- Main similarities between myths and legends
- Origin in the attempt to explain phenomena and events
- Rooted in popular culture
- References
The similarities between myths and legends are various. They are short stories, come from oral tradition and explain fictitious events or stories.
They have their origin in the collective imagination of each people or civilization. They are so ingrained in memory that they are part of the culture of each region where they come from.
The myths explain extraordinary events carried out by superior beings, gods or demigods. They explain how the world was created or the origin of the elements in the form of wonderful stories.
Legends are stories of some more earthly historical event, whose characters are attributed extraordinary events. They always involve humans, who sometimes take anthropomorphic forms.
Main similarities between myths and legends
Oral tradition
They come from an oral tradition. Both have been passed down from generation to generation, even before writing, in the form of tradition.
Both myths and legends have, through this oral tradition, had the power to transform themselves. The imagination was adding "prodigies" to the original event, which ends when it takes written form. Writing took away the power to transform.
Both myths and legends narrate events that occurred in the past. Many times that past is remote, and belongs to the culture of the people, like mythology. Other times the past is closer, more recent, but equally unverifiable.
Both have endured through time, to the point of being so ingrained in the people that they were incorporated into the respective cultures.
For example, the gods of Olympus were spoken of as if they really existed. And the same thing happens with the legends, they talked about werewolves, as if they really existed.
In Argentina, a legend says that the seventh male child will be a werewolf. For this reason, every seventh male child is sponsored by the president of the republic. This tradition is still in force.
Origin in the attempt to explain phenomena and events
Myths and legends are born from some event for which no other explanation was found.
Both explain extraordinary events giving rise to beings with non-earthly or supernatural powers.
The narratives tell how natural phenomena were created, in the case of myths, or the story of a knight of the crusades, in the case of legends.
In both there are stories of beings that undergo a metamorphosis. Such is the myth of Arachne the Weaver, that having offended the gods, he hung himself on a beam to kill himself.
The goddess Athena took pity on her but to punish her, she transformed her into a spider, condemned to weave for the rest of time.
Also the legend of Anahí, who fighting for her tribe, the Guarani, was captured and burned at the stake by the Spanish. Her body became the ceibo flower, the national flower of Paraguay and Argentina.
Rooted in popular culture
Both myths and legends are short stories, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
These stories are deeply rooted in people. Many times it is difficult to separate them from folklore and popular imagination, because they have become rooted in the culture of the people.
References
- "Similarities and differences between Myths and Legends" in Academia. Recovered in October 2017 from Academia at: academia.edu
- "Differences and similarities between myths and legends" in Espacio Literario (December 2013). Recovered in October 2017 from Espacio Literario at: espacioliterario6.blogspot.com.ar
- "Similarities and differences between legend and myth" in Latin America-Language (October 2014). Retrieved in October 2017 from Latin America-Language at: lenguaamericalatina.blogspot.com.ar
- "Similarities between myths and legends" in Prezi (October 2014). Retrieved in October 2017 from Prezi at: prezi.com