What is myth?

[Willamena]

Define myth, in your own words, please. I've seen the word used in many ways, and I'm looking to get a grasp of the variety of concepts at these forums.

(And please, nobody be telling other people they are wrong.)

 

[Sunstone]

I won't attempt a definition of myth here, but I'd like to note that there are profound similarities between myths and dreams which have been noted by Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, among others.

 

[Buttercup]

Define myth, in your own words, please.

To me a myth is a traditional story or person that has no basis in truth yet may be just believable enough to pass as truth. A myth has very little or no evidence to support it as truth.

 

[Random]

I think myth is a language used by peoples and cultures to describe the hidden truths of their existence which cannot be otherwise spoken.

 

[Halcyon]

To me, a myth is a human device used to explain what they don't understand. This is how i see Genesis, Thor's Hammer etc.

Or a literary tool to explain concepts that would otherwise be difficult to articulate. This is Gnostic myth.

 

[gnostic]

I would describe myth as the explanation of what they don't understand. It is not even necessarily a story, though often it is.

For example, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. These two works are definitely done in storytelling way. Hesiod (in Works and Days and Theogony), on the other hand, is mostly genealogy, with a splash of creation. Some myths don't always involve in storytelling. In Hesiod's Works and Days, there is a number of farming tips, such as when to sow and harvest crops; the mythological aspects in this part, come from Hesiod describing the various constellations in a particular season. Hymns to gods, were often use to describe their gods in some fashion as well lauding them, are not done in storytelling style.

Mythology can be divided into a number of different genres.

1. It can be about the deities. What were supposed to be religion of the civilation, are not considered to be myth.
2. Creation myths, about the origin of gods and men; cosmogony and cosmology.
3. Heroic myths.
4. Founding myths, ie foundation of a city or civilisation.
5. Genealogy.

Myth can be comprise of any one of these category, but usually is a combination of 2 or more of the above genre.

It may have some truths or facts, but often they do not.

As Halcyon said, the Genesis can be considered a myth. It has deity part (eg the relationship between God and the various people); a creation part (eg chapters 1-11, but particularly the 1st 4 chapters); and the founding (eg, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and the genealogy myth (chapters 5, 9-11).

My point is that the myth is not necessarily a traditional story. In many story, it is told with a beginning and an ending. Myth, on the other hand, is sometimes difficult to finding beginning and ending, because it has the ability to grow and evolve over a period of time. One poet may take a small part of myth, and expanded it, unleashing new life to the story. Therefore mythology is far more dynamic than just a traditional story.

 

[doppelganger]

Myths are metaphors to communicate human experiences that cannot be adequately shared using descriptive language.

It includes the stories that became the foundations for religions (though the two are distinct), as well as music, painting, sculpture, poetry, and any other creative art form.

 

[lilithu]

Define myth, in your own words, please. I've seen the word used in many ways, and I'm looking to get a grasp of the variety of concepts at these forums.

A myth is a story that has deeper and more universal meaning than the particulars of that story.

 

[koan]

A girl with a hair lip

 

[doppelganger]

A girl with a hair lip

Ever read I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb?

 

[michel]

To me a myth is a traditional story or person that has no basis in truth yet may be just believable enough to pass as truth. A myth has very little or no evidence to support it as truth.

Could a myth not be a traditional story, exagerated, and added to (in time), which is then accepted as a myth for lack of proof of it's verity.

 

[painted wolf]

someone elces religion.

wa:do

 

[Kay]

bumpity bump

 

[Willamena]

To me a myth is a traditional story or person that has no basis in truth yet may be just believable enough to pass as truth. A myth has very little or no evidence to support it as truth.

Can there not be a myth that is founded in truth, in fact, in actual events? For instance, the skill of a celebrity baseketball player (or a whole team) elevated to a level of the sacred?

 

[painted wolf]

I should think that most myths have some basis in truth, however tennuous.
Look at modern myths say about american history.

George Washington and the cherry tree... The ride of Paul Revere....

wa:do

 

[lunamoth]

Random's definition is very good. I would say it slightly differently (so as to reflect my own myth), that it is a story that tells about the connection/relationship between a people and their god(s). A myth is about truth, but not necessarily about fact.

 

[Buttercup]

Can there not be a myth that is founded in truth, in fact, in actual events? For instance, the skill of a celebrity baseketball player (or a whole team) elevated to a level of the sacred?

I understand where you're headed ( I think) but in my mind a myth is mostly fabrication...not just a tiny fraction. It seems that often there's just enough truth or fact to make the story believable but most of it is fiction.

 

[Willamena]

I understand where you're headed ( I think) but in my mind a myth is mostly fabrication...not just a tiny fraction. It seems that often there's just enough truth or fact to make the story believable but most of it is fiction.

Do you think it matters that its fabrication or fact?

 

[wednesday]

Could a myth not be a traditional story, exagerated, and added to (in time), which is then accepted as a myth for lack of proof of it's verity.

Possible: Example - Norse Mythology, Finnish Mythology, Greek Mythology... the list continues. It basically a myth that has become folklore i guess which is passed down in different words to different generations?

 

[Draka]

Myth can be defined in many ways, but in the literary context it is the distilled essence of human experience, expressed as metaphoric narrative. --- John Alexander Allen


A myth is a telling of the human condition and the trials and tribulations that must be faced and conquered throughout life. It is a telling, usually in a story type of format, to try to explain the sometimes unexplainable. The inner whys of our inner actions and decisions. Myths spring from every culture because in every culture all face the same inner demons and outer confrontations, there is just different ways of telling the same stories so that each culture connects more firmly to it. The same basic stories/myths arise in almost every culture on Earth, we just have different names and places that convey the same spirit and morals of the telling.

All religions are based on myths. These myths tell us who we are and how to connect with that which we feel needing connected to. Like the Collective Unconsciousness that interweaves us all, we are drawn to believe that there is more to us than our physical selves. This is what myths convey to us.