Nature of Myths

Nature, Origin, Types And Classification of Myths

Introduction

A myth of origin is a myth which aims to explain the origin of some natural or social world function. One form of myth of origin is the cosmogonic myth that describes the world's creation. Many societies, however, have myths set after the cosmogonic hypothesis explaining the origin of natural phenomena and human institutions in a pre-existing universe.

You can watch this video for a more in-depth discussion.

What is a Myth?

A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.
Is concerned solely with the character and nature of God's operation, concentrating emphasis on his relationship with the world and with man.
It tells of a deity and this provides an account of the origins.

Myth And Time

There is a relationship between the historical occurrence's chronological period and the original character of the myth. As long as there is no proof that the made-up event has happened, the hypothesis is accepted as true. However, that did not occur during the real time period in which the provided people's past formed. The imaginary era exists outside of historical time. From the perspective of eschatological views, the time is not ancient time, nor primal time, nor the future, but rather the last days, the end of time.

Primitive time precedes all subsequent times; it is original time with the unique quality that it can never be beyond reality. It is ingrained in the structure and essence of life, therefore it is always there in a particular way. One is securely anchored in the primitivity that the mythological events of ancient time have created if they live as a hunter or farmer, in accordance with the shifting rhythm of nature, or within the given social order and situation. Therefore, one cannot understand by evaluating alone; rather, one must bring oneself back directly if one wishes to grasp the circumstances of existence.

Myth And Cult

The myth's ability to work properly—that is, for its presence in cultivation to be indexed—is based on the dialectic inherent in the scenario where the mythical entity is both equally present in and frequently discovered before each instant. Myths can persist in their current form as stories alone, completely divorced from cults, if they are not associated with them. However, myth is so intimately associated with cults that it relates to their meanings in most cases, as well as to the fact that it exists as the story or history of origins.

The idea that cults are older than myths and are thus not usually based on myths—rather, myths are derived from cults—is well-supported by evidence. In that scenario, nevertheless, it is impossible to trace the origin of the notion that links all of the cultic activities together. Whatever the case, this specific type of cultural form has a long history in humankind, and it can be inferred that it originated at a period when dance, gestures, attitudes, and rudimentary music were among the best ways for man to express himself in addition to speech. As a result, the fundamental experiences and events that gave rise to civilization were transmitted through an institution of religion that was always enacting new versions rather than being preserved by language formulae or memory.

Saga, Legend And Märchen

Saga

While the myth is ancient history and is concerned with maintaining order in the framework of life, saga is closer to a locale and connected to particular historical events and locations

Here is a video documentary and a digital book of The Saga of Erik the Red :

Digital Book of The Saga of Erik the Red

Legend

A legend is a type of folklore that tells a story about events that people believe or think should have happened in human history. Stories in this category could show human values and have characteristics that make the story seem real. For both its participants—active and passive—legend may involve miracles. To remain current and relevant, legends may change over time.

Here is a video that talks about what is a legend:

Märchen

Märchen are folktales containing magical or supernatural components, such as giving a mortal character magical abilities or unique knowledge; different versions expose the hero to supernatural entities or artifacts. Folklorists employ the commonly used German term Märchen, which includes both tall stories and hilarious anecdotes; while it is sometimes translated as "fairy tale," the fairy is not a necessary component.

Here is a video that talks about what is a Märchen:

The Origin and Development of Mythology

Influence of Idealism and Romanticism

As a backlash towards the Enlightenment, German Idealism and Romanticism rediscovered myths and judged them mainly from an aesthetic point of view as romantic or literary creations.
The mythical creation was considered an individual contribution of the creation imagination.

David Hume

He built a study of myths into an area of scientific science.
He argued that mythological myths are kind of primitive interpretation of nature and that their roots should be found in the emotional domain.
The factor that impels people to formulate mythical religious concepts are hope and particularly fear.

Wilhelm Wundt

Wundt made a new advance investigation of myths. He regarded the emotions as the sources of myths. But the possibility of the emotions' leading to mythical ideas is to be ultimately ascribed to the imagination. Through the apperception of the things as people, it is possible for man to objectify his emotional states. Wundt, nevertheless, did not yet have clearly in view the specific elements in the feelings and imagination that produce myths.

Rudolf Otto

His definition of the emotional states that affect man in the presence of the numinous, is distinguished in particular by his perception that religious sentiment is something different. The main concern is the state of the emotion. The theories merely swarm around it as fictional creations.

Ernst Cassirer

Studied the myth phenomenon more from an epistemological point of view than from a psychological point of view. The symbolism of the myth remained a sort of promitive understanding of life which gave rise to scientific knowledge and its creation.

Paul Tillich

For him, myth falls under the category of the unconditioned or the otherworldly being to which the religious act is guided. The myth selects its own objects which it creates as representation of the unconditioned.

Sigmund Freud

S. Freud (1836-1939) considered myths to be the manifestation of hidden desires. He enunciated a psychological rule that precipitates repression in a symbolic expression, a finding that has served as a basis for the psychoanalysis of the sense of dreams

Freud's conception of the origin of humanity from primeval occurrences and of primeval sin has always been of great impact, the lasting result of which he called the Oedipus complex.

Carl Jung

Symbol formations, understood and evaluated on a purely individual basis, are interpreted by C. G. Jung (1875-1961) as an authentic expression of super individual truth of life, the starting point for the life on the individual ego. With the help of his concept of the collective unconscious and of archetypes as the forms under which it makes its appearance, Jung attempted to break through the barriers of individual psychology and to make dreams and myths function as the symbols in which hidden transcendence as such manifests itself in the world of human consciousness.

Types of Mythology

Animal

Animals were commonly granted unique powers in ancient stories and intended to inspire a nation to accomplish greater achievements.

Examples:

How the Bear Lost his Tail
Phoenix
The Kangaroo gets a Pouch
Huginn and Muninn
Why Chipmunks have Stripes

Creation

Used as a way to understand the present state and to assume that mysterious gods or monsters created the universe.

Examples:

The Pueblo
The Inuit
Children of Limokon
The Ekoi
Odin, Norse mythology
First Born, Papago mythology

Death/Underworld

Coping with destruction, death and dying. Also symbolizes rebirt as much as death.

Examples:

Baldr, Norse mythology
Quetzalcoatl, Aztec mythology
Ma'at, Egyptian mythology
Hades, Greek mythology

Hero

Illustrate admirable human traits, such as valor and morality.

Examples:

Hercules (Herakles in Greek)
Achilles, a Greek hero
Karna, a Hindu warrior
Beowulf, a Scandinavian Hero
Perseus, a greek hero

Quiz Time!

Lesson 01: Nature, Origin, Types and Classification of Myths

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Classifications of Myths

Cosmogonic Myth

Deals with origins, and by its nature it is always cosmic in scope.
A direct act on the part of the creator or through emanation from a primeval being or nature.
Cosmogonic myth speaks usually of a long and highly imaginative development in which a primeval being is divided or split up to constitute a multiform world.

Theogonic Myth

The creation of gods is the theme of these myths.
Theogonic myths can be regarded also as a part of cosmogony.
Theogony of Hesiod.

Anthropogonic Myth

The origin of men frequently plays an important role in mythology.
Anthropogony can be emphasized also in a more naturalistic fashion.
Anthropogonic myth, with inventive imagination, depicts the contemporary view of the nature and function of man.

Myths of the Primitive State of the Cosmos and Man

Myths dealing with this theme not only describe the original state of the cosmos but are intended specially to furnish information on the processes that led to subsequent and present conditions.