Myth (loosely) Defined

• Myth is not a synonym for error or fabrication or falsehood; there is no concern when using this term for a myths truth or falsity.
• Myths have been traditionally viewed as an often anonymous, non-literary and essentially religious formulation of a cosmic view.
• Myths are often dramatic or narrative embodiments of a people’s perceptions of their deepest truths
• Myths attempt to explain creation, divinity, and religion by probing the existence of life and death, by accounting for natural phenomena and by chronicling the adventures of cultural heroes.
• Myths are generally stories that present supernatural episodes as a means of interpreting natural events
• Myths make concrete and specific a perception of human beings or a cosmic view
• Myths project social patterns upward to the superhuman level that sanctions and stabilizes a secular ideology
• Myths differ from legends with their focus on the supernatural rather than the historical and from fables by being less concerned with moral didacticism (teaching) and by being the product of a racial group rather than an individual

Structuralist qualities of the Hero

• Mother is royal virgin
• Father is king and often near relative of mother
• Circumstances of conception are unusual
• Reputed to be son of a god
• Attempt is made at birth to kill hero, usually by father or maternal grandfather
• But he is spirited away and raised by foster parents in a far-off country
• We know little/nothing of his childhood
• On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future kingdom
• After victory over some adversary he marries princess, queen, daughter of predecessor
• Becomes king and reigns uneventfully for a time
• Prescribes laws but loses favor with gods and/or subjects
• Is driven from throne and city
• Meets a mysterious death, often at top of a hill
• Children, if any, do not succeed him
• Body is not buried but there are one or more holy sepulchers