What is Myth?

Subject: down to business
Sent: 9/5/97 12:01 PM
To: cm251@vm.temple.edu
It's always best to start with definitions. In our case, defining terms will be particularly instructive.
In one sentence, and without looking at a book, define myth.
Once the answers start rolling in, feel free to build on them. Subject: Re: down to business

Sent: 9/8/97 8:46 AM
To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@vm.temple.edu
I think you'll see that the mythic tradition always contains questioning of the truth of myth -- at least in Greece.
Subject: Re: down to business
Sent: 9/7/97 4:31 PM
Received: 9/7/97 8:23 PM
From: fbsmurf, FBSMURF@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
To: CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
To the Class.
A myth is a story that has been handed down from gerneration to generation to help explain some of the thing s that go on in the world.
Andrea

Subject: down to business
Sent: 9/7/97 8:01 PM
Received: 9/8/97 8:39 AM
From: Sheryl Newton-Brickey, 75444.1553@compuserve.com
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@vm.temple.edu
To: myth class, CM251@vm.temple.edu
Myth - A story or a belief that is handed down from generation to generation; that is never questioned for its truth or possiblity of occuring, but is excepted by faith.
Sheryl Newton

Subject: what is myth?
Sent: 9/7/97 9:05 PM
Received: 9/8/97 8:42 AM
From: Robin Mitchell-Boyask, ROBINM@vm.temple.edu
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@vm.temple.edu
To: myth class, CM251@vm.temple.edu

Here's a collation of your responses: 1) A myth is a story, passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, which involves interactions between gods, goddesses, demi-gods, or nature spirits(larger than life ones) and mortals. This definition doesn't always cover all the stories people think of as myths. It doesn't even really please me. I usually think of a myth as anything men once believed to be a religious story.
2)Myth -- (off the top of my head) -- a story or series of stories that being handed down through time have become a part of tradition or heritage.
3)A myth is a tale that may or may not be true.
4)Myth -- a cultural icon reflecting an explanation of something, i.e., the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen?
5)A myth is a story that has been handed down from gerneration to generation to help explain some of the things that go on in the world.
6)A myth is a story that is not necessarily based on fact that attempts to explain something.
7)A myth is tale handed down from person to person, the boundaries of truth areunknown.

8)myth: A story (oral, written) that seeks to define, explain and support the values (constructs, etc) that a society holds as valuable or, to define the undefinables within a society...
*this makes lots of sense when I say it... read it out loud a few times!!!!*

9)Myth: A story or a notion that is commonly known throughout an entire society or civilization.

Note that all these definitions agree on little, save that myth is a class of story, that is handed down. The Latin word trado means to hand down or over, hence our tradtion. Thus many of you are saying that myth is a traditional tale, which places you in the esteemed company of Walter Burkert.

Note that the ancients, most of them anyway, didn't put too much emphasison the true-false distinction. Mythos means something like "what is said", and not many doubted the basic truth of myth until Socrates and Plato.

It's also important to begin to distinguish, as Powell does, betweenmyth, folktale and legend. Briefly, myth tends (and I stress "tends") to deal with the more important questions of human existence (birth, death, the gods, etc), while folktale tends to concentrate on more mundane, if not more entertaining, matters (needing a girlfriend, having a magic hat, dealing with an annoying mother-in-law. Legend tends to have some kind of basis in reality or history. Thus we speak of the legend of the Trojan War, for there was some major conflict(s) on the northwest coast of Turkey around the end of the 12th century BCE. This conflict probably didn't involve the rape of a woman named Helen.
These three major categories overlap considerably, and one gets pickier successsfully only if one exclude many stories from one's definition.
Comments? More in the next message.

Robin Mitchell-Boyask,Associate Professor of Classics
353 Anderson Hall, 1114 W. Berks St.
Temple University
Philadelphia PA 19122
215 204-3672
www.temple.edu/classics

Subject: Re: myth in one sentence
Sent: 9/5/97 10:45 PM
Received: 9/6/97 2:15 PM
From: Debra Currie, dcurrie@NIMBUS.OCIS.TEMPLE.EDU
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
To: CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU

A myth is a story that is not necessarily based on fact that attempts to
explain something.
Subject: Re: myth in one sentence
Sent: 9/5/97 5:29 PM
Received: 9/6/97 2:15 PM
From: Cindy Lamberg, Comingdown@aol.com
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
To: CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU

A myth is tale handed down from person to person, the boundaries of truth are
unknown.



Cindy


Subject: Re: What is a Myth?
Sent: 9/10/97 4:31 PM
Received: 9/11/97 5:46 AM
From: Robin Mitchell-Boyask, ROBINM@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
To: CM251@VM.TEMPLE.EDU

Why does the supernatural need to be involved per se?



>Subject: What is a Myth?
>Sent: 9/10/97 2:16 PM
>Received: 9/10/97 4:11 PM
>From: Joshua Keller, jkeller@NIMBUS.OCIS.TEMPLE.EDU
>Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@vm.temple.edu
>To: myth class, CM251@vm.temple.edu
>
>Myth - A story which involves the supernatural. The supernatural can be
>exemplified
>by a person or being who demonstrates powers which surpass any human
>ability, by events which defy the laws of nature, or by a period of time,
>such as the time before creation, which human history can not account for.


Robin Mitchell-Boyask
Associate Professor of Classics
353 Anderson Hall, 1114 W. Berks St
Temple University
Philadelphia PA 19122
(215) 204-3672
fax: (215) 204-3947
www.temple.edu/classics


Subject: Divine myth & folk tale
Sent: 9/9/97 4:52 PM
Received: 9/10/97 8:45 AM
From: John Eremic, enkidu@MAIL.COM
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@vm.temple.edu
To: myth class, CM251@vm.temple.edu

If Greek gods behave so much like humans than all "divine myths" must also
bear elements of the "folk tale."

Subject: Re: Divine myth & folk tale
Sent: 9/10/97 9:43 AM
Received: 9/10/97 9:56 AM
From: Robin Mitchell-Boyask, ROBINM@vm.temple.edu
Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@vm.temple.edu
To: myth class, CM251@vm.temple.edu

There's something to that idea, but I wouldn't insist too greatly on a
rigid classification of myth/gods, humans/folktale, as there are humans
in myth and gods often appear in folktales.


>Subject: Divine myth & folk tale
>Sent: 9/9/97 4:52 PM
>Received: 9/10/97 8:45 AM
>From: John Eremic, enkidu@MAIL.COM
>Reply-To: Classical Mythology list, CM251@vm.temple.edu
>To: myth class, CM251@vm.temple.edu
>
>If Greek gods behave so much like humans than all "divine myths" must also
>bear elements of the "folk tale."


Robin Mitchell-Boyask
Associate Professor of Classics
353 Anderson Hall, 1114 W. Berks St
Temple University
Philadelphia PA 19122
(215) 204-3672
fax: (215) 204-3947
www.temple.edu/classics