mythology

Mythology refers to the body of traditional narratives associated with a culture, especially stories about gods, heroes, origins, and the forces of nature. Myths are not simply falsehoods or legends; they encode beliefs, explain phenomena, authorize institutions, and shape moral norms. They are transmitted orally and later preserved in written form.

Many cultures have their own mythologies, including but not limited to Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hindu, Chinese, Japanese, and Indigenous traditions of the Americas and Oceania. The term mythology can denote either the collection of myths of a tradition or the academic study of those narratives and their contexts.

Mythic narratives commonly feature gods or spirits, creation or origin stories, heroic journeys, and etiologies that account for customs or natural phenomena. They often address universal questions about life, death, fate, and meaning, and use archetypes such as creator beings, tricksters, warriors, and sun or fertility deities.

Myths are passed through ritual performance, storytelling, and later literary texts. Scholars approach myth from various angles, including comparative religion, anthropology, and literary analysis, exploring function, structure, symbol, and intertextual connections. In modern culture, myths influence literature, film, art, and popular imagination while evolving in response to new contexts.

Contemporary discourse also emphasizes diversity and context, acknowledging that mythologies arise from specific historical experiences and may reflect power relations, cultural memory, and identity. Issues of representation and appropriation are discussed in the study and dissemination of mythic narratives.