MYTHS: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, EXAMPLES - HISTORY

A myth is a fantastic popular story that is born in order to give a wonderful explanation to some common event that has occurred. These are part of the culture of the towns, and the settlers usually consider them as real stories, so they are closely linked to collective thought.

Myths are usually starred by extraordinary beings that have amazing properties. From them arise the gods and demigods of yesteryear in the various original communities and later human civilizations.

The god Thor of the Vikings, in battle against the giants. Painting by Mårten Eskil IBGE (1872). Source: Mårten Eskil Winge, via Wikimedia Commons

Although the purpose of myths is to explain natural phenomena or events that occurred, they were also used to entertain. The set of stories from the same community associated with this type of expression is known as mythology.

The myth is a story that is based on oral tradition; that is, they were transmitted in societies through speech. Etymologically speaking they come from the Greek word μῦθος or mythos, which translates as "story".

Origin of myths

To speak of the origin of myths, we must go back to the first human communities. The myths began orally and were used by the inhabitants of the ancient settlements of men to give reason to what they could not explain in a logical way.

Many of the myths also arose simply so that a tradition was passed from generation to generation as it was narrated by the members of each group. It is important to note that when these stories were transmitted they underwent changes, as a result of the contribution of each member who told them.

Due to what is stated in the previous paragraph, it is very common to find the same myth with a considerable number of variants.

Myths usually accompany the different areas of human endeavor, so it is normal to find them in religion, cuisine, the birth of important people, the founding of towns and even in the reason for certain lineages of rulers.

It can be said that the myth arose to answer all the doubts present in the various human communities. These stories come to close the knowledge gaps in different cultures, and at the same time educate its inhabitants in values and customs that will reinforce their identity.

Characteristics of myths

They answer what is not understood

Poseidon, Greek god, protagonist of some types of myths such as cosmogony

This characteristic is perhaps one of the most common in the myths of every human community. The myths arose at a time when science could not explain certain phenomena, so these narratives allowed us to answer those unknowns, even when they did not really reveal what was happening.

They have a philosophical and contrasting touch

Myths are usually loaded with many teachings associated with the philosophical vision of life. In addition to this, these stories have the property of contrasting the common aspects of daily life: good against evil, light and darkness, life and death, cold and heat.

This contrasting quality makes it possible to extract lessons from any experience and make the fantastic message emitted by the narrator sink deeper into those who listen. This seeks to surprise the interlocutor and with it the most important thing in the myth: to ensure that what has been learned generates emotion and is transmitted to the next generation.

Mutability

This refers to the property that the myth has of never remaining with the same linearity in its narrative. Being an oral tradition that is transmitted from generation to generation, it is common for each new member to try to add something that enriches the story.

This mutable peculiarity of the myth allows the plot to be enriched and alternate stories to emerge as a product of the imagination and the need to transmit new knowledge on the part of the inhabitants.

Pedagogical resource

One of the most outstanding qualities of the myth is that it is a great teaching tool. The orality proper to myths allows knowledge to be transmitted fluently and in large groups.

Goblins, mythical creatures present in hundreds of cultures around the world. Source: pixabay.com.

This property of the myth is conditioned by the oral and interpretive talent that the narrator possesses. The more eloquent there is, the better the timbre of voice and gestures, the more the narrative will be able to fulfill the purpose for which it was created.

It is subject to all aspects of man's life

There is no human situation that escapes the myth. Everything that happens to man can be mythologized. This property of myth makes it an imperishable resource within human culture.

You can see the myth both in the reason for natural phenomena and in the cause of wars, dreams and nightmares. Each event of human life can be simply subjected to myth, it only takes imagination for it.

Types of myths

The myth can be in every circumstance of human reality. Below are the types of myths;

Theogonic

Artistic representation of the statue of Zeus at Olympia, but it is inaccurate in many details: according to (V, 11, 1f), Zeus carried a statuette of Victoria in his right hand and a scepter with a sitting bird in his left hand. Four victories were at each foot of the throne and two at the base of each foot.

These types of myths are one of the most popular. They have their origin in the need to explain where the gods come from and the reason for their powers and weaknesses. These narratives were present in the great and ancient civilizations, as well as in prehistoric populations.

A clear example is represented by the Mesopotamian, Roman and Greek myths that arose to explain natural phenomena and the fate of men.

As a result, deities such as Enlil (god of the Mesopotamian heavens and earth), Zeus (father of the Greek gods), Aphrodite (Greek goddess of sexuality, and everything related to love and beauty) and Mars (Greek god of the war).

Many of these myths are recycled and also mixed. It was common for the winning civilization to instill its beliefs in those who were colonized after wars between ancient populations. In fact, it can be said that the Roman and Greek myths are derived from the Mesopotamians.

It also happened that the winners assumed the beliefs of the subjects. A clear example of this is represented by Rome, whose mythology is an extensive and rich mixture of the stories and narratives of the peoples it conquered. Virgil's Aeneid is an obvious example of this.

Etiological

The objective of etiological myths is to reveal where beings come from, the reason for everyday events, the foundation of social entities, the reason for the methods of making products, or the techniques of construction or warfare.

These types of narratives are usually very rich from an imaginative point of view and are conditioned by the environment (environment and customs).

Cosmogonic

These narratives are among the richest and seek to explain the origins of the world as we know it. The coincidences that these types of myths present in the different communities in the world are very interesting, being the emergence of the land from an ancient ocean one of the most common.

Pegasus, winged horse, mythical creature of Greek culture. Source: pixabay.com.

The presence of large gods and demigods that mixed with men is also common, giving rise to heroes. This can be seen in the Hebrew, Greek, Egyptian, and Roman cosmogony. The normal thing in the different narratives was that these giants were the first inhabitants of the planet.

Eschatological

Representation of Noah's ark

This type of mythological stories talk about the destruction of the world. They are directly associated with catastrophic prophecies and are very popular even today.

Eschatological myths usually deal with the destruction of the planet through natural phenomena such as floods or large fires to restore order and purify the earth. They occur normally because humanity has reached the maximum level of doom, which is why the gods plan their destruction.

There are examples such as the biblical Apocalypse and Noah's Ark. In this account, Noah is warned by divine beings that there is going to be a great flood and they provide building instructions for the boat and what should be in it.

The Mayan prophecies are another example of eschatological myths, the best known being that of the Mayan calendar, which indicated the end of the world "as it was known" in 2012.

Foundational

These myths are also among the most notorious among various human cultures. Its role is to explain how the different populations and their settlements originated. These stories are characterized by providing superior qualities to both cities and their inhabitants.

Bravery, intelligence and power tend to stand out among the qualities attributed to men in this type of myth. These narratives are directly linked to etiological myths.

It is noteworthy that in ancient cases such as Greece and Rome, the leaders made sure that these narratives crossed their borders so that their enemies would hear them and be afraid of them. And although it sounds ironic, many populations avoided going to war for fear of being attacked by a god.

Morales

Reconstruction of the Trojan horse, Greek myth

The role of these narratives is to reveal to the villagers the mysteries of good and evil. They are also very common and are usually based on very imaginative stories that usually show confrontations between opposing figures (evil / goodness) for power.

The light tends to prevail over the shadow in most cases. A common use of moral myths is to support the laws by which ancient populations were governed. With them, the correct procedure was exemplified in the citizen action of each inhabitant and they were taught from childhood.

This type of myth includes those of heroes, such as Ulysses. These characters are in charge of fighting against anti-values such as oppression and evil that may have been present in a civilization or in the struggle between two civilizations.

There is the example of The Iliad, which consists of a song that narrates ten days of the Trojan War and in which characters such as Hector, Achilles and Agamemnon appear, representing the courage to fight in a military confrontation.

Anthropological

They originate to explain how man came to earth and everything related to his creation. The common thing is that it is associated with earth or clay, as the biblical example. Although there are some interesting ones such as the case of the Popol Vuh of the Mayan people, in which it is said that man came from corn.

Of course, these narratives are directly linked to cosmogonic myths.

What are myths for?

Myths serve several purposes. One of them is to safeguard the identity of the peoples, mainly. They do this by being passed down from generation to generation. On the other hand, they are also used to educate the inhabitants about what is correct or not, which facilitates maintaining order within the communities.

Myths also helped explain natural phenomena that escaped human understanding in the past. With this, the symbolism and imagination of the inhabitants were exploited, which had a direct impact on the development of the ancient narrative.

Myths not only seek to explain the why of things, or of government structures, but also allow comfort in difficult situations or circumstances. This means that with them it is sought that people accept certain facts because that is how a god, luck or nature wanted it.

Examples of myths

The Trojan horse.
Myth of Jason and the Argonauts.
Myth of the creation of the Egyptians.
Myth of the creation of the Greeks.
The myth of Pandora's box.
The myth of Hercules and the 12 tests.
Popol Vuh of the Mayan people.
Noah's ark.

The eagle, the snake and the nopal (Mexico)

It is one of the most relevant pre-Hispanic myths in Mexico, and is directly associated with the founding of Mexico City. The story tells that the god Huitzilopochtli communicated with the Aztecs so that they could move from the place where they lived, since the promised land had been created for them.

However, for the Aztecs to be able to move it was necessary for them to see a sign, and this was none other than an eagle devouring a snake while it is perched on a cactus. The signal came and the Aztecs moved to their promised land. The journey lasted approximately 300 years until they reached the area they called Tenochtitlán.

It is necessary to note that the eagle, the snake and the nopal are part of the shield found on the flag of Mexico.

References

(2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
Meaning of myth. (2018). (N / A): Meaning. Recovered from: significados.com.
The 10 best myths of Mexico with their explanations. (S. f.). (N / A): Psychology and mind. Recovered from: psicologiaymente.com.
Adrián, Y. (2019). What is myth? (N / a): Concept definition. Recovered from: conceptdefinition.de.
Raffino, ME (2019). Myth. (N / A): Concept of. Recovered from: concept.de.

MYTHS: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, EXAMPLES - HISTORY - 2025