mythologist

A mythologist is a scholar who studies myths—the traditional narratives that explain the beliefs, practices, and values of cultures. Mythologists examine the origins, transmission, variation, and social functions of myths across societies, from ancient epics to contemporary storytelling. The term covers researchers who analyze myth as a cultural phenomenon as well as writers who organize and interpret mythic material for broader audiences. In academe, mythology sits at the intersection of classics, religious studies, anthropology, folklore, and comparative literature.

Methods vary by tradition but commonly include philology, textual criticism, ethnography, and comparative analysis. Some mythologists apply structuralist or psychoanalytic theories to identify recurring motifs and patterns, while others emphasize ritual, social organization, or historical context. Key topics include cosmogonies, hero narratives, etiologies, ritual calendars, and the role of myth in identity, memory, and national or religious communities.

Mythology informs the study of art, literature, and media, and is used to understand how cultures imagine the world and their place in it. Mythologists may focus on a single tradition, compare myths across cultures, or examine how myths evolve in modern societies through novels, films, and digital media.

Notable figures in myth studies include Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Georges Dumézil, whose work spans religion, anthropology, and comparative mythology.