Myth vs. Religion
On the previous page, we looked first at the variety of definitions of myth and then at similarities between specific scientific and mythological explanations. Here, we'll glance at general similarities between myth and religion.Myth comes from the Greek word "mythos." The Greek Lexicon Liddell and Scott defines "mythos" as:
- word and
- speech.
The same lexicon search provides other predictable meanings for "mythos," including:
- tale or story
- rumor or saying and
- thing thought.
Like Bible stories, myths are often entertaining, morally instructive, and inspirational. On this site, when I use the word myth as distinct from religion, it is to separate out descriptions of and stories about gods or legendary mortals from explicit tenets of belief, laws, or human actions. This is an ambiguous area. If the Son of God, Jesus, turned water into wine, should he be counted a supernatural being and therefore listed in myth? According to this treatment, yes. If the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses, understood the speech of a burning bush, is this not also a supernatural power? If Hercules, son of a mortal woman and the god Zeus, strangled snakes with his bare hands when he was newborn, doesn't that put him in the same category? On this site, the effects of Moses on the belief system of Ancient Semites are considered non-myth. So also are attempts to draw up a chronology of the events in the life of or acts of Jesus. Almost everything else in this murky area -- like the stories told in the Bible -- is myth(os), but this doesn't mean it's either true or untrue, believable or incredible.
Introduction to Myth
Myth in Daily Life | What Is Myth? | Myths vs. Legends | Gods in the Heroic Age - Bible vs. Biblos | Creation Stories | Uranos' Revenge | Titanomachy | Olympian Gods and Goddesses | Five Ages of Man | Philemon and Baucis | Prometheus | Trojan War | Bulfinch Mythology | Myths and Legends | Kingsley Tales from Mythology | Golden Fleece and the Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel HawthorneElsewhere on the Web - What is Myth?
What is Myth?Myth in Art
What is Myth?
Classical Studies Supplement.
*[URL = < www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gretaham/Teaching/mythclass/mythreader/godsajaxdemeter.htm >] Study Guide Two: Approaches to Mythology lists 8 approaches to myth:
- Ritualist Approach
- Rationalist Approach
- Allegory Approach
- Etiology
- Psychoanalytic approach
- Jungian
- Structuralism
- Historical/Functionalist Approach
Working Definition of Myth
"Myths are stories told by people about people: where they come from, how they handle major disasters, how they cope with what they must and how everything will end. If that isn't everything what else is there?"Thank you, Robert O'Connell, for this working definition of myth.
