Myth - Folklore, Ritual, Symbolism

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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One of the most celebrated writers about myth from a psychological standpoint was Sigmund Freud. In his Die Traumdeutung (1899; The Interpretation of Dreams) he posited a phenomenon called the Oedipus complex, that is, the male child’s repressed desire for his mother and a corresponding wish to supplant his father. (The equivalent for girls was the Electra complex.) According to Freud, this phenomenon was detectable in dreams and myths, fairy tales, folktales—even jokes. Later, in Totem und Tabu (1913; Totem and Taboo), Freud suggested that myth was the distorted wish-dreams of entire peoples. More than that, however, he saw the ...(100 of 22834 words)

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