Lower Mythology Museum

"Embark on a journey through the realms of imagination, where ancient myths weave tales of wonder and wisdom, inviting you to explore the enchanting tapestry of mythology that sparks the magic within your own story."

       A field of mythology that deals with non-divine characters, spirits, and devils, as opposed to higher gods and the recognized religion, is known as lower mythology. The world faiths exhibit an especially strong aversion to this.

       German anthropologist W. originated that word. Mannhardt, who conducted this mythology's initial in-depth investigation. In his lengthy research, Mannhardt primarily examined images of spirits connected to the harvest and the larger category of spirits of vegetation, which stand for the yearly cycle of withering and reviving flora. B. Wundt thought that depictions of "vegetation demons" represented a transitional phase between the "totemic cult" of pre-Earthly cultures and the more advanced cults of gods. According to James George Frazer, gods like Attis, Adonis, Osiris, and Dionysus are connected to the dying and resurrecting spirit of plants through intermediate stages.

       Scholars have proposed the possibility of mythological fetishism, a process by which objects and phenomena were given social functions and given life, at an early point in the creation of mythological notions. The demonic entity was inextricably linked to the object that was thought to be its home. Later, as a prosperous economy emerged and the "idea" of the thing as well as the demon's magical power started to diverge from the actual thing, mythology shifted toward animism. The concept of the demon as a force—either bad or, less frequently, benign—dictating a person's fate was part of the original animism. Numerous instances of an anonymous, faceless, erratic, and horrifying demon may be found in Homer. Man has no knowledge of this instantaneously emerging and instantaneously vanishing lethal power; they are unable to identify it, much less communicate with it. Ideas of demons of certain objects and situations with varying degrees of impact follow. The metamorphosis of a god or demon into a human being occurs in developed animism.

       There is social class stratification in mythology. Poems and stories about gods and heroes who are regarded as the forebears of noble houses are created. Closed companies of priests may also build their own unique mythology. A higher, frequently official mythology is made up of both kinds of mythologies. Folk beliefs are an inferior mythology that have endured longer. They are described as rougher and more direct, but they are also the most solid. It is the lesser mythology that has persisted in European folklore and beliefs. The pictures of Christian saints have only partially amalgamated with the higher mythology, which has virtually vanished.

References:

V.V., Ivanov. “Myths of the Peoples of the World : Encyclopaedia.” Lower Mythology, 2008, pp. 724–25. http://cult-lib.ru/doc/dictionary/myths-of-the-world/fc/slovar-205-3.htm#zag-2191

E.M., Meletinsky. “Inferior Mythology // Mythological Dictionary.” Basic Mythological Motifs and Terms, 1991, www.bibliotekar.ru/mif/173.htm

Losev, Aleksei. “Greek Mythology.” Myths of the Peoples of the World, pp. 266–77. www.peoplesmyths.com/g/grecheskaya-mifologiya-7.html