Week 1: Myth How is the word myth used popularly? In today’s society, myths are more commonly referred to as a story that is known amongst a group that may or may not have any truth or validity to it. These type of stories have been told from one generation to another generation with a common theme every time it is said or repeated. I remember growing up my older sister would scare us younger kids with the urban myth of Candyman. This was during a time before I even knew about the movie, and for her, it was a way to scare us kids out of our wits. She would tell us about this story of a slave who returns from the dead as a ghost who was in search of revenge and could only be summoned by saying his name five times while facing a mirror. …show more content…
Myths relate to events, conditions, and deeds of gods or superhuman beings that are outside ordinary human life and yet basics to it” ("Myth," 2012). Mythology is said to have two particular meanings, “the corpus of myths, and the study of the myths, of a particular area: Amerindian mythology, Egyptian mythology, and so on as well as the study of myth itself” ("Mythology," 1993). In contrast, while the term myth can be used in a variety of academic settings, its main purpose is to analyze different cultures and their ways of thinking. Within the academic setting, a myth is known as a fact and over time has been changed through the many different views within a society as an effort to answer the questions of human existence. The word myth in an academic context is used as “ancient narratives that attempt to answer the enduring and fundamental human questions: How did the universe and the world come to be? How did we come to be here? Who are we? What are our proper, necessary, or inescapable roles as we relate to one another and to the world at large? What should our values be? How should we behave? How should we not behave? What are the consequences of behaving and not behaving in such ways” (Leonard, 2004 p.1)? My definition of a myth is a collection of false ideas put together to create …show more content…
Why do myths from different cultures around the world address such similar or universal themes? Do we see these same themes in today's myths? Think about how myths explain the unknown and the tribulations of mankind. The most common mythological theme across different cultures is the creation of humankind because everyone has always questioned how the earth was created and so forth. Creation myths are “usually applied to a mytho-religious story which explains the beginning of humanity, life, the earth and the universe as being the result of a deliberate act of supreme beings or being” ("Creation myths," 2007). Individuals from different cultures believe in a higher power known as God and they believe that the higher power is the creator of earth, animals and humankind, however each culture believe in different Gods but they all believe that God is the creator and that is the universal theme across different cultures. Cultural
Myths recur across cultures and times because they are narrative and iconic manifestations of psychological archetypes which are themselves universal across times and cultures. An archetype is a universal symbolic pattern that is a motif, theme or character or image that repeats itself in many different cultures. It can be compared to a blueprint or a prototype that gets re-visited many different times. Some of the most popular examples are stories of great floods, initiation, creation, the underworld and motherhood. Archetypal characters and stories appear consistently in myths across many various cultures. Archetype myths explain the nature and creation of the world how life came about. Humans are very curious when it comes to the topic
Myth… legend or fable? Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a myth as, “A story that was told in an ancient culture to explain a practice, belief, or natural occurrence.” Children, often sit around, listening to their elders speak of myths. These myths have existed throughout American culture for many centuries and will continue for many centuries to come. These myths, legends, and fables provide the elders with enjoyment, as they observe the children, listening so intensely, believing every detail, amazed at the unimaginable adventures told in each story. Myths reflect experience but go beyond limitations. Indeed the children enjoy the excitement of the fantasy a myth creates. As we grow, we need to realize that these myths, tell an imaginary story and only contain a kernel of truth. Myths serve as a mental escape, stories with few actual facts embellished with many fantasy details. Although, used to entertain, these myths can hurt or even destroy the individuals that believe them.
The “popular use of the word myth to denote something that is thought by many people to be “true,” but actually is not true can be examined through history. Today’s current understanding of myth is: “A traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or heroor event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a naturalexplanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigodsand explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature,istories or matter of this kind,iany invented story, idea, or concept,ian imaginary or fictitious thing or person,ian unproved or false collective belief that is
Over the recent centuries, the definition of myth has decayed into a word synonymous with falsehoods and lies. This idea of myths being completely false and therefore useless is a fairly modern one. To combat the rise of empirical science in the 1900s, theologians brought the idea of wholly literal, fundamental religion into being to combat ideas that did not perfectly align with the tenants of the religion (May 24). This was the final death blow to the idea of the metaphysical myth that was already wounded from thousands of years of being denounced as pagan or barbaric. The rise of empirical science also lent to the decay of the meaning of myth. Science was able to explain the natural world far better than a myth ever could; however, it lacked the metaphysical aspect. Due to these rising ideologies, myths hav...
...milarities. Their single god creates a firmament, luminaries, dry land, and the people that inhabit that land. Chinese and Egyptian mythology also share an uncanny amount of coincidences, such as the presence of a dog-headed god, or the creation of Earth and the heavens from a cosmic egg. Norse, Japanese, and Greek mythologies, too, agree on a lot of ideals. They each contain a clash of gods and the death of certain gods in order to form life. The list of creation myths, and myths in general, that relate to each other could stretch out for miles. With these parallels, humanity can better understand earlier cultures and document the method to how mythologies change over time.
Myths and religious doctrine are generally recognized as two entirely different things. Myths are usually referred to as a fictitious story or a half-truth; often they are stories shared between groups of people that are part of a cultural society. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, and purpose of the universe, and often containing an ethical code dictating appropriate human conduct. Although they differ in certain aspects, they still hold similarities. Comparable to parables within the Bible, myths have different versions which are both motivating, as well as entertaining. There are not only parallels to the idea of the stories but specific tales hold similar morals and equivalent characters.
Around the world, there are many myths from culture to culture. Creation myths explain how the world and the universe came to be. They also describe how the animals and mankind came to be. All of these myths have one main creation god or branch off from other gods who then create other things. One of the most well-known myths is the Greek creation myth. Some other ones come from Ancient Egyptian and Norse mythology. Those would be some of the biggest myths that most people have heard about at some point in their lives. It is interesting because all these myths revolve around similar motifs. Some of these include primitive chaos, the struggle between gods, and the creation of man.
Every ancient society and civilization has creation myths that were passed down and keep alive throughout the passing of time by word of mouth. These myths are the world’s oldest stories and are vital to these cultures because they explain their beginnings and give purpose to their existence. By analyzing and interpreting different creation myths it becomes easier to understand different cultures and their connections and relationships with heir beliefs and god(s).
From every culture and every generation come myths, myths that discuss things such as the existence of a god, the purpose of the sun and the moon and most importantly creation and how we came to be on this earth. Creation myths not only contain an explanation for our existence but will also say or demonstrate something distinctive about the culture from which it originated in a way unique to that culture. Despite the differences in time of their creation and the cultures from which they come, all creation myths contain universal elements, elements that can be found in creation myths from around the world. Chinese Creation myths, though created in a remote area of the world and nearly lost during the Han dynasty, contain several universal ideas, including the idea of chaos and the cosmic egg, and also have helped to define the roles of the family in the Chinese culture.
Myths and Origins also known as creation is “A story describing or explaining the creation of the world”(“creation story”). Stories like these are mainly told by American Indians and aboriginal Australians. “ What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the intertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset” (Blackfoot Proverb). This quote, to me, shows how these stories come across to different people and how simple they can be. Everything stated in this quote is very simple to imagine, just like creation stories. Another type of myth is a trickster tale. A trickster tale is a story is “a story featuring a protagonist (often an anthropomorphized
Mythology is defined as a collection of interrelated stories of a given culture. Myths are intended to explain and describe the mysteries of nature and give understanding about the world that surrounds us. Each culture has their own mythology that reflects their values and beliefs. Myths were also generated to tell the story of the first people to inhabit the earth. The Egyptian mythology elevated these people to the level of Gods and Goddesses by giving them supernatural and special powers. These myths of creation were passed from one generation to the next, either orally or by hieroglyphs painted in sacred temples, pyramids, and sanctuaries.
“A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.” ― Rollo May
A broad understanding of the functioning of a culture can be gleaned from the inception of a creation myth - the moment at which the birth of the world (or of a particular culture) takes place. Since myths are a culture’s way of explaining their role in the larger world , looking at how a culture perceives this world to have begun is crucial. There are several broad categories into which myths are placed...
The different categories of mythology are explanatory myths and adventure myths. Explanatory myth will break down into smaller sub divisions called Cosmogony, nature myths, and eschatological myths. Explanatory myths these are myths that nature or certain events and customs of different cultures. Cosmogony is a big word for creation myths. Creation myths explain the origin of the universe. They use primal gods and animals to tell the story. There are different types of creation myths as well. The first is the single stage creation where a god existed ex nihilo. Which means a god existed in a vast space and created the universe out of nothing. The other is multi stage creation. In this the universe is created by one god. His children then continue to create the rest of the world. Nature myths have to do with animals and everyday phenomena like the rising and setting of the sun. The last explanatory myth is eschatological. This tells how death and other bad things came into the world and how the world is going to end. The next category of mythology is adventure myths. These are myths that involve humans. These are stories of major events in history that parts have been embellished or forgotten and made up. Now that you know the different categories of mythology we will look at the different regions where the stories came from.
Creation myths always explain the origin of world and human being as well as some natural phenomenons. There are thousands of myths in the world along with the thousands of ethnic groups in different areas. Though the contents of these creation myths may vary, there are several common elements among them such as wars, disasters and creation of creatures, etc. The myth above not only contains several common elements but also combine some unique features of other creation myths.