Myth - Rituals, Symbols, Beliefs

myth

Table of Contents

Introduction
The nature, functions, and types of myth
- Relation of myths to other narrative forms
  - Fables
  - Fairy tales
  - Folktales
  - Sagas and epics
  - Legends
  - Parables
  - Etiologic tales
- Approaches to the study of myth and mythology
  - Allegorical
  - Romantic
  - Comparative
  - Folkloric
  - Functionalist
  - Structuralist
  - Formalist
- Functions of myth and mythology
  - Explanation
  - Justification or validation
  - Description
  - Healing, renewal, and inspiration
- Myth in culture
  - Myth and psychology
  - Myth and science
  - Myth and religion
    - Ritual and other practices
    - Religious symbolism and iconography
    - Sacred texts
  - Myth and the arts
    - Oral traditions and written literature
    - Visual arts
    - Performing arts
    - Music
  - Myth and history
- Major types of myth
  - Myths of origin
  - Myths of eschatology and destruction
  - Messianic and millenarian myths
  - Myths of culture heroes and soteriological myths
  - Myths of time and eternity
  - Myths of providence and destiny
  - Myths of rebirth and renewal
  - Myths of memory and forgetting
  - Myths of high beings and celestial gods
  - Myths concerning founders of religions and other religious figures
  - Myths of kings and ascetics
  - Myths of transformation
- Myth in modern society
  - Secularization of myth and mythology
  - Demythologization of major religious traditions
  - Political and social uses of myth
Animals and plants in myth
- Relationships of opposition or difference
  - Cosmogonies
  - Animal and plant deities
  - Hunting and agricultural deities
  - Culture heroes
  - Demonic plants and animals
- Relationships of descent
  - Creation of human beings from plants or animals
  - Totemism
  - Hierarchy
- Relationships of mixture
- Relationships of transformation
- Relationships of identity
  - Soul-stuff
  - Death, or postmortem, soul
  - Plural souls
  - The alter ego, or life index
- Relationships of similarity

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The place of myth in various religious traditions differs. The idea that the principal function of a myth is to provide a justification for a ritual was adopted without any great attempt to make a case for it. At the beginning of the 20th century, many scholars thought of myths in their earliest forms as accounts of social customs and values. According to Sir James Frazer, myths and rituals together provided evidence for humanity’s earliest preoccupation—namely, fertility. Human society developed in stages—from the magical through the religious to the scientific—and myths and rituals (which survived even into the scientific stage) ...(100 of 22834 words)

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