth or myths,’ ‘the interpretation of fables,’ or ‘a book of such expositions’. The word is first attested in John Lydgate’s Troy Book (c. 1425).^[55][57][58]

From Lydgate until the 17th or 18th century, «mythology» meant a moral, fable, allegory or a parable, or collection of traditional stories,^[55][60] understood to be false. It came eventually to be applied to similar bodies of traditional stories among other polytheistic cultures around the world.^[55]

Thus «mythology» entered the English language before «myth». Johnson’s Dictionary, for example, has an entry for mythology, but not for myth.^[63] Indeed, the Greek loanword mythos^[65] (pl. mythoi) and Latinate mythus^[67] (pl. mythi) both appeared in English before the first example of «myth» in 1830.^[70]

Interpretations

Comparative mythology

Comparative mythology is a systematic comparison of myths from different cultures. It seeks to discover underlying themes that are common to the myths of multiple cultures. In some cases, comparative mythologists use the similarities between separate mythologies to argue that those mythologies have a common source. This source may inspire myths or provide a common «protomythology» that diverged into the mythologies of each culture.^[71]

Functionalism

A number of commentators have argued that myths function to form and shape society and social behaviour. Eliade argued that one of the foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior^[72][73] and that myths may provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present, returning to the mythical age, thereby coming closer to the divine.^[5][73][74]

Honko asserted that, in some cases, a society reenacts a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the mythical age. For example, it might reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present.^[2] Similarly, 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.^[75]

Pattanaik defines mythology as «the subjective truth of people communicated through stories, symbols and rituals.»^[76] He says, «Facts are everybody’s truth. Fiction is nobody’s truth. Myths are somebody’s truth.»^[77]

Euhemerism

One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of historical events.^[78][79] According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborate upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gain the status of gods.^[78][79] For example, the myth of the wind-god Aeolus may have evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret the winds.^[78] Herodotus (fifth-century BCE) and Prodicus made claims of this kind.^[79] This theory is named euhemerism after mythologist Euhemerus (c. 320 BCE), who suggested that Greek gods developed from legends about humans.^[79][80]

Allegory

Some theories propose that myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun, Poseidon represents water, and so on.^[79] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite romantic desire, and so on.^[79] Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature and 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.^[81]

Personification

Some thinkers claimed that myths result from the personification of objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshiped natural phenomena, such as fire and air, gradually deifying them.^[82] For example, according to this theory, ancients tended to view things as gods, not as mere objects.^[83] Thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, giving rise to myths.^[84]

Ritualism

According to the myth-ritual theory, myth is tied to ritual.^[85] In its most extreme form, this theory claims myths arose to explain rituals.^[86] This claim was first put forward by Smith,^[87] who argued that people begin performing rituals for reasons not related to myth. Forgetting the original reason for a ritual, they account for it by inventing a myth and claiming the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth.^[88] James George Frazer — author of «The Golden Bough», a book on the comparative study of mythology and religion — argued that humans started out with a belief in magical rituals; later, they began to lose faith in magic and invented myths about gods, reinterpreting their rituals as religious rituals intended to appease the gods.^[89]

Academic discipline history

Historically, important approaches to the study of mythology have included those of Vico, Schelling, Schiller, Jung, Freud, Lévy-Bruhl, Lévi-Strauss, Frye, the Soviet school, and the Myth and Ritual School.^[90]

Ancient Greece

The critical interpretation of myth began with the Presocratics.^[91] Euhemerus was one of the most important pre-modern mythologists. He interpreted myths as accounts of actual historical events, though distorted over many retellings.

Sallustius divided myths into five categories:^[92]

• theological;
• physical (or concerning natural law);
• animistic (or concerning soul);
• material; and
• mixed, which concerns myths that show the interaction between two or more of the previous categories and are particularly used in initiations.

Plato condemned poetic myth when discussing education in the Republic. His critique was primarily on the grounds that the uneducated might take the stories of gods and heroes literally. Nevertheless, he constantly referred to myths throughout his writings. As Platonism developed in the phases commonly called Middle Platonism and neoplatonism, writers such as Plutarch, Porphyry, Proclus, Olympiodorus, and Damascius wrote explicitly about the symbolic interpretation of traditional and Orphic myths.^[93]

Mythological themes were consciously employed in literature, beginning with Homer. The resulting work may expressly refer to a mythological background without itself becoming 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).

European Renaissance

Interest in polytheistic mythology revived during the Renaissance, with early works of mythography appearing in the sixteenth century, among them the Theologia Mythologica (1532).

19th century

The first modern, Western scholarly theories of myth appeared during the second half of the 19th century^[91]—at the same time as «myth» was adopted as a scholarly term in European languages.^[37][49] They were driven partly by a new interest in Europe’s ancient past and vernacular culture, associated with Romantic Nationalism and epitomised by the research of Jacob Grimm (1785–1863). This movement drew European scholars’ attention not only to Classical myths, but also material now associated with Norse mythology, Finnish mythology, and so forth. Western theories were also partly driven by Europeans’ efforts to comprehend and control the cultures, stories and religions they were encountering through colonialism. These encounters included both extremely old texts such as the Sanskrit Rigveda and the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, and current oral narratives such as mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas or stories told in traditional African religions.^[96]

The intellectual context for nineteenth-century scholars was profoundly shaped by emerging ideas about evolution. These ideas included the recognition that many Eurasian languages—and therefore, conceivably, stories—were all descended from a lost common ancestor (the Indo-European language) which could rationally be reconstructed through the comparison of its descendant languages. They also included the idea that cultures might evolve in ways comparable to species.^[96] In general, 19th-century theories framed myth as a failed or obsolete mode of thought, often by interpreting myth as the primitive counterpart of modern science within a unilineal framework that imagined that human cultures are travelling, at different speeds, along a linear path of cultural development.^[97]

Nature

One of the dominant mythological theories of the latter 19th century was nature mythology, the foremost exponents of which included Max Müller and Edward Burnett Tylor. This theory posited that «primitive man» was primarily concerned with the natural world. It tended to interpret myths that seemed distasteful to European Victorians—such as tales about sex, incest, or cannibalism—as metaphors for natural phenomena like agricultural fertility.^[98] Unable to conceive impersonal natural laws, early humans tried to explain natural phenomena by attributing souls to inanimate objects, thus giving rise to animism.

According to Tylor, human thought evolved through stages, starting with mythological ideas and gradually progressing to scientific ideas.^[99] Müller also saw myth as originating from language, even calling 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 or divine.^[81] Not all scholars, not even all 19th-century scholars, accepted this view. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that «the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind and not a stage in its historical development.»^[100] Recent scholarship, noting the fundamental lack of evidence for «nature mythology» interpretations among people who actually circulated myths, has likewise abandoned the key ideas of «nature mythology.»^[101][98]

Ritual

Frazer saw myths as a misinterpretation of magical rituals, which were themselves based on a mistaken idea of natural law. This idea was central to the «myth and ritual» school of thought.^[102] 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.»^[89] Segal asserted that by pitting mythical thought against modern scientific thought, such theories imply modern humans must abandon myth.^[103]

20th century

The earlier 20th century saw major work developing psychoanalytical approaches to interpreting myth, led by Sigmund Freud, who, drawing inspiration from Classical myth, began developing the concept of the Oedipus complex in his 1899 The Interpretation of Dreams. Jung likewise 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 of different cultures reveals the existence of these universal archetypes.^[104]

The mid-20th century saw the influential development of a structuralist theory of mythology, led by Lévi-Strauss. Strauss argued that 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.^[105] Meanwhile, Bronislaw Malinowski developed analyses of myths focusing on their social functions in the real world. He is associated with the idea that myths such as origin stories might provide a «mythic charter»—a legitimisation—for cultural norms and social institutions.^[106] Thus, following the Structuralist Era (c. 1960s–1980s), the predominant anthropological and sociological approaches to myth increasingly treated 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 are connected to power, political structures, and political and economic interests.^{[citation needed]}

These approaches contrast with approaches, such as those of Joseph Campbell and Eliade, which hold that myth has some type of essential connection to ultimate sacred meanings that transcend cultural specifics. In particular, myth was studied in relation to history from diverse social sciences. Most of these studies share the assumption that history and myth are not distinct in the sense that history is factual, real, accurate, and truth, while myth is the opposite.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1950s, Barthes published a series of essays examining modern myths and the process of their creation in his book Mythologies, which stood as an early work in the emerging post-structuralist approach to mythology, which recognised myths’ existence in the modern world and in popular culture.^[75]

The 20th century saw rapid secularisation in Western culture. This made Western scholars more willing to analyse narratives in the Abrahamic religions as myths; theologians such as Rudolf Bultmann argued that a modern Christianity needed to demythologize;^[107] and other religious scholars embraced the idea that the mythical status of Abrahamic narratives was a legitimate feature of their importance.^[103] This, in his appendix to Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, and in The Myth of the Eternal Return, Eliade attributed modern humans’ anxieties to their rejection of myths and the sense of the sacred.^{[citation needed]}

The Christian theologian Conrad Hyers wrote:^[108]

[M]yth today has come to have negative connotations which are the complete opposite of its meaning in a religious context… In a religious context, myths are storied vehicles of supreme truth, the most basic and important truths of all. By them, people regulate and interpret their lives and find worth and purpose in their existence. Myths put one in touch with sacred realities, the fundamental sources of being, power, and truth. They are seen not only as being the opposite of error but also as being clearly distinguishable from stories told for entertainment and from the workaday, domestic, practical language of a people. They provide answers to the mysteries of being and becoming, mysteries which, as mysteries, are hidden, yet mysteries which are revealed through story and ritual. Myths deal not only with truth but with ultimate truth.

21st century

Both in 19th-century research, which tended to see existing records of stories and folklore as imperfect fragments of partially lost myths, and in 20th-century structuralist work, which sought to identify underlying patterns and structures in often diverse versions of a given myth, there had been a tendency to synthesise sources to attempt to reconstruct what scholars supposed to be more perfect or underlying forms of myths. From the late 20th century, researchers influenced by postmodernism tended instead to argue that each account of a given myth has its own cultural significance and meaning, and argued that rather than representing degradation from a once more perfect form, myths are inherently plastic and variable.^[109] There is, consequently, no such thing as the ‘original version’ or ‘original form’ of a myth. One prominent example of this movement was A. K. Ramanujan’s essay «Three Hundred Ramayanas».^[110][111]

Correspondingly, scholars challenged the precedence that had once been given to texts as a medium for mythology, arguing that other media, such as the visual arts or even landscape and place-naming, could be as or more important.^[112]

Modernity

Scholars in the field of cultural studies research how myth has worked itself into modern discourses. Mythological discourse can reach greater audiences than ever before via digital media. Various mythic elements appear in popular culture, as well as television, cinema and video games.^[113]

Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral tradition on a small scale, the film industry has enabled filmmakers to transmit myths to large audiences via film.^[114] In Jungian psychology myths are the expression of a culture or society’s goals, fears, ambitions and dreams.^[115]

The basis of modern visual storytelling is rooted in the mythological tradition. Many contemporary films rely on ancient myths to construct narratives. The Walt Disney Company is well-known among cultural study scholars for «reinventing» traditional childhood myths.^[116] While many films are not as obvious as Disney fairy tales, the plots of many films are based on the rough structure of myths. 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 films, fantasy, dramas and apocalyptic tales.^[117]

21st-century films such as Clash of the Titans, Immortals and Thor continue the trend of using traditional mythology to frame modern plots. 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.^[118]

See also

• List of mythologies
• List of mythological objects
• List of mythology books and sources
• Magic and mythology
• Mythopoeia, artificially constructed mythology, mainly for the purpose of storytelling

Notes

Sources

External links

Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since «myth» is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrative as a myth can be highly controversial. Many adherents of religions view their own religions’ stories as truth and so object to their characterization as myth, the way they see the stories of other religions. As such, some scholars label all religious narratives «myths» for practical reasons, such as to avoid depreciating any one tradition because cultures interpret each other differently relative to one another.^[1] Other scholars avoid using the term «myth» altogether and instead use different terms like «sacred history», «holy story», or simply «history» to avoid placing pejorative overtones on any sacred narrative.^[2]

Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to religion or spirituality.^[3] Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be true accounts of their remote past.^[3][4][5][6] In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form.^[3][7][8][9] Other myths explain how a society’s customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified.^[3][8] There is a complex relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals.

The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures.^{[10][4][11][12]} Others include humans, animals, or combinations in their classification of myth.^[13] Stories of everyday humans, although often of leaders of some type, are usually contained in legends, as opposed to myths.^[10][12] Myths are sometimes distinguished from legends in that myths deal with gods, usually have no historical basis, and are set in a world of the remote past, very different from that of the present.^[12][14]

Definitions

Myth

Definitions of «myth» vary to some extent among scholars, though Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko offers a widely-cited definition:

Myth, a story of the gods, a religious account of the beginning of the world, the creation, fundamental events, the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of which the world, nature and culture were created together with all parts thereof and given their order, which still obtains. A myth expresses and confirms society’s religious values and norms, it provides a pattern of behavior to be imitated, testifies to the efficacy of ritual with its practical ends and establishes the sanctity of cult.^[2]

Another definition of myth comes from myth criticism theorist and professor José Manuel Losada. According to Cultural Myth Criticism, the studies of myth must explain and understand “myth from inside”, that is, only “as a myth”. Losada defines myth as “a functional, symbolic and thematic narrative of one or several extraordinary events with a transcendent, sacred and supernatural referent; that lacks, in principle, historical testimony; and that refers to an individual or collective, but always absolute, cosmogony or eschatology”.^[15][16]

Scholars in other fields use the term «myth» in varied ways.^[17][18][19] In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story,^[20][21][22] popular misconception or imaginary entity.^[23]

Though myth and other folklore genres may overlap, myth is often thought to differ from genres such as legend and folktale in that neither are considered to be sacred narratives.^[24][25] Some kinds of folktales, such as fairy stories, are not considered true by anyone, and may be seen as distinct from myths for this reason.^[26][27][28] Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans,^[3][29][30] while legends generally feature humans as their main characters.^[3][31] Many exceptions and combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid.^[32][33] Moreover, as stories spread between cultures or as faiths change, myths can come to be considered folktales, their divine characters recast as either as humans or demihumans such as giants, elves and faeries.^[29][34][35] 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)^[36] and the Matter of France, seem distantly to originate in historical events of the 5th and 8th-centuries respectively, and became mythologised over the following centuries.

In colloquial use, «myth» can also be used of a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact, or any false story.^[37] This usage, which is often pejorative,^[38] arose from labelling the religious myths and beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well.^[39]

As commonly used by folklorists and academics in other relevant fields, such as anthropology, «myth» has no implication whether the narrative may be understood as true or otherwise.^[40] Among biblical scholars of both the Old and New Testament, the word «myth» has a technical meaning, in that it usually refers to «describe the actions of the other‐worldly in terms of this world» such as the Creation and the Fall.^[41]

Mythology

In present use, «mythology» usually refers to the collection of myths of a group of people.^[42] For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Celtic mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures.^[43]

«Mythology» can also refer to the study of myths and mythologies.

Mythography

The compilation or description of myths is sometimes known as «mythography», a term also used for a scholarly anthology of myths or of the study of myths generally.^[44]

Key mythographers in the Classical tradition include:^[45]

• Ovid (43 BCE–17/18 CE), whose tellings of myths have been profoundly influential;
• Fabius Planciades Fulgentius, a Latin writer of the late-5th to early-6th centuries, whose Mythologies (Latin: Mitologiarum libri III) gathered and gave moralistic interpretations of a wide range of myths;
• the anonymous medieval Vatican Mythographers, who developed anthologies of Classical myths that remained influential to the end of the Middle Ages; and
• Renaissance scholar Natalis Comes, whose ten-book Mythologiae became a standard source for classical mythology in later Renaissance Europe.

Other prominent mythographies include the thirteenth-century Prose Edda attributed to the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, which is the main surviving survey of Norse Mythology from the Middle Ages.

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at the Colorado State University^[46]) has termed India’s Bhats as mythographers.^[47]

Myth Criticism

Myth criticism is a system of anthropological interpretation of culture created by French philosopher Gilbert Durand. Scholars have used myth criticism to explain the mythical roots of contemporary fiction, which means that modern myth criticism needs to be interdisciplinary.

José Manuel Losada offers his own methodologic, hermeneutic and epistemological approach to myth. While assuming mythopoetical perspectives, Losada’s Cultural Myth Criticism takes a step further, incorporating the study of the transcendent dimension (its function, its disappearance) to evaluate the role of myth as a mirror of contemporary culture.

Cultural Myth Criticism

Cultural myth criticism, without abandoning the analysis of the symbolic, invades all cultural manifestations and delves into the difficulties in understanding myth today. This cultural myth criticism studies mythical manifestations in fields as wide as literature, film and television, theater, sculpture, painting, video games, music, dancing, the Internet and other artistic fields.

Myth criticism, a discipline that studies myths (mythology contains them, like a pantheon its statues), is by nature interdisciplinary: it combines the contributions of literary theory, the history of literature, the fine arts and the new ways of dissemination in the age of communication. Likewise, it undertakes its object of study from its interrelation with other human and social sciences, in particular sociology, anthropology and economics. The need for an approach, for a methodology that allows us to understand the complexity of the myth and its manifestations in contemporary times, is justified.^[48]

Mythos

Because «myth» is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, some scholars have opted for «mythos» instead.^[43] «Mythos» now more commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a «plot point» or to a body of interconnected myths or stories, especially those belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.^[49] It is sometimes used specifically for modern, fictional mythologies, such as the world building of H. P. Lovecraft.

Mythopoeia

Mythopoeia (mytho- + -poeia, ‘I make myth’) was termed by J. R. R. Tolkien, amongst others, to refer to the «conscious generation» of mythology.^[50][51] It was notoriously also suggested, separately, by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.

Etymology

The word «myth» comes from Ancient Greek μῦθος (mȳthos),^[52] meaning ‘speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot’. In Anglicised form, this Greek word began to be used in English (and was likewise adapted into other European languages) in the early 19th century, in a much narrower sense, as a scholarly term for «[a] traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.»^[37][49]

In turn, Ancient Greek μυθολογία (mythología, ‘story’, ‘lore’, ‘legends’, or ‘the telling of stories’) combines the word mȳthos with the suffix —λογία (-logia, ‘study’) in order to mean ‘romance, fiction, story-telling.’^[53] Accordingly, Plato used mythología as a general term for ‘fiction’ or ‘story-telling’ of any kind.

The Greek term mythología was then borrowed into Late Latin, occurring in the title of Latin author Fulgentius’ 5th-century Mythologiæ to denote what we now call classical mythology—i.e., Greco-Roman etiological stories involving their gods. Fulgentius’ Mythologiæ explicitly treated its subject matter as allegories requiring interpretation and not as true events.^[54]

The Latin term was then adopted in Middle French as mythologie. Whether from French or Latin usage, English adopted the word «mythology» in the 15th century, initially meaning ‘the exposition of a myth or myths,’ ‘the interpretation of fables,’ or ‘a book of such expositions’. The word is first attested in John Lydgate’s Troy Book (c. 1425).^[55][57][58]

From Lydgate until the 17th or 18th century, «mythology» meant a moral, fable, allegory or a parable, or collection of traditional stories,^[55][60] understood to be false. It came eventually to be applied to similar bodies of traditional stories among other polytheistic cultures around the world.^[55]

Thus «mythology» entered the English language before «myth». Johnson’s Dictionary, for example, has an entry for mythology, but not for myth.^[63] Indeed, the Greek loanword mythos^[65] (pl. mythoi) and Latinate mythus^[67] (pl. mythi) both appeared in English before the first example of «myth» in 1830.^[70]

Interpretations

Comparative mythology

Comparative mythology is a systematic comparison of myths from different cultures. It seeks to discover underlying themes that are common to the myths of multiple cultures. In some cases, comparative mythologists use the similarities between separate mythologies to argue that those mythologies have a common source. This source may inspire myths or provide a common «protomythology» that diverged into the mythologies of each culture.^[71]

Functionalism

A number of commentators have argued that myths function to form and shape society and social behaviour. Eliade argued that one of the foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior^[72][73] and that myths may provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present, returning to the mythical age, thereby coming closer to the divine.^[5][73][74]

Honko asserted that, in some cases, a society reenacts a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the mythical age. For example, it might reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present.^[2] Similarly, 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.^[75]

Pattanaik defines mythology as «the subjective truth of people communicated through stories, symbols and rituals.»^[76] He says, «Facts are everybody’s truth. Fiction is nobody’s truth. Myths are somebody’s truth.»^[77]

Euhemerism

One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of historical events.^[78][79] According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborate upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gain the status of gods.^[78][79] For example, the myth of the wind-god Aeolus may have evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret the winds.^[78] Herodotus (fifth-century BCE) and Prodicus made claims of this kind.^[79] This theory is named euhemerism after mythologist Euhemerus (c. 320 BCE), who suggested that Greek gods developed from legends about humans.^[79][80]

Allegory

Some theories propose that myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun, Poseidon represents water, and so on.^[79] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite romantic desire, and so on.^[79] Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature and 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.^[81]

Personification

Some thinkers claimed that myths result from the personification of objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshiped natural phenomena, such as fire and air, gradually deifying them.^[82] For example, according to this theory, ancients tended to view things as gods, not as mere objects.^[83] Thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, giving rise to myths.^[84]

Ritualism

According to the myth-ritual theory, myth is tied to ritual.^[85] In its most extreme form, this theory claims myths arose to explain rituals.^[86] This claim was first put forward by Smith,^[87] who argued that people begin performing rituals for reasons not related to myth. Forgetting the original reason for a ritual, they account for it by inventing a myth and claiming the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth.^[88] James George Frazer — author of «The Golden Bough», a book on the comparative study of mythology and religion — argued that humans started out with a belief in magical rituals; later, they began to lose faith in magic and invented myths about gods, reinterpreting their rituals as religious rituals intended to appease the gods.^[89]

Academic discipline history

Historically, important approaches to the study of mythology have included those of Vico, Schelling, Schiller, Jung, Freud, Lévy-Bruhl, Lévi-Strauss, Frye, the Soviet school, and the Myth and Ritual School.^[90]

Ancient Greece

The critical interpretation of myth began with the Presocratics.^[91] Euhemerus was one of the most important pre-modern mythologists. He interpreted myths as accounts of actual historical events, though distorted over many retellings.

Sallustius divided myths into five categories:^[92]

• theological;
• physical (or concerning natural law);
• animistic (or concerning soul);
• material; and
• mixed, which concerns myths that show the interaction between two or more of the previous categories and are particularly used in initiations.

Plato condemned poetic myth when discussing education in the Republic. His critique was primarily on the grounds that the uneducated might take the stories of gods and heroes literally. Nevertheless, he constantly referred to myths throughout his writings. As Platonism developed in the phases commonly called Middle Platonism and neoplatonism, writers such as Plutarch, Porphyry, Proclus, Olympiodorus, and Damascius wrote explicitly about the symbolic interpretation of traditional and Orphic myths.^[93]

Mythological themes were consciously employed in literature, beginning with Homer. The resulting work may expressly refer to a mythological background without itself becoming 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).

European Renaissance

Interest in polytheistic mythology revived during the Renaissance, with early works of mythography appearing in the sixteenth century, among them the Theologia Mythologica (1532).

19th century

The first modern, Western scholarly theories of myth appeared during the second half of the 19th century^[91]—at the same time as «myth» was adopted as a scholarly term in European languages.^[37][49] They were driven partly by a new interest in Europe’s ancient past and vernacular culture, associated with Romantic Nationalism and epitomised by the research of Jacob Grimm (1785–1863). This movement drew European scholars’ attention not only to Classical myths, but also material now associated with Norse mythology, Finnish mythology, and so forth. Western theories were also partly driven by Europeans’ efforts to comprehend and control the cultures, stories and religions they were encountering through colonialism. These encounters included both extremely old texts such as the Sanskrit Rigveda and the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, and current oral narratives such as mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas or stories told in traditional African religions.^[96]

The intellectual context for nineteenth-century scholars was profoundly shaped by emerging ideas about evolution. These ideas included the recognition that many Eurasian languages—and therefore, conceivably, stories—were all descended from a lost common ancestor (the Indo-European language) which could rationally be reconstructed through the comparison of its descendant languages. They also included the idea that cultures might evolve in ways comparable to species.^[96] In general, 19th-century theories framed myth as a failed or obsolete mode of thought, often by interpreting myth as the primitive counterpart of modern science within a unilineal framework that imagined that human cultures are travelling, at different speeds, along a linear path of cultural development.^[97]

Nature

One of the dominant mythological theories of the latter 19th century was nature mythology, the foremost exponents of which included Max Müller and Edward Burnett Tylor. This theory posited that «primitive man» was primarily concerned with the natural world. It tended to interpret myths that seemed distasteful to European Victorians—such as tales about sex, incest, or cannibalism—as metaphors for natural phenomena like agricultural fertility.^[98] Unable to conceive impersonal natural laws, early humans tried to explain natural phenomena by attributing souls to inanimate objects, thus giving rise to animism.

According to Tylor, human thought evolved through stages, starting with mythological ideas and gradually progressing to scientific ideas.^[99] Müller also saw myth as originating from language, even calling 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 or divine.^[81] Not all scholars, not even all 19th-century scholars, accepted this view. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that «the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind and not a stage in its historical development.»^[100] Recent scholarship, noting the fundamental lack of evidence for «nature mythology» interpretations among people who actually circulated myths, has likewise abandoned the key ideas of «nature mythology.»^[101][98]

Ritual

Frazer saw myths as a misinterpretation of magical rituals, which were themselves based on a mistaken idea of natural law. This idea was central to the «myth and ritual» school of thought.^[102] 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.»^[89] Segal asserted that by pitting mythical thought against modern scientific thought, such theories imply modern humans must abandon myth.^[103]

20th century

The earlier 20th century saw major work developing psychoanalytical approaches to interpreting myth, led by Sigmund Freud, who, drawing inspiration from Classical myth, began developing the concept of the Oedipus complex in his 1899 The Interpretation of Dreams. Jung likewise 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 of different cultures reveals the existence of these universal archetypes.^[104]

The mid-20th century saw the influential development of a structuralist theory of mythology, led by Lévi-Strauss. Strauss argued that 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.^[105] Meanwhile, Bronislaw Malinowski developed analyses of myths focusing on their social functions in the real world. He is associated with the idea that myths such as origin stories might provide a «mythic charter»—a legitimisation—for cultural norms and social institutions.^[106] Thus, following the Structuralist Era (c. 1960s–1980s), the predominant anthropological and sociological approaches to myth increasingly treated 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 are connected to power, political structures, and political and economic interests.^{[citation needed]}

These approaches contrast with approaches, such as those of Joseph Campbell and Eliade, which hold that myth has some type of essential connection to ultimate sacred meanings that transcend cultural specifics. In particular, myth was studied in relation to history from diverse social sciences. Most of these studies share the assumption that history and myth are not distinct in the sense that history is factual, real, accurate, and truth, while myth is the opposite.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1950s, Barthes published a series of essays examining modern myths and the process of their creation in his book Mythologies, which stood as an early work in the emerging post-structuralist approach to mythology, which recognised myths’ existence in the modern world and in popular culture.^[75]

The 20th century saw rapid secularisation in Western culture. This made Western scholars more willing to analyse narratives in the Abrahamic religions as myths; theologians such as Rudolf Bultmann argued that a modern Christianity needed to demythologize;^[107] and other religious scholars embraced the idea that the mythical status of Abrahamic narratives was a legitimate feature of their importance.^[103] This, in his appendix to Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, and in The Myth of the Eternal Return, Eliade attributed modern humans’ anxieties to their rejection of myths and the sense of the sacred.^{[citation needed]}

The Christian theologian Conrad Hyers wrote:^[108]

[M]yth today has come to have negative connotations which are the complete opposite of its meaning in a religious context… In a religious context, myths are storied vehicles of supreme truth, the most basic and important truths of all. By them, people regulate and interpret their lives and find worth and purpose in their existence. Myths put one in touch with sacred realities, the fundamental sources of being, power, and truth. They are seen not only as being the opposite of error but also as being clearly distinguishable from stories told for entertainment and from the workaday, domestic, practical language of a people. They provide answers to the mysteries of being and becoming, mysteries which, as mysteries, are hidden, yet mysteries which are revealed through story and ritual. Myths deal not only with truth but with ultimate truth.

21st century

Both in 19th-century research, which tended to see existing records of stories and folklore as imperfect fragments of partially lost myths, and in 20th-century structuralist work, which sought to identify underlying patterns and structures in often diverse versions of a given myth, there had been a tendency to synthesise sources to attempt to reconstruct what scholars supposed to be more perfect or underlying forms of myths. From the late 20th century, researchers influenced by postmodernism tended instead to argue that each account of a given myth has its own cultural significance and meaning, and argued that rather than representing degradation from a once more perfect form, myths are inherently plastic and variable.^[109] There is, consequently, no such thing as the ‘original version’ or ‘original form’ of a myth. One prominent example of this movement was A. K. Ramanujan’s essay «Three Hundred Ramayanas».^[110][111]

Correspondingly, scholars challenged the precedence that had once been given to texts as a medium for mythology, arguing that other media, such as the visual arts or even landscape and place-naming, could be as or more important.^[112]

Modernity

Scholars in the field of cultural studies research how myth has worked itself into modern discourses. Mythological discourse can reach greater audiences than ever before via digital media. Various mythic elements appear in popular culture, as well as television, cinema and video games.^[113]

Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral tradition on a small scale, the film industry has enabled filmmakers to transmit myths to large audiences via film.^[114] In Jungian psychology myths are the expression of a culture or society’s goals, fears, ambitions and dreams.^[115]

The basis of modern visual storytelling is rooted in the mythological tradition. Many contemporary films rely on ancient myths to construct narratives. The Walt Disney Company is well-known among cultural study scholars for «reinventing» traditional childhood myths.^[116] While many films are not as obvious as Disney fairy tales, the plots of many films are based on the rough structure of myths. 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 films, fantasy, dramas and apocalyptic tales.^[117]

21st-century films such as Clash of the Titans, Immortals and Thor continue the trend of using traditional mythology to frame modern plots. 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.^[118]

See also

• List of mythologies
• List of mythological objects
• List of mythology books and sources
• Magic and mythology
• Mythopoeia, artificially constructed mythology, mainly for the purpose of storytelling

Notes

Sources

External links

Значение слова «миф»

Миф – это древнее народное сказание о богах, духах, легендарных героях или об явлениях природы (миф о Геракле). Это фольклорный жанр, состоящий из повествований, которые играют фундаментальную роль в обществе. В переносном значении мифом называют выдумку или недостоверный рассказ (миф о пришельцах).

Мифология (от греч. mifos — предание и logos – учение) — изначально это фантастическое объяснение реальности. Сегодня это понятие означает изучение мифов определенной группы. Например, греческая, римская, кельтская и хеттская мифология описывают совокупность мифов, пересказанных в этих культурах.

Характерные особенности

В мифах переплетены ранние элементы религии, философии, науки и искусства. Мифам разных народов присущи сходные и повторяющиеся темы и мотивы.

Наиболее типичны мифы:

• о происхождении мира, Вселенной (космогонические мифы) и человека (антропогонические мифы);
• о происхождении солнца (солярные), луны (лунарные), звезд (астральные);
• мифы о животных;
• календарные мифы и др.

Особое место занимают мифы о происхождении и введении культурных благ (добывание огня, изобретение ремесел, земледелия), а также об установлении определенных социальных институтов, брачных правил, обычаев и обрядов. 

Для мифов характерно наивное очеловечивание всей природы (всеобщая персонификация).

В первобытном обществе мифы — основной способ познания мира, опирающийся на своеобразную логику (нерасчлененность, тождественность субъекта и объекта, предмета и знака, существа и его имени).

Особенность мифологического сознания — установление мнимых связей между различными явлениями. Элементы мифологического мышления сохраняются и в современном массовом сознании (напр., расовые и классовые мифы, культ вождей, ритуалы массовых сборищ и т. п.).

Отличительные особенности мифических сказаний

Мифы возникли из настоятельной потребности людей объяснить происхождения природы, людей, устройство мира, предсказать судьбу человечества. В мифе человек и общество не выделяют себя из окружающей природной стихии. Природа, общество и человек слиты в единое целое, неразрывное, единое.

В мифе нет абстрактных понятий, в нем все — очень конкретно, персонифицировано, одушевлено. Мифологическое сознание мыслит символами: каждый образ, герой, действующее лицо обозначает стоящее за ним явление или понятие. Миф мыслит образами, живет эмоциями, ему чужды доводы рассудка, он объясняет мир, исходя не из знания, а из веры.

Миф как тип мировоззрения имеет ряд отличительных особенностей:

• произвольный сюжет;
• обращение к причинам возникновения бытия;
• зооморфизм (люди и животные уподобляются друг другу, встречаются персонажи полулюди-полузвери);
• нерасчленённость;
• попытка объяснить природные и социальные явления;
• повторяемость образов и сюжетов у разных народов.

На основании этих свойств, мифологи сделали вывод о том, что все древнейшие цивилизации прошли в своём развитии мифологический этап, оставивший нам свидетельства об общем человеческом прошлом.

Основные разновидности мифов

Мифы содержат религиозно окрашенные изображения явлений и процессов природы и мира, воплощенных в человеческих образах. Духовные и природные силы выступают в них как боги и герои, совершающие поступки и переживающие страдания, схожие с человеческими.

Мифы разделяются на:

• теогонические, изображающие рождение и возникновение богов;
• космогонические, где описывается возникновение мира благодаря действиям богов;
• космологические, описывающие построение и развитие мира;
• антропологические, повествующие о сотворении человека, ею сущности и предназначенной им богами судьбе;
• мифы о культурных героях – сказания о происхождении и введении тех или иных культурных благ;
• сатериологические, имеющие своей темой спасение человека;
• эсхатологические, где говорится о конце света, человека и богов.

Миф — явление многозначное, совмещающее в себе два аспекта – взгляд из прошлого или в прошлое (диахронический аспект) и средство объяснения настоящего (синхронический аспект).

Большое внимание в мифах уделяется рождению, смерти, испытаниям. Особое место занимает добыча огня, изобретение ремесел, одомашнивание животных. В мифах объединились зачатки знаний, религиозных верований.

Мифы о культурных героях повествуют о том, как человечество овладевало секретами ремесла, земледелия, оседлой жизни, пользования огнем — иначе говоря, как в его жизнь внедрялись те или иные культурные блага. Самый знаменитый миф подобного рода — древнегреческое сказание о Прометее, двоюродном брате Зевса.

Мифические сюжеты в литературе

С выделением литературы в отдельный вид искусства о мифе стали говорить как о жанре устного народного творчества. Это второй, узкий смысл термина.

Миф в литературе – это художественное произведение, представляющее собой развёрнутое повествование, пересказ или переложение устного образно-поэтического предания, появившегося в том или ином социуме на определённом этапе исторического развития.

Искать следы индийских, австралийских, африканских мифов нужно в народных сказках или эпических поэмах. С мифологией скандинавов нас знакомят такие произведения, как «Старшая» и «Младшая Эдда». Мифология индусов оживает в таких произведениях, как «Рамаяна», «Эпос о Гильгамеше».

Историки древности в документальных свидетельствах сохранили для мира верования шумеров и египтян. Благодаря авторской редакции исследователя античности А. Куна, нам широко известны мифы Древней Греции.

Славянская мифология частично отразилась в русских летописях, памятниках древнерусской литературы, русских, белорусских, украинских, болгарских и других народных сказках, былинах, песнях.

Для современных писателей мифология – это глубочайший источник вдохновения. В основе любого литературного сюжета лежит миф.

Например, сюжет поэмы Гомера «Одиссея», вобравшей себя целый цикл мифологических мотивов античности (о поединке с циклопом, искушении героя, женихах и верной жене и других), в Средние века переродился в жанр плутовского романа и романа-путешествия.

Хитроумный Одиссей, мечтающий вернуться на Итаку, превращается в безымянного бродягу, который к концу повествования оказывается принцем. В ХХ веке американский писатель Джойс создал роман «Улисс» о приключениях нашего современника, весьма далёкого по характеру и обстоятельствам жизни от прославленного героя Древней Греции.

Поскольку мифология осваивает действительность в формах образного повествования, она близка по своему смыслу художественной литературе; исторически она предвосхитила многие возможности литературы и оказала на её раннее развитие всестороннее влияние.

Естественно, что литература не расстаётся с мифологическими основами и позднее, что относится не только к произведениям с мифологическими основами сюжета, но и к реалистическому и натуралистическому бытописательству XIX и XX веков (достаточно назвать «Приключения Оливера Твиста» Чарльза Диккенса, «Нана» Эмиля Золя, «Волшебную гору» Томаса Манна).

Отличие мифа от сказки

Миф и сказка – это произведения устного народного творчества, созданные фантазией народа. В чём же отличие?

Если в мифах передаются общие представления о месте человека в строгой иерархии земных и божественных сил, то мир сказок максимально приближен к обычной жизни. В нем можно найти интересные подробности быта, семейного уклада, обычаев. Сказочные персонажи взяты и перенесены в вымышленный мир из обычной жизни.

Сказка это, прежде всего, интересная история, волшебная или бытовая. А миф – это системообразующий вымысел, который призван объяснить что-то глобальное — создание мира, происхождение народа, основы религии.

И главное, в миф люди верили, а сказка для них всегда оставалась вымыслом. Миф отождествляет мечту с реальностью.

Кто из современников Гомера мог сомневаться в реальности Зевса? Кто из древних индийцев осмелился бы оспаривать существование грозного Шивы? Мир мифа был вне сомнений.

Мифология – источник афоризмов

По всему миру разлетелись крылатые слова и выражения, фразеологизмы, пришедшие в нашу речь из мифологий разных народов.

Ниже приведены примеры фразеологизмов, пришедших к нам через тысячелетия из мифов Древней Греции и Древнего Рима:

• Ахиллесова пята. Ахиллес — один из самых сильных и храбрых героев; морская богиня Фетида, чтобы сделать тело сына неуязвимым, окунула его в священную реку Стикс, держа его за пятку, которой не коснулась вода, поэтому пятка осталась единственно уязвимым местом Ахиллеса, куда он и был смертельно ранен стрелой Париса. Возникшее отсюда выражение «ахиллесова пята» употребляется в значении: слабая сторона, уязвимое место чего-либо.
• Панический страх. Пан бог лесов и полей наводит внезапный и безотчетный ужас на людей, особенно на путников в глухих и уединенных местах, а также на войска, бросающиеся от этого в бегство. Отсюда же возникло слово «паника». Выражение употребляется в значении: безотчетный, внезапный, сильный страх, охватывающий множество людей, вызывающий смятение.
• Сфинксовая загадка. Сфинкс — чудовище с лицом и грудью женщины, туловищем льва и крыльями птицы. Сфинкс подстерегал путников и задавал им загадки; не сумевших разгадать их он убивал. Когда же фиванский царь Эдип разгадал заданные ему загадки, чудовище лишило себя жизни. Отсюда «сфинксовая загадка» — что-либо неразрешимое.
• Дамоклов меч. Дамокл, один из приближенных сиракузского тирана Дионисия Старшего, стал завистливо говорить о нем как о счастливейшем из людей. Дионисий, чтобы проучить завистника, посадил его на свое место. Во время пира Дамокл увидел, что над его головой висит на конском волосе острый меч. Дионисий объяснил, что это — символ тех опасностей, которым он, как властитель, постоянно подвергается, несмотря на кажущуюся счастливой жизнь. Отсюда выражение «дамоклов меч» получило значение нависшей, угрожающей опасности.
• Яблоко раздора. Богиня раздора Эрида покатила между гостями на свадебном пире золотое яблоко с надписью: «Прекраснейшей». В числе гостей были богини Гера, Афина и Афродита, которые заспорили о том, кому из них получить яблоко. В результате произошла Троянская война. Выражение это употребляется в значении: предмет, причина спора, вражды.
• Прометеев огонь. Прометей — один из титанов; он похитил с неба огонь и научил людей пользоваться им, чем подорвал веру в могущество богов. За это разгневанный Зевс повелел Гефесту приковать Прометея к скале; ежедневно прилетавший орел терзал печень прикованного. Возникшее выражение «прометеев огонь» употребляется в значении: священный огонь, горящий в душе человека.
• Колесо Фортуны. Фортуна — богиня слепого случая, счастья и несчастья. Она изображалась с повязкой на глазах, стоящей на шаре или колесе и держащей в одной руке руль, а в другой — рог изобилия. Руль указывал на то, что Фортуна управляет судьбой человека, рог изобилия — на изобилие, которое она может подарить, а колесо подчеркивало ее постоянную изменчивость. Выражение употребляется в значении: случай, слепое счастье.
• Ящик Пандоры. Некогда люди жили, не зная никаких несчастий, болезней и старости, пока Прометей не похитил у богов огонь; за это разгневанный Зевс прислал на землю красивую женщину — Пандору с ларцом, в котором были заперты все человеческие несчастья. Подстрекаемая любопытством, Пандора открыла ларец и рассыпала все несчастья. Выражение, имеющее значение: источник несчастий, великих бедствий.
• Золотой дождь. Зевс, пленившись красотой Данаи, дочери аргосского царя Акрисия, явился к ней в виде золотого дождя, после чего у нее родился сын Персей. Даная, осыпаемая дождем золотых монет, изображена на картинах многих художников эпохи Возрождения (Тициан, Корреджо, Ван-Дейк и др.). Выражение употребляется в значении: большие деньги, без труда добытое богатство.

Такие крылатые выражения как Вавилонская башня; Содом и Гоморра; валаамова ослица; Иерихонская труба – все это из библейской мифологии.

Таким образом, целая эпоха духовной жизни человечества, формирование и расцвет древних цивилизаций была царством мифа, созданного воображением человека. Люди искали ответы на волнующие их философские вопросы. Когда действительность не давала ответа, на помощь приходило воображение. Оно же удовлетворяло и эстетические потребности людей.

Миф соединяет в себе рациональное и иррациональное. Однако эффективное воздействие мифологического проявляется как раз в том, что это, как правило, повторение уже случавшегося ранее.

Источники:

• Литература. 6 класс. В 2 ч. / [В.П. Полухина, В.Я. Коровина, В.П. Журавлев, В.И. Коровин]; под ред. В.Я. Коровиной. – М., 2013.
• Литературная энциклопедия терминов и понятий / Под ред. А. Н. Николюкина. — Институт научной информации по общественным наукам РАН: Интелвак, 2001. — Стб. 435—437. — 1596 с. — ISBN 5–93264-026‑X;
• Мелетинский Е. М. Мифология // Новая философская энциклопедия / Ин‑т философии РАН; Нац. обществ.-науч. фонд; Предс. научно-ред. совета В. С. Стёпин, заместители предс.: А. А. Гусейнов, Г. Ю. Семигин, уч. секр. А. П. Огурцов. — 2‑е изд., испр. и допол. — М.: Мысль, 2010. — ISBN 978–5‑244–01115‑9.
• Словарь литературоведческих терминов / Ред.-сост.: Л. И. Тимофеев и С. В. Тураев. — М.: «Просвещение», 1974. — С. 172. — 509 с.
• Словарь русского языка: В 4‑х т. / РАН, Ин‑т лингвистических исследований; Под ред. А. П. Евгеньевой. — 4‑е изд., стер. — М.: Рус. яз.; Полиграфресурсы, 1999.

Греческая мифология. А.А. Тахо-Годи.

Почему миф называют мифом?

Что такое мифология вообще и греческая мифология в частности — вопрос отнюдь не праздный и не такой самоочевидный, как кажется на первый взгляд. На эту тему написаны горы книг, существует множество теорий, объясняющих и в целом и в деталях разные аспекты происхождения, сущности, развития, значения, влияния, интерпретации мифологии; издаются специальные энциклопедии и мифологические словари на всех языках, ученые собрания мифологических текстов и популярные сборники. Но от этого изобилия сведений не становится легче. И читатель, даже самый искушенный и образованный, зачастую не сомневается в том, что миф и легенда — это одно и то же, что миф ничем не отличается от сказки, что мифология есть не что иное, как религия или фольклор. А уж почему закрепилась с глубокой древности традиция обозначать словом «миф» нечто связанное с богами и героями античности, этого и подавно читатель не знает.

Вопросы встают один за другим.
Но мы, оставив в стороне всю концептуальную пестроту теории мифа (это предмет особой, в данном случае не нашей задачи), спросим себя, а что же действительно означает слово «миф» и почему с древних времен, учитывая определенные цели, укрепилось именно оно.

«Миф» по-гречески означает не что иное, как «слово». Поэтому и древнегреческие мифы можно назвать «словом» о богах и героях.
Но дело в том, что древние греки были очень чуткими к тончайшим оттенкам языка и представление о слове выражалось в их лексике особенным образом.

Греки различали «слово» как «миф» (μυυος — mythos), «слово» как «эпос» (επος — epos) и «слово» как «логос» (λογος — logos).
Миф, эпос и логос имели свои сферы употребления, хотя границы эти, некогда довольно чёткие, с течением времени стали не столь очевидными и доступны объяснению только при специальном анализе. Надо иметь в виду, что каждое из этих трёх слов имело множество оттенков значения (в слове «эпос» их около шестидесяти), среди которых намечался ведущий, основной, тот, который отграничивал данное слово от другого и создавал его неповторимость.

Изучение первичного, устойчивого смысла этих слов с учетом их этимологии приводит к следующим выводам. «Миф», оказывается, выражает обобщенно-смысловую наполненность слова в его целостности. «Эпос» указывает на звуковую оформленность слова, на сам процесс произнесения (ср., например, в дальнейшем «эпос» — жанр героической песни, «слово» о подвигах, как гомеровские поэмы или древнерусское «Слово о полку Игореве»).
«Логоса» предполагал первичную выделенность и дифференциацию элементов, переходящую затем в некую их собранность. Судя по всему, «логос» связан с развитием аналитического мышления и широко употребляется в греческой классике, не находя себе места в архаические времена, где господствовал «миф», выражая первичную нерасчлененность и обобщенную целостность жизненных представлений. У Гомера, например, «логос» совсем не встречается, если не считать только трёх случаев, но зато у философов-стоиков IV-III вв. до н. э., разрабатывавших учение о слове, в равной мере не употребляется «миф», повсеместно уступая место «логосу».

Итак, выясняется, что древняя традиция совсем не случайно именовала «мифом» слово о богах и героях, закрепив за песнями об их подвигах наименование «эпоса» и предоставив «логосу» сферу философии, науки и рассуждающей мысли вообще.

Сопоставление с письменными данными от Геродота до летописей XII века позволяет говорить о мифотворчестве, о зарождении богатырского героического эпоса праславян; сквозь кружево сказочных мотивов проглядывают черты таких славянских богов, как Сварог и Дажьбог. Миф о Свароге датируется самым началом I тысячелетия до н. э. (Рыбаков Б. А. Геродотова Скифия.)

Чернолесскому-скифскому, этапу праславянской жизни могут быть приурочены мифы о Свароге и его сыне Дажьбоге, сохраненные в глоссах летописи начала XII века. (Шахматов А. А. Повесть временных лет. Пг., 1916, с. 350.)

Когда и как рождается миф?

Теперь мы можем сказать — то, что обычно называют мифологией, есть упорядоченное единство существовавших первоначально в дифференцированном виде «слов», обобщающих для древнего человека представление о том мире, в котором он живёт, и о тех силах, которые этим миром управляют.

Нерасчлененно-целостное, а значит, и мыслительно-чувственное обобщение действительности, которое именуется мифологическим, характерно для очень древнего периода социально-исторической жизни, а точнее говоря, локализуется в общинно-родовой, или первобытно-общинной, формации, которая для Греции ограничивалась первой третью I тысячетилетия до н. э., но истоки которой уходили в бездны тысячелетий.

Общинно-родовая формация тоже неоднородна и тоже имеет свою историю, о чем мы будем говорить ниже. Но есть нечто единое, характерное для всех ее периодов. Это жизнь родовыми объединениями, где отсутствуют частная собственность, разделение на бедных и богатых, сословные различия и где сама земля и орудия производства принадлежат всей родовой общине.Общинно-родовая формация является доклассовым обществом, жизнь которого организована на основе стихийно-коллективистских родственных отношений.

Для человека этого времени, для члена такой общины наиболее естественны и доступны отношения родственные, которыми обусловлена вся трудовая жизнь коллектива, а значит, и его существование. И вполне закономерно, что природную жизнь этот древний грек не может представить себе иначе как с помощью все тех же родственных связей, объединяющих предков с родителями и детьми и образующих одну большую родовую общность, мы бы сказали теперь — космическое единство, охватывающее землю, небо, море и подземный мир.

Вполне естественно, что такой древний человек, глядя на окружающую жизнь, видит в ней огромное количество единичных явлений, которые он вполне способен назвать определенным словом. Но, называя отдельный предмет, человек вместе с тем осуществляет мыслительный акт обобщения, а так как мышление находится в единстве с языком, то этот акт осуществляется в слове.

Глядя на огонь, вспыхнувший от удара молнии, на огненные языки костра, на светящиеся в ночи огоньки, на тлеющие угли, на лесной пожар или на пламя в кузнечном горне, древний человек все эти конкретные отдельные феномены огня обозначает одним словом, обобщает их в «мифе», давая имя огненной силе вообще, той силе, что живет огнем, сама им является и управляет им. Имя этой огненной силы — Гефест. Так рождается «слово» о Гефесте, миф о Гефесте со всеми дальнейшими последствиями, поскольку мыслительный акт связан с непосредственно чувственным восприятием, обобщается жизненным опытом, дальнейшим вымыслом, выдумкой, живописующими о происхождении огненной силы, именуемой Гефестом, его родителях, его семье, его деяниях.

Глядя на зреющий колос, на пробивающийся стебель, на зеленеющую траву или зацветающие плодовые деревья, древний человек все эти феномены произрастания называет обобщенно одним словом — Деметра, то есть мать-Земля, та, что рождает, выращивает, выкармливает. Отсюда в дальнейшем сложная и занимательная биография Деметры, горюющей по исчезнувшей дочери и радующейся её обретению, что сопровождается то оскудением природы в засушливое время или зимой, то её изобилием при сборе урожая осенью.

Видя, как бушует море, как разливаются или высыхают реки, несутся водопады, пробиваются родники, бегут ручьи, древний человек обобщает все проявления водной стихии в одном слове — Посейдон — владыка вод или супруг Земли, объемлющий её водным простором.

Наблюдая за небом с его светом, с его бездонной ясностью, с его просторами, где-то в неведомых высях смыкающимися со снежными вершинами гор, древний грек называет одним словом — Зевс — светоносное небо, светоносный день.
И так один за другим рождаются слова-мифы, разрастающиеся в рассказы о высших существах, таких же, как и человек, только бесконечно мощных и бессмертных, живущих одной семьей и управляющих космической общиной, господствующих над миром. Таким образом, в самых общих чертах, рождается мифология, мифологическое мышление или мифомышление, свойственное первобытному человеку, который переносит свои собственные родовые отношения на всю окружающую его действительность.

Необходимые отграничения и разъяснения

Здесь, на этой древней ступени родового общества, в процессе мифологизирования действительности обобщенное понятие становится одушевлённым существом, то есть божеством. Невозможно не сослаться здесь на В. И. Ленина, который писал, что «идеализм первобытный: общее (понятие, идея) есть отдельное существо», признавая «возможность превращения (и притом незаметного, несознаваемого человеком превращения) абстрактного понятия, идеи в фантазию (in letzter Instanz=бoгa)«.

Античный миф основан на чувственном восприятии мира и обобщении этого восприятия в целостное единство, расцвеченное вымыслом. Древняя мифология — предмет неоспоримой реальности и веры в её непреложность. Древняя мифология возникает и развивается ещё до религии, которая нуждается в теоретических обоснованиях, догмах и в системе почитания божества со всеми её обязательными ритуалами, законами, требованиями и запретами, то есть культом. Для живой мифологии культ вторичен, а первична реальность космического бытия, переживаемого как стихийно-материалистическая проекция вовне родовой жизни первобытного коллектива.

Античный миф нельзя называть сказкой, потому что сказка — это уже продукт народного творчества, сказка вполне сознательно придумывается, с заранее намеченной целью и идеей, причём и рассказчик и слушатель прекрасно понимают сказочную выдумку и верят ей условно, в рамках своеобразной игры.

Миф ничего заранее не придумывает и вполне реален, как сама жизнь, естественно творящая этот миф.
Чудеса, населяющие миф, превосходят всякую чудесность сказки и впоследствии снабжают её материалом чудесности. Но эти чудеса не условны, они рождены самой первобытной жизнью с её наивной верой в обязательность и повседневность чуда.

Миф — это и не легенда, предание, хотя последние в основе своей могут иметь элементы некогда пережитой мифологии. Легенды и предания складываются с учетом обстоятельств исторической и социально-политической жизни, являясь сознательным подкреплением тех или иных идей, фактов или тенденций, требующих своего оправдания, подтверждения или опровержения и упразднения, обязательно с опорой на высшие и потому неоспоримо авторитетные силы.

Миф не знает такой преднамеренности и не складывается ни a priori, ни post factum, а рождается стихией самой первобытной жизни, обоснованной через самое же себя.
Все вышесказанное отграничивает миф и от фольклора, хотя в более позднее время мифологическая образность поставляет материал и для устного народного творчества в любой его форме (песни, сказки, предания, поучения, басни, загадки и т. д.).

Мифология не есть ни продукт просто незрелого и примитивного мышления, ни результат сознательного и целенаправленного творчества древнего человека. Мифология понятна только исходя из специфики родовых отношений первобытного коллектива, будучи одной из форм освоения мира этой первобытной общиной. И самое примечательное, что единство мифа и мышления в эти древние времена отнюдь не исключает их принципиального различия.

Миф возможен при обобщающей деятельности мысли, а значит, и слова первобытного человека, но, появившись на свет, миф призван одушевить весь мир, создавая целое, единое, целостное, живое тело космической общины. А если это так, то животворящее слово-миф в представлении древних исполнено таинственной, всемогущей,  магической силы, и законы её начинают господствовать в жизни мифа, поддерживаясь смутными человеческими ощущениями и аффектами.

Мышление в противовес мифу пытается вывести жизнь на пути объяснения её закономерностей, стремится и её и человеческую практику осознать вне всякой магии, направить её разумно и целесообразно.
Вот почему, как это ни парадоксально, миф не существует без функций мышления, но само же мышление призвано этот миф признать несостоятельным и избавиться от него. Отсюда — извечное слияние и извечная борьба мифа и мышления в течение тысячелетий, отсюда же — задача науки изучить развитие человеческого мышления, идущего сначала по путям мифологического освоения жизни, а в дальнейшем вступающего в противоречие с мифом, отрицающего миф и развивающегося в борьбе за самостоятельность.

Далее… Источники мифологической традиции