Mythology

Mythology (Greek μυθοι mythoi "stories" λέγειν legein " tell " outdated: mythology ) is the sum of the myths of a cultural area or a people, a region or a social group as well as their systematic exposition in literary, scientific or religious form, with cross-cultural subdivisions in astral mythology, number mythology, eschatology, and others. The German word " mythology " first appears in 1712 in the book The teutsche mythology or description of pagan gods.

Description

Mythology also deals with the question of the origin of myths and their relation to other narrative forms such as legend, saga or epic. Especially tales often contain elements of myths. The development of the myths as narrative genre and its transformation to fairy tale is the subject of narrative research ( narratology ). The origin of myths is also the subject of psychology, particularly the once modern folk psychology.

As far as the subject of the myths is seen religious, is their research closely linked to the history of religion. Information from myths are important for the reconstruction of religious ideas, which sometimes combine content from different mythological origins to a system. Joseph Campbell pointed out that from a religious perspective, myth can be defined as "the religion of other people." They claim that religion " misunderstood mythology ". The misconception lies in the fact that " mythical metaphors are interpreted as evidence of irrefutable facts."

The central themes of cosmogonic myths are the creation of the world ( creation stories ) of the deep, the order of the world to a world mountain as well as processes of destruction and subsequent renewal of this order, often in conjunction with the struggle of different powers ( both concrete deities, heaven and earth as well as abstract properties, such as good and evil, light and dark). They are not intended as a historical reality, but as a representation of a structure behind reality in linguistic images, for example, the biblical Genesis.

Another focus of mythologies are the creation of primitive man and of the first people starting the genealogical derivation of dynasties, more rarely of gods or of other peoples eminence. They serve the religious legitimation of power and the unity consciousness of strains by the " we-feeling " of the same origin. As an example, the Norse Ynglingatal can be used (see also origin Sage, Origo gentis ).

The British writer Robert Graves defined mythology as a " study of those religious or heroic legends are so foreign to the experience of the students, that he can not believe to be true it. "