/ / The myth is what is it? The origin and examples of ancient and modern myths

Myth - this is what? Origin and examples of ancient and modern myths

Myth is a tradition that periodicallyappeared in the pre-writing society. They tell about the life of ancestors, heroic deeds, acts of gods and spirits. The very concept of myth has Greek roots and comes from the word "mytos", which means "legend."

the myth is

The first mention of the myths

The set of myths in ritual ritualsAcquired verbal form, speaking, one of the specific ways to systematize information about the surrounding reality. On the other hand, the narrations about the nature of the origin of the Universe and man in it fulfilled a number of important functions: religious, ideological, philosophical, historical, scientific.

The peculiarities of myths include an arbitrary approach to plotting, the personification of natural phenomena, and zoomorphism.

The emergence of ideas about supersensitive beginnings falls at the time of the appearance of the first burials. Thanks to the ancient burials found many elementary forms of art.

myth word meaning

The history of the origin of myths

In the Upper Paleolithic, sustained occurthe formation of a syncretic complex: myth - image - ritual. The preservation of this structure throughout the history of mankind speaks of its universality. For many centuries, it reflects both the rational principle and the irrational cultural core.

Paleolithic images were myths, and their creation was rituals. “Meaning” and “signifying” in the myths of primitive people existed in absolute unity.

Concept of myth

Many sciences have different interpretations of the concept."myth". The meaning of the word in this case is formulated from different positions, which causes the presence of a number of vague and contradictory definitions. Among them are interpretations that are given in encyclopedic dictionaries, which call myths fantastic narratives of folk origin.

Also there are deployed upgradedvariants that say that the myth is a syncretic understanding of the world around it, expressed by sensually-specific personifications and animate beings who are identified with reality. Philosophical views on the interpretation of this concept are repelled from the understanding of myth as a figurative scheme of the world, explaining and prescribing a specific algorithm of actions.

examples of myths

What does the word myth mean?This question can be answered by synthesizing meaning-making components from various approaches. This is how it is possible to formulate a complete and precise definition of this concept: texts and images that demonstrate a syncretic reflection of the surrounding reality in different epochs of human development are considered to be myths. Moreover, each culture has its originality, emphasizing the many aspects of the development of a particular society.

Typology of myths

The school curriculum includes myths thatease can be called ancient, biblical or other ancient fairy tales. They narrate the events connected with the creation of the world, the accomplishment of ancient deeds (mainly by the Greek and Roman gods and heroes).

Исследователи исторической мифологии отмечают, that in a great many works of different nationalities, many of the main themes and motifs are repeated. That is, the origin of the myths does not completely determine their content. For example, among the most ancient and primitive are legends about animals. The earliest of them only naively describe the signs of representatives of the fauna. And in ancient Australian myths, for example, the theory of the origin of animals from people is widespread. But other peoples of the world, even if not so clearly, spread in their legends the mythological idea that man was once an animal. Examples of myths of this kind: ancient Greek legends about the nymph girl Daphne, about the hyacinth, about the narcissus and others.

The origin of the heavenly bodies is also oftenconsecrated in myths. In the so-called solar, lunar and astral legends, the Sun, Moon and stars were often portrayed by people who once lived on Earth and for various reasons later ascended to the sky. Such a myth is a people-made alternative to the formation of the Universe. Another common plot is a description of the process of creating the Sun by some supernatural being. In this case, the heavenly body was not spiritualized.

myth concept

Центральное место в совокупности мифов многих countries occupied works describing the creation of the world and the universe, as well as man. Otherwise they are called cosmogonic and anthropogonic, respectively. Culturally backward peoples have little to say about these topics. In particular, the Australians only casually mentioned that the surface of the Earth had previously looked different, but questions about its appearance had never been raised.

Polynesians, North American Indians, peoplesThe ancient East and the Mediterranean considered cosmogonic processes from two points of view. One of them was based on the idea of ​​the creation of the world (creation), the other on the idea of ​​its development (evolutionary). According to the creation theory, the world was created by the creator, god, sorcerer, or other supernatural being. In the myths built on evolutionary theory, the world develops systematically from some kind of primitive being. It may be chaos, darkness, darkness, etc.

In cosmogonic myths are often intertwined andstorylines about the process of the origin of gods and people. The most common view on this issue was the miraculous birth of man. After several centuries, the first mentions of fate, the afterworld appeared in myths.

the origin of the myths

How myths are formed

With the help of their speech structures, the mythdemonstrates something unknown, new and in the course of the plot development shows how this new appeared. This may be the actions of the hero, the actions of the forefather or god. There are also a series of myths when something new is introduced in one of the works, and then the plot develops on the basis of accomplished events, which are only mentioned in the following legends. That is, they are taken a priori as a given.

Examples of modern myths

Modern myths that appeared in Russia in the second half of the twentieth century, basically had the same direction. The central figure has always been some kind of relic being.

And this is not an accident, the first bricksfantasy writers laid the foundation for such myths. Probably one of the most striking works were the works of Arthur Conan Doyle (“The Lost World”) and Obruchev (“Plutonium”). And let the storylines are completely different, but both fantastic works are written in the same style and they are based on the same idea.

modern myths

Far from civilization, in a lost corner of the Earththere is a place where, by chance, all the surrounding reality resembles the distant past of the Earth. This climate, and animal and plant world. This assumption formed the basis of a series of myths about plants and animals that have survived in the original world since ancient times. A vivid example of this kind of myth is the legend of a monster named Nessi, who lives in the Scottish Loch Ness.

There are also many mythological stories about sea creatures (monsters) that were seen by sailors, travelers and fishermen.

Modern myths and science

The essence of this problem is to broadcast aboutMyth as a scientific fact is difficult. It is safe to say that it is a component of mythology. At the same time, it relates to the secondary level of consciousness, which covers ideologically, culturally and scientifically processed information. In this context, a myth is an artificially created legend based on assumptions and legends, gradually changing under the influence of ideological and scientific factors.

what does the word myth mean

Two directions of the development of mythology

Появление мифов сопряжено с возникновением, the formation and development of a people. That is how people form their individual history of origin. Later in the creation of myths, works intended for the masses (which are created by the elite) and legends created by the people themselves appear. Thus, it is possible to speak about two directions of the development of mythology: closed and open.