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Myth

Myth is a genre of folklore or theology consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. For folklorists, historians, philosophers or theologians this is very different from the use of "myth" simply indicating that something is not true. Instead, the truth value of a myth is not a defining criterion.[1]

This article is about a folklore genre. For other uses, see Myth (disambiguation).

Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to religion or spirituality.[2] Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be true accounts of their remote past.[2][3][4][5] In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form.[2][6][7][8] Other myths explain how a society's customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified.[2][7] There is a complex relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals.

Protagonists and structure

The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures.[30][3][31][32] Others include humans, animals, or combinations in their classification of myth.[33] Stories of everyday humans, although often of leaders of some type, are usually contained in legends, as opposed to myths.[30][32] 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.[32][34]

(43 BCE–17/18 CE), whose tellings of myths have been profoundly influential;

Ovid

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;

Fabius Planciades Fulgentius

the anonymous medieval , who developed anthologies of Classical myths that remained influential to the end of the Middle Ages; and

Vatican Mythographers

Renaissance scholar , whose ten-book Mythologiae became a standard source for classical mythology in later Renaissance Europe.

Natalis Comes

;

theological

physical (or concerning );

natural law

(or concerning soul);

animistic

material; and

mixed, which concerns myths that show the interaction between two or more of the previous categories and are particularly used in initiations.

List of mythologies

List of mythological objects

List of mythology books and sources

Magic and mythology

artificially constructed mythology, mainly for the purpose of storytelling

Mythopoeia

.

"Mythology.net"