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 before the world reached its present form in the most remote time – the first existing period of time known as the primordial age.^[2] The characters are normally non-human; they can be gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures.^[3] Myths are often associated with religion or spirituality and can be very important to those who believe in them.^[4] Some myths are used to explain how a particular reality came into existence, explaining why a society works and is structured the way it is.^[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.^[5] It can also refer to the study of such myths.^[6][7]

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.^[3] In contrast, legends usually feature human characters and folktales are understood as fiction.^[3]

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]

1. ↑ Bascom, William (1965). "The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives". The Journal of American Folklore. 78 (307): 4. doi:10.2307/538099. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 538099.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Eliade, Mircea (1998-06-22). Myth and Reality. Waveland Press. ISBN 978-1-4786-0861-5.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Bascom, William (1965). "The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives". The Journal of American Folklore. 78 (307): 5. doi:10.2307/538099. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 538099.
4. ↑ Bascom, William (1965). "The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives". The Journal of American Folklore. 78 (307): 9. doi:10.2307/538099. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 538099.
5. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "myth, n. Oxford University Press, 2003.
6. ↑ Kirk, p. 8; "myth", Encyclopædia Britannica
7. ↑ Kirk, G.S. 1973. Myth: its meaning and functions in ancient and other cultures. Cambridge University Press.
8. ↑ Dundes, Alan (1984-11-15). Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. University of California Press. pp. 41–42, 49. ISBN 978-0-520-05192-8.
9. ↑ Leeming, David; Leeming, Former Professor of English and Comparative Literature David (2005-11-17). The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. vii, xii. ISBN 978-0-19-515669-0.