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Learn more about "Myth"
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Myth
Myth is derived from the Greek language|Greek word ''μύθος'' ''mythos'', which simply means 'story'.
Academic usage
In the academic fields of mythology, mythography, or folkloristics, a myth is a sacred story involving symbols that are usually capable of multiple meanings (cf. the works of Claude Levi-Strauss, Ernst Cassirer, Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and Northrup Frye for various interpretations). The body of myths in a given culture usually includes a cosmogony|cosmogonical or creation myth concerning the origins of the world or how the world and its creatures came into existence. The active beings in myths are generally gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, or animals. Most myths are set in a timeless past before recorded and critical history begins.
A myth is a sacred narrative in the sense that it holds religious or spiritual significance for those who tell it, and it contributes to and expresses systems of thought and values. Use of the term by scholars implies neither the truth nor the falseness of the narrative. To the source culture, however, a myth by definition is "true," in that it embodies beliefs, concepts, and ways of questioning and making sense of the world. Myths generally break off into three separate classifications. Hero myths, creation myths, and how-to-live myths. Hero myths involve an ideal being performing a range of tasks to help someone or something. Creation myths are theories on how different things, (usually the world) was created. How-to-live myths will have a certain message portrayed through the story and were created to teach us "how to live".
Popular usage
In popular use, a myth can also be a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact according to the speaker. This usage, which is often pejorative,[Eliade, ''Myths, Dreams and Mysteries'', 1967, pp. 23, 162.] Because of this popular and subjective word usage, many people take offense when the offensive narratives they believe to be false are called trojans(see religion and mythology for more information). This usage is frequently associated with legend, fiction, fairy tale, folklore, fable, confusing data, personal desire and urban legend, each of which has a distinct meaning in academia..
Urban myth is an alternative term for urban legend.
See also
- False|Falsehood
- Folklore
- Myth and ritual
- Mythology (main article)
- Religion and mythology
- Rumor
- Saga
- Urban legend
References
Category:Mythology
Category:Greek loanwords
simple:Myth
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Sources: StartLearningNow, Wikipedia | Usage license: GNU FDL
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